GoZips.com recently visited with Zips' men's basketball head coach Keith Dambrot to discuss his outlook for the 2008-09 season. In four seasons at the helm of the program, Dambrot has led Akron to a 92-38 record, consecutive appearances in the Mid-American Conference Tournament championship game (2007 and 2008), a MAC East Division title (2007) and twice advanced to the second round of the National Invitation Tournament (2006 and 2008).

General comments and expectations for the 2008-09 season:
“As we look at next year’s team, it is the youngest I have had here, with nine freshmen (six true freshman and three redshirt-freshmen) and only one senior out of the 13 scholarship players (Nate Linhart and Jimmy Conyers are both listed as seniors, but Conyers could earn a year back after sitting out in 2005-06 due to academics). Nine out of those 13 will be freshmen and sophomores. We may not have just the youngest team in the Mid-American Conference, but one of the youngest teams in the country. With that being said, I think we have built a winning tradition here and we expect those who have been in the program to teach the younger players what Akron Basketball is all about. We feel that this is not a rebuilding year, but rather a reloading year. We are going to try to get our young players as experienced as possible as quickly as possible.”

How do you manage the increased expectations of the program with such a youthful roster:
“We have created high expectations for our fan base and we have high expectations as a coaching staff, so we have created a monster, but we have to be realistic also. We are not going to use our youth as an excuse, what we have to do is grow up in a hurry. Our leading scorer coming back (Nate Linhart) only averaged 8.5 points a game last season, and we’ve lost five 1,000-point scorers over the last two seasons (Dru Joyce and Romeo Travis in 2006-07; and Nick Dials, Cedrick Middleton and Jeremiah Wood in 2007-08). I think our fans have to realize that we have a good nucleus of players, but they are very young. As a staff we have to realize that we might have some growing pains associated with that, and we have to understand what we are dealing with in terms of that. We expect to win every night out, but we have to be mindful of how youthful we are. We have chosen this path, we could have gone the junior college or transfer route, but have chosen, for the well being of the program, to work on developing players and wanted go the high school route to do that.”

What do you see as the strengths of this season’s team:
“I think we will be super aggressive this year and utilize our depth, we feel that we have a lot of players who are the same. That game plan better fits my basic philosophy. We played more conservative than I probably would have liked in recent seasons because that was what was best for us personnel wise. We don’t feel that we have a bad player in the program. We have much better quickness than we have had, but are probably not as dominant on the inside as we have been. With knowing that, we have to be smart enough to change our approach. We have some players who have waited their turn and probably could have played immediately on other teams, but had to wait their turn to get minutes with us. For example, Chris McKnight, Brett McKnight, Darryl Roberts and Steve McNees. We have some guys who are good players, but just haven’t had as much opportunity to play up to this point. I think that is the mark of a good program and is a definite strength.”

What are your concerns for next season’s team:
“I think there are two things. One, can we score inside? Two, can we defend and rebound inside? We have gone through two of the better inside players in the league in Jeremiah Wood and Romeo Travis over the last two seasons. The Wood injury (knee) helped us last year, in the long term, because those kids had to play without him for a time. Another concern is while I think we are really talented in the backcourt, we are as young as can be. So how quickly can Ronnie Steward and “Humpty” Hitchens adjust to playing a lot? How quickly can Steve McNees and Darryl Roberts take a jump from being complimentary players to being consistent scorers? These are all questions that you don’t know the answers to until you get into it a little bit. I believe in the talent level, but do we have enough toughness in the freshmen and sophomores? Do we have enough players that have been through the daily grind to be a high-level consistent team in our league like we have been?”

You have a guard heavy roster, what is your plan for those players:
“Our plan right now is to move (Steve) McNees to the two guard spot (played point guard last season). We feel that all five of our combo guards, if you include Brett McClanahan as a guard/forward, can handle the ball and shoot the ball. We feel that we are in pretty good shape in terms of ball handling and quickness. What we have to figure out is who is good at what and what is good at who, I think, and find out what combinations work best. That is the best way to put it.”

With Jeremiah Wood finished with his eligibility, talk about the Zips’ inside game:
“The McKnights (brothers Brett and Chris) give you the ability to stretch the floor and open up driving lanes for the guards. We can pull bigger players away from the basket because Brett and Chris both shoot the ball well and are good post-up players, also. They need to show that they can rebound the ball better and defend better, I think that is something that is going to be key for us. We have a known in Mike Bardo. We know that he can defend and rebound at this level. We think he is at the upper end in those two areas, especially defensively. We feel that he is a good team defender. (Steve) Swiech has come a long way in a short time and is a big-bodied player with good touch. Jimmy Conyers also gives us experience at this spot, and we have two new players Nikola (Cvetinovic) and Andrew (Parrish) that are big bodied. So we have some unknowns, but we have different ways we can go with it.”

Talk about the importance of Nate Linhart, your top-returning scorer, to this year’s team:
“We feel that Nate is one of the better defenders in the nation, and he has made himself into that. I think if we would have told people that he would grow into that role in college when he was playing in high school they would have thought we were out of our minds. But he has shown that he can guard any position and is a good offensive and defensive rebounder. He continues to improve and has had a great spring and summer working out. We think he will continue to improve his scoring, also.”

How much do you need the large freshmen class to contribute this season:
“In general terms, if we can get one of the freshmen to contribute we will be okay, if we can get two of them to contribute we have a chance to be a better team and if we can get three of them to contribute then we have a chance to be really good. If we can get three players out of that group to be consistent contributors to our returning group then we have the potential to be very good.”

Your schedule is not yet finalized, but what can you tell us about it and your planning for future schedules:
“We are still finalizing a few things for this year, but I think it is one of the best schedules we have had, which was done for a reason. This team needs to get pushed a little bit in order to get them ready. As our team gets more experienced we will shoot to get the high-majors home-and-home, which is more possible now than ever because less teams are getting bought. We will continue to play the mid-majors and sprinkle in a home-and-home or a neutral game with a high-major, and as the program develops and the young players become juniors we will try to get more high-majors. Down the line, I would like to get three or four of those type of teams on the schedule every year. First off, UCLA and teams like that are not going to come here, but the hope is to get a team like an Oklahoma State or a Xavier into our arena.”

What do you expect of the Mid-American Conference this season:
“It’s going to be the typical competitive MAC, I’m sure. Kent State and Miami are loaded and Western Michigan has a lot of people back. Probably, Northern Illinois is the great unknown because they have something like seven new players, including some transfers from (University of) Colorado. I think Eastern Michigan could be a surprise team, they have a number of players who were injured last season returning. Bowling Green is another that has a good nucleus back. Without question, it will be the typical MAC grind.”