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Game 30- Bowling Green


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The 20-9 Falcons come into the JAR Tuesday night for the Zips Senior Night.  Since topping the Zips on February 19th, the Falcons  lost to OU and Buffalo and are coming off of a win over PCCC.   Justin Turner, who killed the Zips in the second half on the 19th, continues to lead Falcon scoring at 18.7 ppg while Wiggins leads rebounding at  11.2 rpg.

 

I think we find out a lot about our Zips Tuesday night.   Will they come out with some fight in them after Saturday's abomination or will we see a team with a damaged psyche?

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I am curious to see what happens with LCJ Tuesday night.  Will he still be the predominant ball handler or will his banishment to the bench Saturday afternoon carry over?  They've ridden that horse all season, so I don't anticipate a huge change, but I think we may see more of the setup where Cheese is the primary ball handler.

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I can't be there, so everyone please give Ivey a great ovation.

 

The last part of the season's been rough, but I hope everyone cheers this team on.  It's so easy to soon forget that KD left this program in a heap of ashes.  Groce has almost had an identical job as Zips' baseball coach, Chris Sabo, i.e., starting from scratch.

 

Ivey stuck around and is a Zip for life!

 

Thank you Jimmond!!!

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1 hour ago, clarkwgriswold said:

I am curious to see what happens with LCJ Tuesday night.  Will he still be the predominant ball handler or will his banishment to the bench Saturday afternoon carry over?  They've ridden that horse all season, so I don't anticipate a huge change, but I think we may see more of the setup where Cheese is the primary ball handler.

I noticed that LCJ was the first one off the bench cheering on his teammates after he was taken out on Saturday.  I think he has the right attitude.  He has a poor percentage shooting the 3.  He has a quick first step but has had difficulty finishing among the trees near the basket.  He has been making his short jumpers but forever reason does not want to take that shot.  When he plays poorly this team looks really bad.  I like Cheese playing point.

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Nothing like losing 5 of 6 to temper the enthusiasm in here.

 

Not sure what to expect for a crowd tonight.  Hoping for a lot of people who promised their kid a game this year to make good on their last chance.  I certainly hope at least for an enthusiastic crowd for Ivey as that kid has given his all for the Zips.

 

I have been critical of the Beacon and George Thomas but I have to admit he has been better over the last month or so.

 

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I watched a replay of the game on Saturday and looked to see if there was no effort from the players.  I did not see a lack of effort although we did lose our share of 50/50 balls.  What I saw was total frustration with an offense that cannot put the ball in the basket.  

 

We could not shoot the 3 ball.  We missed our share of layups.  When we drove to the basket and tried to pass the ball our centers they could not hold onto the ball, we could not finish at the hoop, or we turned the ball over.  Watching Ivey, Riak, UTomi and Jackson shoot the 3 ball was painful.  These shots were not even close.  I watched Ivey warm up at before the 2nd the half and he missed his last four 3 ball attempts.  Within the first 30 seconds of the 2nd half he took an open 3 and does not even draw rim.  I saw Ivey back down his man and then pass to Utomi for an open 3, clank.  This teams offense is built around its weakness, shooting the 3 ball.  Daniel is supposed to be our scorer, that did not happen.  Ivey cannot hit a 3 point shot.  Jackson cannot regularly finish at the basket or hit a 3 pointer.  Cheese and Banks had problems finishing around the basket.  And our centers are offensively challenged and cannot create their own shots.  Not a recipe for success.  As poorly as Jackson played, Walters has no offense.  Adding him to the mix adds nothing to putting the ball in the basket.  

 

THis offense has had problems clicking all MAC season but has been bailed out by the defense.  Ohio got hot from the 3 line and just ran us off the court and did a great job of reversing the ball to the weak side off of our double team.  I think other coaches realize the best way to defend Akron is to pack in the middle and let them beat you from the outside.

