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MAC Semi-Finals- Buffalo


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1 minute ago, dre22era said:

It was a dumb ass low percentage shot coming out of a timeout 

Akron was 6-26 from 3 but they expect that bullshit to go in. 

With a tie game you play for a midrange shot

 

I would've liked to have seen a pass fake to the 3 guy and lobbed it up towards the hoop with Freeman or another big slashing to the hoop. 2009 Brett McKnight style. 

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1 minute ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

I would've liked to have seen a pass fake to the 3 guy and lobbed it up towards the hoop with Freeman or another big slashing to the hoop. 2009 Brett McKnight style. 

I would too. But UB had it covered. Sometimes there's another team on the floor that deserves a little credit

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Just now, zippy5 said:

I would too. But UB had it covered. Sometimes there's another team on the floor that deserves a little credit

 

I don't think they did. They had M'Balla on the ball, meaning he wasn't guarding the basket, and by the looks of Ali and the play development, it looked like it was LCJ 3 or bust. I never saw Freeman or the other big in the game make any move toward the basket. 

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8 minutes ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

I don't think they did. They had M'Balla on the ball, meaning he wasn't guarding the basket, and by the looks of Ali and the play development, it looked like it was LCJ 3 or bust. I never saw Freeman or the other big in the game make any move toward the basket. 

 

Correct.  When inbounding from the baseline they have ran the very same play 2 or 3 times in the past few games and the last two resulted in hoops.  A double  screen with LCJ rolling to the corner unhindered. The ran it perfectly again tonight but the shot didn't drop. Just wasn't LCJ's night

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1 hour ago, Illini Zip said:

I would say exhaustion took us out. Some of our bench depth is back in Akron. And this was a very physical game. Just ran out of gas. Great game!! Wrong outcome. 

From what I saw from my seat in the arena, it looked like that.  the team was spent.  When they went into OT, I thought, ugh, these guys aren't. going to hold up for a game Saturday night, especially when all they have is LCJ to carry them to the finish line.  So relieved that the COVID season is over.

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Just got home. I’m tired. I’ll post more tomorrow (later today). I’m looking forward to the off-season and the continuation of Groce building this program. 
 

Akron had every chance to win that game. Good looks all around, LCJ getting good looks within 7 feet, decent rebounding, really good D. Groce coached his ass off the last couple of weeks to get these guys to where they were tonight. But credit to Buffalo, they took advantage of almost every single blown coverage. Despite (another) bad shooting night by every Zip, they gave themselves a chance. Just didn’t execute. Thank you LCJ. For everything. You were a blast to watch, I’m crushed it had to end that way. 

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You live and die with three point shooting. This was the story of the game. The Zips played well overall, but only shot 25% from 3 point range. If that was their yearly average, they would rank at the bottom of college basketball with Chicago State. 

 

Buffalo is a tough team. The Zips had their chances early in the game with a lot of relatively open 3 point looks and didn't convert. In fact, many missed badly to the point you have to wonder if tournament fatigue was taking over. To beat team like Buffalo you need a complete 40 minute game and the Zips fell short. 

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I am bummed out this morning that we are not in the finals and I am sure that everyone on this board feels the same way.  What is especially frustrating is that the Zips played well enough to win.  They played with determination and grit.  Although they did not shoot well, during most of the game we saw a lot of movement without the ball and some great drives and scoring in the paint.  Once again, our three point shooting sucked and we shot 25%.  That seemed to be the achilles heel of this team late in the season.  What is especially disappointing is that all year long we knew that with the game on the line, we want LCJ to get the ball and finish the game.  He had the open shot and rushed it and did not draw rim.  It was a difficult shot but one he made before in our last game with Buffalo.  The fact that he did not draw rim showed me he was exhausted and we floundered in overtime.  I think LCJ will always go down in Akron history as our best guard but this season we never developed that consistent second scorer on this team to take pressure off of his 5 foot six inch frame.  I hope everyone can see the irony in the past two seasons.  Last year we got to attend every game but no tournament.  This year we could not attend any game except for the tournament.  Looking forward to next year and hoping that Freeman develops an offensive game to match his defense.  That will worth the price of admission just to watch his development.   

Edited by 1981 grad
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44 minutes ago, 1981 grad said:

I am bummed out this morning that we are not in the finals and I am sure that everyone on this board feels the same way.  What is especially frustrating is that the Zips played well enough to win.  They played with determination and grit.  Although they did not shoot well, during most of the game we saw a lot of movement without the ball and some great drives and scoring in the paint.  Once again, our three point shooting sucked and we shot 25%.  That seemed to be the achilles heel of this team late in the season.  What is especially disappointing is that all year long we knew that with the game on the line, we want LCJ to get the ball and finish the game.  He had the open shot and rushed it and did not draw rim.  It was a difficult shot but one he made before in our last game with Buffalo.  The fact that he did not draw rim showed me he was exhausted and we floundered in overtime.  I think LCJ will always go down in Akron history as our best guard but this season we never developed that consistent second scorer on this team to take pressure off of his 5 foot sixth inch frame.  I hope everyone can see the irony in the past two seasons.  Last year we got to attend every game but no tournament.  This year we could not attend any game except for the tournament.  Looking forward to next year and hoping that Freeman develops an offensive game to match his defense.  That will worth the price of admission just to watch his development.   

