BG Game Saturday - A "Must Win?"

[Quickzips]

A few Sunday AM thoughts on last nights game.

Abreu had probably his worst night in a while. He was forcing a lot of passes at some pretty terrible angles and he didn't seem to be looking to score himself hardly at all. I don't know if it was the zone defense BG is so committed to or what, but hopefully this will be an outlier for Alex and not the sign of a trend to come.

I thought McNees had a much better game on the offensive end. His shot looks to have settled down a little bit. That said I will take issues with two things from last night with Steve. First is the fact that after 5 years in this program, most of which as a PG, he still has absolutely no idea what to do on a fast break. Again last night he got the ball leaking down the floor off a BG turnover, tried to drive to the hoop with an off-balanced defender on him and badly missed the layup. Second was the absolutely boneheaded move of fouling a 3 point shooter late in the game when BG was trying to extend it. Your a senior Steve, you should know better than that. Let the guy have that shot and get ready to secure the long rebound.

Nitro was a mixed bag. I thought he actually played decent defense on Thomas in the first half, but in the second half he came out and grabbed 3 quick fouls in like the first two minutes. I think that was a big issue that lead to the long scoring drought. He wasn't the offensive threat that he has been in past games either.

Nikola had a pretty frustrating night on offense, but had one of his best defensive nights of the year. BG's big guys couldn't get anything going last night and Nik was a big part of that. That said, the offensive performance was pretty bad. He didn't seem to be on the same page as the guards at all last night. I was impressed to see him finally dunk the ball on a fast-break. Now if we could get him to do that on one of those moves where he loses his defender in the post.

Zeke was a big part of closing out the game. With about 5 minutes left our guards finally figured out that he was getting great position in the post every time down the floor and they started getting him the ball. He scored on a couple of consecutive trips that helped us to get the lead back. His defense was also pretty good last night. Not as much of the reaching over the back trying to deny entry passes and not nearly as many stupid fouls. That said, we need the big fella to start hitting more of those FT's.

Daryl Roberts was obviously the key to last nights win. Without his big 3 from out of the deep corner (I was sitting directly across the floor from that and actually watched the ball go over the corner of the backboard) and his excellent FT shooting down the stretch the Zips don't win that one. I watched him in warmups and he was hitting everything. Knew right then that he would have a big night if we got him the ball enough.

Brett McKnight was terrible last night. He couldn't hit the broad side of a barn if it was two feet away from him. His jump-shot was WAY WAY off all night. Everything was clanking off the back-rim.

Diggs had his ups and downs. Had a real nice move to JUST beat the shot clock before the half for a bucket, but also had a few bad turnovers.

Bardo was effective in the few minutes he got. I liked seeing us run a play for him on offense in the first couple minutes he was in the game. I'd like to see us do that more often if for no other reason than to make defenses have to account for him a little bit and not just sag off of him because he isn't known as a scorer.

I thought the crowd was pretty good considering the frostbite inducing temperatures and the 3 game losing streak. Still way too many empty seats in the lower bowl, but the people who were there were into the game and seemed to make a big impact down the stretch.

Still far too many 3 point shots for my liking. Yet again the Zips shot better than 40% of their FG attempts from beyond the arch. I just don't see that as a continuing recipe for wins for the Zips. You can correctly space the floor and keep defenses honest without taking that many deep jump-shots. I was particularly annoyed by this last night because Zeke was getting great position all night against guys who were 5+ inches shorter than him. Would have liked to have seen us throw the ball into him a little more and not settle for so many long jumpers.

Zips also need to cut down on the turnovers. I think that has been the biggest issue for them with these recent struggles. They got lucky last night and that BG turned it over even more than the Zips.

[truefan]

First off, this is a fan forum. If the fans don't have an opportunity to come on here and debate things like this then this site goes away, and we start to widdle away at a decent chunk of our already meager fanbase. That said, I'll try to provide a few of the changes that I would make if I were coaching this team and why I would make them. I am not a basketball coach, never have been, never will be. I don't play the game either, I am merely a fan, but I have an opinion and I am entitled to express it.

Basically, your post is pretty darn good one. Excellent observations and a passion for the game.

That said, I will take umberance with you on a couple of points.

Lineup change #1:

Quincy Diggs is my starting SF. He has the length and athleticism that we need on the wing and is a more capable defender than McClanahan for some of the bigger, more athletic SF we are starting to see.

