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Game 21—@Miami


clarkwgriswold

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The Zips, off of a heartbreaking double overtime loss at Ball State, head into Oxford Tuesday night to face the 11-10 Redhawks.  The Redhawks are 4-4 in the MAC with wins over Central Michigan, Ball State, PCCC and BG and losses to Canada, Western, BG and Eastern.  6-3 freshman guard Nike Sibande leads the Redhawks in scoring at 14.9 ppg while 6-9 senior forward Logan McLane leads rebounding at 6.1 rpg.  The Redhawks were picked dead last in the MAC East preseason poll. They average 71.1 ppg and give up 69.9.   As many of you may recall, the Redhawks lost the Weathers twins in the offseason when they transferred out.

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  • Dr Z changed the title to Game 21—@Miami
6 minutes ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

By the way, does anyone with insider knowledge/contacts have any updated timetable for Sayles? He was still in his cast thing on Saturday, and I thought French said 2 weeks or so after it happened. 

I thought I heard on the air that the injury was going to be re-evaluated this week.

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9 minutes ago, NWAkron said:

Slightly more on topic, I wonder if the team traveled directly to Oxford on Sunday which is only 90 miles from Muncie instead of hauling back to Akron for a day and then loading up the bus again and taking another long bus trip.  (the things that I worry about ?!?!?)

 

I hear that.  I saw them loading up the bus early this afternoon.  That would have seemed to logistically make sense.  

 

However, we always have to remember that these kids are college students, and having them back in class again today, and saving the hotel costs, was probably deemed to be more beneficial and less costly. 

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1 minute ago, skip-zip said:

 

I hear that.  I saw them loading up the bus early this afternoon.  That would have seemed to logistically make sense.  

 

However, we always have to remember that these kids are college students, and having them back in class again today, and saving the hotel costs, was probably deemed to be more beneficial and less costly. 

Yeah.  I figured with classes that was going to be the situation but seems like just a brutal week for those guys.  Then early game Saturday.  

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1 hour ago, Blue & Gold said:

....nothing about our upcoming opponent


Akron looks for its first road win of the season in Oxford. The game is on ESPN3 with Steve Baker calling the action and Randy Hollowell providing analysis.
 
Miami enters the contest with an 11-10 overall record and 4-4 in MAC play. The RedHawks opened league play with a 77-72 win over Bowling Green to claim their first MAC road win. They followed with back-to-back home games and split the homestand with a loss to Western Michigan (67-62) and win over Kent State (80-69).The RedHawks dropped a pair, won a pair and fell to Eastern Michigan (58-48) the last time out at Millett Hall. This season, Miami is 6-3 (2-3 MAC) at home, 4-6  (2-1 MAC) on the road, and 1-1 in neutral site games.
 
Miami has one player scoring in double figures as Nike Sibande average 14.3 points on 42.2 percent shooting from the floor (105-of-249) and 35.8 percent from downtown with a team-high 42 made 3-point FG (48-of-134). Sabande shoots 68.9 percent from the free throw line (42-of-61) while grabbing 3.9 rebounds (81) and dishing out 1.1 assists (23) with 15 steals and five blocked shots.
 
Three additional players are averaging 9-plus points per night for Miami as Darrian Ringo leads this unit with 9.8 points per game. He shoots 46.7 percent from the floor (70-of-150) and 35.2 percent from deep with 19 made triples (19-of-54). Ringo dishes out a team-best 7.6 assists per contest (161).
 
Logan McLane and Jalen Adaway contribute 9.3 and 9.1 points per game, respectively. McLane adds  6.1 rebounds, grabbing a team-best 128 boards on the season, and Adaway grabs 5.8 boards on average(117) and leads the team in field goal percentage with a 53.7 rate.
 
In addition, Miami has 10 players with 10 or more made 3-point field goals and three players with 100-plus rebounds to date.  Jake Wright has knocked down a second-best 37 long distance buckets, while Dalonte Brown averages a second-best 5.6 rebounds a night (117). McLane and Brown each have 14 blocked shots.
 
Defensively, Miami limits their opponents to 69.2 points a night on 43.2 percent shooting from the field and 33.0 percent from downtown with 7.1 made 3-pt FG per game (149-of-451). The RedHawks caused 262 turnovers (12.0\5 tpg) while collecting 149 steals (7.1 stl/g) and 54 blocked shots (2.6  blk/g). On the glass, Miami slightly outrebounds its opponents 798-7324  for a 3.5 margin.

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I hope that Groce's experiment with starting Lucas Smith was a one shot deal.  I have nothing against the walk on but we just do not have enough offense to start him.  Klac and Utomi have not been reliable scorers.  We struggled in the start of the first and second half with this starting lineup because all of the pressure to score is on Jimond and Duvivier.  I stated in the last game that the key to us winning is getting production from Klac, Utomi, and to shoot the 3 ball at 40%.  It didn't happen and despite an amazing game from Jimond we lost.  Winning on the road after a tough loss will be difficult for this young team.    

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17 minutes ago, 1981 grad said:

I hope that Groce's experiment with starting Lucas Smith was a one shot deal.  I have nothing against the walk on but we just do not have enough offense to start him.  Klac and Utomi have not been reliable scorers.  We struggled in the start of the first and second half with this starting lineup because all of the pressure to score is on Jimond and Duvivier.  I stated in the last game that the key to us winning is getting production from Klac, Utomi, and to shoot the 3 ball at 40%.  It didn't happen and despite an amazing game from Jimond we lost.  Winning on the road after a tough loss will be difficult for this young team.    

You've brought this up a couple times now, but I don't really see the issue with starting him. It was reported Cotton had the flu. Its not like he played starter minutes. His 10 minutes played even with 3 guys fouling out and 2 overtimes should tell you all you need to know. I also think there is value in bringing a scoring spark off the bench, and Lucas Smith is never going to give you that. Utomi not being a scoring threat is a bigger problem than Lucas Smith starting. He needs to step up.

 

You could argue him starting caused us to get off to a slower start thus lose the game. You could also argue Jimond's missed dunk, Parrish's missed wide open bunny, and Utomi's good looks at the end of regulation and OT1 was the cause as well.

Edited by LZIp
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All hands on deck.  I look at Smith's role from the perspective of minutes played as opposed to whether he's starting, and he played only 10 minutes in a double OT game, so I am not too concerned.  I guess I'd rather have Kostelac available at the end of the game and prefer Smith using up his fouls then have Kostelac using them up early or a guy like Parrish being used in the post.  

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32 minutes ago, NWAkron said:

I always have this overwhelming feeling of dread wash over me when the Zips travel to Oxford.  It's no different today as I struggle to concentrate on work while knowing the Zips really, really need this win tonight.:rolleyes:

 

I get the same feeling.  I once had a bad cheesesteak in Oxford that terrorized the lower half of my digestive tract for 3 or 4 hours.  The feelings are very similar.

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1 hour ago, clarkwgriswold said:

All hands on deck.  I look at Smith's role from the perspective of minutes played as opposed to whether he's starting, and he played only 10 minutes in a double OT game, so I am not too concerned.  I guess I'd rather have Kostelac available at the end of the game and prefer Smith using up his fouls then have Kostelac using them up early or a guy like Parrish being used in the post.  

For sure Kostelak must stay out of foul trouble, limiting his time on the court. Really need his rim protection and rebounding presence. Any points he scores are a bonus.

 

Just as important, Utomi really needs to step up his game. A lot. (as was mentioned earlier).

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