YSU Saturday

[RootforRoo44]

Last year, KD said that the late emergence of Jimmy Conyers was his fault because he kept him on a short leash the previous years. As a result, we only got to see one great year of Conyers.

Today, KD talked about Nitro improving a lot from last year when he was on short strings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Does anyone see a pattern there? If you keep yanking Egner and Euton after every tiny mistake they make, we're going to waste 2-3 years of their eligibility and hear the same short leash/string story few years later.

I've honestly been saying this for years. Don't forget that Linhart was a similar thing as well.

There are a few questionable things that Dambrot continues to do that really hurt us(short leash on players, inability to figure out what to do with a center).

He needs to start realizing it, and i'm sure he will. He did go out and get some athletic players this past offseason at least, so i know he can figure this out.

Your Linhart reference and example is preposterous!

If KD had such a short leash on Linhart and diminished his career at Akron, how did Nate:

Appear in 134 games (#1 all-time at the time of graduation)?

Score 1,023 career points?

Record 186 career steals (#3 in team history)?

Become #8 in career blocked shots?

Rank #2 all-time in Freshman free-throw percentage?

Rank #3 all-time in Junior year steals?

Rank #3 all-time in Senior year steals?

Make the 2006 MAC All-Freshman team?

Become the 2009 MAC Defensive Player of the Year?

Get voted the 2009 MAC Tournament MVP?

Have one of the highest minutes per game average during all four of his years?

That’s my case for disagreeing with your assertion about KD. I think KD distributes minutes to the players ready to play each night in light of the matchups at any given time on the floor. Nate was ready almost every night and relished taking on the toughest defensive assignment each night.

I’ll await Roo44’s argument on Linhart’s diminished career caused by Coach Dambrot.

Stats dont show how Linhart was underused. He was no doubt our best defender in his sophomore and junior season, he came out with hustle and a gritty attitude that no one else had. Dambrot played him stupidly (much like how he had Zeke and Bardo guarding their two guard at times last night, pulling them out to the perimeter. Something he's done for years with our big guys) and didn't utilize him as needed against other team's top offensive threats until his senior year.

I will admit it was a little too much to group him with Conyers and McClanahan.

[Zipmeister]

Dammit lol! I wanted that one so so bad. YSU nearly pulled off a win that most thought was improbable. Tremendous effort by my Penguins, but like they always say, the game isn't over until the last second ticks off the clock and boy did that just have to happen tonight.

Wright State at the buzzer last year, this year it is Akron.

YSU looks strong this year, good luck against CSU on Wednesday. They, in my eyes, are the best team in the Horizon this year.

Have your eyes checked after you play Butler.

I know more about the Horizon League than you do. Luckily our league has an online video network: HorizonLeagueNetwork in which you can see all the teams play their home games live for free. I've seen a great deal of basketball on there the last two years and I am telling you: Butler, Detroit, and Cleveland State will duel it out for the #1 spot in the Horizon this year.

Hell Dickie V even went out on a limb to say that Detroit could be this year's Butler and make a deep run in the tourney. Expect 2, perhaps 3, from the HL to make the tourney this year.

Sorry, I didn't realize you were a Horizon league expert. When do you think Ngai Evans will be ready to step back into the starting lineup?

[Dave in Green]

Stats dont show how Linhart was underused. He was no doubt our best defender in his sophomore and junior season, he came out with hustle and a gritty attitude that no one else had. Dambrot played him stupidly .....

If Linhart's alleged "underuse" doesn't show up in the stats, then it comes down to our memories and opinions. I don't recall Linhart being underused, so I guess my opinion differs from yours. We all know that KD rewards players who contribute the most defensive effort with more PT. So I don't know why he'd single out Linhart for underuse when it was obvious to everyone how much effort Linhart made on defense.

Stats do show that in his junior season, Linhart played the second most minutes on the team, trailing Nick Dials by only 7 minutes over the course of the whole season. So you're obviously thinking of something other than PT to define "underuse."

Since Linhart was usually assigned to guard the opposing team's best player, "underuse" doesn't seem to fit there, either

[Zip Watcher]

I'm going to allow RFR44 this ZachTheZip moment in posting. He's owed some latitude due to his excellent work over at the ASN site.

Linhart played 19, 21, 29 and 29 minutes per game each year he was hear (from Fresh to Senior). By the end of his Freshman season he was logging 25+ minutes for several games. The end of the year he lost some time due to the injury / concussion late in the season.

