Zips VS Detroit

[thunder44]

Zips win by 12 while the serb scores 15 and grabs 10 boards!!

[johnnyzip84]

Zips are 5 to 5.5 point favorites. This seems to reflect the Abreu suspension/injury. The Titans have struggled somewhat in the early going without Holman's presence underneath, but the Zips can't afford to take anyone lightly at this point.

[eguins]

Zips are 5 to 5.5 point favorites. This seems to reflect the Abreu suspension/injury. The Titans have struggled somewhat in the early going without Holman's presence underneath, but the Zips can't afford to take anyone lightly at this point.

Their other big man Minnerath is out for the year. They were the pre-season HL favorites and may now finish in the bottom of the HL.

If Akron loses this one, shame on them. Zips by a dozen.

[The Hip Zip]

Akron 82

Det 69

[Derrt]

Great first half. I like Ibitayo's game so far

[Zipmeister]

Sooner or later Detroit is going to win an away game; probably later.

[Quickzips]

Just back from the game. Not a spectacular performance from the Zips, but a good way to start righting the ship. Q did a decent job filling in at PG, although you could tell he was a bit frustrated having to take more of the role of initiator and defender as opposed to attacking and looking to score all the time. Harney came up big in the second half. The chemistry he seems to already have with Tree on those interior passes is pretty impressive. I thought Zeke had another pretty solid game. He is starting to get more comfortable with the ball in his hands, and he played some good defense as well. Deji was a pleasent surprise. He made a couple of freshman plays (most notably the late TO), but he also made a couple of plays that you don't usually see a 6'3" freshman guard make (blocking an easy layup attempt late in the first half). I thought Deji and Q played great D on McCallum. For a guy who is supposed to be one of the best PG's in the country he did not look good at all. I don't even know if he was the 2nd or 3rd best player on his team.

Bring on the Mountaineers.

[johnnyzip84]

Just back from the game. Not a spectacular performance from the Zips, but a good way to start righting the ship. Q did a decent job filling in at PG, although you could tell he was a bit frustrated having to take more of the role of initiator and defender as opposed to attacking and looking to score all the time. Harney came up big in the second half. The chemistry he seems to already have with Tree on those interior passes is pretty impressive. I thought Zeke had another pretty solid game. He is starting to get more comfortable with the ball in his hands, and he played some good defense as well. Deji was a pleasent surprise. He made a couple of freshman plays (most notably the late TO), but he also made a couple of plays that you don't usually see a 6'3" freshman guard make (blocking an easy layup attempt late in the first half). I thought Deji and Q played great D on McCallum. For a guy who is supposed to be one of the best PG's in the country he did not look good at all. I don't even know if he was the 2nd or 3rd best player on his team.

Bring on the Mountaineers.

No doubt Tree and Harney are always looking for one another out there. Another impressive thing to me was Tree's defense. The big man was really moving his feet out there tonight! If he puts that kind of effort into every game, his ceiling is pretty high.

[Dave in Green]

Several things stood out for me:

Tree to Harney. If the Zips football team had a passing combination this good, they could have won the MAC. Those two have obviously spent long hours in the gym together. They are going to be an awesome duo for the next 4 years. Harney will get most of the accolades for his soaring and scoring. But Tree's passing is absolutely brilliant. He can wing accurate cross-court bullet passes as well as Rico. He's that rarity of a power forward who can handle the ball.

Deji is the real deal. Yes, he made some freshman mistakes. But one 30-second sequence left me in awe. Ray McCallum Jr. is considered a potential NBA talent. At one point, McCallum tried to go one-on-one with true freshman Deji in only his second college game. For 30 seconds, McCallum made move after move to try to get around Deji, and Deji was always between him and the basket. McCallum seemed to lose track of time, and finally had to dump to a teammate who threw up a prayer as the shot clock went off. Deji is destined to become D.J. Cooper's worst nightmare. Deji is going to be a nightmare for every MAC PG for the next 4 years. Deji is a more than adequate backup for Rico. It's going to be hard to keep him off the court.

Walsh is an OK backup PG and a great SG. He has a beautiful stroke from any range, and he can make his own space to get those shots off. The situation with Rico that resulted in burning Deji's redshirt may have been a brilliant stroke of luck. With Deji as the backup PG, Walsh will become an even greater contributor to this team.

With Deji now in the mix, the Zips have a lot of players who all deserve PT. There's no question now that they are a legitimate 11-deep team. All of these guys can contribute something, and when they are all contributing, they can keep subbing and run another team into the ground. They did run Detroit into the ground tonight. The Detroit players were totally out of gas at the end. Of course, they're only 8-deep due to injuries and suspensions. But even with a couple of more players, they would have been breathing hard.

