Brett McKnight

[jem101]

McKnight suspended indefinitely according to Ohio.com. Guess this is why we saw Euton on Tuesday.

[Quickzips]

I said it yesterday and will say it again today, I fear we have seen the last of Brett McKnight in a Zips uniform. I don't know what it is that is going on in Brett's personal life, and I hope that he gets things straightened around, but this is not looking good for young Mr. McKnight.

[skip-zip]

I'm surprised this took so long to come up. I'm sure everyone was wondering about his absence on Tuesday.

[Blue & Gold]

Does anyone know what the problem is?

Another poster, who seemed to have a bit of knowledge of the situation, mentioned that Brett would be in trouble this year now that Big Brother Chris isn't around to "keep him out of trouble."

[Quickzips]

Does anyone know what the problem is?

Another poster, who seemed to have a bit of knowledge of the situation, mentioned that Brett would be in trouble this year now that Big Brother Chris isn't around to "keep him out of trouble."

Anything that would be said here would simply be speculation and hearsay. The athletic department and Brett McKnight know what is going on, but I doubt either of them will say anything out of respect for Brett's privacy (as it should be). Whatever it is would appear to be pretty serious based on the severity of the punishment, but who knows.

If Brett played for Can't I'm sure whatever is going on would only mean he was going to be pulled from the starting lineup for one game.

[Blue & Gold]

ABJ snippet

[zip37]

My guess is that he's toast, sadly.

[Dave in Green]

First of all, I feel badly for Brett, his family and the team. He obviously made a mistake and let everyone down. I'm pretty confident that, unlike Can't players, a police report is not involved.

Whatever it was, the main question for Zips fans is how it will affect team performance this year? Losing a senior established as the 6th man and go-to shooter is not good. Even with McKnight on the roster, the Zips were not picked to win the MAC. What would the predictions have been if this had been factored?

Assuming the worst that Brett is gone for the season, we are fortunate that we have a freshman available in Euton who is a similar type of player. Second, the timing is good that Euton only missed one game against a DIII opponent before being thrown into the fire. There's no doubt that this will have a short-term negative effect due to Euton's lack of college ball experience.

The most important question is how good can Euton get by tournament time? He appears to have a good fundamental skill set, which means his focus has to be on physical conditioning, learning the Zips system and integrating well with the other players.

I hope to see Euton get lots of PT against YSU, as he should be able to make some good contributions against a fairly weak opponent.

[Quickzips]

Euton is almost certainly the benefactor of this as his skill set most closely resembles Brett. I think if anyone can fill those shoes as a freshman it would be Dakotah. The kid is fundamentally sound and hustles a lot. I actually wonder if the team won't be better off with Dakotah instead of Brett anyways. Brett has had a reputation over the years for not hustling on defense and being something of a selfish offensive player. I don't see either of those traits in Dakotah. We'll see how this all plays out.

[skip-zip]

Euton is almost certainly the benefactor of this as his skill set most closely resembles Brett. I think if anyone can fill those shoes as a freshman it would be Dakotah. The kid is fundamentally sound and hustles a lot. I actually wonder if the team won't be better off with Dakotah instead of Brett anyways. Brett has had a reputation over the years for not hustling on defense and being something of a selfish offensive player. I don't see either of those traits in Dakotah. We'll see how this all plays out.

Wow. A freshman who was going to redshirt because he probably wouldn't be in the playing rotation as opposed to a Senior, who is probably our biggest scoring threat, and the most experienced player on the team besides maybe McNees?

It doesn't make me wonder one bit.

[Quickzips]

Euton is almost certainly the benefactor of this as his skill set most closely resembles Brett. I think if anyone can fill those shoes as a freshman it would be Dakotah. The kid is fundamentally sound and hustles a lot. I actually wonder if the team won't be better off with Dakotah instead of Brett anyways. Brett has had a reputation over the years for not hustling on defense and being something of a selfish offensive player. I don't see either of those traits in Dakotah. We'll see how this all plays out.

