2014-2015

[UAZip0510]

Projected Roster

C-Johnson/Forsythe

F-Treadwell/Cheatham

F-Kretzer/McAdams/Aa. Jackson

G-Ibitayo/Gladden/Evans

G-Robotham/An. Jackson/Betancourt

Redshirt: Ivey, Wilson

[GJGood]

To me the big keys to next season are:

1) The play of the centers. If Big Dog and Forsythe can develop into bigger defensive threats and become more offensively potent consistently (they've both shown moments of brilliance) it will go a long, long way. Big Dog is already one heck of an interior passer and could become the key cog in our "inside-out" offensive game plans down the road.

2) Betancourt needs to at least become a threat to score. He doesn't need to be a double digits kind of guy but he does need to show that he can score 5 or 6 points and can't just be left alone on the floor by the opposing defense. He will play a lot because of his defense so we just need a little more on the other side as well.

3) The most painfully obvious one. Something needs to be done about the free throw shooting.

4) As with any team in any year, health and keeping your roster available to be on the floor, sometimes that is just luck.

[skip-zip]

3) The most painfully obvious one. Something needs to be done about the free throw shooting.

Here's the reality. One summer is very unlikely to suddenly turn historically bad free throw shooters into good ones. Maybe a couple of people can show some improvement. That's about all you can ask for.

The only other option a coach has is to have the better FT shooters on the floor. But, is that the best thing for our overall performance?

[skip-zip]

Looking ahead to next season, I don't see why some of these media hacks are thinking that Akron is going to have a drop-off when they lose one Senior and have nearly a decade of consistent success and stability.

[UAZip0510]

Anyone with insight on what to expect from Gladden and Jackson and the potential impact they could make?

Looking around the MAC, here's who the top teams will be losing:

Akron - Diggs

Buffalo - McCrea, Freelove, Oldham, Nuiriankh

Ohio - Kellogg, Hall, Johnson, Smith, Wilkins

Can't - Goodson, Henniger, Tabb, Vedder

Toledo - Pearson, Smith, Beatty

Western Michigan - Whittington, Brown

Eastern Michigan - Riley, Sims, Hughley, Bryant, Strickland, Harrison

[zippy5]

Wow I didn't realize OU had that many seniors. Between the big senior class last year and this - that's a lot of turnover. Toledo will be very good again. If I'm a MAC fan and I look at that list, I'd be pretty afraid of Akron next year.

[Balsy]

I think this team makes a strong return next year. All things considered, Evans and Melo showed some flashes of brilliance in the latter half of the year that hopefully they will build upon. Both offense and defense the two combined largely improved from where they were at the beginning of the year. It seemed to take all year for the team to find some glue to hold them together.

With the players that we still have on the team it should be a good year for us.

[UAZip0510]

I think we'll be very good again next year, good enough to win the MAC. My worry is 2015-2016...

[Dave in Green]

Wilson is a preferred walk-on, so he wouldn't be considered a redshirt. And we don't yet know for sure if Ivey will be academically eligible for a scholarship or if he will have to complete his freshman academic year before being eligible to play, like Tree and Nick. If the latter is true, the Zips would still have a scholarship to give and an opportunity to make a major impact on next season's team with a transfer who might be eligible to play immediately or a talented true freshman. On the Abreu situation, I think it's best to assume he's not returning and plan around the players who are expected to return.

Planning for now around the players we have confidence will be eligible, the key questions are how much season-to-season growth will we see from the returning players, what adjustments will be made for the loss of Q and what will Aaron and BJ bring to the team. BJ was the highest-rated player in this season's incoming class. From what I've seen in practice, he's fearless driving to the bucket and is strong enough to finish. I don't know if he has the outside shot that Q developed, but he could at least take up some of the loss of Q's ability to drive the lane.

From what I've seen of Aaron in practice, I really like his motor and his attitude. Even though he wasn't a highly rated prospect, i think he has more of a Tree-like intensity than anyone else currently on the team. His skill set is different from Q's, but in combination with BJ the two of them could fill at least part of Q's shoes. If nothing else, the team chemistry is likely to change with Q gone. Q is mercurial, always pushing the limits and going back and forth between brilliance and unforced errors. If BJ and Aaron are more consistent, it may help stabilize the team and encourage more consistent performance.