Detroit is loaded with the kind of quick, athletic players that used to run the Zips out of the arena. Not this Zips team. Not by a longshot. This is my kind of team. A bunch of running, passing, jumping, shooting athletes. Many of them are still pretty raw. But they still have the ability to take down teams that previous Zips teams couldn't hang with.

Anyone who doesn't have a season ticket to all the home games is really missing something special. These guys are really entertaining to watch, and by the end of the season they could be among the top teams in the country. They really do have that potential in spite of those two painful losses in Valparaiso. I don't think they will be embarassed in West Virginia.

EDIT: Just noticed in the stats that even without Rico playing, 10 Zips players played 9 or more minutes. With Rico, they truly are an 11-deep team.

[akronzips71]

I noticed that Zeke has become AGGRESSIVE. It is about time he started to look like the future NBA prospect that he is. I especially liked the fact that he took the ball to the basket against a guy his own size and won!

AA better be careful that he does not fall victim to the Wally Pipp syndrome (Google Wally Pipp if you don't know what I mean). That freshman has huge potential. When he drained that long three it was amazing, and he was all over the place. He also has inside skills, and they will come out. Hey, this was his first real playing time in Div I, and he made some rookie mistakes. Expect him to challenge DJ Cooper for WOW factor very soon.

This is a VERY athletic, and very tall team. Those two losses were a damn shame. Tonight we blew out a Div I team.

[plowerman78]

Deji's 6'3 frame will give Cooper some trouble. Kinda funny moment in the ROWDIES section tonight, someone goes we dont have any guards on the floor. My response was yes we do, Deji is out there, were just not used to seeing one over the height of 5'10.

[Doug Snyder]

I noticed that Zeke has become AGGRESSIVE. It is about time he started to look like the future NBA prospect that he is. I especially liked the fact that he took the ball to the basket against a guy his own size and won!

AA better be careful that he does not fall victim to the Wally Pipp syndrome (Google Wally Pipp if you don't know what I mean). That freshman has huge potential. When he drained that long three it was amazing, and he was all over the place. He also has inside skills, and they will come out. Hey, this was his first real playing time in Div I, and he made some rookie mistakes. Expect him to challenge DJ Cooper for WOW factor very soon.

This is a VERY athletic, and very tall team. Those two losses were a damn shame. Tonight we blew out a Div I team.

I may be in the minority....but I think AA would be better as the back-up PG. That won't happen anytime soon as DI is not ready. But DI is a very good defender. In any case...I can see lots of different matchups this season. But I always want one of Nitro or Walsh on the floor at all times. I also like the chemistry between Tree and Harney...when Tree plays I think Harney should be on the floor too. Harney will get many more minutes than Tree at this stage,...I think he has the highest ceiling of any player we have. Both Tree and Harney need to put in more work if they want to be elite players. I think both will.

I really like the potenial of this team. But I fear there will be times when look out of sync and awful as they develop.

[skip-zip]

I know we won't continue to see Quincy and Gilliam starting together in the backcourt. But in this particular game, it really worked for two reasons.

1) We had two guys who were a threat to get all the way to the rim against a quick, athletic team.

2) We had guys who could really frustrate and wear down a guard like McCallum

Lets hope that lineup works again on Monday.

[lumberjack]

Deji's 6'3 frame will give Cooper some trouble. Kinda funny moment in the ROWDIES section tonight, someone goes we dont have any guards on the floor. My response was yes we do, Deji is out there, were just not used to seeing one over the height of 5'10.

I’m surprised that there has been no mention of Chauncey Gilliam in the game last night against Detroit. There is so much more that the zips have not seen of this kid. He is the real deal with a low turnover rate and just being spectacular at the small things. This team has him playing in my opinion in the wrong position for he is not a forward but a true shooting guard who can set up his team on weak side because of his explosiveness require defenders to respect his strength and quickness. I don’t know if the team realizes what they have in him yet. He is a proven player in college with exceptional numbers that can’t be ignored. Not taking anything away from Nitro or Walsh who are very good players but if the zips plan to win big games by a decent margin they better have Chauncey on the floor (case in point Valpo and Duquesne). His presence on the floor brings intensity with electrifying raw athleticism that will make all players better and other players feed off that energy.

