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wadszip

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The only thing that really concerns me following the game if how we played without Antino on the floor. Noah will be out for a few weeks still, so Williams/Ivey will run the point when Antino is on the bench. The offense didn't click at all with those two as the main ball handlers.

Other than that I guess the only other things that need to get better are free throw shooting (as always), Pat stay out of foul trouble, and Big Dog needs to finish at the rim with more success.

Some positives are that Reggie looks like his stroke has gotten even better, Jake made some nice hustle plays, and Kwan is becoming a great vocal leader on the floor.

Good win, and I feel bad for Gary Waters. That team can't shoot for shit.

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The only thing that really concerns me following the game if how we played without Antino on the floor. Noah will be out for a few weeks still, so Williams/Ivey will run the point when Antino is on the bench. The offense didn't click at all with those two as the main ball handlers.

Other than that I guess the only other things that need to get better are free throw shooting (as always), Pat stay out of foul trouble, and Big Dog needs to finish at the rim with more success.

Some positives are that Reggie looks like his stroke has gotten even better, Jake made some nice hustle plays, and Kwan is becoming a great vocal leader on the floor.

Good win, and I feel bad for Gary Waters. That team can't shoot for shit.

You pretty much summed up my thoughts.

I will add that Kwan needs to pass up on being so trigger happy from three. He's a decent shooter for a 6-10 guy, but no good enough to continue to hoist up 4-5 a game. He averaged nearly 5 a game last year and put up four more tonight that all missed. When you are a low 30s guy from out there, not the best idea to Be that relient on what is a low percentage shot for him.

Josh Williams really struggled with over dribbling, but with this being his first game. Im not too worried. But Antino really needs to dominate the ball when he is in the game. And Antino was clearly the player of the game. Personally, he was an after thought for me when he signed with Robotham already in the class and Josh Williams waiting in the wings (Josh committed a year before Antino). He opened my eyes at the end of last year, and looks so much better this year, early on. The guy is going to be fun to watch for the next three years. He looks even quicker this year and can finish around the rim, something our guards have historically not been able to do in the KD era.

Really, this was a mediocre performance outside of a 10 or so minute stretch in the first half against a team that is going to be bad. Hardly a game to be excited about, but they still somehow won by double digits. But that was only because CSU was putrid (one of the worst stretches I've seen in a while) in that same 10 or so minute stretch Akron played well.

Luckily, there is Hiram to work out some of these issues before they head to Arkansas.

Edited by wadszip
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wadszip...the last part of your post says a lot about how we took a very deep lineup against a bad team and failed to make plays to get more distance, after that initial run in the first half. It could have been more about the concentration level lacking in the 2nd half with the big lead, but it was still really sloppy basketball.

However, I will tell you that one thing Cleveland State did very, very well was pressuring the ball handlers, and getting in the passing lanes. They even "overplayed" defensively in a lot of those situations, and I'm amazed that we didn't do a better job beating them on backside cuts and over the top passes to our big guys more often in this one.

I do wonder how Noah would have performed running the show vs. that pressure defense, as opposed to Josh and Antino. I guess we'll never know.

Edited by skip-zip
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Thoughts..... Wadszip summed it up pretty well. Antino is rapidly becoming one of my fav Zip guards in the past 20 years. He's heady, passionate and some of those finishes are just WOW ! A PG who can get to the rim is such a valuable asset at this level. When Robo gets back, this team will become light years better. Typical season opener, lots of work to be done.

The Vikes F C press was probably the softest I've ever seen. Cleveland State will fight to win 10 games this season and maybe, just maybe, the addition of N Ky to the horizon will keep them out of the basement.

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Hip Zip...you're right about the Full Court. Initially, it seemed like token pressure most of the time, but they really locked in after the ball crossed half court.

We actually did a pretty good job of utilizing the big men in the middle of the floor in the backcourt. That's usually the key to keeping the ball moving, and avoiding getting trapped against the sidelines. That may have had something to do with making their backcourt pressure look fairly ineffective.

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Good points about the Vikings press...it really wasn't the full court press that affected us, and I thought we handled it quite well in the first half. But after halftime they removed the full court and started pressing immediately as the guards reached half court. They were all over our PGs who struggled to get by the larger defenders (Josh especially). And when they did, there were CSU players clogging the lane and slapping the ball away. I would have liked to see some more pick and rolls and backdoor cuts to expose the over-aggressive defense,

The second half overall was just sloppy. We played extremely complacently and just turned the ball over constantly. And even when we weren't turning it over, we didn't really have many solid offensive possessions. Luckily CSU was bad enough and we had already built up enough of a lead that it never mattered.

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First impressions-it was a tale of 2 halves-overall Bminus

Individual observations as follows:

Antino-electric and lightening quick-needs to PASS more and dribble less

Big Dog-hands os stone-needs to stop bringing the ball down to dribble and needs to FINISH at the rim

Kwan-6'10 and wants to play shooting guard-don't see much improvement-needs to learn to play inside and utilize his size

Reggie-can do so much more-could be our leading scorer-needs to play MORE minutes -was best player on the court

Jake- smart, hustles, makes very few mistakes and can shoot it-also needs more minutes

Pat- seems improved-has some nice post moves-is stronger-but fouls WAY too much

Josh W-calm,shows leadership skills,but needs experience-will be a 4 yr starter-can drive to the hoop-shaky 2nd half

Jamond-extremely athletic and quick-still raw,but WOW-could be an elite scorer and CAN get to the hoop

Aaron J. very athletic,but didn't see enough to form a reasonable opinion

Can't is mediocre at best-middle of the pack in the MAC

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