Looking at the non-redshirt freshmen, from whom you'd expect the most growth between seasons, Kwan is a talented player in search of an identity. He's a wing mentality in a power forward body. You look at him and think he's capable of banging in the paint. But his preference is to be a spot-up shooter. That's not all bad. Having a 6-9 guy who can consistently hit from outside puts a major stress on defenses. Most MAC teams don't have players who can defend against 6-9 outside shooters. It just means you need other players to bang in the paint. The main thing Kwan needs to work on is D. He has to give up fewer points than he scores.

That bring us to Big Dog. He's already being talked about as a force to be reckoned with in the MAC. He steadily improved throughout his first season as a true freshman to take over as starting center. No one in the MAC can push him out of the way, and few can put up more than token resistance when he backs his way into the paint for the quick spin and layup. With his ability to reliably catch and handle the ball and accurately pass to open teammates, much of the Zips' offense could be built around him. Big Dog and Pat give the Zips the best center combo in the MAC. Along with Tree, they're all bangers who could rule the paint. If Big Dog remains the starting center getting most of the minutes, perhaps Pat could back up Tree at the 4 for the few minutes each game that Tree sits.

Given their progress to date, I think it's almost guaranteed that Jake and Reggie will be even better next season as juniors. Both have shown the ability to be more than just 3-point shooters, and I think their roles will expand more next season. The biggest improvement this season was from Deji. He evolved from cringeworthy to one of the Zips' most consistent players at the end of the season. The energy he brings to the team should not be underestimated. If he remains on this upward curve, he could be one of the Zips' top players as a senior.

Melo and Nyles were expected to handle the point, and they did get better as the season went on. But they couldn't do it without Q's help. It would be fantastic if both players worked hard in the off-season to become better all-around players. But that can't be counted on. Most likely Melo will return as a true PG who can run the offense pretty well and play tough D but can't consistently score. And most likely Nyles will return as a combo guard who's more of an undersized, streaky shooting guard who has problems running the offense. That would mean the Zips would need someone to replace Q's role as a ball handler.

Tree is both the rock of the team and the Achilles heel. His ability to power the ball to the hoop should result in lots of field goals and free throws. But his inability to hit free throws means that opponents will increasingly use the hack-a-Tree strategy. If the Zips can't adjust by getting the ball to open players when Tree is double- and triple-teamed, next season will be no better than this one.

I left Nick for last because he's such an enigma. As I just pointed out in the WMU game thread, Nick is a great talent whose stats have remained pretty flat over his three seasons, and his shooting performance has actually deteriorated. I'd originally hoped that he and Tree were close enough that they would have great chemistry together on the court. But we've seen only occasional flashes of that. If Nick doesn't return next season with a sense of purpose and intensity, I see him slowly fading to the end of the bench as hungrier players eat into his PT.

This season when the Zips D collapsed on other teams' players with the ball, the result was too often a well-coordinated pass to an open teammate for an easy bucket. That's the kind of offensive teamwork the Zips only rarely showed. However it happens, next season the Zips need to develop better team chemistry and more consistency. They need to mesh together as a team instead of individuals taking turns making plays. It's time to play down Tree or any other individual as the team's star and make the team the star.

[johnnyzip84]

From the PD, here is EA's peek at the 2014-2015 UA season.

Stress free seasons from that tandem, plus Kretzer (7.5 ppg) and McAdams (6.3 ppg) for next year leave Dambrot with one major challenge, which is finding a point guard.

"We have one scholarship, and we are looking,'' Dambrot said.

Incumbents Nyles Evans and Carmelo Betancourt never settled into the position, and while Abreu has a season of eligibility remaining, his return is up in the air. So a solid performer at that position is key.

[skip-zip]

Anyone with insight on what to expect from Gladden and Jackson and the potential impact they could make?