Wow. A freshman who was going to redshirt because he probably wouldn't be in the playing rotation as opposed to a Senior, who is probably our biggest scoring threat, and the most experienced player on the team besides maybe McNees?

It doesn't make me wonder one bit.

Brett's been a frustrating player here over the years. His talent has been obvious, and his experience is a given, but he certainly has had his share of problems on the court. He's been openly criticized about his lack of effort on the defensive end many times, he's often a black hole on offense and his shot selection has been questionable throughout his career. Despite being the "biggest scoring threat" on our team he barely averaged 10 points per game last season on a team that was desperately in need of a go-to scorer. Add to that the fact that Brett wasn't even on the floor (while Dakotah was) against Dayton on Tuesday and you (or at least I) start to wonder if this is as big a blow as some will make it out to be.

[hafner4430]

called this at the begginning of the year that w/o Chris there, hes going to get in a lot of trouble. However, I think it actually benefits the Zips in the long run, as it will give Euton much more PT. Euton seems like the type of player that gets better the more he plays.

[jem101]

Add to that the fact that Brett wasn't even on the floor (while Dakotah was) against Dayton on Tuesday and you (or at least I) start to wonder if this is as big a blow as some will make it out to be.

I was very critical of Brett. I'm thinking that this will hurt us a little bit this year, but in the long run it may be a major plus. The freshmen will get more playing team and the Zips will be much better next year because of it.

[Dave in Green]

It's never good to lose an experienced senior who was being counted on to play an important role on the team. I don't want to belittle Brett McKnight in any way or overly build up Euton. We won't really know until the end of the season what the total impact will be.

But we can look at a few things based on McKnight's performance last season versus what Euton did in his senior year of HS against tough, national HS competition (and, yes, I do understand that HS performance does not directly translate into college performance).

* McKnight shot .397 from the field and Euton .500+

* McKnight hit .276 of his 3s and Euton .407

* McKnight shot .765 from the free throw line and Euton .800+

* McKnight averaged 4.5 rebounds per game (19.4 minutes) and Euton 9.4 (unknown minutes)

My own estimation from the above, as well as the small hint we got from the exhibition and Dayton games, is that it's likely that Euton will shoot at least slightly higher field goal, 3-point and free throw percentages for the Zips than McKnight, and that he could also snag more rebounds.

In other areas, both players have similar reputations for not being able to jump too high or run too fast. But in HS, Euton had a reputation for hustling all the time, while McKnight has been criticized by some on ZN.O for lagging behind -- especially on defense.

In HS, Euton had a reputation for being a team player who was as likely to hit the open man with a pass as to take his own shot. McKnight's shoot-first style has been discussed at length on ZN.O.

In HS, Euton had a reputation for playing reasonably good defense despite guarding players who could run faster and jump higher. Defense has never been discussed on ZN.O as one of McKnight's strong points.

Finally, we have the anecdotal story about Euton's AAU team playing Jared Sullinger's AAU team tough, and Euton holding his own against Sullinger in the paint. No, Euton is no Sullinger. Sullinger is a beast who will probably lead OSWho deep into the NCAA Tournament and be playing in the NBA next season. That's not the point. The fact that Euton could come close to holding his own against Sullinger in a single AAU game is simply one of many small but positive data points in favor of Euton's ability to contribute to the Zips as a true freshman.

Basically, we're comparing the known and unknown here. We know McKnight's strong and weak points at the Zips level of competition. We don't know Euton's, and that can be both scary and exciting. We can mope and moan that this will kill the Zips chances of making it to the post-season, or we can hopefully anticipate seeing signs as the season progresses that the team will be as good or better come tournament time with Euton having a full season of experience.

I'm going to take the optimistic position here and say that Euton offers more possibilities than McKnight, and that he will adjust fairly rapidly to college level basketball. If I'm wrong, I'll post my apologies to all the pessimists at the end of the season.

[Zip Watcher]

Anyone happen to know Bryan Wood's HS Scoring average or shooting percentage?