 

I love the athleticism that Groce has brought to this team.  However, the shooting has been inconsistent all season.  I still do not know why Groce will not introduce the 15 foot jumper into the offense.  He is the coach and when your team cannot shoot the long ball you need to get them to shoot the short ball.  This team needs to shoot the ball better tonight.  Go Zips!    

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38 minutes ago, 1981 grad said:

I watched a replay of the game on Saturday and looked to see if there was no effort from the players.  I did not see a lack of effort although we did lose our share of 50/50 balls.  What I saw was total frustration with an offense that cannot put the ball in the basket.  

 

We could not shoot the 3 ball.  We missed our share of layups.  When we drove to the basket and tried to pass the ball our centers they could not hold onto the ball, we could not finish at the hoop, or we turned the ball over.  Watching Ivey, Riak, UTomi and Jackson shoot the 3 ball was painful.  These shots were not even close.  I watched Ivey warm up at before the 2nd the half and he missed his last four 3 ball attempts.  Within the first 30 seconds of the 2nd half he took an open 3 and does not even draw rim.  I saw Ivey back down his man and then pass to Utomi for an open 3, clank.  This teams offense is built around its weakness, shooting the 3 ball.  Daniel is supposed to be our scorer, that did not happen.  Ivey cannot hit a 3 point shot.  Jackson cannot regularly finish at the basket or hit a 3 pointer.  Cheese and Banks had problems finishing around the basket.  And our centers are offensively challenged and cannot create their own shots.  Not a recipe for success.  As poorly as Jackson played, Walters has no offense.  Adding him to the mix adds nothing to putting the ball in the basket.  

 

THis offense has had problems clicking all MAC season but has been bailed out by the defense.  Ohio got hot from the 3 line and just ran us off the court and did a great job of reversing the ball to the weak side off of our double team.  I think other coaches realize the best way to defend Akron is to pack in the middle and let them beat you from the outside.

 

I love the athleticism that Groce has brought to this team.  However, the shooting has been inconsistent all season.  I still do not know why Groce will not introduce the 15 foot jumper into the offense.  He is the coach and when your team cannot shoot the long ball you need to get them to shoot the short ball.  This team needs to shoot the ball better tonight.  Go Zips!    

 

...and at times, it seems like their shooting from inside the restricted area arc is as bad as their shooting from outside of the three point arc!

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I remember an interview of Bob Huggins three or four years ago where he essentially said that most college offenses come down to 15 to 20 seconds of running your offense that fails because the other team has scouted you followed by a pick and roll.  Unfortunately, our pick and roll has not worked.  Our ball handler comes off of the pick and very seldom successfully gets the ball to the big man.  A part of that is defense, another part is that we don't have big men that can finish.  I can't remember the last Poke lob.  They also tend all too often to get bogged down with one guy pounding the ball while 4 guys stand and watch.   That makes me crazy.

 

As for Scott Walter, I don't think he was put in as a solution.  He was put in to send a message.

 

Some MAC offensive rankings- the Zips are 12th in offense/average points scored; 12th in field goal percentage; and 10th in 3 point shooting percentage.  Just imagine how much better this team could be if they were in the middle of the pack offensively as they dominate the defensive team categories.

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How are we 10th in 3 point shooting %? Those other 2 teams must be extremely abysmal.

 

Yeah, I have to believe when Groce assembled this roster he expected them to be a much better 3-point shooting team than they are. Utomi was a career 40%+ career 3-point shooter. LCJ was a modest 34.8% 3-point shooter at LBSU. I don't know what Channel Banks JUCO numbers are, but he seemed to have good form and was hitting them consistently during OOC play. Jimond Ivey was a 34% 3-point shooter his prior two years. Nothing great, but it's good enough that you'd expect him to knock down his wide open looks fairly consistently. The issue is Utomi, LCJ, and Ivey are under performing their career averages by a significant amount. The team wasn't built to feature a back to the basket post up scorer and since nobody respects our outside shooting, teams are packing the paint and forcing us to shoot over them.

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First of all, it is nice to see that people care enough about this team to post. 

