Exhibition Games Are Hard To Recap...

The men's basketball team looked great yesterday in their exhibition matchup against Division III John Carroll, winning by a score of 111-48...but that's mostly because they were playing Division III John Carroll.

The Blue Streaks actually had the lead early on (8-5) before Akron ran away with it.

Looked Great:

- Nikola Cvetinovic, who put up 19 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal in just 16 minutes of play. He also shot 9-12 from the line, which is a breath of fresh air after he shot 50.6% from the line last year.

- Steve McNees, who took 7 shots in his 23 minutes of play, all from beyond the arc, and made 5 of them. Add to that his 5 rebounds and 9 assists.

- Zeke Marshall, and his role on the team. Statistically, he played 25 minutes, scored 14 points on 6-7 shooting, pulled down 5 rebounds, and had 3 blocks and an assist. The fact that he only got 5 rebounds looks worrying at first glance. And here's an interesting tidbit: After John Carroll started a full court press, the Zips ran a play with Zeke as the anchor, at midcourt. McNees, or whoever was at the point, would just heave it up to Zeke, who would seemingly jump 40 feet in the air, pull it down, and calmly hand it back to the point guard at half-court.

Looked Good:

- Brett McClanahan. He shot 5-11 overall, 5-9 from downtown. Four of those 3's came consecutively. Most likely, he will be just as streaky this year as he has been in the past, but as long as those streaks happen when it counts, he can be a huge boost to morale.

- Dakotah Euton. He was the only incoming player that didn't look shaky (see below). He ended with 6 points on 3-5 shooting, with 5 rebounds. One of those shots was a ridiculous three pointer that ended up somewhere in downtown Columbus. Other than that shot, however, he looked solid.

- The Zeke Marshall/Mike Bardo combo. Bardo only played 11 minutes, but pulled down 7 rebounds, with a block and a steal. He also had three points on 1-3 shooting. Having 7'0" Marshall and 6'10" Bardo on the floor at the same time will work wonders if the perimeter players play some good defense.

Looked Shaky:

- The incoming players (minus Dakotah Euton). Alex Abreu and Quincy Diggs look promising, but both just looked jittery yesterday. Abreu ended with 10 points on 3-7 shooting, and had 4 assists and 5 steals. There were times he looked like a wizard with the ball, but there were also moments when he didn't look for the pass at all. Those didn't end well. Diggs had 6 points on 3-5 shooting, with 4 rebounds in 17 minutes.

Other Notes:

- Josh Egner looked good statistically (10 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks in just 4 minutes), but also had a turnover and 3 personal fouls.

- Brett McKnight didn't play, but if he improves at all from last season, our frontcourt is going to be scary this year.

- I'd like to see some more play from Kyle Peterson. He only scored 2 points and 2 assists in 5 minutes yesterday, but this is largely because Egner took most of his shots in that period of time. Peterson is definitely better than a 2-minutes a season player.

- Want to know exactly how small John Carroll was? The Zips outrebounded them 62-35.

The Zips play another Division III team (Millikin) on Saturday, only this one will put a number on the standings. The game is at the JAR, and there are $1 Hot Dogs and Pepsi Products while supplies last. The $10 general admission ticket is well worth the price.