Basketball Practice

[GoZips]

I confess. I have not sat through a full practice as of yet. But, I have been party to part of two practices.

Thus far everyone is healthy. The really, really, really good news is Alex Abreu. Alex is for real. Alex

is a genuine POINT GUARD. Much better than even predicted. Look for Alex to take the starting role

early in the season. He is that good. If he stays healthy he will easily be a MAC all freshman.

Dakota Euton is a huge load in the middle. Big wing span, space eater that takes pressure off of Zeke.

Zeke has put on weight and strength. Got to get him to be more of a basketball nut than a pin ball

wizard. The tools are there.

Depth looking good. The new players are quickly learning the system; now set to be run yer arse off

style. More up tempo that Zips fans crave. Solidifying zone defense roles early on as the Zips will

add more zone to their defensive package in response to keeping opponents honest.

Coach expects this tougher schedule to pay off by MAC tournament time. Trick is to not choke on

the few cupcakes and to surprise a big time program. Gain some respect and player confidence.

Over all, the Zips will be a rough customer and a twenty win plus team for 2010-11.

[Quickzips]

I confess. I have not sat through a full practice as of yet. But, I have been party to part of two practices.

Thus far everyone is healthy. The really, really, really good news is Alex Abreu. Alex is for real. Alex

is a genuine POINT GUARD. Much better than even predicted. Look for Alex to take the starting role

early in the season. He is that good. If he stays healthy he will easily be a MAC all freshman.

Dakota Euton is a huge load in the middle. Big wing span, space eater that takes pressure off of Zeke.

Zeke has put on weight and strength. Got to get him to be more of a basketball nut than a pin ball

wizard. The tools are there.

Depth looking good. The new players are quickly learning the system; now set to be run yer arse off

style. More up tempo that Zips fans crave. Solidifying zone defense roles early on as the Zips will

add more zone to their defensive package in response to keeping opponents honest.

Coach expects this tougher schedule to pay off by MAC tournament time. Trick is to not choke on

the few cupcakes and to surprise a big time program. Gain some respect and player confidence.

Over all, the Zips will be a rough customer and a twenty win plus team for 2010-11.

All big positives there if you ask me. Many thanks for providing the insight. All I've read about Abreu has me salivating about the thought of him running our offense for the next 4 years. I like that we're looking to run more and play a little more zone. KD has determined that it is time for him to make some changes to his style and this goes along with that. I think we've got the horses to play that type of game, it remains to be seen if we can implement it or not.

[zipboy]

Appreciate the insight GoZips. Did everyone look to be in good shape coming in? Brett McKnight is the one guy that I worry about but I assume that he is not practicing yet?

[GoZips]

Appreciate the insight GoZips. Did everyone look to be in good shape coming in? Brett McKnight is the one guy that I worry about but I assume that he is not practicing yet?

Brett will be back with the team next week.

As for conditioning .. I'm not sure as I have not seen any suicide drills. The players look well conditioned.

[Dr Z]

The really, really, really good news is Alex Abreu. Alex is for real. Alex

is a genuine POINT GUARD. Much better than even predicted. Look for Alex to take the starting role

early in the season. He is that good. If he stays healthy he will easily be a MAC all freshman.

That is GREAT news, I hope what you saw transfers over to real games. I think a lot will go right for the Zips if this is true.

[Quickzips]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fb4kljaA7U

Just went back and watched Alex's highlight real again and it is just getting me that much more amped up about what he could do for this team. I know it is just a highlight real, but he seems to have everything you could want from a lead guard. Good handle, sees the floor very well, has the ability to find and hit his open teamates, can finish around the rim in traffic, has the ability to step out and hit the open J, not to mention some quick hands on defense and a pretty sick cross-over dribble. Then you take a look at some of the scouting reports on him and read things like this.

CJEOTO has a solid schedule and is providing Alex the platform to showcase his skills. Earlier this month, CJEOTO played against powerhouse prep school South Can't which features New York city guard Russ Smith, who recently committed to Louisville. Abreu torched Smith for 28 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals. "That opened a lot of eyes. I mean nobody had ever heard of Alex Abreu before that game and now major D1 programs are going to want to see if this kid is that good", said an assistant ACC coach.

