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Zips vs. Western Michigan- 1/6/17


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9 hours ago, 1981 grad said:

I stated earlier when trying to predict how this team would do I could not find a "go to guy."  But tonight I thought there were a couple of key plays that turned the game around.  One was a steal and dunk by Jimond that started our run to the lead and another was a clutch 3 pointer by Kwan.  Big Dog also had some key baskets down the stretch.  Western Michigan double teamed Big Dog and covered Jimond under the basket leaving our 3 point shooters open and we could not hit the 3 ball.  Antino missed wide open 3 balls, Noah, missed wide open 3 balls, and Josh did not score in 27 minutes of play.  These guys are supposed to be our shooters, they are playing at home, they have open looks, and there is no reason for them to shoot the ball that badly.    Luckily, Western Michigan shot 37% from the line. Kwan has really played smart this year and is having a great senior season.  After he scored he pressured the inbounds play causing a turnover.   He is also giving us some inside scoring. I think if our guards struggle away from the Jar we are going to have a hard time winning on the road.  Hopefully, this will be their worst shooting game.  Looking forward to Tuesday's game.  Go Zips!   

Well said.

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14 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

Akron shot under 25% from 3 and still escaped with the win. Finding ways to win when you're having a poor shooting night is what good teams do.

Yep. This is a very good team. Ivey adds a dimension we haven't seen in a while. I'm really liking his game

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1 hour ago, zippy5 said:

Yep. This is a very good team. Ivey adds a dimension we haven't seen in a while. I'm really liking his game

A much needed dimension honestly. I'm very impressed with Ivey. He's got some Ibatayo to his game.

Edited by LZIp
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13 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

I honestly didn't see a matchup problem. We held WMU to under 60 points playing some great D that final ~10 minutes. Outside of Antino forcing a few shots, I thought we mostly got quality looks. Ivey air balled a 3 with the nearest defender 7-8 feet away. Noah couldn't have possibly been anymore open on 2-3 of the ones he missed.

 

Some nights they just don't fall. We lost to an equally as bad Miami team last year by 13 points on a night we couldn't buy a shot. We should be thankful we had our poor shooting night against a team we could manage to overcome instead of someone that would make us pay for it. We don't normally have bad shooting nights at home, but it was bound to happen at some point.

 

I hope that's what it was and they'll shake themselves out of it.

 

I'd sure like to see some more consistency and aggressiveness out of Josh.  I think he may be adjusting to heading back to the bench.  He's become just a little too much of a catch and shoot guy and I think if he'd put the ball on the floor a little more he'd actually see defenders back off a little but and give him more room for the 3.

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56 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

 

I'd sure like to see some more consistency and aggressiveness out of Josh.  I think he may be adjusting to heading back to the bench.  He's become just a little too much of a catch and shoot guy and I think if he'd put the ball on the floor a little more he'd actually see defenders back off a little but and give him more room for the 3.

This development has been one of the biggest disappointments for me.  Josh was a sublime PG in high school & the only two recruits I've ever been as excited about signing have been Zeke Marshall & Jimmal Ball.  I was more excited about signing Josh than I was about us signing Big Dog & I knew Big Dog had the chance to be a great one.  But Josh just doesn't seem to be quick enough at this level to be anything other than a spot-up 3-point shooter.  I never saw that coming.

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1 hour ago, Blue & Gold said:

This development has been one of the biggest disappointments for me.  Josh was a sublime PG in high school & the only two recruits I've ever been as excited about signing have been Zeke Marshall & Jimmal Ball.  I was more excited about signing Josh than I was about us signing Big Dog & I knew Big Dog had the chance to be a great one.  But Josh just doesn't seem to be quick enough at this level to be anything other than a spot-up 3-point shooter.  I never saw that coming.

I think it is way to early to give up on Josh.  He is one of our best 3 point shooters and made a clutch 3 point shot at the Bowling Green game.  His defense has improved. (although last night he had his back to the ball and let his man cut to the hoop for an easy dunk)  He needs to develop confidence to dribble drive to the basket and finish at the basket on a consistent basis and work on this part of his game.  Historically, one of the negatives of our inside out game is that our outside players just rely on the three and never develop an ability to drive to the basket.  This season 80% of Joshes shots are from the 3 line and he has only gone to the line 12 times.  Antino who has played just about the same number of minutes, has gone to the foul line 34 times.  KD needs to get the guards to develop this part of their game.  I think that in guard play Antino is best at dribble penetration followed by Dunn Martin, Noah and Josh. 

