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Game 19 - Central Michigan Chippewas


clarkwgriswold

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I am not buying the ugly win.  I thought the zips played well down the stretch.   Tyler Cheese had one of the best games of have seen from a Zip.  He was great on offense and defense.  He also did a great post game interview giving credit to his teammates who told him to be more aggressive and take more shots.  It is difficult to win when 2 of your starters Jackson and Utomi, shoot 2 for 20.  Watching Utomi shoot is painful.  He drives to the lane and then hesitates.  He needs to take the ball straight up.  He is missing wide open 3 balls and the shots are not close to going in.  However,  I give him credit because after the game he went back out and was shooting the ball.

 

On the postgame show they kept indicating how good Riak was on the floor.  I thought he was good but he needs to stop shooting the 3 ball.  This team does not need our center missing 3 balls.  I thought Poke had a really good game.  He was very active and made several players miss shots.  I thought he outplayed Sayles who looks slow.  He needs to move his feet and do a better job boxing out.  

 

I cracked up watching Cheese miss a layup when the nearest player was at half court.  He got the rebound and then made the second layup.  I have done that several times so it is fun watching a college player do it.  Of course on the post game he indicated he slipped.   Great win for the Zips.

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Another great game.  This team has to give 100% effort for 40-minutes to win.  Fun to watch when they pull it off.

Cheese has come into his own.  

Also glad to see Roscoe firmly back in the rotation.

E-man gave us some good minutes last night, especially defensively.  I still don't really trust him, though, & wish Sayles would kick it up a notch.  

I've never seen Utomi off for an entire game. He finished the night with zero points.

 

Ohio.com: Defense propels Zips to victory

 

Cheese had a double-double w/ 12 points & 12 rebounds.

Zips won the rebounds battle 46-42.

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Beating CMU with the stat line Utomi had is a testament to our defense and how gritty this team can be. They just need to figure out how to bottle up that effort & focus, and unleash it game in and game out. 

 

The JUCO kids, especially Cheese, are starting to figure out what MAC play is, which is a 13 round boxing match. The MAC may not have the best talent around, but you're going to get a fight from each and every team. That is where our road woes are coming from, because we can't find that full 13-round fight in us like we have at home. It's also nice to see Roscoe gaining some confidence with a growing role in the rotation. 

 

Groce is a March coach. I know I've said it a lot, but I can't help but look at each game as preparation for March. Speaking of months, I can't believe we're already nearly done with January. 

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5 minutes ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

The JUCO kids, especially Cheese, are starting to figure out what MAC play is,

 

I really like both Cheese and Banks.  

 

Considering how bare KD left our cupboard when he left, I'm really happy with how the team is playing in Groce Year Two.  Save Utomi & Ivey (two major pieces, I know) It was almost like Groce had to reboot the program from scratch.

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39 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said:

 

I really like both Cheese and Banks.  

 

Considering how bare KD left our cupboard when he left, I'm really happy with how the team is playing in Groce Year Two.  Save Utomi & Ivey (two major pieces, I know) It was almost like Groce had to reboot the program from scratch.

 

I like the growth, but they're still a couple of players short.  I think Williams and Reece may be the players next year to fill out a decent rotation.  Reece is only 6-5 or 6-6 but he plays much bigger and we need that help inside.

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Even if we were an average shooting 3-point team, I'd think we'd be extremely dangerous in March the way we play defense. It's easy to complain about us taking "too many 3's", but it's hard to fault a guy like Utomi who took a 3 when the nearest defender was 10 feet away.There was another we missed in the corner when LCJ beat the press and passed it off to I believe it was Cheese or Banks standing in the corner with nobody within 15 feet. Those are the shots we need to make. Teams are going to pack the paint and make us shoot over them in Cleveland. Frankly, I don't see how we can win unless we see some major progress in the shooting department.

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2 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

Even if we were an average shooting 3-point team, I'd think we'd be extremely dangerous in March the way we play defense. It's easy to complain about us taking "too many 3's", but it's hard to fault a guy like Utomi who took a 3 when the nearest defender was 10 feet away.There was another we missed in the corner when LCJ beat the press and passed it off to I believe it was Cheese or Banks standing in the corner with nobody within 15 feet. Those are the shots we need to make. Teams are going to pack the paint and make us shoot over them in Cleveland. Frankly, I don't see how we can win unless we see some major progress in the shooting department.

