Men's Team

[GoZips]

Eighteen players suited up. Needed a scorecard to determine who is who. Saw some kidout on the floor I could have sworn was Romeo Travis only, he shot right handed, andhad no tattoos. Oh, pardon me, its Chris McKnight. Dayum ... this kid is a playa.You are going to love Chris McKnight. He is such a mirror image of Romeo right down to the facial hair that its scary. Best part ... he can play right now. Did I mention thiskid can play? You better believe it.Jeremiah Wood while still rehabbing and getting into shape (he's a bit puffy) looked tobe the player he was and should be. I am pleased to see J Wood on the floor and looking good.Nicky and Dru looking awesome. They are in sync with each other. That chemistry isgreat to see at first light. Both men in fine condition and looking like the veteransthey both are.Cedric Middleton, all I can say is "wow". Ced looks fantastic. He is in great shape.sixth man without a doubt. Not a sliver of drop off when he is on the court.We still need that fourth guard. Its Steve McNees opportunity. Steve did NOT overlyimpress me. He needs to shed the Beatles rag mop page boy haircut and get seriousabout playing basketball. Weird hairdos do not define you as a playa. Jimmy Conyers was mildly impressive. He has skills and talent. A bit out of sync andseems to not have a defined role just yet. He is not going to start ahead of NateLinhart. Jimmy will have to earn that prize. Seventh man possibility is his for thetaking.Nate Linhart, John Rybak and Quade Milum all looked good. They performed like theyknow the system. All will contribute. Mike Bardo is slow. Way too slow. The college game is far quicker than he saw inhigh school. He has to adjust to the tempo. I think he will.A huge stack (pile?, clump? group?) of walk-ons. most impressive was John Cannonout of CVCA. John has size and skills. Best of all I liked his temperament. He took nocrap and gave back what he got. Look for John to see some floor time.Nick Goddard can still shoot the lights out. Amen.I know I could write a lot more. Hope this is a taste that whets your appetites.

[fear the brown roo]

not a lot of size but tons of quickness. last night made me forget about football for a minute and really look forward to b-ball season.

[Hilltopper]

KD was giving Bardo and McKnight alot of attention last night. Its obvious that the team needs the 2 freshmen to make a contribution early and KD is going to make it happen.

[zip37]

GoZips---J. Wood may havbe looked "puffy" but believe me it was the loose uni, he is in GREAT shape!With ball ammunition lock and load. And as always

[zipboy]

Good post, a few other observations1. To reiterate, Ced looked really good - strong and fast.2. McNees definitely looks like he needs to tone up and shed some body fat. He was the only guy who looked soft out there.3. I actually liked Bardo. He looked much more athletic than I expected. I think he will help defensively this year. 4. Nice to see J Wood back in uniform.5. We are short but we are a physical team. These guys have definitely been pumping iron.6. No brace for Dials, he moved well, better than last year.7. Quade looked more defined and stronger than last year. He was thin but he looked stronger and more sure of himself out there.

[UADavid]

It was fun to see these guys again. They look good. Bardo needs work to keep up with the up tempo game we will play this year. Expect them to run, run, run. We have some new players that should be able to contribute right away.

[hoopla]

