Dave in Green Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 We started drifting in the Can't game thread onto the subject of how they team will change next season with the loss of the Serb at power forward. Since more than one person is interested in discussing what the Zips lineup will look like next season, let's do it here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 I think Treadwell, with a year of experience under his belt, getting more starter-type minutes in place of Nik might be about the only significant thing that changes from what you see right now. The biggest concern would be, we could get pretty weak in the paint in those games where Zeke gets in foul trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jalapeño Zippy Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 Thanks DiG This was my post in the Can't State thread: With the growth of Q at PG this year and Betancourt coming in and Deji's talents still on the bench...how many players are we going to redshirt next season? Betancourt, McAdams and Kretzner? Should we redshirt Deji to get some separation between Deji, Walsh and Gilliam? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CincyZip Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 How will Justice fit next season? Kid can knock down the three. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Let'sGoZips94 Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 These are amazing problems to have. Haha. GO ZIPS! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave in Green Posted January 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 It's my understanding that Betancourt will arrive next season with at least the same PG skill set if not better than Rico had when he arrived last year. Betancourt is the only other player other than Rico who is a pure PG. Deji was recruited as a wing guard who was also able to play a little PG. His redshirt was burned after Rico's knee acted up and Walsh was unable to backup Rico at the point due to a minor injury of his own. In the meantime, Rico's knee was operated on and fixed, and Q took over backup point duties. That moved Deji back to wing guard, where he's stuck in the depth charts behind other, more experienced Zips wing guards. The Zips are deep in wing players. Assuming that everyone but the Serb and Nitro is back next season, the Zips will have 7 returning players who've proven they can average quality double-digit playing minutes. If the Zips continue to play 9 deep next season, there would be available PT for just 2 more players. If the Zips were to go 10 deep next year, then 3 players might replace minutes played by the Serb and Nitro. As of now there would be 6 players going after those 2 or 3 available playing spots -- Egner, Deji, Justice, Betancourt, McAdams and Kretzer. Egner and Deji have the advantage of already having PT. Justice will be coming off his redshirt season. Betancourt, McAdams and Kretzer will be true freshman. All 3 of the true freshman appear to be very talented. This creates a unique problem for Zips basketball. The team continues to get deeper and deeper, and some good quality players are going to have problems breaking into the lineup. It will be interesting to see who's up for the challenge, and what all of that talent will do for the Zips' record next season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zip Watcher Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 Is it a problem or an opportunity? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quickzips Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 I have absolutely no clue why we are discussing this in the middle of the conference season while we are leading the East division and looking as strong as we are, but here goes. We lose 2 players at the end of the season. Nikola and Nitro. We bring in three new guys. Betancourt, Kretzer and McAdams. Question 1: Who replaces Nik's minutes? The obvious answer is Tree. He is built more like a PF than Harney who is more of a combo forward and quite frankly he is more talented than Egner. I wouldn't be at all surprised however to see KD start Egner but give Harney and Tree the majority of the minutes off of the bench in an attempt to keep the bench brigade that we have going this year together. Question 2: Who replaces Nitro's minutes? There are at least three answers here. Deji, Justice and McAdams are the obvious choices. Deji has the tools to be a lock down defender on the perimeter, and will be the only one of the three who has seen minutes at the D-I level. Justice's skill set probably most closely mirrors that of McClanahan in that he can knock down the 3, plus he will at least have had a year in the program. McAdams is the wild card. By all accounts he has a lot of talent, can hit the three and he has a size advantage over the other two, but we have no idea how any of that will translate to the D-I level. For now pencil me in for Deji because of his experience (albeit limited) and because we all know how much KD loves guys who can defend. Question 3: Who do we redshirt? In my mind you have to play Betancourt if he is at all capable of handling minutes at this level. Q has done a nice job of handling the point when Alex is out, but I feel like it keeps him handcuffed a bit. If Betancourt is ready KD really needs to do everything he can to carve out 10-14 minutes per night for him. Kretzer in my mind is an easy call. We have plenty of 6'5" - 6'7" wing forwards who can step out and shoot the 3 on this years roster. Unless his performance in practices just absolutely demands that he see playing time you redshirt him. McAdams is the toughest call for me. Again, by all accounts he has the talent to play from day one, but whose minutes do you cut to make room for him? Diggs? Gilliam? Walsh? Harney? Unless he takes control of the minutes vacated by Nitro, I think you have to at least consider putting the redshirt on him. My prediction is a 10 man rotation: Starters: PG - Abreu SG - Walsh SF - Gilliam PF - Egner C - Zeke Rotation: PG - Betancourt