Leaderboard

We played like @clarkwgriswold told the team we were skipping a game to get to Game 22. ? The positive takeaways... - For as bad as we were last night, and for getting out-rebounded by nearly 20, it says something that we only lost by 3 and had a chance to win. We really are back with the top of the pack in the MAC (I'm a poet and I didn't know it). - We shot 90%+ from the line last night, only missing two out of twenty-two. LCJ was 11-11. I love how we focus on the fundamentals of basketball. - LCJ is quickly becoming the best player I've ever seen in a Zips uniform. Overall, it was a bad game. This is the transition season where we start shedding some of the monkeys on our back that have bogged down the program the past couple of seasons. Our road woes are seemingly over, we have good team chemistry, and aside from arguably Liberty, we didn't lose any OOC games we weren't supposed to. Buffalo & Toledo are still 2 monkeys on our back we need to get rid of, but that will come soon enough - I'm confident in that. The little things win in Cleveland, and we're taking our licks now to be the best we can be come March. We're going to have off nights, and we're going to have matchup issues, but I like that we're figuring those out and how to overcome them now rather than in a few weeks or in March. I didn't think Riak was that bad last night. He had a missed alley-oop dunk, and wasn't as strong on the boards as you'd like to see, but I thought our lack of focus on defense as a team put him in some bad positions to help on defense. I think we might have been a bit surprised by Buffalo's athleticism, too. Toledo shot lights out on us; Buffalo out-athleted us, which is the first time that has happened since Louisville/WVU. I trust this staff and this team to learn, adapt, and overcome some of these recent struggles. Participation Trophies are garbage, and that's not what I'm advocating for in this post. But our two conference losses are... - By 10 to a team that put up 99 points on 55%+ shooting from both the field and from 3 - By 3 to the previous King of the Conference when we played our worst game of the season I'm still very optimistic, and I'm excited for Friday. Go Zips, eh?

Yep, players not named LCJ shot a combined 3/20 from 3 and Reece got 1 rebound in ~15 minutes of play, but only Riak can be blamed for the loss. You win and lose as a team. There was plenty of blame to go around tonight. At the end of the day we need to move past this and focus on going 1-0 vs Kent Friday.

What I wouldn't give for a Jeremiah Wood on this team.

Just so that we can all take a deep breath and not be concerned that the sky will fall today after the Zips recent woes, I did a little quick count of the Zips records after 21 games since the 2010-2011 season. The records were: 2019-2020- 16-5 2018-2019- 13-8 2017-2018- 10-11 2016-2017- 18-3 2015-2016- 17-4 2014-2015- 16-5 2013-2014- 15-6 2012-2013- 17-4 2011-2012- 14-7 2010-2011- 12-9 The last seven years of Dambrot, which I think we can all agree were very good, the Zips averaged 15.6 wins and 5.4 losses over the first 21 games. They are there now. They are 3 games better than last year and last year was 3 games better than the year before. RELAX.

Willie Jackson is 6'6 and is leading the MAC in rebounding at 12.4 rebounds per game, which last I checked also had him 3rd in the nation. Mballa, who killed us on the glass, is 6'7. Height isn't the issue. Riak, at 6'10, had 3 inches of height on Mballa. Buffalo didn't out rebound us because they're taller, they're not. They out rebounded us because they did a better job at getting into position and boxing out. Our rebounding woes isn't a height issue. It's a technique and effort issue.

Another tough matchup, not having a center that matches up with the team's overall potential. Friday will be another tough matchup, especially considering the depth. You're starting to see how it hurts to not have any scoring threat off the bench. Ali, Tribble, and Dawson all badly missed wide open threes. Seems like teams are starting to figure Akron out. On to Kent. Not technically a must win, but it would be nice to go into the bye + EMU at home with a big road win.

What baffles me more is somebody calling out Deng by name and blaming him, and only him, for the loss. I just can't pathom it either.

Arth was here. That explains the lack of offense.

The Zips head off to Ravenna Friday night to renew their rivalry with Mr. Pinky and the Golden Flushes. The Flushes come into the game at 15-6, fresh off of a nice comeback win at Toledo. 6th year junior Danny Pippen leads the Flushes with 16 ppg and nearly 7 rpg. PCCC had a little drought losing 3 in a row, but have rebounded with nice wins at Buffalo and Toledo in the last week.

Speaking of Channel, I sure wish he'd focus on letting his game do his talking. He got a warning last night for jabbering at an opponent.

Interesting use of the word rebound in the title considering that's something we're struggling with...

Easy there big fella. The criticism was that you used Big Dog and Zeke as your measuring sticks, the two best big men in the history of the program, and the implication quality big men were so readily available, not that the team couldn't use quality bigs. Every team can use quality players. It wasn't that long ago that you stated: "Most improved player - Riak! Very pleased with the way he is playing. I did not think he would ever be a factor, I was wrong." You went on to say "Reece is a beast" as 6 of your 14 points in a post. In reality, neither is as good as you thought then nor are they as bad as you perceive them now immediately after a tough loss. Riak's shortcomings aren't a lack of effort and he does have an impact on defense. Reece is a product in development. As soon as he gets the message that he doesn't always have to leave his man to help and understands the rotations, our interior defense will improve.

Apparently, sarcasm does not translate well for the masses on message boards.

First of all, the word is FATHOM. Did you guys really go to UA? Aside from that, all those who continually bad mouth me for saying SIZE MATTERS TOLD YOU SO. We do not have a reasonably good big. We get outplayed by the other sides big every time.

What we saw tonight is something we are going to be seeing a lot more of in the future, that is teams that are willing to let their big man leave our big man to go help out on defense. That's going to happen until our big men can show some semblance of offense. An open dunk or lob on occasion does not constitute an offensive game.

I would have liked to have seen him honestly. It wouldn't have hurt to at least give him a chance.

Not sure why Jayden Sayles didn’t see the floor. He couldn’t have done any worse. Is Groce sending him a message for next year? don’t care if he didn’t practice well, when you are getting crushed on the glass, get another big body in there...

Honestly, we should have lost by a lot more. We got to do a better job at boxing out.

Deng fouling out may be a positive.

20 point rebound advantage. Don't deserve this if they get over the hill.

Zips look gassed. LCJ trying to carry the team

Call it a night folks. They haven't missed a FT. George Thomas is smiling... imagining his headline tomorrow

They are making up for it in volume.

.......and total lack of effort on the defensive boards.

Really fortunate to be down only 8.

One of our worst halves this year, and we're still right there in this thing. I'm expecting a chippy 2nd half with a much different shooting percentage.

Buffalo's coach gets the senior discount on coffee at Tim Hortons.

Try exiting out of the app then getting back in.

In other news the sky is blue and grass is green... It would have been criminal had he not gotten it this week. He averaged 27.5 points and 4 assists while shooting 70% from the field and 78.6% from 3.

I'd rather just see it be a spring sport, and move college baseball to the fall so it lines up with MLB, like football does with the NFL.

Unfortunately Captain you had it pretty much the opposite wrong on the first one and right on the second