There's not really any definition I can come up with which validates any notion that Linhart was under utilized. He burst his way into the heart of the lineup as a Freshman .. and he never came out. And I don't recall him even ever having a short leash. There was a tremendous amount of trust w/ Linhart .. between the team and coaches both.

So I say .. ERRONEOUS.

Go Zips!!

[RootforRoo44]

I guess the facts are there. And i guess i must have misremembered it, i just had the memory of him being pulled out multiple times early in his career for stupid things (that he did) like dambrot likes to do with his younger players.

I still stick by the fact that Conyers was wasted until his senior year. It was pretty well known that he was a great pickup for the program when he first arrived, he had a lot of raw talent. Thank God Nitro broke through in his junior year (i know it's early but i really think he has what it takes, i'm sure some of the people on here that know me in real life will back me up on the fact that i've been calling for him to get more time and a chance to get into a rhythm since the beginning of last year) as he will have more time to help us.

P.S. Thanks ZW on the ASN comment.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Nik played the game of his life.

Offensively.

Hopefully he shows up on the defensive end Wednesday, or we are in serious trouble.

[Zip Watcher]

The Zips dodged a bullet last night, and dispatched YSU in overtime, with plenty of good offensive performances to go around.

First, the box score (still waiting for StatSheet to get the +/- run .. hopefully that'll be soon.

Zips 91 - Penguins 84 Box Score

I didn't write any notes down last night, so these are from memory the morning after.

With the customary regrets to Sergio Leone, my observations from the JAR:

The Good:

1. Took a punch, landed the last one: KD is fond of this concept, and it's growing on me. It's good to know your team can take a punch and get back up and stand in. While this wasn't the toughest adversity the Zips will face this season, I thought it was a nice early season test of the Zips mettle. They never got down more than 5, but YSU didn't just go away. This is an upgrade over some other games where a 5 or 8 point run early in the 2nd half is enough to blow things open. The Zips needed to stay in this mentally the whole way, and they did that.
   
2. Offense: This will be a strength of the Zips. We saw tonight what can happen when they push the ball inside to start the offense. Career highs from our 2 bigs, and our shooter. These are linked. Brett will continue to see single coverage and good space to work on the perimeter and the mid-range as long as our interior guys are playing well on Offense. This was a nice step for the Offense. Zeke and Nik are showing signs of working well together and appear to have a pretty good sense of where the other one is and what he's going to do. Great to see.
   
3. The Penguins: Flat out the best Penguins mens team I've seen since a guy name Peters was coaching over there. Not just because they pushed the Zips to the brink. Slocum seems to have turned a corner of sorts. Glad to see it. Hope they go 30-1 and tear the Horizon up. And I hope we continue this series.
   
4. Career highs: Nice scoring punch from 3 different guys. The inside out was working well and Zeke was good and kept things moving inside out, especially late in the game. It'd be good to see some more career highs in rebounding to go with it.
   

The Bad:

1. Minutes: 38 minutes from the bench is not going to be enough. Some of this is KD's rotations, but a lot of this is guys coming off the bench and contributing. These guys need to step into the void and give quality minutes and effort when out there. 7 points, 6 rebounds and 1 assist to go along with 4 turnovers is not adequate bench production for this team to be successful in the long haul. An area for improvement.
   
2. The boards: Two things the Zips are doing are naturally counter to being a good rebounding team. #1, they're playing a zone with the big guy patrolling the lane. By definition, if you're in a zone, it's harder to have guys on bodies boxing out when the shot goes up. So zone teams will usually not rebound as well as strictly man teams. #2, with a shot blocker, if you're going to be aggressive in going after blocks, the shot block guy is going to be out of position for the rebound. Larry Nance was never a great guy on the boards because of this. It's going to take some experience and a retraining a bit of the team to adapt to both of these things. Giving up 15 offensive boards to a smaller opponent indicates there's some work remaining. The Rome & Wood front court was an example of a Zips team that blocked a fair amount of shots (Rome) & rebounded well (Wood). So it can be done.
   
3. Shots for Steve: We all would like to see Steve moved over to the 2 more. That will happen more with Alex's development, but we need to have him involved more I think. One thing that will help our bigs inside is if every perimeter player is viewed as a legitimate outside threat. As far as Brett & Daryll go, they're taking enough shots to maintain that. Steve passing up open looks will allow teams to condense the middle a little more. So I think the Zips need Steve to be a little more aggressive with his shots. Alex developing into a 20 minute guy would help that.
   