He can shoot it consistently out to the arc which will really help him at the next level because he's soo quick. Alex has a terrific basketball IQ and tremendous international experience playing for Puerto Rico. His size is a concern at the D-I level but he has a knack for making guys better.

I sure hope this kid pans out as well as he is being advertised. If he does then the Zips will have gotten an absolute steal.

[dboze]

Another new player to watch that the coaching staff likes is Quincy Diggs. Nice mid-range game and can finish at the rim. He should get minutes at the small forward position w/ Brett McKnight. I believe that a few of the new players are going to step up this season.

[Quickzips]

Another new player to watch that the coaching staff likes is Quincy Diggs. Nice mid-range game and can finish at the rim. He should get minutes at the small forward position w/ Brett McKnight. I believe that a few of the new players are going to step up this season.

If Abreu and Diggs are ready to go I think we are going to have ourselves a very good season. I've never really been worried about our frontcourt with Brett McKnight, Zeke, Cvetinovic and even Bardo returning. But I've been concerned about our lack of guard depth and the giant question mark that appears to be our SF position. I don't think Brett McKnight is a SF and never have. To me he has always been an undersized PF. Also, I don't see any short or long term impact coming from Brett McClanahan at SG or SF. If Diggs can take substantial minutes at SF and Abreu can step into the role as our third guard along with McNees and Roberts we are going to be just fine.

[ZachTheZip]

Dambrot gives his opinions on the five newcomers.

He was pretty specific with what each player needs to work on. Hard to tell who will end up redshirting.

[mes102]

If this kid is as good as advertised, i can't wait to see Cooper-Abreu matchup at PG when we play OU...

[Dave in Green]

Dambrot gives his opinions on the five newcomers.

He was pretty specific with what each player needs to work on. Hard to tell who will end up redshirting.

Most of what KD had to say fits right in with the discussions we've had on ZN.O about the backgrounds of these recruits. One comment that caught my eye was the one about Euton needing to focus more on defense.

From everything I've read about Euton, he was primarily an offensive threat during his early playing days. But his HS coach at Scott County has a big reputation in Kentucky for focusing on defense, and he praised Euton for working really hard and improving his defensive game during his HS career. I guess he'll have to pick it up even more in the transition to college, especially under KD's style of really focusing on defense.

There's no doubt that KD will reward the recruits who play the toughest defense with more PT. Hopefully, some of the recruits with the best offensive games will quickly adapt to KD's sytem and earn more PT. We all know how painful it has been to watch the Zips go through long scoring droughts due to the lack of players who could consistently put the ball in the hole.

I'm really hoping that one or more of the recruits can take some of the scoring pressure off of B McKnight, who has been too inconsistent to do it all by himself.

[Dr Z]

One comment that caught my eye was the one about Euton needing to focus more on defense.

Probably a good catch. Usually results in bench time in KD's system. When we went to the Kentucky football game, at least one huge Kentucky fan had good things to say about Euton. It was the one positive Zips athletic thing I took from that trip.

Unfortunately, he said the same about Abreu, ''He is a very good passer, almost to a fault. He doesn't look to score very much. He is definitely a pass-first point guard,'' Dambrot said. ''He has got to get much better defensively. He has no sense of urgency defensively yet.''

I wish KD's defensive focus resulted in more points for the Zips. When I think of defense, I think of the defensive clinic that KSPU put on us last year. That's defense. IMO our best defense is played at times in the zone and we hardly us it.

[Quickzips]

Dambrot gives his opinions on the five newcomers.

He was pretty specific with what each player needs to work on. Hard to tell who will end up redshirting.

Hard to gather a whole lot from that, but if I had to give my predictions right now I think Abreu, Diggs and Euton will play while Egner and Green will redshirt. Abreu because we need the depth at guard and we need to see what we have in him for down the road. Diggs because, well, you don't go through getting a guy like that who can transfer without sitting out a year only to redshirt him. Plus he can fill a gapping need at SG and SF. Euton because he is apparently the most polished player of the whole bunch. May not be a lot of room for growth, but from everything I've read he should be ready to contribute now. Egner's ankle injury probably forced the decision on him, his athleticism is tantalizing, but if he is behind the curve due to the ankle injury you may as well just let him sit a year instead of asking him to rush to catch back up. Green sounds like he needs a year to catch up to the pace of the D-I game. The inter-squad scrimmage mentioned in the article seems to back that up.