Those are all good posts on what we saw last night. Here is a little something I saw...GuardsDru - He is going to have another solid year for the Zips. He def. knows the KD system and runs it to a T. He was moving the ball real good and emphazized a transition game. He is in excellent shape and needs to be if we are going to run up and down the whole game. Dials - He looks great to me. He is moving so well. His comback is still amaziing to me. He is running the floor great and is playing tough D. I dont know if you guys seen this or not, but he does not miss. I think that getting that leg into shape is making a difference with this department. Look for GREAT things from him this year. I think he is ready and in great shape. He never sat. Middleton - Also looks good and in great shape. He plays at a different speed than Dru and Dials that can shake things up for the opposition. He will be a great 6th man. His play is the same as last year, but with an extra kick. He will be ready whenever called on. McNeese - KDs system puts a lot of emphasis on well disiplined guards. He has a lot to learn from playbook standpoint to leadership standpoint. He will learn this and will be a good player to spot minutes for the above 3. Dials seems to be taking him under his wing a little bit. He will be a bright spot in time to come. He really handles the ball well. I think he just needs to learn the system and he will be fine. This is a great group of guards we have. You have Dru and Dials shooting the lights out and a slashing Middleton. A good mix that compliments each other real well and enjoy playing off each other. An improved group that will win us a lot of games. Forwards - Linhart - He looks ok to me. He has not improved as much as any of the returning guards, which kind of disappoints me - he was one of my fav. sparks last year. Still lookds slim and shys away from contact. He does know what is going on in the KD system and I think that will put him in the starting lineup over Conyers. Conyers - Has a lot of ablitlity, but also has a lot to learn. It looked like he his having a hard time with the motion type offense. He does have a nice shot and gives us another athletic option to put on the floor. Will be a great player for us when he learns the system and finds ways to impress KD. Bright future as well. Rybak - He looks real good. He looks in real good shape compared to last year. Still has a nice shot. He may even be our starter at the 3 position. He really will be in the hunt for major minutes this year. He knows the system real well and it looks like he plays within his abilities. This group scares me the most. There really isnt no one here that has the complete package on offense and the combination of good defense. I think we are going to have to go small a couple times a game, not including the ball control squad at the end of the 1st and 2nd half, with Dials at the 3. Posts -Romeo - Although I think he is going to make key contributions to the team this year, he really doesnt look like he has done a lot of work in the offseason. His body looks the same and he does not get after it on the boards or on defense. KD looked frustraited with him, maybe it was a bad day. He just looked exactly the same as last year. I expected much improvement. Wood - He looks real good to me. I remember him being the guy that was always willing to argue with things, but it really impressed me when he was willing to learn and listen. He seemed to have a good raport with Dru and Dials as they shared their thoughts with things. Whatever that was. He looks bigger, but I dont think its being out of shape as much as him going hard in the gym. He looks good to me and it will be a real key to our success as a team. Milum - Has impressed me. I think that he will be a key contributor off the bench this year. He runs the floor much better and is in great shape. He has a pretty good jumper, which I cant tell you if he had one last year. He just seems more comfortible with everything going on. I have a good feeling with Quade this year. He looked tough on the boards too. McKnight - His is good. He looked the best out of all the first year guys. He will be the only frosh. to contribute right away I think. He looked tough on the guys and was full of effort. KD seemed to point out a lot of things that he needs to learn at the end of practice. I think that is because KD expects good things from him. He looks fit and ready for the college level on the physical side. He just has a lot to learn. Bardo - I do not see him contributing this year. He looks slow and out of shape. He seems to like the hs defense where hit sits in the lane the whole time. That is not going to work. He just showed no effort which made it that much worse to the eye. He may have a nice little career here, but it isnt going to be great as was expected. This group is pretty good. What worries me about this group is consistancy throughout the season. They dont look like they are in good shape and that could spell a little bit of trouble. The key thing this group will have to do is control the glass. If we win the rebound game, I think we win. There will be a nice 4 man rotation from what i saw. Which could help the conditioning aspect. Let the discussion continue...

[Hilltopper]

"Rybak - He looks real good. He looks in real good shape compared to last year. Still has a nice shot. He may even be our starter at the 3 position. He really will be in the hunt for major minutes this year. He knows the system real well and it looks like he plays within his abilities."Are you sure that you haven't mixed up Linhart and Rybak? Linhart is the starter at small forward unless Conyers really comes on strong during camp. Rybak seems to be more of a shooter and less of an all around player.

[Z-Pouch]

I thought Rybak looked unimpressive at the first practice. He is the one KD recruit that continues to confuse me. As for being a "shooter", I hope he proves me wrong but I don't see it, even his form is unconventional. This was just practice and the first one at that so maybe he'll make more progress in the next couple of weeks.One of the better shooters I saw in the reserves/walkons was Sowers. That guy never missed at the practice and has great form. There must be serious defense or quickness issues that keep him from gettting any time.Most impressive practice - McKnight - KD was pushing him hard so he must be in the fold for some time. Way better then I ever expected even when talk of OSU pursuing him late in the recruiting process came up and Matta saying that he was the one that got away. Very nice recruit.After all the hype - Conyers - You can see the talent but I'll agree with others that he was tentative and finding his way with the team - looked lost at times. Early contribution depends on these preseason practices. Nice shot, quickness and leaping ability but I was suprised that he struggled with the ball handling drills.Quick comments- Ced looks ready for a break out yearWood looked better then Travis.McNees can handle the ball very well for being a 2.Bardo is already better then Weinken, Seibert, Claus and Myers. That's good but not saying much.

[zipsbandman]

I thought Conyers was a guard. At 6'5, isn't he kind of undersized for the forward position? I really thought he would be the fourth guard.In regard to Wood: he always was one step better than Travis. This is a very good thing because if he can pick up where he left off before the injury, man that would be money having him and Rome on the floor at the same time.I'm really hoping we find a fourth guard on this team that can step in and contribute or else we'll have the same problem as last year with guards tiring by the fourth quarter.

[hoopla]

Yeah I am sure about Rybak. He will be a factor this year. Around 10-15 min. a game I am guessing. I think that all the practices are open for KD. I encourage people to go watch for a few minutes. KD really has an uptempo style even in practice. Forget football, its hoops season

[Z-Pouch]

Yeah I am sure about Rybak. He will be a factor this year. Around 10-15 min. a game I am guessing.

We will just have to disagree on this one and see who is right as the season starts. My guess is that both Conyers and Linhart will log a lot more minutes then Rybak. I was surprised that Rybak not Linhart was in one of the primary rotations during the play portion of the practice but I think that may be over reading things for the 1st practice. Maybe not. I did like Linhart's game last year - all around solid player.

[zipboy]

I like Wood and Travis on the floor at the same time. One interesting observation in the first practice. Zips were running against an imaginery press. KD called out the play 3 times. Wood did the wrong thing each time. KD yelled for Romeo to take Wood's place. Wood walked off muttering and waving his hands. Romeo ran the play right the first time. Little things and attention to detail win the close ones.