SG - Deji SG/SF - Diggs SF/PF - Harney PF - Tree Redshirts: Kretzer McAdams Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajgareri Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 Would love to see the starters be Abreu, Diggs, Harney, Treadwell, and Zeke. But I highly doubt it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjackson123 Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 I have absolutely no clue why we are discussing this in the middle of the conference season while we are leading the East division and looking as strong as we are, but here goes. We lose 2 players at the end of the season. Nikola and Nitro. We bring in three new guys. Betancourt, Kretzer and McAdams. Question 1: Who replaces Nik's minutes? The obvious answer is Tree. He is built more like a PF than Harney who is more of a combo forward and quite frankly he is more talented than Egner. I wouldn't be at all surprised however to see KD start Egner but give Harney and Tree the majority of the minutes off of the bench in an attempt to keep the bench brigade that we have going this year together. Question 2: Who replaces Nitro's minutes? There are at least three answers here. Deji, Justice and McAdams are the obvious choices. Deji has the tools to be a lock down defender on the perimeter, and will be the only one of the three who has seen minutes at the D-I level. Justice's skill set probably most closely mirrors that of McClanahan in that he can knock down the 3, plus he will at least have had a year in the program. McAdams is the wild card. By all accounts he has a lot of talent, can hit the three and he has a size advantage over the other two, but we have no idea how any of that will translate to the D-I level. For now pencil me in for Deji because of his experience (albeit limited) and because we all know how much KD loves guys who can defend. Question 3: Who do we redshirt? In my mind you have to play Betancourt if he is at all capable of handling minutes at this level. Q has done a nice job of handling the point when Alex is out, but I feel like it keeps him handcuffed a bit. If Betancourt is ready KD really needs to do everything he can to carve out 10-14 minutes per night for him. Kretzer in my mind is an easy call. We have plenty of 6'5" - 6'7" wing forwards who can step out and shoot the 3 on this years roster. Unless his performance in practices just absolutely demands that he see playing time you redshirt him. McAdams is the toughest call for me. Again, by all accounts he has the talent to play from day one, but whose minutes do you cut to make room for him? Diggs? Gilliam? Walsh? Harney? Unless he takes control of the minutes vacated by Nitro, I think you have to at least consider putting the redshirt on him. My prediction is a 10 man rotation: Starters: PG - Abreu SG - Walsh SF - Gilliam PF - Egner C - Zeke Rotation: PG - Betancourt SG - Deji SG/SF - Diggs SF/PF - Harney PF - Tree Redshirts: Kretzer McAdams At the rate both are going, if they stay healthy and out of trouble, I see no way that at least one of Harney/Q does not start and play 32 min/game next year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave in Green Posted January 24, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2012 @Quickzips, most of the basketball posts on ZN.o are about the present, as they should be. There's also a lot of reminiscing about the past, which is fine. Why not include a little discussion of the future from time to time? Nice work on your 10-player rotation. One assumption there is that Egner shows more progress. He obviously hasn't played many minutes this season, and his back has kept him completely out of recent games. Hope to see him play at least a few minutes against Ball State, rack up some minutes against the weaker MAC West teams and work himself back in to the rotation. For next season, a stronger, more polished Egner plus a more experienced and improved Tree would go a long way toward helping make up for the loss of the Serb in the frontcourt. The Zips are loaded with wings, but a little thin at the 4/5 position. I agree with you that McAdams and Kretzer would have to be awfully good to stand a chance of taking time from the veterans as true freshmen, and that they're most likely to redshirt. I also agree that Justice has a tough challenge ahead. As great a 3-point shooter as he was in HS, earning PT away from Walsh (50%+ 3-point shooter) and Deji (slasher and defender) is going to require a high level of performance. By the way, I just happened across a YouTube video of Egner that's been up since March, but which I hadn't seen before. It gives a hint of what he's capable of doing, which we haven't yet seen under game conditions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FearTheRoo Posted January 25, 2012 Report Share Posted January 25, 2012 We lose 2 players at the end of the season. What about Petersen??! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zip Watcher Posted January 25, 2012 Report Share Posted January 25, 2012 What about Petersen??! Last I heard, dude is going to Med school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FearTheRoo Posted January 25, 2012 Report Share Posted January 25, 2012 Last I heard, dude is going to Med school. Future team doctor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Hagen Posted January 25, 2012 Report Share Posted January 25, 2012 The way this year's team is shaping up, I think part of the lineup could look like this: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue & Gold Posted January 26, 2012 Report Share Posted January 26, 2012 I'm still disappointed that this year's recruiting class didn't have a post player to help ease the loss of Nic. Last season we were all crossing our fingers Nic would return for another year because we all knew how sparse our numbers were in the post. Nic's return gave us an additional year to bolster our frontcourt through recruiting and we failed to do so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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