 

Akron is 17th in the country in 3 ball attempts and 322nd out of 351 on 3 point percentage.  Since MAC play we have shot the 3 ball worse and would actually be 346th in country on 3 ball percentage if we just use MAC stats.   Jackson 3 ball percentage in the MAC is 232, worse than the team and he is second on the team on 3 ball attempts.  When he drives to the basket he struggles because he cannot finish at the basket,  He can beat his man off the dribble but then runs into the center and he cannot dump a pass off to our center in most situations.  I have seen Jackson make his last 3 short jumpers.  (he has only taken 3 in the last 5 games) He can beat his man off the dribble, step back and drain a 15 footer.  He just does not attempt that shot.

 

If Jackson or Cheese were not hustling, then put in Walters.  When our offense is struggling, to put in a guy who has no offense, that shows me the coach is just frustrated.  Groce stated that he had a great 3 point shooting team early in the season.  He obviously did not know this team.  With KD we had dominating big men, great shooters but defensive breakdowns.  With Groce we have athletic players with poor shooting and defensive minded centers.   Still hoping that we can find our shot in the last few games.

 

 

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Groce has said that this is one of the better 3-point shooting teams he has had and that the shots will eventually start falling. He must see something very different in practice than we see in the games.

 

I watched Cheese and Banks quite a bit in the early season in warm ups and came to the conclusion that Cheese's shot was spotty while Banks was a real shooter. They have gone in clearly opposite directions. Watching Banks now it looks like the ball is coming out of his hand inconsistently. It is also very obvious that he has completely lost the confidence in his shot.

 

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35 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

Groce has said that this is one of the better 3-point shooting teams he has had and that the shots will eventually start falling. He must see something very different in practice than we see in the games.

 

I watched Cheese and Banks quite a bit in the early season in warm ups and came to the conclusion that Cheese's shot was spotty while Banks was a real shooter. They have gone in clearly opposite directions. Watching Banks now it looks like the ball is coming out of his hand inconsistently. It is also very obvious that he has completely lost the confidence in his shot.

 

I think just about everyone has lost confidence. We're taking something between 25-30 shots a game and what's crazy is they're all mostly pretty good looks. Teams seem to be just daring us to shoot at this point knowing our struggles. We just can't hit anything.

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On 3/2/2019 at 8:03 PM, clarkwgriswold said:

I've noticed that when the Zips are playing well I refer to them as "we" and when they play poorly they are the "Zips" or "they."  The ZIPS need to play better Tuesday night than THEY did today.  If they win, WE will have to carry it over to the PCCC game.

 

Funny, I have said the same thing to my wife.  

 

I'm expecting and will only accept  an inspired effort tonight.  I'm thinking that we win this one  despite the Falcon's big 3 scorers . Defense rules.

 

 

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I wished I shared your optimism. We always indicated that players always seemed to get better under KD.  Look at the stats of the 2 guys that have stayed with the team, Utomi and Ivey for the past 3 years.  In 2016-2017 these guys were role players and Big Dog fed them the ball of the double team and they prospered.  I think their game has suffered with the new coach and new players each year. I think Daniel is really having an off year.  He is very hesitant when he is backs down into the lane and his 3 points shooting has been off.  Ivey is struggling with his 3 point shooting.  Ivey is a great player and I hope he has a great senior night.   

 

2016-2017    FG%       3pt FG%                       

Utomi           446         419

Ivey               520         337

 

2017-2018

Utomi          450        402

Ivey              400        339

 

Current

Utomi         388         369

Ivey             464         258

 

 

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I feel that last year was easily Utomi's best season before dropping off this season. He hardly saw the court under Dambrot while he was an extremely efficient #1 scorer on a team that didn't have much offensive firepower. He's probably the player I've been most disappointed in this year despite him being our best offensive weapon. I really thought he'd be in heavy consideration for 1st team All-MAC this year. I still have faith he will turn it around at some point. Whether it will be in Cleveland or next season I don't know. He's just too good to be shooting like he has been over the past 2+ months.

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