As far as the defensive comments, I can't remember one true freshman who came in here and got compliments from KD on day one about their defense. Heck KD even had complaints last year about Zeke's defense. Eventually they all pick it up, and if they don't, they won't get the playing time.

[Dave in Green]

Redshirting both Egner and Green would leave the Zips with 12 players eligible to play in games. Last season, 15 Zips got PT, though Petersen, Sullivan and Swiech got only a few minutes in a few games.

1. Abreu

2. Bardo

3. Cvetinovic

4. Diggs

5. Egner

6. Euton

7. Green

8. Marshall

9. McClanahan

10. McKnight

11. McNees

12. Oldham

13. Petersen

14. Roberts

[ejcool27]

so when did we get roberts back?

[Dr Z]

When did we get Roberts back?

2010-2011 Roster & Bio

[Quickzips]

so when did we get roberts back?

Roberts got a year back for making sufficient academic progress towards a degree after his greyshirt/prop-48/whatever the heck they call it at the beginning of his career. This is his senior year.

[ejcool27]

so when did we get roberts back?

Roberts got a year back for making sufficient academic progress towards a degree after his greyshirt/prop-48/whatever the heck they call it at the beginning of his career. This is his senior year.

Thanks for the information good to know.

[Dave in Green]

Revisiting the question of which of the trio of freshman forwards gets redshirted, I just spent some time going over the stats from the JCU game.

Euton was the first to play, and was on the floor for 16 minutes, or 40% of the game. I think everyone believes that he is least likely to redshirt.

Green had the second most PT at 8 minutes (20% of the game) and Egner the least at only 4 minutes (10%).

Ordinarily, you might guess that Green has a slight edge on Egner based on PT alone But what a 4 minutes Egner had. He scored 10 points and had 5 rebounds and 2 blocked shots in 1/10th of a game. Those are pretty impressive raw stats even if they came near the end of a blowout against D3 players.

I think it may be important to have at least 2 of these 3 freshmen get some game experience this season now that the possibility of Nik leaving a season early to play pro ball in Europe has been brought up. Along with McKnight's graduation, that would leave the Zips a little short on experienced forwards if 2 of the 3 freshman forwards should be redshirted.

[GoZips]

Revisiting the question of which of the trio of freshman forwards gets redshirted, I just spent some time going over the stats from the JCU game.

Euton was the first to play, and was on the floor for 16 minutes, or 40% of the game. I think everyone believes that he is least likely to redshirt.

Green had the second most PT at 8 minutes (20% of the game) and Egner the least at only 4 minutes (10%).

Ordinarily, you might guess that Green has a slight edge on Egner based on PT alone But what a 4 minutes Egner had. He scored 10 points and had 5 rebounds and 2 blocked shots in 1/10th of a game. Those are pretty impressive raw stats even if they came near the end of a blowout against D3 players.

I think it may be important to have at least 2 of these 3 freshmen get some game experience this season now that the possibility of Nik leaving a season early to play pro ball in Europe has been brought up. Along with McKnight's graduation, that would leave the Zips a little short on experienced forwards if 2 of the 3 freshman forwards should be redshirted.

Dave, excellent points. I thought Egner played his way off the red shirt band wagon as I watched

his excellent performance. He brings an electric athleticism that is only matched by Quincy Diggs.

Did you VOTE for AMPI today?

[Blue & Gold]

Revisiting the question of which of the trio of freshman forwards gets redshirted, I just spent some time going over the stats from the JCU game.

Euton was the first to play, and was on the floor for 16 minutes, or 40% of the game. I think everyone believes that he is least likely to redshirt.

Green had the second most PT at 8 minutes (20% of the game) and Egner the least at only 4 minutes (10%).

Ordinarily, you might guess that Green has a slight edge on Egner based on PT alone But what a 4 minutes Egner had. He scored 10 points and had 5 rebounds and 2 blocked shots in 1/10th of a game. Those are pretty impressive raw stats even if they came near the end of a blowout against D3 players.