 

Well, we just beat a previously 14-4 CMU squad while shooting 18.5% from beyond the arc as a team, and your top scorer put up a goose egg. Your first sentence contradicts your last sentence (bold). ;)

Edited by Let'sGoZips94
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7 minutes ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

Well, we just beat a previously 14-4 CMU squad while shooting 18.5% from beyond the arc as a team, and your top scorer put up a goose egg. Your first sentence contradicts your last sentence (bold). ;)

I was referring to winning the MAC tournament. I'm not sure if you're aware, but Akron is a combined 40/170 (23.5%) from behind the arc during MAC play. The NCAA median 3P% is 34.4%. I'd classify an 11% jump in 3P% major progress. In fact, if we shot 34.4% on our 170 attempts, it would have translated into an additional 18.5 makes. That's an additional 9 points per game.

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54 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

I was referring to winning the MAC tournament. I'm not sure if you're aware, but Akron is a combined 40/170 (23.5%) from behind the arc during MAC play. The NCAA median 3P% is 34.4%. I'd classify an 11% jump in 3P% major progress. In fact, if we shot 34.4% on our 170 attempts, it would have translated into an additional 18.5 makes. That's an additional 9 points per game.

Let's just say he's missing a lot of 3s, and Zips will do better when he does better.:champs:

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1 hour ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

Well, we just beat a previously 14-4 CMU squad while shooting 18.5% from beyond the arc as a team, and your top scorer put up a goose egg. Your first sentence contradicts your last sentence (bold). ;)

 

I wouldn't put too much on CMU's record.  Their OOC schedule was weeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak.

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I think Utomi will come around.

 

I've noticed in recent games at the JAR that teams are not sagging off of him for help defense.  They've figured out he's the top shooting threat so they are not sagging for help defense when the ball is on the other side of the floor.  As a result, he's not getting as many open looks.

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4 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

I think Utomi will come around.

 

I've noticed in recent games at the JAR that teams are not sagging off of him for help defense.  They've figured out he's the top shooting threat so they are not sagging for help defense when the ball is on the other side of the floor.  As a result, he's not getting as many open looks.

I noticed that as well.  He's still heavily guarded.  I also saw Jayden's complete fail after the missed free throw.  LCJ yanked after running down the court and tossing up low percentage shot in the lane without even looking to pass.

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35 minutes ago, NWAkron said:

I noticed that as well.  He's still heavily guarded.  I also saw Jayden's complete fail after the missed free throw.  LCJ yanked after running down the court and tossing up low percentage shot in the lane without even looking to pass.

I also saw Riak pulled each time he shot the 3 ball.  I liked how they got yanked.  I noticed on the box score that LCJ only played 23 minutes.  I would like to keep those minutes where they are until he starts making the 3 ball or starts taking better shots.  When he is off, Utomi is off, and our centers are offensively challenged, we are only getting scoring from Cheese and Ivey and we struggle.  Cheese is doing a good job running the point.  I thought Jackson did well beating the press and handling the ball, expecially at the end of the game.

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Yes, I have to agree with Cheese doing an excellent job of running the point as of late. Earlier in the year I was a naysayer stating I felt he was only a 2 guard. I was proven wrong (not the 1st time).  Since then he's gotten more aggressive attacking the basket which has led to him creating offense for both himself and for teammates.

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On 1/22/2019 at 12:55 PM, Captain Kangaroo said:

Just learned that I will be working the concession stand at a Hudson HS tonight. Yippee.

 

No beer at The Score for me. :nutkick:

 

Good thing you were in concession stand dude.  32 to 30 Mayfield???  Hope you had coffee to sell to keep everyone awake!  :zzz:

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6 hours ago, ZipsVoice said:

 

Good thing you were in concession stand dude.  32 to 30 Mayfield???  Hope you had coffee to sell to keep everyone awake!  :zzz:

You ain’t kidding. I stopped in and watched the last 4 minutes. It was awful. Hudson was up 30-29 with 1:12 to go and tried to run the clock down. With 20 seconds left Mayfield stole the ball and got an and-1 off the fast break. Game over. There are some good players in Hudson, but few want to play for the coach. Most play rec ball instead. 

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12 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

I was referring to winning the MAC tournament. I'm not sure if you're aware, but Akron is a combined 40/170 (23.5%) from behind the arc during MAC play. The NCAA median 3P% is 34.4%. I'd classify an 11% jump in 3P% major progress. In fact, if we shot 34.4% on our 170 attempts, it would have translated into an additional 18.5 makes. That's an additional 9 points per game.

 

Improving 11% from 23.5% would bump their 3-point stat to 26.085%.  That's really not major progress. Bumping it by 46.383% to get to 34.4%; now your talking major.

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