 

 With rare exceptions, most teams in the tournament 'play well enough to win' the challenge is to ultimately win it ... and to do that teams must not only execute at a high level the final 4-minutes of the game, but also execute with the right personnel. Kudos to LCJ but the fact - aside from about a three week stretch from Trimble - there was no proven second or third scorer, or no player who could execute on the block, to help him was Akron's ultimate downfall.

 

It seems the Zips whiffed on Currie. As a freshman that would be understandable, but as a juco w/one year at a B10 school under his belt, somebody just didn't do their homework. Too bad the 7-0 freshman arrived to campus late or he might have been the guy. That's the breaks, because all these things raise their head at tournament time and is not exclusive to Akron ... look at No. 1 seed Toledo. The MAC FOY played like a freshman and the kid from Walsh played like he was from Walsh ... Toledo, exit, stage left.

 

Groce and the Zips must be credited with keeping this team pretty much together the entire season, even with it's obvious flaws, not to mention the fortunes of war so to speak were generally avoided. Bowling Green's best player plays his last game at well less than 100-percent due to a hamstring injury ... Kent State has injury (and other) issues down the stretch ... Ball State's best player doesn't hit the court until the last month of the season ... CMU's  6-10 freshman (and bonafide FOY candidate) goes down at Christmas and never returns ... It's crazy.  What issues Toledo, Akron and Buffalo' had (Covid/injuries) all basically hit early in the season and adjustments were made from there.

 

Most coaches will tell you the toughest coaching job with the least amount of reward is at the mid-major basketball coaching level. I have to agree.

 

Both Ohio and UB have had their struggles in games down the stretch so it will be interesting to see how the title game plays out in Cleveland.

 

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The two tournament games were far and away the best two games the Zips have played in the last three weeks, and I think they played better last night than on Thursday. Again, it just comes down to execution. I would argue that Friday was one of the best games this team played all season--they simply did not execute. Defensively, they played their asses off, Buffalo just took advantage of any windows they could find. Credit to them. I only wish LCJ wouldn't have tried to force so much, but honestly he had a ton of good looks that he normally cashes. He's money on those runners and shots off the glass, and he got plenty of looks. But if you look at any social media, he owns that he should've been much better. I'm glad we went all-in on LCJ, that's a great bet no matter the end result. We wouldn't be here without him.

 

I'm very much looking forward to discussion on the future of the program. Topics such as what's the starting 5? Who's the new go-to? How will the somewhat proven guys like Dawson, Ali, and Trimble step up? How does Freeman hone in on being a dominant MAC F/C? Will Aziz start to live up to the hype? Any freshman contributions? What do Clarke and Marshall look like next year? And I think the ultimate question with a new AD coming in is what will they do with Groce's contract situation? I don't know about you but I'm excited! GO ZIPS!!!

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Was clear that Groce, throughout the game, was looking for deliberative possessions with no quick releases and high % shots.  Essentially, he was burning the clock and keeping game under 70.  May have been 6 or 7 minutes left and Akron was up by 4 or 5 with the ball after making a defensive stop.   LCJ was bringing the ball down and I saw the coaching staff with their hands up, telling LCJ and the guys to slow it down.  LCJ ignored that and went in for a runner.  He missed and Bulls got a quick 3 on the other end.  The guys left everything on the floor.  I will miss being up there for a final, but I was highly skeptical that the Zips, looking as burnt out as they are, were going to win against Ohio, who won two easy games (ugh...thank you Danny Pippen for your parting gift).  And heading into a first round NCAA game with only a 5'7" guard to carry us was going to be ugly.  The Zips ended up where they should have.  A top 3 team in the MAC.

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2 minutes ago, LoyalZIP said:

 

Right?!?! October can't come soon enough!!!

With a really awful team Groce got Zips to Cleveland.

He did it again with a slightly better team the next year.

Third year he had a great team and the clear MAC Conference Champions.  We can imagine Zips would have won the tourney and a game in the NCAA but it's just that...imagining.

This year with a good team but not a great team he got the Zips to the semis.

I see that as real progress. 

This is going to be a fun Summer for everyone and I'm sure the players who make the cut will be sharing a lot of quality time with Groce and his staff.

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