2014-2015

[K92]

We are going to have to play better defense in the ACC.

[GoZips]

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?

Read what I wrote.

Giving up eighteen points in eight minutes bothers me. It was a collapse of the defense.

If the Zips had made just one more stop (if they had any at all), they win in regulation.

Akron supposedly is a defense first oriented team.

[zippy5]

Or if they scored ONE basket in 8 minutes? The defense wasn't good this year.. but this isn't your best example of that.

[Zipgrad01]

Or if they scored ONE basket in 8 minutes? The defense wasn't good this year.. but this isn't your best example of that.

I beg to differ. The only reason we won most of our games is because the defense WAS good except for a handful of games. Pathetic doesnt even describe our offense. Dambrot needs to focus 75% of his energy on fixing the shit offense I watched all year.

[Dave in Green]

I don't think it would have mattered to anyone here which of the two the Zips might have achieved against WMU in regulation to produce a win, one more bucket or one more stop. Judging the WMU game by their season averages, the Zips had an above average defensive game and a below average offensive performance. Based on that, it was the offense that came up shorter of the two for the game. But the bottom line is that winning is a result of combined offense and defense. You can't win with just one and not the other. When one's not working up to average, you just have to try your best to compensate with the other.

[skip-zip]

Read what I wrote.

Giving up eighteen points in eight minutes bothers me. It was a collapse of the defense.

If the Zips had made just one more stop (if they had any at all), they win in regulation.

Akron supposedly is a defense first oriented team.

I want to drink what you're drinking today.

[Dave in Green]

To be fair to GoZips, he attends every Zips basketball practice and knows more about what Coach Dambrot teaches the players than any of us. If he says they're a defense first oriented team, he's just trying to tell us what's being taught to the players. Based on that, allowing WMU to score 18 points in 8 minutes is probably considered a worse failure than going scoreless for 8 minutes. But most basketball games consist of a series of runs by each team. Games are won and lost over 40 minutes, not 8. Over 40 minutes, the Zips offense against WMU was worse than their season average while the defense was better than average.

[UAZip0510]

So what do you all think on how Gladden, Jackson, and Cheatham will fit into the plans for next season?

[LZIp]

I think they will definitely have their opportunities. I'd like to see us play more small ball next season, meaning no Forsythe and Tree/Big Dog splitting time at the 5. PG, IMO, should be up for grabs. Maybe Jackson can be a combo guard at the point. He definitely seems to have the athleticism and the "motor" (huge fan of that). Hopefully he is a true opportunist and noticed we have a gaping hole at PG and worked on his handles a ton. Deji/McAdams should have the 2 on lockdown. Gladden has the opportunity to start at the 3, or at the very least back up Harney. I think Kretz and Cheatham should take the stretch 4 duties. We need all the shooting power we can get to unclog the paint for Tree.

The way I see it, we are about the same team next year if a PG doesn't step up. Melo has stretches where he plays pretty well, but I just don't think his style is a good fit for what the team needs offensively. We either need a big jump from Evans or Jackson to take everyone by surprise if we want to take back the MAC.

[Hilltopper]

I predict we will have another player TBD at PG next season. I would like to see Deji become our sixth man with McAdams and Jackson splitting the 2 guard position.

[Dr Z]

Games are won and lost over 40 minutes

You must be watching all the coaches interviews after the NCAA tournament games.

Taken from page 1 of the coaches book entitled 'Take That You Annoying Reporter.'

One of my new favorites is "Next guy up." I'm sure Tomlin didn't invent it, but first time I noticed was 2007 pressers.

Next one is "the standard is the standard." Thanks coach.

The staff needs to get the team to learn how to move the ball to move the defense to get better looks. 95 percent of the Zips passes this year did not effect the defense one iota. Players without the ball need to help effect what the defense is doing too. This becomes obvious watching good offensive teams in the tournament. We will see less 8 minute droughts if we can improve in this area. We will probably get to the line more too, so you might want improve free throw percentage while your at it. We will also be less dependent on the three ball. This doesn't mean we can't still bomb, just do it effectively, not desperately. If the offense needs "dumbed" down to achieve this, do it already. Stop pounding the square peg...

[Dave in Green]

You must be watching all the coaches interviews after the NCAA tournament games. ...

Wrong again.