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10 minutes ago, ZachTheZip said:

 

We need one more guard/wing that can do this consistently to really open up the offense (and the rotation).

Utomi, Utomi, Utomi.  His D can't possibly be so bad as to get zero PT.  Dude's got an NBA body.

 

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4 hours ago, LZIp said:

A much needed dimension honestly. I'm very impressed with Ivey. He's got some Ibatayo to his game.

Ha ha.  It's a relief to hear Ibi get that type of acclaim after his Zips career, as most everyone on this board had given up on him before his junior season -- everyone except the Zip in Paradise, that is! :)  Similarly, many thought Kwan Cheatham was a liability going into his senior year.  "Oh, ye of little faith".  Our team has six certified 3-point shooters on the roster.  If 1/3 of those players are shooting close to 50%, we can beat any team in the MAC,  especially with Keith's inside-out philosophy.  And, when we get fewer than the requisite 3-point baskets, we have the best post player in the league to dig us out.  We all know, nothing comes easy in this league.  We will be an underdog maybe two or three times the rest of the season.  I'll be more than a little surprised if we don't get the #1 seed to Believeland.  Believe it, this is Keith Dambrot's best team, at least till next season.  Which, addenduming the statement, makes me disappointed that big Mike Hughes hasn't gotten more PT these last two games.  I'm hopeful he gets an opportunity to contribute (like 10 m. plus) the rest of the MAC season.

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3 hours ago, Blue & Gold said:

Utomi, Utomi, Utomi.  His D can't possibly be so bad as to get zero PT.  Dude's got an NBA body.

 

He may have an NBA body, but he is another guy who likes to fire up the 3 ball and 11 of this 18 shots are from the 3 line.  His defense has not stood out as bad but have hardly seen him play except in blow outs. 

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8 hours ago, Blue & Gold said:

 But Josh just doesn't seem to be quick enough at this level to be anything other than a spot-up 3-point shooter.  I never saw that coming.

 

I think that's what I am seeing too, and I hope I am wrong.  But he certainly seems to be almost exclusively settling for the outside shot.  Could be a lack of confidence putting the ball on the floor and beating people, and it could be coach's directions too.  Could be a lot of things.  

 

But here's the deal:  Having long range spot-up shooters isn't necessarily a bad thing, if they score like he is able to score.  We've had them before.  In fact, we just graduated two guys who spent the majority of their careers waiting out at the 3-point line waiting to shoot, and they both were able to do great things for us at times.  More than anything else, I just hope he quickly shakes off the shooting difficulties he had last night.  I really think he's just as capable of pouring in 20 points from his role under the same circumstances.  

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It was very fortunate that we had our top 3 guards go stone-cold from 3-point land, yet still emerge with a win. The bulk of our looks were wide-open 3's, and with with Antino/Josh/Noah shooting 40% from 3-land in 2016-17, I'll take that all day long.

 

Kwan's been awesome. Clutch 3-pointers to close out the half, and then the game. I wish he had another year remaining. 

 

Tavian gave us a great lift when we needed it. I wish he got a few more minutes, but KD elected not to play him because he'd missed practice due to pink eye. You don't practice, you can't play. 

 

Josh wasn't himself Friday night. He had a couple of his fingers taped, and I have to believe there was something wrong with his hand. He couldn't control the ball when dribbling, and couldn't shoot either.

 

Ivey gives us a dimension we haven't had on any other Dambrot team - an athletic slasher that isn't tethered to the bench! Dog is such a good passer...with Ivey slicing to the hole and two 40% 3-point shooters spaces at the 3-line, we're going to run more teams off the floor than we'll struggle.

 

As someone stated earlier - the Big Dog's gotta stay healthy. Kwan too. Does Big Mike have a 10 point game in him? I gotta believe at some point that he breaks out. 

 

Looking forward to the CMU game. I think we'll dominate. The entire guard group can't possibly have another outing like Friday.

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