Concern

[zip37]

As promised, I am now concerned w/2nd half fade, KD & team will recover, but it might be a tad too late to get a bye to Cle. Although there have been GREAT coaches that hadnever won at Can't (Webb & Huggs) while an absloute incompetent (Hipsher) won once-- go figure!

[RobC2]

Losing Jeremiah Wood hurt this team more than we'll ever know! Bubba transfered due to a lack of playing time, but he provided depth off of the bench as a quality sub for Dials and Joyce. Jimmy Conyers is supposed to be an incredible athlete who can create his own shot whenever he desires. Him being ineligible also cost us this year. Our depth concerns me. I believe KD is getting as much out of this team as anyone possibly could, but I do not think we have enough juice to sustain it down the stretch; to kick it into a so-called "5th gear", let alone win 3 games in a row in Cleveland. I just think we'll be too tired. Hopefully I'm wrong!!! I'm gonna be cheering my lungs out! I'm just being truthfully-critical and honest with this post. But I'm no expert! Go Zips!!!

[GoZips]

I, too, am concerned.Driving away from Cant State the loss freshly on my mind it occurred to me that KD(whom I love and admire) missed a great window of opportunity.Last spring when the coaching staff was first alerted to Bubba Walther's unhappinessand desire to move on they missed a golden opportunity. They dug in and convincedyoung, dare I say immature, Walther to stay in the program. In retrospect it seemsthat giving him his release at that time would have been best for all parties.Ohio U gets to fork over a scholarship year for a player they cannot use and never willget much out of. Akron frees up a scholarship that could have been used to procurea JUCO player with a greater skill inventory than Bubba has. The guard situationwould be much brighter for us today. Hopefully Coach D remembers this in the future.While Coach does not like to bring in JUCO players this situation warranted one.Since we cannot change the past let us address the near term future. The Zips badlyneed a floor leader. Last season Romeo held that role. This season opponents havetaken to boxing him and covering him. Neither Linhart or Preston have picked upthe mantle in the paint. One or the other must take it upon himself to shoulderenough of the load that opponents can not afford to double Travis.The three guards have been admirable in their relentless pressure on opponents. Wecannot live and die by the three. To win the ball must go inside.Thus, to me, our near term future depends on either Linhart or Preston getting toughin the middle. This means just that. Hard nosed play in the paint. Rob loves toplay the swing man and he has a great three point shot. But, he needs to give us someminutes of hard nose banging inside. Nate needs to forget he is a freshman. Afterall, he now has twenty college games under his belt. Nate play power forward moreand swing man less. Bang inside. Take the lumps. and when Nate needs a blow putRybak in. Let John get more floor time. He needs it and so do the Zips.Matt Futch, got to love him, plays like a bull in a china shop. He plays his heart out.Could he be a positive factor down the stretch? I am inclined to let Matt play just as hehas been. Staying out of trouble enough to give enough floor minutes to rest the others.I hate losing to Cant.AK-Rowdies ... you kids did my heart proud. Love you all.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Losing Jeremiah Wood hurt this team more than we'll ever know! Bubba transfered due to a lack of playing time, but he provided depth off of the bench as a quality sub for Dials and Joyce. Jimmy Conyers is supposed to be an incredible athlete who can create his own shot whenever he desires. Him being ineligible also cost us this year. Our depth concerns me. I believe KD is getting as much out of this team as anyone possibly could, but I do not think we have enough juice to sustain it down the stretch; to kick it into a so-called "5th gear", let alone win 3 games in a row in Cleveland. I just think we'll be too tired. Hopefully I'm wrong!!! I'm gonna be cheering my lungs out! I'm just being truthfully-critical and honest with this post. But I'm no expert! Go Zips!!!

I think you are on the right track with this observation. Bubba leaving hurt a bit. It has given Middleton a chance to shine, but it cost a some depth.Bubba's departure would hardly have been felt if Peterson were healthy. He's not.Wood's loss really has hurt our interior toughness.Conyers was banked upon to be the guy to open up some spacing and create. Wood, Bubba, Conyers and Peterson are three guys we banked on to get serious minutes this year. Instead we're getting about 10 minutes combined....all from DP...and that's on a "good" day.That said, we have 16 wins, and 20 looks like a mortal lock. We play hard and smart every night and have some great weapons. I love our chances at home, and I love our chances on a neutral court. Thus I think we stand as good a chance as anyone to win the MACC in Cleveland.If we are to stand a chance of winning an NCAA/NIT tourney game, Linhart is going to have to get out of his "funk" and get his confidence back. And, Romeo is going to have to bang underneath and not hang out at the 3-point line.

[bigzipguy]

Make the sacrifice and get Mraz some time. It will result in fresher guards.

