New Starting Lineup

[Staton14]

Coach D is changing up the lineup, at least for today. Its Betancourt, Ibitayo, McAdams, Treadwell, and Forsythe... I don't understand the reasoning for it. Especially starting Deji. But I guess we'll see how it goes.

[Derrt]

So to cater to tree, they take Q starting position away. Way to go KD.

[akronzips71]

So to cater to tree, they take Q starting position away. Way to go KD.

What is up with Tree?

It looks like he is there physically but not mentally.

[akzipper]

Zips had a decent first half. Evans is especially playing very well.

Streaming service seems like very good quality. Although my internet connection isn't the best so I spend more time waiting for it to buffer.

Getting a bit annoyed by Al Pawlowski, but that seems to happen with most biased opposing announcers.

[zippy5]

Regarding the lineup changes... Seems to have worked.

[Derrt]

Regarding the lineup changes... Seems to have worked.

How so? Production was low with that set of starters.

[akronzips71]

Zips had a decent first half. Evans is especially playing very well.

Streaming service seems like very good quality. Although my internet connection isn't the best so I spend more time waiting for it to buffer.

Getting a bit annoyed by Al Pawlowski, but that seems to happen with most biased opposing announcers.

Listen to the feed on Sportsradio1350.com

Frenchie is actually in synch.

[zippy5]

How so? Production was low with that set of starters.

Maybe some guys are better coming off the bench. This is the best we've looked.

[Derrt]

Maybe some guys are better coming off the bench. This is the best we've looked.

Maybe so. Starters came out better this second half I'll say.

[zippy5]

I don't think being a "starter" means much in KD's system anyway though.

[zippy5]

Looking great today. Shame CSU didn't hold on against UK. Almost beating them doesn't help our RPI.

[MDZip]

Maybe we should take three weeks off between every game. Team looked good and Cleveland St is no slouch. Beating them at their place is a good win.

[legendofzippy]

Maybe we should take three weeks off between every game. Team looked good and Cleveland St is no slouch. Beating them at their place is a good win.

Lol. Agree, it is a nice win. Maybe everyone here can stop crapping themselves now. Long way to go.

[Dave in Green]

What a fun day in Cleveland. I was worried about this game the way the Zips had been playing and the way CSU looked when I watched them on TV give Kentucky a scare. The new lineup worked really well. Deji and Melo may have started, but they only played 10 minutes each in the whole game. Q, who didn't start, played second longest minutes (28) and was running the show over the critical last 5 minutes. The Zips had fewer turnovers than their average, but more importantly had more assists than turnovers. Q did a nice job with 7 assists and only 3 turnovers, and Nyles finally started knocking down open 3s. I expect to see more lineup experimentation in the next 3 home games as they search for the optimum rotation. This team is still searching for its identity, but it made a good step forward today.

[Quickzips]

I said in the offseason that Q should be coming off the bench. The guy won 6th man of the year his last season with the Zips for a reason. He is most effective in that role. That is what we need right now. We don't need to necessarily start our best players. We need to put every player in the best position for their game. Good win for the Zips. Time to get back on track and put together a nice little winning streak going into Hawaii.

[LZIp]

Don't really understand the reasoning on naming somebody a starter and playing them ~10 minutes (not that I disagree with the amount of playing time). Point is we know Betancourt and Deji are probably not starters and their playing time suggests it, so why start them?

[Staton14]

Don't really understand the reasoning on naming somebody a starter and playing them ~10 minutes (not that I disagree with the amount of playing time). Point is we know Betancourt and Deji are probably not starters and their playing time suggests it, so why start them?

Thats exactly how I feel but whatever works to get a win is fine with me. Haha

[johnnyzip84]

Thats exactly how I feel but whatever works to get a win is fine with me. Haha

It is somewhat puzzling. Maybe KD was looking to exploit certain matchups during the 1st round of substitutions? Whatever the case, I am glad he's making those decisions

[Hilltopper]

I think KD feels his best chance a getting production from Melo And Deji is by having them in the starting lineup. Melo did'didn't do much but Deji had a nice game. They are both decent defenders and Deji can hit an open shot. I agree with JZ in that the main advantage might be that when we start to see substitutions is where the Zips real strategy shows. Quincy, Jake and Nyles are good enough to be starters on any team. Deji was also in the game at the end and performed well including blocking a 3 point attempt after CSU had closed the gap to 8 pts..