Sitting down your leading scorer will not win you games, fans, or team. While Diggs has more "hops"

than McClanahan, Diggs is a turnover in process. Sure, he is a bit quicker at guarding, but, his offense

is non-existent. The current arrangement works best. Leave it be.

Lineup change #2:

Brett McClanahan is my starting SG, moving McNees to the bench. Steve is struggling mightily this year, and nothing we have done for him so far seems to be working. IMO he needs to start coming off the bench for a while until his shot starts to come back. McClanahan also provides us some much needed size in the backcourt on the defensive end.

Sorry, no can do. There are already big issues with Steve. Sitting him down will agrevate them.

Steve's time at the point needs to continue to diminish. Granted, Steve at the point at the end of the

BGSU game was a key factor in the Zip's success. KD is Steve's coach, not his Dad.

Lineup change #3:

Josh Egner is going to start taking Mike Bardo's minutes in the rotation. I am going to have him playing some PF and some C coming off of the bench. Bardo isn't doing terrible out there this year by his standards, but he has never provided us with much in the minutes he is on the floor and with it being his final year you really aren't developing him for anything down the line. Egner is clearly not ready for big minutes yet, but if he can handle the 8-10 minutes per night that Mike plays and make things a little difficult for opponents with his athleticism on the defensive end I think it would be a positive change.

I love Josh Egner's potential and what he has shown thus far. Josh is still a ham fisted true Freshman.

Mike Bardo is a seasoned Senior of limited talent. Mike has five years in KD's system and usually

performs to an acceptable level. Mike has earned his minutes. Josh will get his in due course.

System change #1:

I am going to extend the defense to full-court, every possession. This team doesn't have the lateral quickness to guard teams for 25-30 seconds in the half-court every time down the floor. What we do have are quite a few guys who are adept at forcing turnovers by poking away the ball, getting in the passing lanes and/or trapping. I may not pressure and trap every possession like there are two minutes left and I'm down by 3 possessions, but I'm not going to just let opponents walk the ball up the court either. We have some depth on this team to be able to keep guys fresh. Let's start using it.

Here I completely agree with you. On at least three occasions our opponents had to inbound the ball

with five seconds or less left on their shot clock. All three times they scored. That is pretty sorry

defense. Extending the floor shortens their possession. It would be argued that we lack the guard depth

to run much back court ball pressure. The pressure does not need to be intense ... just present.

It is unnerving to be constantly challenged.

It helped against BGSU that the Zips got in their "grills" better than we have seen most of the season.

Would help, too, if the Zips used the conventional hand up-hand down posture rather than swatting at

balls lauched right over them. The Zips do not communicate on the floor well. This results in the

opposition breaking loose an open man especially off ball screens. McClanahan and McNees are both

often victims

System change #2:

I am going to start pushing the tempo more on the offensive end. I don't want to see the ball walked up the floor anymore. Especially when Abreu is on the court. I'm not going to go Mike D'Antoni, seven-seconds or less style, but I don't want to see the ball just barely making it across the timeline and then getting passed around the perimeter for 20 seconds before forcing up a long 3 anymore.

You have found one of Steve McNees major deficiencies as a point guard. Alex Abreu can push the

ball, especially if he has Darryl Roberts on his wing.

System change #3:

I'm taking away some guys green lights on the three pointers, starting with Abreu and I'm also probably doing it for Diggs and to a certain extent McKnight. There is no reason for any team to be taking 40% of its shots from beyond the arch. Unless you are just deadly accurate as a team from out there you are only setting yourself up for a lot of missed shots and run-outs the other way off of long rebounds.

Have to disagree with you on this point. Stopping the long distant dial ups will result in collapsing

the middle and making Zeke and Nikola's jobs a lot tougher. Brett McKnight is a savvy senior and will

have the green light all season. If McNees would accept the challenge of being the high powered three

ball artist the coaching staff wants a whole lot of other improvements fall in place because it takes

pressure off the other shooters. No one guards Steve because the other teams scouts have learned

that Steve pouts and sulks when he at the two. Time for Steve to man up and be the complete

package he shows all the signs of being.

Sorry if I have offended anyone by this post. I don't want to sound un-grateful for what we have had with Zips basketball over the course of the KD-era. I just feel that this particular unit is under-performing and that we aren't playing to our strengths in some areas right at the moment.