[UAZip0510]

So here's what we're looking at right now:

Returning Scholarship Players (12)

C-Pat Forsythe

C-Isaiah Johnson

F-Demetrius Treadwell

F-Nick Harney

F-Kwan Cheatham

F-Jake Kretzer

F/G-Reggie McAdams

G/F-BJ Gladden

G-Deji Ibitayo

G-Nyles Evans

G-Carmelo Betancourt

G-Aaron Jackson

Walk-Ons (2)

G/F-Christen Wilson

G-Darius Hoisten

Confirmed Commitments (2)

G-Jimond Ivey

G-Antino Jackson

Interested In (1)

G-Noah Robotham

A few thoughts...

The Abreu ship seems to have sailed. I suppose he could still walk on, but it sure doesn't look like it. It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out. Hilltopper speculated that Ivey will probably grey shirt, which would open up the lone scholarship for Antino Jackson. However, it seems like Jackson would likely redshirt and wouldn't provide the immediate impact Dambrot has made no secret about finding. Adding further to that is that the Zips have still shown heavy interest Robotham even after the Jackson commitment. It makes me wonder if someone might be leaving the program. We know Nick Harney has had off-court issues and Nyles Evans never really fit with KD's offense. Just speculation on my part - it's just curious to me that they've given the only scholarship they have to a player and still seem to be pursuing Robotham, who isn't going to settle for being a preferred walk-on.

[Dave in Green]

@UAZip0510, we tried to learn more about the recruiting situation at the basketball banquet. But, of course, the coaching staff is not free to discuss recruits until they're formally signed up. So we'll have to continue to speculate about Jimond Ivey, Antino Jackson and Noah Robotham beyond what they've already posted on their Twitter accounts. But we shouldn't have to speculate long as the national signing dates (April 16-May 21) start this Wednesday.

We can hope that redshirt freshmen BJ and Aaron contribute as much to the team as Jake and Reggie did as true freshmen. We can also hope that all the returning players show significant improvement in their games. Finally, we can hope the team has better chemistry next season. The Zips will need all of the above to not just offset the loss of Q but improve over winning "only" 21 games, get to the NCAA tournament and make some noise there.

[Quickzips]

KD has over-recruited before. In fact he's sort of made a habit out of it the last few years. Players come and go. If the Zips want Noah, and he wants to be a Zips, they will figure it out.

[UAZip0510]

Perfect scenario would be Evans leaving and Robotham committing.

C-Johnson/Forsythe

F-Treadwell/Harney/Cheatham

F-Kretzer/Gladden

G-Ibitayo/McAdams/Jackson

G-Robotham/Betancourt

If Robotham is the real deal, that's a pretty damn good team.

[akronzips71]

Perfect scenario would be Evans leaving and Robotham committing.

C-Johnson/Forsythe

F-Treadwell/Harney/Cheatham

F-Kretzer/Gladden

G-Ibitayo/McAdams/Jackson

G-Robotham/Betancourt

If Robotham is the real deal, that's a pretty damn good team.

Why would you assume anything about Evans leaving? He will be a senior next year, where would you expect him to go?

[UAZip0510]

Why would you assume anything about Evans leaving? He will be a senior next year, where would you expect him to go?

Obviously if Robotham signs elsewhere this is all for nothing but if he does sign, someone else has to go. I'm not saying he is leaving, I'm saying that would be the perfect scenario in my eyes. Nothing against him, I just can't see carrying three PG's and Robotham seems good enough (and possibly the best fit) to start right away and Betancourt would have the most value off of the bench.

[Dave in Green]

Any player who really wants to play would be tempted to transfer if they thought they were destined to sit at the end of the bench and that they would have a better opportunity to play at another school. It happens all the time in college basketball. It happened to an entire recruiting class at UA -- Dakotah Euton, Josh Egner and Michael Green.

[skip-zip]

Any player who really wants to play would be tempted to transfer if they thought they were destined to sit at the end of the bench and that they would have a better opportunity to play at another school. It happens all the time in college basketball. It happened to an entire recruiting class at UA -- Dakotah Euton, Josh Egner and Michael Green.

Dave, I think there's always been people on this board who don't get this. You do.

This entire notion that players come here and "buy into the system" and just want to win basketball games, and don't care much about their playing time is total crap.

I'm very close to a kid right now who is being heavily recruited by major schools across the country in football. What's his #1 priority?? No surprise. He says, "I just want to go where I know I can play."