Love the stats, DiG .. but you have to admit that this is a little bit of a reach.

Go Zips!

B)

[Dave in Green]

ZW, I'm disappointed that your eagle eye missed the following:

..... (and, yes, I do understand that HS performance does not directly translate into college performance). .....

[Zip Watcher]

Didn't miss it at all.

[Dave in Green]

Then why would I have to admit this is a little bit of a reach when I already did?

[RACER]

no way this a better team without brett.it has nothing to do with dakota getting more pt.the problem he have no

frontline depth now.who would you rather have on the court brett or mike bardo? i think we will do fine in the mac.

the occ play will depend on how much foul trouble we get in.if zeke get's in foul trouble that means bardo will

get more pt.if he is the best we have we are in trouble.

[Dave in Green]

Burning Euton's redshirt and adding him to the active roster in place of McKnight is a straight one-for-one swap. It doesn't change the frontcourt numerical depth and should have little effect on Bardo's PT in the long run.

[Valpo Zip]

I hope we won't have to talk about Bardo's PT anymore. Nothing against Bardo the person. I wish him the best of success in his future, but basketball wise, and for the sake of this team, Bardo's PT should be NONE.

[Quickzips]

Frontcourt depth shouldn't be a problem. We have Nikola, Zeke, Euton, Egner and Bardo still. Experience certainly isn't what it was, but I think we can work around that. Nikola and Zeke will get the most minutes obviously and I expect both of them to average around 25-30 minutes plus or minus a few either way depending on circumstances. Euton will probably average around 10-15 minutes with Egner taking up 8-10 and Bardo taking up whatever is left. You will probably see a little bit more Bardo unfortunatly until Dakotah and Josh get up to speed, but I wouldn't expect that to last long.

[skip-zip]

Frontcourt depth shouldn't be a problem. We have Nikola, Zeke, Euton, Egner and Bardo still. Experience certainly isn't what it was, but I think we can work around that. Nikola and Zeke will get the most minutes obviously and I expect both of them to average around 25-30 minutes plus or minus a few either way depending on circumstances. Euton will probably average around 10-15 minutes with Egner taking up 8-10 and Bardo taking up whatever is left. You will probably see a little bit more Bardo unfortunatly until Dakotah and Josh get up to speed, but I wouldn't expect that to last long.

Absolutely. Anyone who thinks this is not the scenario right now is fooling themselves. We're going to be playing without a senior front court player who was maybe going to average anywhere from 20-30 min. per game, and replacing him in the rotation with a new freshman. There's going to be a few guys that are going to have to do more right now, including Mike, and hope that the new guys can develop enough at some point to help pick up some of the load this year.

[Dave in Green]

Don't forget that the Zips play a fair amount of time with 3 guards and a forward and center or 2 forwards, and don't always have 3 frontcourt players in the lineup.

There's 200 minutes of PT available (40 minutes times 5 players).

Assuming that the starters (Zeke, Nik, McNees, Roberts and Nitro) average only about 25 minutes per game each, that's 125 of the 200 minutes right there.

Adding 20 minutes each for Abreu and Diggs (they're currently averaging 17 minutes each) takes it up to 165 minutes.

That leaves about 35 minutes per game for Egner, Euton and Bardo, or an average of less than 12 minutes each, unless they can prove that the team has a better chance of winning with them getting more PT.

[Captain Kangaroo]

McKnight has been king of the stat line:

2-9 FG's

1-4 3-pointers

5-6 FT's

20m/g

for some time.

He never has been too interested in playing defense.

I hate to lose a guy who's been through the MAC bus trips for 3 seasons, with 3 MAC Finals under his belt. But if he's got "Senioritis," and he's becoming a bad influence on the younger players...then we're better off without him.

I'm comfortable with Euton and Egner taking his minutes. Bardo? IMO - He watches the opposing centers equally as well whether he's on the court, or off it. Super-quality kid. But basketball-wise...well...what's the opposite of "up-side?"