Looking around the MAC, here's who the top teams will be losing:

Akron - Diggs

Buffalo - McCrea, Freelove, Oldham, Nuiriankh

Ohio - Kellogg, Hall, Johnson, Smith, Wilkins

Can't - Goodson, Henniger, Tabb, Vedder

Toledo - Pearson, Smith, Beatty

Western Michigan - Whittington, Brown

Eastern Michigan - Riley, Sims, Hughley, Bryant, Strickland, Harrison

Heck, this is what the national prognosticators look at when they make predictions, so why not us?

If this really is a good predictor, then it would appear as if we should be able to return to our dominant position in the East next year, and have Toledo as our major challenge on the other side.

Our players will all get better if the coaching staff is doing their jobs.

[Dave in Green]

This pretty much confirms that Ivey will not be on scholarship as a freshman:

"We have one scholarship, and we are looking,'' Dambrot said.

[GJGood]

I think this team makes a strong return next year. All things considered, Evans and Melo showed some flashes of brilliance in the latter half of the year that hopefully they will build upon. Both offense and defense the two combined largely improved from where they were at the beginning of the year. It seemed to take all year for the team to find some glue to hold them together.

With the players that we still have on the team it should be a good year for us.

I think the team makes a strong return as long as there is more motion to the offense. Too may times this year it looked like one or two guys working and three or four watching. In years prior to that it seemed like we ran opposing defenses all over the place while in our half court offense. With the depth on the Zips bench playing a high energy style should work out to be an advantage late in games.

[skip-zip]

I think the team makes a strong return as long as there is more motion to the offense. Too may times this year it looked like one or two guys working and three or four watching. In years prior to that it seemed like we ran opposing defenses all over the place while in our half court offense. With the depth on the Zips bench playing a high energy style should work out to be an advantage late in games.

Sometimes, it's a little tricky to point to a lack of offensive motion without understanding all of the situations.

Oftentimes, it looks like we're spreading the floor as wide as we can to get those entry passes into the post. And when we do that, the guys on the perimeter are sometimes just trying to find an open area to sit.

Continual movement without the ball is not the answer that some people like to think it is.

I think we have a much bigger problem creating offense from a lack of guys who can effectively dribble the ball into the paint, rather than a lack of movement from the guys without the ball.

[Dave in Green]

Skip, I like the way you're digging a little deeper into the issues. Continual movement without the ball can be effective at times, especially when it breaks someone loose for an open shot or easy drive to the basket. But this doesn't work out every time, even with teams that run it well. Dribbling the ball into the paint can also be effective. But both of the above require having someone making the right moves to get clear for an open shot and someone else effectively getting the ball to them.

I think one of the problems the Zips had on offense this season was getting a player open and then consistently getting the ball to them in scoring postion. I saw other teams do that to the Zips time after time. If the Zips practiced that type of assist-oriented offense more in practice, it would also make them better at stopping other teams defensively. The Zips seemed to be more of a one-on-one team with Tree and Q the primary options taking turns making their best moves even against double- and triple-teams.

I'd like to see more chemistry between the players in first creating more open looks and then reliably getting the ball to the open man for easier shots. This would improve the Zips' overall field goal shooting percentage. Another sign it was working would be an increase in assists. Q was one of the best one-on-one wings and Tree is one of the best one-on-one posts the Zips have ever had, Yet between the two of them they couldn't always get the job done alone. I think the team relied on them too much rather than trying to get more open shots for more of their teammates.

From what I've seen, one of BJ's strengths is dribbling the ball into the paint. But it would be unfair to expect him to be consistently effective at this as a freshman. He'll have his ups and downs on his freshman learning curve. Really, it's something that others on the team also need to develop, especially with Q now gone.

[skip-zip]

Dave, Do you remember Keith talking about getting more playing time for Melo because he was better at running the set plays?

You make some great points. Overall, we just had a tough time getting the ball to guys who were in a position to score. Or, just getting those guys INTO a position to score. The set plays would help get that done, but we often never ran them effectively. And again, I point back to the lack of cohesiveness within this team for that inefficiency. Thus....we had to live with a team full of players who often took it upon themselves to try to score a basket.

If anyone goes back and looks at the scoreless 8 minute stretch against WMU, I'm sure we'd see a lot of this. And that was 30 games into the season.