[GP1]

I, too, am concerned.Driving away from Cant State the loss freshly on my mind it occurred to me that KD(whom I love and admire) missed a great window of opportunity.Last spring when the coaching staff was first alerted to Bubba Walther's unhappinessand desire to move on they missed a golden opportunity. They dug in and convincedyoung, dare I say immature, Walther to stay in the program. In retrospect it seemsthat giving him his release at that time would have been best for all parties.Ohio U gets to fork over a scholarship year for a player they cannot use and never willget much out of. Akron frees up a scholarship that could have been used to procurea JUCO player with a greater skill inventory than Bubba has. The guard situationwould be much brighter for us today. Hopefully Coach D remembers this in the future.While Coach does not like to bring in JUCO players this situation warranted one.Since we cannot change the past let us address the near term future. The Zips badlyneed a floor leader. Last season Romeo held that role. This season opponents havetaken to boxing him and covering him. Neither Linhart or Preston have picked upthe mantle in the paint. One or the other must take it upon himself to shoulderenough of the load that opponents can not afford to double Travis.The three guards have been admirable in their relentless pressure on opponents. Wecannot live and die by the three. To win the ball must go inside.Thus, to me, our near term future depends on either Linhart or Preston getting toughin the middle. This means just that. Hard nosed play in the paint. Rob loves toplay the swing man and he has a great three point shot. But, he needs to give us someminutes of hard nose banging inside. Nate needs to forget he is a freshman. Afterall, he now has twenty college games under his belt. Nate play power forward moreand swing man less. Bang inside. Take the lumps. and when Nate needs a blow putRybak in. Let John get more floor time. He needs it and so do the Zips.Matt Futch, got to love him, plays like a bull in a china shop. He plays his heart out.Could he be a positive factor down the stretch? I am inclined to let Matt play just as hehas been. Staying out of trouble enough to give enough floor minutes to rest the others.I hate losing to Cant.AK-Rowdies ... you kids did my heart proud. Love you all.

Really good post. I don't know much about basketball, but I do think I know a little about athletic talent and effort. KD is getting 100% effort out of the players he has. I think the second half problems (in games) are a result of teams making adjustments to our game plan and picking up their tempo. Akron is a team that is difficult to out coach and out effort on game day. I do think they are an easy team to out athlete. Linhart had difficulty Saturday because he is slow and each time he tried to make a move, a Can't defender was able to defend against him using superior athletic ability. I don't want to single out Linhart though because they were doing it to every player on our team on both ends of the floor. When Can't decided to pick up their tempo, Akron did not have the athletic talent to respond.If Akron does lack athletic talent, it will make the second half of the season much more difficult because everyone will have figured out how to beat Akron using quickness. Athletic talent is not something you can coach, most are born with it and you either have it or you don't.I think Akron will continue to do well though because the overall talent in the MAC is declining rapidly (in football also). I still believe Akron is a MAC semi-final team at least. After that, their athletic talent is going to hurt them, but maybe not doom them. There are still a lot of games between now and then though.

[mrelegazna]

Great posts, everyone. As far as Zip37's doubts about making the NCAA's as an at-large, I still think it's possible, but it'll be an incredibly tall order. I don't think they can exclude a 6-loss Akron team, but they can (and IMO, will) exclude a 7-loss Akron team. If I'm right, it means, of course, that Akron must win out...and then they can "afford" to lose in the MAC tourney. But I don't think they are going to win @ Nevada (are we getting a game time for that any time soon, BTW?). Losing even one more regular season game means they gotta win the MAC tourney, although a 7-loss team should at least get the Zips a hard look. @ Miami and home to Can't will be toughies too. On the bright side, they can lose all three of those games and get bounced from the MAC tourney and still probably snag an NIT bid. Maybe even one more loss besides (ten total) might be good enough. So if just making it to some kind of postseason is the goal, they pretty much just have to hold serve and avoid a big slump.I pretty much agree with everyone's points. I do think Joyce, Middleton and Dials are athletic enough, they're just stretched very thin, as is RT. Futch and Linhart both need to amp it a bit and work on creating good shots for themselves. Preston needs to stay out of foul trouble. I would also like to see what Mraz can do...he's gotta be pretty cohesive with Joyce, Travis and KD himself, right? So with the Zips being very good but very thin, this trip to Reno is not exactly what the Doctor ordered. I think what we all are trying to say here is, this team still has a shot at glory (the NCAA's), but they gotta dig deep.

[Valpo Zip]

Other than Mraz, how about the other guys ?Why doesn't KD (which i love and respect) give any chance to Zach Sowers and Nick Goddard ? John Rybak ... Why are they on the team if they cannot contribute and give their teammates a blow ?By the way, do you guys agree with me that Quade Milum SUCKS !!!! ?The whole last year i kept telling myself that he is only a freshman and that he will get better but now he is towards the end of his so. yr and he still seems to be clueless everytime he is on the court ... what the heck ! Is KD a great coach but a bad recruiter ? I hope not.

[RACER]

kd has done a hell of a job considering all the injuries and other issues the team has had. peterson of a few years ago was the 1 or 2 scoring option for this team. not having him at 100% kills the us as far as us scoring points. we have not had jw for about two years now; which does not leave any depth in the front court. if we can make the either the ncaa and nit would be a credit to kd.if we had those two guys this team the games like Can't and clemson might have been different.

[zipfan 81]

I agree skhorbotly, why is Milum in there not doing anything? I think KD keeps giving him a chance but nothing is happening... because he is a big man. He started using Mraz and then last couple of games, nothing.... what exactly are you supposed to do in a game for 2 minutes anyway? From what I saw Mraz had a steal and 2 free throws when I saw him, how terrible! And all that in 2 minutes...And he put Goddard in with 5 seconds left in Ohio game to shoot a 3 to tie the game. Helloooo? How do you come off a bench and shoot a three, it is kinda hard. It shows KD has some confidence in him, but 5 seconds?And then Sowers goes 4 for 4 on threes in Dennison game (granted not the best game) but still shows he can do it.. and then nothing....