Welcome to any coach's world. You just summed up what all coaches experience all the time.

**It becomes more and more evident with each ignorant rambling post, not only how little you understand about the game... but that you know even less about the individuals you so negatively obsess about.

if you took even a portion of the time you waste on your pompous "intellectual" and "valued" comments to open your eyes and ears to the individuals and game that you purport to be such an "expert" of, you might actually have something of value to say... and may be surprised that noone and nothing is as you have created it to be in your arrogant mind.

Even sadder than your warped perception of reality, is that you feel the need to broadcast your unwanted opinion to all within earshot.

[UA Fan]

http://www.zips.ohio.com/2011/01/akron-vs-...n-live-updates/

On what (Dambrot) would do with a $10 million donation: “I’d renovate the JAR. Bring the seats to one level. Get rid of the track. It’s nothing that we can control. Our administration is working to get it better. Just because you have a great facility doesn’t mean you’re going to win. Eastern Michigan and Northern Illinois have great facilities. Can't and Akron have ugly facilities. It’s about the people.”

I can't believe he said 'ugly facilities', even if that's how he feels. K (did he get his D back last night?) is candid if nothing else. But I don't think that's a good message to be sending out to potential game attendees and recruits. He's obviously been told it's beyond his control though.

[MDZip]

Flushes up on the Sweaters by 15 with 15 minutes left. If they hang on, this is definitely anyones' division. We also have the three best teams in the West at home. There is still ground that can be made up.

[MDZip]

Ballgame over. Flushes beat Miami 78-57. The East leaders (all 4 of them are 3-2), Zips at 2-3 and Ohio at 1-4.

[RowdyZip]

Flushes up on the Sweaters by 15 with 15 minutes left. If they hang on, this is definitely anyones' division. We also have the three best teams in the West at home. There is still ground that can be made up.

I noticed this today as well. It's a change of pace from the usual bad luck the Zips have in the crossover games.

[zippyfan34]

Another high scoring game as Eastern takes down Central 41-38. http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=310232199

[Valpo Zip]

"I love Josh Egner's potential and what he has shown thus far. Josh is still a ham fisted true Freshman.

Mike Bardo is a seasoned Senior of limited talent. Mike has five years in KD's system and usually

performs to an acceptable level. Mike has earned his minutes. Josh will get his in due course."

This is exactly what's wrong with our system. When we were bottom feeders a few years ago, we had to recruit the Nick Meyers, Matt Futch, and Mike Bardo and we had to wait for them to learn for 3-4 years and pray that they give us a good year at the end of their career.

Now that we claim that we are an elite mid major, we cannot afford that anymore. We cannot afford to bench Jimmy Conyers for 4 years and get one good year from him. We cannot burn Nitro's red-shirt half way through the season and then bench him for a year and a half to only get two decent years from him (although two is better than one).

And rather than learning from our mistakes, we repeat the same thing over and over. We will keep Egner and Euton on the bench because Bardo has been in the system and blah blah blah.

Am i the only one who feels that two of the trio (Egner, Euton, and Green) will not be with the team in the next year or two? If you're going to reply with the Cliche: "they didn't fit within KD's system"...than why did he recruit them?

Or even better, shouldn't we reconsider this system that is so hard it takes most of our recruits 2-3 years to learn?

[Quickzips]

First off, this is a fan forum. If the fans don't have an opportunity to come on here and debate things like this then this site goes away, and we start to widdle away at a decent chunk of our already meager fanbase. That said, I'll try to provide a few of the changes that I would make if I were coaching this team and why I would make them. I am not a basketball coach, never have been, never will be. I don't play the game either, I am merely a fan, but I have an opinion and I am entitled to express it.

Basically, your post is pretty darn good one. Excellent observations and a passion for the game.

That said, I will take umberance with you on a couple of points.

Lineup change #1:

Quincy Diggs is my starting SF. He has the length and athleticism that we need on the wing and is a more capable defender than McClanahan for some of the bigger, more athletic SF we are starting to see.

Sitting down your leading scorer will not win you games, fans, or team. While Diggs has more "hops"

than McClanahan, Diggs is a turnover in process. Sure, he is a bit quicker at guarding, but, his offense

is non-existent. The current arrangement works best. Leave it be.

