Zips at Minnesota

[Dave in Green]

After sleeping on it, I believe the best and most effective starting lineup that the Zips will be using before the end of the season to match up against teams like Minnesota, Temple, Dayton, Cleveland State, Can't, etc., will be the following:

Zeke

Nik

Alex

Quincy

Josh

Alex has already proven that he is the starting PG. He continues to improve each game, and could be pretty special by the end of the season.

Q had his best game yet, and was the only Zips player on the floor who appeared to have the athleticism to match up against Minnesota. I predict he will take over a starting role and play more minutes as he learns to play better defense and stay more under control.

Egner is the missing link right now. He's the athletic forward the Zips missed last night. He's the only player on the Zips bench who can really help Zeke and the Serb neutralize Minnesota-type front lines on both defense and offense. Josh is not there yet, and he's not going to get there if he doesn't get a chance to play longer minutes and learn from trial and error. Bite the bullet and play him now, KD. It will pay big dividends by the end of the season.

McNees could be a major offensive weapon to bring off the bench, which may suit his streaky shooting style better than being a starter. In effect, McNees would take over the 6th man offensive sparkplug role previously held by Brett McKnight. Nitro, Roberts and Euton might also be able to fill this role in some games, depending on which of the four players has the best shot on a given night.

But I really believe that the starting lineup above offers the Zips the best chance to upset a ranked team as long as all five players are given a chance to learn to play together and improve their team and individual games.

[Dr Z]

Alex has already proven that he is the starting PG.

Were you the one that argued post after post last year how we didn't need a different pg, and #4 was a good pg, and used all kind of crazy stats to try to prove it? If I have you confused with someone else, I apologize.

[GP1]

What is probably the most frustrating is that we continue to have these looooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggg scoring droughts, usually late in the first half or early in the second half. I have absolutely no idea what the issue is there but KD is going to have to figure it out or there will be people that are going to start questioning if he is the right coach to get us to the next level. We've seen this for seemingly the last 3 or 4 years now. Time for something to change.

IMNHO, what Akron lacks, and has lacked for as long as I can remember, is a guy you can bring off the bench and he is automatic offense. Maybe there were some, but I just can't remember. When you put a guy like this in the game, you have to accept he is going to play defense poorly so you have to figure out a way to keep him from being too big of a liability on defense. KD won't put up with a guy who plays defense poorly so he doesn't have guys like this on his team. I think a guy like this is needed for the times when everyone else is having difficulty putting the ball in the basket, because you have to keep pace with the point pace of good teams until you figure out what adjustments you want to make.

[Quickzips]

What is probably the most frustrating is that we continue to have these looooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggg scoring droughts, usually late in the first half or early in the second half. I have absolutely no idea what the issue is there but KD is going to have to figure it out or there will be people that are going to start questioning if he is the right coach to get us to the next level. We've seen this for seemingly the last 3 or 4 years now. Time for something to change.

IMNHO, what Akron lacks, and has lacked for as long as I can remember, is a guy you can bring off the bench and he is automatic offense. Maybe there were some, but I just can't remember. When you put a guy like this in the game, you have to accept he is going to play defense poorly so you have to figure out a way to keep him from being too big of a liability on defense. KD won't put up with a guy who plays defense poorly so he doesn't have guys like this on his team. I think a guy like this is needed for the times when everyone else is having difficulty putting the ball in the basket, because you have to keep pace with the point pace of good teams until you figure out what adjustments you want to make.

Your right that we haven't had that offensive sparkplug off of the bench in recent years. Probably the closest thing we had to it was Cedrick Middleton in his sophomore and junior years. Right now you look at the bench and there isn't anyone there who has the skills and mentality to be that guy IMO. Roberts is a nice role player who probably has the skills to do it, but he doesn't have that scorers mentality and often is content settling into the corner and waiting for his shots. Diggs may have that ability one day, but at this point it is way to early to tell. Egner is more defensive specialist than he is offensive sparkplug. Euton looks like a role-player at this point in his career. We all know that Bardo for sure isn't capable of taking on that role. Maybe with the news of Brett McKnight returning to the team he can take on that role, but as I've argued here before, I think Brett's offensive game is often vastly over-rated.

[Captain Kangaroo]

IMNHO, what Akron lacks, and has lacked for as long as I can remember, is a guy you can bring off the bench and he is automatic offense.

Brett McKnight was supposed to be that guy.

I'll contend that he was often more "instant shooting" as opposed to "instant offense." But he was slotted to be our "Microwave" this season, and he's not there.

If you look back in the days when we could knock off a Mississippi State, Florida State or Temple, we had Dials, Joyce, Travis and Wood. Those guys didn't back down from anyone. Dials played at Ohio State. Joyce and Travis played in front of 17k crowds with regularity in high school and were used to winning against whatever heralded opponent they played. Wood was a driven baller with strength that few could match up against.

Those guys had the skill set, attitude and swagger to win the big OOC games on occasion.

Roberts isn't Joyce. McNees isn't Dials. Cventinovic isn't Travis. And Zeke isn't Wood. Comparing both eras, the old guys were simply better.

Going back to the Huggins era, we hung with top 10 teams like Michigan and Pitt throughout entire games because we had ballers like Buford, Boyce and McLaughlin who could match up with just about anyone.

This Zips team's problem is -- we don't have anyone who's stepped up and merited discussion that their jersey # should hang from the JAR rafters. Good guys...good teams...play together well...graduate...tons of laudable attributes. But we are missing the element that lets us ascend "From Good to Great."