I think it may be important to have at least 2 of these 3 freshmen get some game experience this season now that the possibility of Nik leaving a season early to play pro ball in Europe has been brought up. Along with McKnight's graduation, that would leave the Zips a little short on experienced forwards if 2 of the 3 freshman forwards should be redshirted.

Dave, excellent points. I thought Egner played his way off the red shirt band wagon as I watched

his excellent performance. He brings an electric athleticism that is only matched by Quincy Diggs.

Did you VOTE for AMPI today?

Maybe Egner's PT was initially limited simply due to his sprained ankle?

[Quickzips]

I disagree with playing Egner right now. His athleticism is un-questionable, but he still looks like he needs quite a bit of work. It is one thing to do that against the second string of a D-III team in the second half of a blowout. It is a whole other issue altogether putting up a performance like that in crunch time of a big game against Dayton, Temple, Minnesota, Ohio or Can't State. Josh was flying around out there, no doubt, but I never got the impression that he knew what position he was supposed to be in. I think he needs a year of practice to be able to pick up the nuances of the game that will make him a great player. I think if he played to open the season you would see a lot of lines like 2 points, 3 rebounds, 2 blocks and 6 fouls in 8 minutes.

I also disagree with the idea of playing 2 of the 3 forwards. We are plenty deep at the 3, 4 and 5 spots right now with McClanahan, Diggs, McKnight, Cvetinovic, Zeke and Bardo. There are barely enough minutes out there to try and develop one of the freshmen. Trying to get playing time for two of them is going to split the minutes up in such a way that neither one will get a chance to truly develop, hence wasting a scholarship year for two guys. Contrary to what some might say, this is not a re-building year for the Zips where we are just trying to feel out what we have in these new guys for down the road.

[Dr Z]

I disagree with playing Egner right now. His athleticism is un-questionable, but he still looks like he needs quite a bit of work.

Ask yourself this question "If he plays now, can he help our team win March 9-12?" If your answer is "yes", than play him, if it is "no", sit him.

[Blue & Gold]

It is a whole other issue altogether putting up a performance like that in crunch time of a big game against Dayton, Temple, Minnesota, Ohio or Can't State.

Off topic, but man, this sentence got me amped up! I'm so ready for basketball to tip-off!!!

[Zips Win!]

I disagree with playing Egner right now. His athleticism is un-questionable, but he still looks like he needs quite a bit of work. It is one thing to do that against the second string of a D-III team in the second half of a blowout. It is a whole other issue altogether putting up a performance like that in crunch time of a big game against Dayton, Temple, Minnesota, Ohio or Can't State. Josh was flying around out there, no doubt, but I never got the impression that he knew what position he was supposed to be in. I think he needs a year of practice to be able to pick up the nuances of the game that will make him a great player. I think if he played to open the season you would see a lot of lines like 2 points, 3 rebounds, 2 blocks and 6 fouls in 8 minutes.

I also disagree with the idea of playing 2 of the 3 forwards. We are plenty deep at the 3, 4 and 5 spots right now with McClanahan, Diggs, McKnight, Cvetinovic, Zeke and Bardo. There are barely enough minutes out there to try and develop one of the freshmen. Trying to get playing time for two of them is going to split the minutes up in such a way that neither one will get a chance to truly develop, hence wasting a scholarship year for two guys. Contrary to what some might say, this is not a re-building year for the Zips where we are just trying to feel out what we have in these new guys for down the road.

Can't say I agree with much of this post!!

Play Egner- if this was the Hipsher era where we needed to save players and years of eligibility, Ok. But this isn't.

I also am not concerned much with positions? Is he a 3 or 4 etc? Match-ups and defensive agressiveness many times determines the combination on the floor.

I also cannot say we are "deep" at any position, but I do like the returners..and I do believe we have enough experience that we could develop more than one freshman.

We all know KD likes to play 9-10 guys...I've aleady know my top nine--Play 'em!

McNees

Roberts

Abreu

Diggs

McKnight

Cventinovic

Marshall

Egner

Euton