Lineup change #2:

Brett McClanahan is my starting SG, moving McNees to the bench. Steve is struggling mightily this year, and nothing we have done for him so far seems to be working. IMO he needs to start coming off the bench for a while until his shot starts to come back. McClanahan also provides us some much needed size in the backcourt on the defensive end.

Sorry, no can do. There are already big issues with Steve. Sitting him down will agrevate them.

Steve's time at the point needs to continue to diminish. Granted, Steve at the point at the end of the

BGSU game was a key factor in the Zip's success. KD is Steve's coach, not his Dad.

Lineup change #3:

Josh Egner is going to start taking Mike Bardo's minutes in the rotation. I am going to have him playing some PF and some C coming off of the bench. Bardo isn't doing terrible out there this year by his standards, but he has never provided us with much in the minutes he is on the floor and with it being his final year you really aren't developing him for anything down the line. Egner is clearly not ready for big minutes yet, but if he can handle the 8-10 minutes per night that Mike plays and make things a little difficult for opponents with his athleticism on the defensive end I think it would be a positive change.

I love Josh Egner's potential and what he has shown thus far. Josh is still a ham fisted true Freshman.

Mike Bardo is a seasoned Senior of limited talent. Mike has five years in KD's system and usually

performs to an acceptable level. Mike has earned his minutes. Josh will get his in due course.

System change #1:

I am going to extend the defense to full-court, every possession. This team doesn't have the lateral quickness to guard teams for 25-30 seconds in the half-court every time down the floor. What we do have are quite a few guys who are adept at forcing turnovers by poking away the ball, getting in the passing lanes and/or trapping. I may not pressure and trap every possession like there are two minutes left and I'm down by 3 possessions, but I'm not going to just let opponents walk the ball up the court either. We have some depth on this team to be able to keep guys fresh. Let's start using it.

Here I completely agree with you. On at least three occasions our opponents had to inbound the ball

with five seconds or less left on their shot clock. All three times they scored. That is pretty sorry

defense. Extending the floor shortens their possession. It would be argued that we lack the guard depth

to run much back court ball pressure. The pressure does not need to be intense ... just present.

It is unnerving to be constantly challenged.

It helped against BGSU that the Zips got in their "grills" better than we have seen most of the season.

Would help, too, if the Zips used the conventional hand up-hand down posture rather than swatting at

balls lauched right over them. The Zips do not communicate on the floor well. This results in the

opposition breaking loose an open man especially off ball screens. McClanahan and McNees are both

often victims

System change #2:

I am going to start pushing the tempo more on the offensive end. I don't want to see the ball walked up the floor anymore. Especially when Abreu is on the court. I'm not going to go Mike D'Antoni, seven-seconds or less style, but I don't want to see the ball just barely making it across the timeline and then getting passed around the perimeter for 20 seconds before forcing up a long 3 anymore.

You have found one of Steve McNees major deficiencies as a point guard. Alex Abreu can push the

ball, especially if he has Darryl Roberts on his wing.

System change #3:

I'm taking away some guys green lights on the three pointers, starting with Abreu and I'm also probably doing it for Diggs and to a certain extent McKnight. There is no reason for any team to be taking 40% of its shots from beyond the arch. Unless you are just deadly accurate as a team from out there you are only setting yourself up for a lot of missed shots and run-outs the other way off of long rebounds.

Have to disagree with you on this point. Stopping the long distant dial ups will result in collapsing

the middle and making Zeke and Nikola's jobs a lot tougher. Brett McKnight is a savvy senior and will

have the green light all season. If McNees would accept the challenge of being the high powered three

ball artist the coaching staff wants a whole lot of other improvements fall in place because it takes

pressure off the other shooters. No one guards Steve because the other teams scouts have learned

that Steve pouts and sulks when he at the two. Time for Steve to man up and be the complete

package he shows all the signs of being.

Sorry if I have offended anyone by this post. I don't want to sound un-grateful for what we have had with Zips basketball over the course of the KD-era. I just feel that this particular unit is under-performing and that we aren't playing to our strengths in some areas right at the moment.

Welcome to any coach's world. You just summed up what all coaches experience all the time.

**It becomes more and more evident with each ignorant rambling post, not only how little you understand about the game... but that you know even less about the individuals you so negatively obsess about.

if you took even a portion of the time you waste on your pompous "intellectual" and "valued" comments to open your eyes and ears to the individuals and game that you purport to be such an "expert" of, you might actually have something of value to say... and may be surprised that noone and nothing is as you have created it to be in your arrogant mind.

