08-26-2006, 10:34 AM
08-26-2006, 01:31 PM
Look for CMU to immediately and consistently represent the MAC well in hoops competition.
Under former Coach Jay Smith's tenure, it was either feast or famine for the Chippewas. The NCAA win over Creighton and the first ever victories at Michigan, Purdue and Notre Dame will long be remembered in CMU lore. Unfortunately Smith will also go down in history as having some of the worst Chippewa teams ever, no doubt primarily due to so many players transferring out combined with a loss in ability to recruit the fertile playgrounds of urban Michigan.
With ex-UCLA assistant Ernie Zeigler (EZ) now at the helm, he and his staff have already grabbed highly regarded big forward Marko Spica, who also had offers from schools such as Pitt and Florida State. He starts his freshman year THIS SEASON at CMU. Also committed to become a Chippewa next fall is Chase Simon, currently ranked by most services as one of the Top 15 high school hoopsters in Michigan. Among his other offers included DePaul and Wisconsin.
If EZ and his staff can coach half as well as they recruit, expect the Chippewas to win some eye-opening OOC games and contend annually for the MAC title.
Under former Coach Jay Smith's tenure, it was either feast or famine for the Chippewas. The NCAA win over Creighton and the first ever victories at Michigan, Purdue and Notre Dame will long be remembered in CMU lore. Unfortunately Smith will also go down in history as having some of the worst Chippewa teams ever, no doubt primarily due to so many players transferring out combined with a loss in ability to recruit the fertile playgrounds of urban Michigan.
With ex-UCLA assistant Ernie Zeigler (EZ) now at the helm, he and his staff have already grabbed highly regarded big forward Marko Spica, who also had offers from schools such as Pitt and Florida State. He starts his freshman year THIS SEASON at CMU. Also committed to become a Chippewa next fall is Chase Simon, currently ranked by most services as one of the Top 15 high school hoopsters in Michigan. Among his other offers included DePaul and Wisconsin.
If EZ and his staff can coach half as well as they recruit, expect the Chippewas to win some eye-opening OOC games and contend annually for the MAC title.
08-27-2006, 04:20 AM
simon sounds like a nice player and has good size but most of the good mac teams get guys like simon every year. kent signs a guy or two around that ranking every year from mich. toledo got shane ross (top 10 in state type guy) plus they went out of state last year and got amos (top 15 in texas) and kent ( fifth ranked guy in illnois!) miami got bramos last year. eastern is recruiting competitively in state.
central is now looking like a decent mac bball school. that's it, so far.
spica was kinda lucky as ziegler had helped sign him to ucla before that fell through leaving him few options and not a lot of contacts beside ziegler.
anyways, definately an improvement, go cmu, glad you're back.
central is now looking like a decent mac bball school. that's it, so far.
spica was kinda lucky as ziegler had helped sign him to ucla before that fell through leaving him few options and not a lot of contacts beside ziegler.
anyways, definately an improvement, go cmu, glad you're back.
08-27-2006, 12:21 PM
Every program in the MAC would like a kid like Spica. Hope he does well and the Chips get up. MAC basketball needs to get better.