Today's story by GT is very telling. KD has been riding Evans very hard in the last few weeks of practice. Lets hope what we saw yesterday from Nyles is a sign of more good things to come. If he can start to hit those threes it will really help.

As important as the game was to the Zips’ attitude and fortunes overall, it may have been more so for Evans, who has struggled during his past three games.

The effort might have come with a little prodding. Dambrot said, half jokingly, that Evans came close to quitting the team.

“Coach has been on me a lot this week,” Evans said. “We haven’t played a game in so long; I was just getting more comfortable every day coming to practice. My teammates have been behind me. I knew I could play, it was just about adjusting to the game as much as possible.”

Harney said that this is what they expected from Evans. Dambrot agreed and said that if this is Evans’ breakthrough game, it’s a milestone.

“It’s important now because when you take [Alex] Abreu out of the mix, at least you’ve got a point guard who can shoot the ball which is important and a good mix with Carmelo Betancourt,” he said.

A final note, Alex Abreau was in attendance at the game. He was warmly greeted by many fans and supporters. I hope he is getting his life back on track.

[Quickzips]

Don't really understand the reasoning on naming somebody a starter and playing them ~10 minutes (not that I disagree with the amount of playing time). Point is we know Betancourt and Deji are probably not starters and their playing time suggests it, so why start them?

It isn't always in the teams best interest to start the 5 best guys. Sometimes you need to move 1 or 2 of your best players to the bench to give your second unit a boost. Other guys just play better coming off the bench. They need to see the game unfolding a little bit from the sideline before they come in. Q is a perfect example, and it looks like Nyles may be in the same boat. It helps the team to let these guys sit and watch the first few minutes of the game. If that means Melo and Deji need to start then so be it.

[Dave in Green]

I just went to ESPN and clicked on a few dozen college basketball box scores from last night. In a surprising number of them, one or both teams had at least one starter who played less than 20 minutes and at least one non-starter who played more than 20 minutes, and it wasn't due to a starter being in foul trouble. This is not as uncommon as might be assumed. Especially in the early stages of the season, coaches juggle lineups to find the best combinations of players to have on court at various stages of the game. Some of the various combinations we'll see from the Zips may not stick. But they need to be tried in order to measure results.

Looking at just one player, Deji earned another look by virtue of his nice performance in the Malone exhibition game. The knock against Deji has been that he hasn't been able to perform like that against a good D1 team. But Deji responded to being a starter by having perhaps his best game against a D1 opponent. He was not embarrassed going up against CSU's athletic players. He looked as if he belonged on the floor, knocking down 3 of 4 shots and getting a key defensive shot block in crunch time as @Hilltopper mentioned. Deji showed in this game that he can be a contributor, and that's important for the Zips' depth at guard.

[Zipmeister]

I just went to ESPN and clicked on a few dozen college basketball box scores from last night. In a surprising number of them, one or both teams had at least one starter who played less than 20 minutes and at least one non-starter who played more than 20 minutes, and it wasn't due to a starter being in foul trouble. This is not as uncommon as might be assumed. Especially in the early stages of the season, coaches juggle lineups to find the best combinations of players to have on court at various stages of the game. Some of the various combinations we'll see from the Zips may not stick. But they need to be tried in order to measure results.

Looking at just one player, Deji earned another look by virtue of his nice performance in the Malone exhibition game. The knock against Deji has been that he hasn't been able to perform like that against a good D1 team. But Deji responded to being a starter by having perhaps his best game against a D1 opponent. He was not embarrassed going up against CSU's athletic players. He looked as if he belonged on the floor, knocking down 3 of 4 shots and getting a key defensive shot block in crunch time as @Hilltopper mentioned. Deji showed in this game that he can be a contributor, and that's important for the Zips' depth at guard.

Do you have stats on this for the last five years so we can determine if there is a trend?

[MDZip]

Sometimes it can be because a guy put in the work in practice, sometimes it can be to send a message, sometimes the coach is experimenting with lineups. As long as it works we're happy. Glad to hear Alex was at the game, that has to be awfully hard for him. He made a huge mistake, he paid the price and hopefully that means he intends to try to finish up since he didn't just go into hiding. Good for him.

[Dave in Green]

Do you have stats on this for the last five years so we can determine if there is a trend?

No, but I'd estimate the trend is similar to the five-year trend of @Zipmeister post content, i.e. pretty flat.