Being at the game last night I saw something that was very disturbing and that was a sense of selfishness on the offensive end of the court. The young players seemed to be more self offensive minded that will come back to hurt them when they face a very disciplined team. Also I saw players playing out of their skill set but managed to survive with a big win despite that fact. These are items that should be addressed by KD and should make this key priority so the team can gel as” we not I”.

Overall I was pleased with the team but see that there is much improvement needed if they plan to win the MAC. The team is deep and has the potential to play deep from its bench that is probably their biggest asset. There are many more games to be played and making evaluations of what payer should be where at what time is way to premature. I’ve played and coach a long time and game proven experience on the collegiate level wins games. Scoring, one on one play, and lock down defense from one or two men on the floor is secondary when it comes to winning and closing out big games.

[Quickzips]

I noticed that Zeke has become AGGRESSIVE. It is about time he started to look like the future NBA prospect that he is. I especially liked the fact that he took the ball to the basket against a guy his own size and won!

Zeke is slowly starting to put it all together. The big final step for him is going to be learning how to consistently stay out of foul trouble. He did it last night, but he has still fouled out of 2 of our 5 games this year. Can't grow as a player and contribute to this team when you are regularly saddled to the bench with foul trouble. He is still not the kind of player you can run an offense through, and he may never be. But you can now run plays for him and not have to worry as much that a quick double team or a little bit of physical post defense is going to result in a turnover. I also liked the way he went after the boards last night. He was fighting for interior position and using his length effectively last night, which is something we haven't seen from him a lot. I think a lot of it has to do with his frame starting to fill in. He's still pretty skinny, but the muscle definition is starting to show. It isn't going to be nearly as easy for those big wide-bodies to push him around in the post this year.

[Blue & Gold]

Deji's 6'3 frame will give Cooper some trouble. Kinda funny moment in the ROWDIES section tonight, someone goes we dont have any guards on the floor. My response was yes we do, Deji is out there, were just not used to seeing one over the height of 5'10.

I'm surprised that there has been no mention of Chauncey Gilliam in the game last night against Detroit. There is so much more that the zips have not seen of this kid. He is the real deal with a low turnover rate and just being spectacular at the small things. This team has him playing in my opinion in the wrong position for he is not a forward but a true shooting guard who can set up his team on weak side because of his explosiveness require defenders to respect his strength and quickness. I don't know if the team realizes what they have in him yet. He is a proven player in college with exceptional numbers that can't be ignored. Not taking anything away from Nitro or Walsh who are very good players but if the zips plan to win big games by a decent margin they better have Chauncey on the floor (case in point Valpo and Duquesne). His presence on the floor brings intensity with electrifying raw athleticism that will make all players better and other players feed off that energy.

Being at the game last night I saw something that was very disturbing and that was a sense of selfishness on the offensive end of the court. The young players seemed to be more self offensive minded that will come back to hurt them when they face a very disciplined team. Also I saw players playing out of their skill set but managed to survive with a big win despite that fact. These are items that should be addressed by KD and should make this key priority so the team can gel as" we not I".

Overall I was pleased with the team but see that there is much improvement needed if they plan to win the MAC. The team is deep and has the potential to play deep from its bench that is probably their biggest asset. There are many more games to be played and making evaluations of what payer should be where at what time is way to premature. I've played and coach a long time and game proven experience on the collegiate level wins games. Scoring, one on one play, and lock down defense from one or two men on the floor is secondary when it comes to winning and closing out big games.

You obviously are a good observer/analyst of the game. The only caveat I'd add is that with the Zips' offense there isn't much of a difference (maybe none?) between the traditional 2 & 3; shooting guard & small forward. In the Zips' offense the 2 & 3 are usually just considered wing players, or swingmen - kind of like the Miami Heat w/ LeBron & D-Wade. So, while the Zips media guide may list Chauncey as a forward, he's a wing forward, or wing guard, or whatever. Semantics.

I don't think Chauncey's gotten real comfortable out there yet. When he does he very likely may be our leading scorer. And, yes, I also much prefer seeing him on the court as opposed to McClanahan. Brett just makes me nervous out there.

[Dave in Green]

Right. I've heard it directly from the Zips coaching staff that they consider the wing forward and wing guard to be virtually interchangeable in the Zips system. It doesn't really matter if they're listed as guard or forward.

As for the idea of the Zips not really knowing what they have in Gilliam yet, that's true of all the players who've only played a few games for the Zips so far. KD has a reputation for rewarding players who play hard and do well in practice with game PT. It's possible that Gilliam may not be showing all he's got in practice. But everyone who's seen some of his moves knows that he has the talent to be a strong contributor to the team. Let's see where Gilliam is in the rotation after another 10 games or so.