The season is still young. Maybe McKnight returns, humbled and motivated. Maybe Egner and Euton bust out? Maybe... a lot of stuff.

Road wins against Detroit and UIC shouldn't be taken for granted. This team is good as they stand today. But they need to improve if they want to be playing in late-March. It will be fun to see what KD and Company do to figure it out.

And a final note - Loved the games vs. Temple and Minnesota. The team knows where they stand against high-level competition. I do too. Better than beating South Carolina Upstate any day of the week.

I predict I lose my left nut. We beat Miami in Vegas.

[johnnyzip84]

After sleeping on it, I believe the best and most effective starting lineup that the Zips will be using before the end of the season to match up against teams like Minnesota, Temple, Dayton, Cleveland State, Can't, etc., will be the following:

Zeke

Nik

Alex

Quincy

Josh

Alex has already proven that he is the starting PG. He continues to improve each game, and could be pretty special by the end of the season.

Q had his best game yet, and was the only Zips player on the floor who appeared to have the athleticism to match up against Minnesota. I predict he will take over a starting role and play more minutes as he learns to play better defense and stay more under control.

Egner is the missing link right now. He's the athletic forward the Zips missed last night. He's the only player on the Zips bench who can really help Zeke and the Serb neutralize Minnesota-type front lines on both defense and offense. Josh is not there yet, and he's not going to get there if he doesn't get a chance to play longer minutes and learn from trial and error. Bite the bullet and play him now, KD. It will pay big dividends by the end of the season.

McNees could be a major offensive weapon to bring off the bench, which may suit his streaky shooting style better than being a starter. In effect, McNees would take over the 6th man offensive sparkplug role previously held by Brett McKnight. Nitro, Roberts and Euton might also be able to fill this role in some games, depending on which of the four players has the best shot on a given night.

But I really believe that the starting lineup above offers the Zips the best chance to upset a ranked team as long as all five players are given a chance to learn to play together and improve their team and individual games.

It seems to me that a mid-major generally needs to knock down a few outside shots to pull off the bigger upsets. Where is the threat of an outside scorer in this starting five?

[Quickzips]

After sleeping on it, I believe the best and most effective starting lineup that the Zips will be using before the end of the season to match up against teams like Minnesota, Temple, Dayton, Cleveland State, Can't, etc., will be the following:

Zeke

Nik

Alex

Quincy

Josh

Alex has already proven that he is the starting PG. He continues to improve each game, and could be pretty special by the end of the season.

Q had his best game yet, and was the only Zips player on the floor who appeared to have the athleticism to match up against Minnesota. I predict he will take over a starting role and play more minutes as he learns to play better defense and stay more under control.

Egner is the missing link right now. He's the athletic forward the Zips missed last night. He's the only player on the Zips bench who can really help Zeke and the Serb neutralize Minnesota-type front lines on both defense and offense. Josh is not there yet, and he's not going to get there if he doesn't get a chance to play longer minutes and learn from trial and error. Bite the bullet and play him now, KD. It will pay big dividends by the end of the season.

McNees could be a major offensive weapon to bring off the bench, which may suit his streaky shooting style better than being a starter. In effect, McNees would take over the 6th man offensive sparkplug role previously held by Brett McKnight. Nitro, Roberts and Euton might also be able to fill this role in some games, depending on which of the four players has the best shot on a given night.

But I really believe that the starting lineup above offers the Zips the best chance to upset a ranked team as long as all five players are given a chance to learn to play together and improve their team and individual games.

It seems to me that a mid-major generally needs to knock down a few outside shots to pull off the bigger upsets. Where is the threat of an outside scorer in this starting five?

Your absolutely right on that johnny. The vast majority of the time a mid-major team beats a top-25 program things will be centered around good 3 point shooting. Abreu, Diggs, Egner, Nikola and Zeke is probably our worst lineup in terms of outside shooting. I personally think if we are looking to beat the big boys our lineup will need to be Alex and McClanahan at the guards, Diggs on the wing with Nikola and Zeke down low. Then bring the senior guards off the bench with Egner and Euton/McKnight. I think we need to shorten the rotation a bit (which we did last night to some degree) and stick with 8, maybe 9 guys. The talent on our bench isn't going to be as deep as a team like Minnesota or Temple. Guys like Bardo just have no business being on the floor for significant minutes in a game like that. Shorten up the bench, keep at least one good outside shooter on the floor at all times and don't go into those 8 minute scoring droughts.

[Dave in Green]

Alex has already proven that he is the starting PG.

Were you the one that argued post after post last year how we didn't need a different pg, and #4 was a good pg, and used all kind of crazy stats to try to prove it? If I have you confused with someone else, I apologize.

Your memory is nearly flawless. I argued post after post last year that we didn't need a different PG last season because there was no one on last season's roster better than McNees at PG. I don't recall ever arguing that the Zips should not try to find a better PG for this season and beyond. But if you go looking through my old posts and find where I did say something like that, I would, of course, admit that I was in error.

[jjackson123]

If anyone has the game tivoed, at 3:00 left in the game you can here KD as clear as day yell "I don't give a f***" at Nik... commentators responded by saying "Dambrot clearly frustrated" or something like that

I think KD is the best coach in the MAC but I agree with whoever stated earlier about a coach needing to be brought in for Zeke. Jeff Boals left for OSU whoever was wondering that. I know at Michigan State Izzo has assistants specifically for the perimeter guys and the inside guys. I don't know if we have anything like that, but we should if we don't.