The Ugly:

1. Defensive rotation: It seems like the Zips are playing no D right now, but I think it's a consequence of the process KD is going through in adjusting the team to the strength of his talent. We've not had a stud 7' shot blocker as the anchor of the defense before. The Zips have always played primarily man, with the guys who guarded their man best being the 5 on the floor when it matters. Well now, we're seeing more interest in using a 2-3 zone to leverage Zeke's ability to protect the rim. He's getting better at it, and 3 blocks will grow as the year goes on. But what will happen while this process continues, is that the rotations are a bit slow, or they get caught out of position. We saw that a bit tonight, and against Dayton. While it seems like the Zips are getting killed from outside, they're eventually going to win the battle inside the arc and force teams to shoot lights out from outside to beat the Zips. Case in point vs. YSU, the Zips outscored the Penguins 50 to 36 inside the arc. If they can push that advantage and do better on the perimeter rotations, the defense will improve.
   
2. The Stripe: The Zips shot an anemic 65% from the line as a team, and still made more FT's than YSU attempted. If they shoot a more palatable number, this game is over in regulation. They're not going to shoot 90% as a team, but they need to be above 70 I think. Getting to the line that much is a good indicator of forcing the action at the rim .. but they need to convert. They did when it counted in OT, but regulation wasn't pretty.
   
3. Turnovers: The Assist:Turnover ratio was better than 2:1 as I recall in the Dayton game, but against YSU, the Zips turned it over 13 times. Many of these were somewhat necessary .. so that number can be lower. I think it will be unusual for the Zips to turn the ball over more than the opposition, but it happened. Speaks to the need for stiffer D.
   

... And a few comments more:

• Zeke's higher level near the end of regulation and overtime show us what kind of upside he has. The 2 rebounds at the end were clutch, and driven by heart and effort as much as his size. I absolutely LOVE this guys instincts in these situations to look for and hit the outside guy immediately in one motion. There wasn't any thinking in that situation .. he went after the ball, and got it where it needed to be. He's starting to look for his shot more .. but the thing that I'm liking more and more is his awareness of the defense and ability to pass out of the double teams. These things will make him a monster because hitting a high percentage outside shooter will earn him some more single teams .. and there's not a guy in the league that can check a 7 footer with a soft jump hook. He seems to play pretty well angry as well .. so like Rob Preston before him, perhaps the staff should find a way to get him fired up.
  
• The Freshman bigs intrigue me, and I hope they find their groove and can contribute 10-15 minutes consistently before the end of the non-conference. I liked that play were Dakotah got the rebound in traffic and fought it back to the rim immediately without bringing it down. Egner is getting to the line, but needs to sink them. These 2 kids will help the Zips before this season is over.
  
• The Crowd was decent for an early game .. seemed lively at the end, and was treated to a good basketball game with a nice tempo and lots of offense. I have to believe a bunch of these people will be back on Wednesday to witness another of these regional rivalry games. Another win on Wednesday may go a long way to pushing the average attendance this season up over last year.
  

They're off and running, and I'm liking what I've seen. Big game Wednesday before a big road trip to 4 solid teams. This schedule will test this team and build it up.

I got 'em on .. do you?

B) B)

Go Zips!

View the full blog post here.

[RootforRoo44]

Nik played the game of his life.

Offensively.

Hopefully he shows up on the defensive end Wednesday, or we are in serious trouble.

Nikola was especially terrible at getting into position on rebounds. McClanahan could teach him a thing or two on how to box out.

Though I wouldn't knock anyone too bad on their defense last night as many people were just out of place because of some questionable defenses we were running that YSU continually broke down. Dambrot has got to make adjustments when even the fans are realizing that something isnt working.

[The Hip Zip]

For those who discount the words of the Penguin fan, I'd be inclined to take a seat. Butler has a lot to deal with in both Detroit and CSU this year. I know that it's easy to remember the plodding Titan teams of the past But McCallum has done a great job of picking up the pieces and rebuilding a good program. Holman is a post player who could play for just about any team and McCallum Jr. is going to be a stud. Their supportng cast of Simon and company are good enough to win with as well. I'd love to see it happen but at this point I don't see us beating either of them this year. Our best shot is catching CSU without D Brown at our place but even without Brown, the Vikes have a very solid backcourt. I just really feel that we will be playing our best ball around the beginning of Feb. rolling all the way through to the end. We will take some losses getting to that point, I think that 's a given.

Also just wanted to add how much I was impressed with YSU. This team will win some games this year and certainly should be involved in many close ones. I'm planning to make a few bucks on the Pengs. this season .