Even sadder than your warped perception of reality, is that you feel the need to broadcast your unwanted opinion to all within earshot.

Was that directed at me or GoZips? Either way, its pretty uncalled for.

[Zip Watcher]

"I love Josh Egner's potential and what he has shown thus far. Josh is still a ham fisted true Freshman.

Mike Bardo is a seasoned Senior of limited talent. Mike has five years in KD's system and usually

performs to an acceptable level. Mike has earned his minutes. Josh will get his in due course."

This is exactly what's wrong with our system. When we were bottom feeders a few years ago, we had to recruit the Nick Meyers, Matt Futch, and Mike Bardo and we had to wait for them to learn for 3-4 years and pray that they give us a good year at the end of their career.

Now that we claim that we are an elite mid major, we cannot afford that anymore. We cannot afford to bench Jimmy Conyers for 4 years and get one good year from him. We cannot burn Nitro's red-shirt half way through the season and then bench him for a year and a half to only get two decent years from him (although two is better than one).

And rather than learning from our mistakes, we repeat the same thing over and over. We will keep Egner and Euton on the bench because Bardo has been in the system and blah blah blah.

Am i the only one who feels that two of the trio (Egner, Euton, and Green) will not be with the team in the next year or two? If you're going to reply with the Cliche: "they didn't fit within KD's system"...than why did he recruit them?

Or even better, shouldn't we reconsider this system that is so hard it takes most of our recruits 2-3 years to learn?

I'm going to reply with the statement that they were recruited onto a team with 7 returning contributors and 2 other impact newcomers. It takes a lot to break into the rotation in this situation. You said it yourself at the top .. this isn't 10 years ago when we'd be hoping 2 of these guys could start right away to make the team better. The talent and experience level now is such that Freshman have to be absolute difference makers to barge into the rotation.

These guys will be good Zips. But they're not going to play in front of Brett or Nikola. They just aren't.

Go Zips!!

[GoZips]

"I love Josh Egner's potential and what he has shown thus far. Josh is still a ham fisted true Freshman.

Mike Bardo is a seasoned Senior of limited talent. Mike has five years in KD's system and usually

performs to an acceptable level. Mike has earned his minutes. Josh will get his in due course."

This is exactly what's wrong with our system. When we were bottom feeders a few years ago, we had to recruit the Nick Meyers, Matt Futch, and Mike Bardo and we had to wait for them to learn for 3-4 years and pray that they give us a good year at the end of their career.

Now that we claim that we are an elite mid major, we cannot afford that anymore. We cannot afford to bench Jimmy Conyers for 4 years and get one good year from him. We cannot burn Nitro's red-shirt half way through the season and then bench him for a year and a half to only get two decent years from him (although two is better than one).

And rather than learning from our mistakes, we repeat the same thing over and over. We will keep Egner and Euton on the bench because Bardo has been in the system and blah blah blah.

Am i the only one who feels that two of the trio (Egner, Euton, and Green) will not be with the team in the next year or two? If you're going to reply with the Cliche: "they didn't fit within KD's system"...than why did he recruit them?

Or even better, shouldn't we reconsider this system that is so hard it takes most of our recruits 2-3 years to learn?

Ada Zip, excellent points. Matt Futch has matured into a decent professional player. Too bad Matt

did not have the body bulk he has now when he played for Akron.

Mike Bardo gets minutes based on more than his years of experience. Mike gets minutes partially because

he is a six-ten wide body that defends and rebounds.

Like you, I would love to see Josh Egner get more minutes, especially in meaningful situations. You have

to love Josh's athletic abilities. He just needs to get playing time to improve.

It is regrettable that the Zips had to "burn" Euton's red shirt. Had a recent conversation with Dakota's Dad

where his father lamented that Dakota came to Akron feeling pretty good about his conditioning. Coming

out of high school Dakota was bench pressing 240#. First day in the weight room Dakota discovered

that Darryl Roberts bench presses 340#. Its a learning year. Dakota will, like Josh, be a major part

of future Zips teams. Mike Green I am not so sure about. Let us see how he handles the competition.

Ada, few players come straight out of high school and become instant stars in college. Don't you

think that coaches usually like having juniors and seniors on the floor? Look at the fine end of game

performance Steve McNees and Darryl Roberts gave us against BGSU.