[UAZip0510]

Updated Look:

Returning Scholarship Players (12)

C-Pat Forsythe

C-Isaiah Johnson

F-Demetrius Treadwell

F-Nick Harney

F-Kwan Cheatham

F-Jake Kretzer

F/G-Reggie McAdams

G/F-BJ Gladden

G-Deji Ibitayo

G-Nyles Evans

G-Carmelo Betancourt

G-Aaron Jackson

Scholarship Commitments (2)

G-Jimond Ivey

G-Antino Jackson

Walk-Ons (3)

G/F-Christen Wilson

G-Malcolm Walters

G-Darius Hoisten

Interested In (1)

G-Noah Robotham

[UAZip0510]

Now that Harney is gone, the 14-15 team is coming together.

Starting Lineup

C- Isaiah Johnson - He became the starting center toward the end of 13-14 and looked good.

F-Demetrius Treadwell - Should have a monster senior season, especially with a true, more effective PG on the roster

F-Jake Kretzer - Last year's 6th man of the year becomes a starter and, in my opinion, a team leader

G-Deji Ibitayo - Really found himself in 13-14; he may eventually give way to Gladden but should remain important regardless

G-Noah Robotham - May not start on day one, but UA didn't work so hard to bring him in to back up Melo/Nyles all season

2nd Unit

C-Pat Forsythe - Made some strides last season but doesn't have the consistency to start - excellent backup

F-Kwan Cheatham - Hopefully added some muscle this offseason; gained valuable PT last season when Harney was out

F-BJ Gladden - Aside from Robotham, the most intriguing addition to this year's team; could be impact redshirt freshman

G-Reggie McAdams - Could start instead of Kretzer; might even see some time handling the ball to work Jackson in

G-Carmelo Betancourt - Defense and energy is perfect coming off of the bench

Depth

F-Aaron Jackson - Has the potential to make an impact on this team, especially if Dambrot goes smaller with his 2nd Unit

G-Nyles Evans - Might be the odd man out, barring injury

F-Cristen Wilson - Preferred walk-on; likely wont see much of the court (barring injuries)

G-Malcolm Walters - Preferred walk-on; likely wont see much of the court (barring injuries)

Redshirts

G-Antino Jackson - Love his potential, but he'll need to spend a year in the weight room before he's ready

G-Jimond Ivey - Unverified to this point but looks like he'll either red shirt or gray shirt

[Zipmeister]

How will the return of Abreu impact the line up?

[Dave in Green]

UAZip0510, have you actually seen Antino in person? As I mentioned in the Summer Session(s) thread, before seeing Antino I assumed he would be a good candidate for a redshirt due to his low weight equating to a lack of strength and energy. I was surprised to see that he carries a lot of well-defined muscle on his lean frame, and doesn't appear to be lacking strength and energy. It looks as if he's already been spending a lot of time in the weight room.

[Quickzips]

I disagree with almost every part of that lineup.

1) Playing Tree and Johnson together for significant minutes is a problem in my mind. Tree is most effective from about 12 feet in, but he needs space to operate down there. Johnson is almost exclusively a low-post scorer. When he is in the game you can almost count on two extra bodies clogging up the lane for Tree (Johnson and whoever is defending Johnson). It limits the effectiveness of our best player (Tree) to put him on the court with a guy like Johnson. I've taken some flack for it on here before, but I still maintain that Kwan at C gives us the best compliment to Tree.

2) Deji by no means "found himself" last year. He had a couple of good games here and there, but he was wildly inconsistent overall. To the point that he was benched for a good part of the season. He is going to have to take a major step forward for him to start for the duration of the season.

3) I'm never a fan of taking a 6th man of the year and putting him in the starting lineup because of it. Take a look at the Spurs with Manu Ginobli if you want to see what having a great 6th man, and keeping him in that role, can do for you. I would rather see Reggie start at SG as our designated 3 point shooter in the starting lineup and bring Jake off the bench. On top of that, with the injury history that Jake is building up, I expect that we will want to monitor his minutes pretty closely.

4) I actually think Aaron Jackson will be solidly in the rotation by the time the season roles around. In fact, I can see him as probably our second our third man off the bench.

5) As Dave said, I think you very well may see Antino push Betancourt for PG minutes. Melo is going to have to show he can score the basketball enough to at least make defenses account for him. If not the two freshmen are going to push him out of the rotation.

If I had to put together a rotation right now:

Starters:

PG - Robotham

SG - McAdams

SF - Gladden

PF - Treadwell

C - Cheatham

Rotation:

1st off the bench: Kretzer

2nd off the bench: Johnson

3rd off the bench: Aaron Jackson

4th off the bench: Betancourt/Antino Jackson

5th off the bench: Forsythe

6th off the bench: Ibitayo

Odd Man Out: Evans and whoever of Betancourt/Antino Jackson doesn't take the backup PG minutes