[Dave in Green]

I believe this may have been the first game of his career where Zeke had the most minutes played of any Zips player. The 29 minutes he played was 2 minutes less than the 31 he played against Duquesne. But the PT for the other players was so spread around that Zeke ended up with the most.

Averaging 30 minutes per game over the last two games shows what Zeke is capable of doing when he's not in foul trouble. He appears to be in great physical condition. It would be spectacular if Zeke could average 30 minutes per game for the rest of the season.

Zeke is not only more aggressive on the floor this season, he's also more assertive on the bench. At one point early in the game when Zeke was resting on the bench, he jumped up thinking he was going back in the game. KD appeared to tell him to sit back down and rest a little more, and Zeke appeared to be arguing with KD about wanting to go back in. Zeke finally sat down but didn't appear happy. When he did get back in, he took his unhappiness out on Detroit.

This is a much different Zips team from any I've seen in the past in more ways than I can count. Even KD looks different on the sidelines. There appears to be less chewing out of players for mistakes and more words of encouragement, and players are not jerked out the minute they make a mistake. I think KD fully understands the potential of what this group of players can accomplish as a team, and he's adapting his coaching style to get the most out of them.

[GoZips]

Deji Ibitayo's wing span truly impressed me. At least twice he

picked off a Detroit pass and a rebound that looked to be out of his reach.

This young man is so talented it may be a blessing that Alex floundered.

Quincy performed well. He seemed to enjoy the challenge. I gave

him a big thumb's up as the team went in at half time. He immediately

grinned from ear to ear.

[Dave in Green]

@GoZips, Deji also blocked a shot and altered a couple of others with that 6-9 wingspan. It's really interesting to go back and read the original ZN.o thread about Deji and see what people were saying about him in his HS days, especially the post from Illinoisboy who said he had played against Deji and didn't think he was anything special.

Original Deji Thread

You also make a good point about Q. I was focusing mainly on the new players. But Q did a nice job of defending McCallum, and a good job of running the point. You could see that Q was not as comfortable playing the point as his normal wing position. But, given a few games, he could be pretty proficient there if needed.

When focusing on the new guys, we also tend to take players like the Serb for granted. He very quietly and efficiently put together a complete game of being top scorer, top assists man and tied with Zeke for top rebounder. Nitro had his 3-stroke back and had some good assists. The two seniors do provide some stability for the team, even if they are not overt leader types.

An often overlooked team stat is points in the paint. It was a good thing for Zips to overlook this stat in the past, because the Zips often trailed badly in this department.

Against Detroit, the Zips handily won the battle of points in the paint, 42-24 -- basically the margin of victory.

[akronzips71]

Deji has the potential to be a game changer. (Sorry Mom).

[akronzips71]

Deji's 6'3 frame will give Cooper some trouble. Kinda funny moment in the ROWDIES section tonight, someone goes we dont have any guards on the floor. My response was yes we do, Deji is out there, were just not used to seeing one over the height of 5'10.

Wait until next year we will have a 6'6 PG on the floor. Who happens to have been a major major top prospect.

[akzipper]

Deji's 6'3 frame will give Cooper some trouble. Kinda funny moment in the ROWDIES section tonight, someone goes we dont have any guards on the floor. My response was yes we do, Deji is out there, were just not used to seeing one over the height of 5'10.

Wait until next year we will have a 6'6 PG on the floor. Who happens to have been a major major top prospect.

What? The other puerto rican?

[Quickzips]

Deji's 6'3 frame will give Cooper some trouble. Kinda funny moment in the ROWDIES section tonight, someone goes we dont have any guards on the floor. My response was yes we do, Deji is out there, were just not used to seeing one over the height of 5'10.

Wait until next year we will have a 6'6 PG on the floor. Who happens to have been a major major top prospect.

What? The other puerto rican?

I believe he is referring to Reggie McAdams whom KD has already stated he plans to play on the wing.

[akronzips71]

Deji's 6'3 frame will give Cooper some trouble. Kinda funny moment in the ROWDIES section tonight, someone goes we dont have any guards on the floor. My response was yes we do, Deji is out there, were just not used to seeing one over the height of 5'10.

Wait until next year we will have a 6'6 PG on the floor. Who happens to have been a major major top prospect.

What? The other puerto rican?

I believe he is referring to Reggie McAdams whom KD has already stated he plans to play on the wing.

He can play him wherever he wants. In HS I believe he is a PG. And at 6'6 we are going to have a BIG team next year.