Oh, and the calvary is coming. Haney and Treadwell are doing just fine in school. Makes me wonder if

there will even be room for Nikola next season. Yeah, you bet there are plenty of minutes if Nik elects

to play another year. Sure hope he does.

Oh, QUICK, I think the sophomoric comments made by unTrue, were directed

at me since I am a well known arrogant, S.O.B. know it all who fortunately can back up my mouth with

my experience. Besides, the grammar was atrocious, I'd say on the level of a nine year old or a Cant grad.

[Blue & Gold]

Oh, and the calvary is coming. Haney and Treadwell are doing just fine in school.

Coming from someone as close to the Zips' program as yourself, this is music to my ears!

[Captain Kangaroo]

A couple quick note on Saturday nights game -

* Nice crowd for such a cold evening, with the team on a 3-game slide

* Love Saturday night games, where you can have a couple beers and some food at BW-3's before the game.

* Joe Jakubowski seems to have regressed in his 9th season. Very pedestrian game.

* The leash on Diggs is too short. McKnight was having a fairly awful game and stayed on the court, while Diggs made a few errors and was nailed to the pine. Diggs errors we aggressive ones, which are easier to live with than lazy or stupid mistakes. I will continue to clamor for more Diggs PT.

* The defense the Zips played over the final 3 minutes was what I've been waiting to see from this team all season. They actually woke up? I liked McNees' post game quote (on the last game surge) - "Me and Darryl have won a lot of games together. We just said 'enough is enough.'"

* Zeke having 22 minutes played, and zero points, is not right. Zeke needs to assert himself offensively. Like he did versus K.e.n.t. BG had nothing special on their interior, and Zeke was totally shut down. Zeke needs to say "Enough is enough," and start picking it up.

* In the end McKnight came through, and Roberts delivered a really clutch performance. Now the Zips need to build off it...not wait until 5 minutes left in the game to assert themselves.

* The Zips play 4 horrible teams between now and February 5th. They should go 4-0. 15 - 8 in mid-February is good stuff. Anything less is disappointing.

Nice win Saturday, Zips. Please build off it!

[The Hip Zip]

A couple quick note on Saturday nights game -

* Nice crowd for such a cold evening, with the team on a 3-game slide

* Love Saturday night games, where you can have a couple beers and some food at BW-3's before the game.

* Joe Jakubowski seems to have regressed in his 9th season. Very pedestrian game.

* The leash on Diggs is too short. McKnight was having a fairly awful game and stayed on the court, while Diggs made a few errors and was nailed to the pine. Diggs errors we aggressive ones, which are easier to live with than lazy or stupid mistakes. I will continue to clamor for more Diggs PT.

* The defense the Zips played over the final 3 minutes was what I've been waiting to see from this team all season. They actually woke up? I liked McNees' post game quote (on the last game surge) - "Me and Darryl have won a lot of games together. We just said 'enough is enough.'"

* Zeke having 22 minutes played, and zero points, is not right. Zeke needs to assert himself offensively. Like he did versus K.e.n.t. BG had nothing special on their interior, and Zeke was totally shut down. Zeke needs to say "Enough is enough," and start picking it up.

* In the end McKnight came through, and Roberts delivered a really clutch performance. Now the Zips need to build off it...not wait until 5 minutes left in the game to assert themselves.

* The Zips play 4 horrible teams between now and February 5th. They should go 4-0. 15 - 8 in mid-February is good stuff. Anything less is disappointing.

Nice win Saturday, Zips. Please build off it!

Can't argue with a single point that you made here. The line about JJ's 9th season had me rolling, good stuff

[Quickzips]

* Zeke having 22 minutes played, and zero points, is not right. Zeke needs to assert himself offensively. Like he did versus K.e.n.t. BG had nothing special on their interior, and Zeke was totally shut down. Zeke needs to say "Enough is enough," and start picking it up.

Zeke needs to demand the ball and our guards need to get it to him in situations like Saturday night. He was getting great position in the post pretty much every trip down the floor and BG had nobody with the size and athleticism needed to guard him, but yet again we went with the pass around the perimeter for 25 seconds then jack up a long jump-shot or pass to a double-teamed Cvetinovic or McKnight and watch them slop up a layup attempt offense that helped lead to that 3 game skid. Luckily we realized the opportunity Zeke had JUST in time to be able to win the game.