The 2012-2013 Zips - What Might Have Been

[UAZip0510]

As we've reflecting on the Zips program and what it will take to get to the next level, I can't help but wonder if KD and his staff DID build a team to make that NCAA Tournament run we've all been longing for, but off-court issues didn't allow it to happen.

That team went 26-5, won 19 games in a row, earned a Top 25 ranking, and won the MAC Championship - and did it without Alex Abreu for the final game, MAC Tournament, and NCAA game against VCU. It also did so without Quincy Diggs, the reigning MAC 6th Man of the Year.

How good would that team have been had Diggs and Abreu not gotten themselves into trouble? Did KD and Company build the team we've all been clamoring for but never had a chance to see it come to fruition?

C-Marshall/Forsythe

F-Treadwell/Harney

F-Gilliam/Kretzer

G-Walsh/McAdams/Ibitayo

G-Abreu/Diggs/Betancourt

On paper, that team would have been good enough to do some damage. I know some prefer not to look back at the past, but I'd be curious to hear other thoughts on what might have been for this team. Sadly, I feel like we might have missed our chance to make some national noise and take "the leap" we've been wanting to take for years.

[Dave in Green]

Agree. That team was built from an atypical (at UA) mix of 4-year players, transfers and non-qualifiers to peak in Zeke's senior season. Q, Walsh and Gilliam would also have been seniors at the peaks of their games. Abreu had reached the level of a solid, seasoned PG near the end of his junior season. They were backed by a solid array of underclassmen. At full strength the team could have accomplished so much more than the already impressive 19-game winning streak.

Captain Kangaroo did a really nice job in this post of touching on everything Coach Dambrot did to try to put together the best supporting cast he could for Zeke's senior season. This season's Zips may have also been better if Q had graduated last season and Abreu was back as a senior. I don't mean to say that Abreu is a better player than Q, but that as a senior PG Abreu would have made all of his teammates perform better this season and the team would likely have been much more cohesive and produced more consistent and better results.