[Dave in Green]

Skip, some of the 8-minute meltdown against WMU came from not getting good open looks and some came from mostly Tree and Q missing everything they threw up, including free throws, plus turnovers. The play-by-play only gives a snapshot of what happened and doesn't reflect all the details. But below is the play-by-play edited to include only Zips offensive plays during that 8-minute black hole when the Zips went from a 47-32 lead to a 47-50 deficit. The bookends are the excellent Jake to Reggie for a slam play and Q finally sinking a pair of free throws. Everything in between was ugly.

10:49 MCADAMS,REGGIE made dunk 47-32
10:49 Assist by KRETZER,JAKE
10:00 TREADWELL,DEMETRIUS missed free throw
10:00 TREADWELL,DEMETRIUS missed free throw
09:14 KRETZER,JAKE missed 3-pt. jump shot
08:18 Turnover by TREADWELL,DEMETRIUS
07:17 DIGGS,QUINCY missed 3-pt. jump shot
07:17 TREADWELL,DEMETRIUS offensive rebound
06:57 Turnover by IBITAYO,DEJI
06:01 DIGGS,QUINCY missed free throw
05:10 DIGGS,QUINCY missed layup
04:35 TREADWELL,DEMETRIUS missed layup
03:41 TREADWELL,DEMETRIUS missed layup
02:49 Turnover by DIGGS,QUINCY
02:34 DIGGS,QUINCY made free throw 48-50
02:34 DIGGS,QUINCY made free throw 49-50

[skip-zip]

Ugly. I'd be curious to watch it again, but it would probably make me sick.

I just wonder how much individual play was going on when that lead started to shrink.

I was there, and it still seems like a blur to me. I was in too much shock to analyze the situation at the time.

[tomzip]

I watched from mid court in the club seats, and I think I slowly slid lower in my chair until I as well as the Zips hit the floor. Pathetic display, although I hate to see what would have happened to us in the one and done NCAA, although I would have liked to have been there again.

[Class of 82]

Assists-turnovers ratio... gotta fix that if the Zips want to be a truly formidable team. Only 11 assists a game just won't cut it, especially when you turn it over 13 times on average. You might actually be fortunate and win the MAC with a team like that, but I hope this team has greater expectations than that.

And it's not just a point-guard issue, imo, even though that's probably the most glaring part of it. The whole team seemed to struggle finding guys for easy baskets in the half-court offense.

[skip-zip]

Only 11 assists a game just won't cut it,

Certainly confirms what we were seeing.....too many individual efforts to score points.

[GoZips]

... the Zips went from a 47-32 lead to a 47-50 deficit.

In the first half WMU scored seventeen points in 20 minutes.

In the eight minute stretch mentioned above, WMU scored 18 points while Akron scored zilch.

Fix the defense. The offense will take care of itself.

With a seventeen point lead you do not lose because you could not score. You lose because

WMU scored repeatedly. The Zips got out of sync and gave up way too many points. No defense.

[skip-zip]

Fix the defense. The offense will take care of itself.

With a seventeen point lead you do not lose because you could not score. You lose because

WMU scored repeatedly. The Zips got out of sync and gave up way too many points. No defense.

So, let me see if I got this right.

Failing to score in an 8 minute stretch didn't bother you.

But, giving up only 52 points in regulation did?

[Hilltopper]

In the first half WMU scored seventeen points in 20 minutes.

In the eight minute stretch mentioned above, WMU scored 18 points while Akron scored zilch.

Fix the defense. The offense will take care of itself.

With a seventeen point lead you do not lose because you could not score. You lose because

WMU scored repeatedly. The Zips got out of sync and gave up way too many points. No defense.

Did you write this in your sleep? We already had this discussion, remember? All we would have needed was one basket in that eight minutes and we win the game. The defense was fine. Go back to bed.

[zippy5]

In the first half WMU scored seventeen points in 20 minutes.

In the eight minute stretch mentioned above, WMU scored 18 points while Akron scored zilch.

Fix the defense. The offense will take care of itself.

With a seventeen point lead you do not lose because you could not score. You lose because

WMU scored repeatedly. The Zips got out of sync and gave up way too many points. No defense.

Long night?