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He also spent much of the previous 15 months criticizing Ali and saying the team was better without him... I'd say the main weakness on this team is they lack a LCJ or Castaneda type guard who can both create his own shot and create offense for others at an All-MAC level. Ali, while not the elite facilitator like the previous others I mentioned, has the ability to both create his shot and create open looks for others. Having him at the forward position should help ease some of those responsibilities from the guards.

What do you say we don’t pee on the electric fence today. End the trip with a win. Go Zips!!

Well, adding a pre-season All-MAC player, who previously led a MAC champion in scoring will in all likelihood improve the team, if nothing else, he will add quality depth.

@Blue & Gold Prather was injured for Heidelberg game. Twisted his ankle in practice. Groce mentioned it on the radio.

Kretzer and McAdams' shooting would've made the difference last night

This is how I feel. We weren't going to go undefeated, and without a P6 opponent on our schedule we were very unlikely to receive any Top 25 votes anyway (which I always covet). So, whatever, bad games happen. Let's learn from it & move on.

I blame the "best start undefeated" post

Did anyone else’s feed just freeze?

Don't fall for this SCAM. Odoshirt is not paying a dime for the rights to the logos and Enrique does not have NIL deal with this company.

I guess this means we are replacing our home game with Kentucky for an ass kicking by OSU. Thats 3 P5's next year (Rutgers and SC as well) and one home OOC game AGAIN...yay. Selling our soul (and chances to turn our program around by getting wins) for money.

Hang a banner in the JAR. “Back-to-Back Cayman Islands Classic 4th Place Finisher”

Who has more points? Hilltopper or Dawson?

Well, if we’ve learned nothing else, it’s that’s we aren’t that good. Yet. The teams we have beaten have a combined 0 wins over D1 teams. We’re MAC good right now, that’s about where that ends. Very disappointing. Happy Thanksgiving.

This team could wind up being pretty great. But right now, nobody is stepping up besides Freeman. He can’t be missing these FTs, but I can’t put all the blame on him. The amount of missed wide open 3s from the team this week has staggered me. Unacceptable for a team with this level of talent. Maybe I’m just in a bad mood in general. The football news didn’t help. But come on, guys. UB teams of 2018-2019 make those plays. Kent, Toledo last year make those plays. Lots to work on.

Thornton can’t make a free throw but makes the sideways fadeaway 27 footer

I think you may be right. KY opting out was predictable. It opened up a slew of interesting possibilities. The best they could do was scheduling another humiliating loss? This is insanity.

20 minutes to tipoff of our third game.

Both of you are correct. I don't believe Ali Ali is as big of a positive to this team as many people make him out to be. I will always go back to his disappearance in the UCLA game, and the specific frustrations people had with him throughout that season when the movement/flow/rhythm on offense died with the ball in his hands. If Dawson is healthy last year, we would've had that legitimate complimentary piece to X2.0 & Freeman that can defend & score in a multitude of ways. That was what we were missing and what would've catapulted us to be MAC champions. Ali Ali is on our roster, and his participation decision is being held up by the crooked NCAA. Regardless, he is on our roster, therefore it is appropriate to play a bit of the "what if" game. We had an 8-man rotation after playing a tough game 24 hours prior against a team that played extremely hard, up-tempo, and a HAVOC defense. Within that 8-man rotation, 3 players barely showed up in the stat sheet. We needed 4 points. Ali Ali would've given us the depth and extra points we needed to overcome the missed layups, turnovers, etc. In addition, Utah State's length caused a lot of issues for us. Ali Ali would've been an equalizer in that department. In this game specifically, Ali Ali makes the difference. It's a damn shame the NCAA can get away with screwing around with programs and people's lives. @Zippy87 Great point about Prather Jr as well. Everything about his game during the recruiting process was exciting. Really hope whatever the issue is, it gets figured out and he can become a producer for us.

Prather has been hampered by injuries. He is very effective scorer but not a great defender. Hopefully his time to get some meaningful minutes is coming soon.

Sorry to see that former Zip Marco Micaletto won’t be in Columbus next season but happy to see the Crew and Crew2 fans giving him the appreciation he earned.

Today's Kenpom has made some movement with the top 4 in the Caymans 67. Stephen F. Austin (pretty sure they were in the 80s yesterday) 87. Utah State 91. Akron 97. Drake (Huge drop down)

They played poorly and were still in the game against a quality opponent. If we're still seeing these issues in February I'll be concerned but a down performance in November doesn't cause me much concern.

Looks even worse if you subtract Sammy Hunters numbers from the total. It's not like this team was going to go undefeated anyway. On the plus side this team has an opportunity to quickly redeem themselves with the game tomorrow. Let's see how we can respond.

Had a bad feeling when our first FG attempt was a 3 that wasn’t even close. Dawson and Tavari looked way off shooting. And Thornton alligator armed a pair of wide open layups. Blown blockout in the last minute. Thrown away ball by Dawson. We really did look like the football Zips tonight. It felt a lot like the South Dakota State game, only the shots weren’t falling. Specifically Dawson, who came up huge in that game with clutch deep 3s. They didn’t fall today and that got to him. This is more like the early season losses I remember from years past.

Damn. Game of missed chances.

Dawson's worst game as a ZIP

Free throws are keeping us in this game

Feed looks back! try refreshing

I was really hoping Baker would play for this very reason. We're thin down low beyond Freeman and Hunter just doesn't work much in the paint. Going to be a big problem any game EF gets in foul trouble.

The cut through the lane when Freeman has the ball will rarely work, especially against long good teams. Not sure what the goal is with that time after time.

A-freaking-men. Enrique needs help in the post and with his height Hunter needs to be that guy.

One thing that gives me hope of not losing key contributors to the TP is the Wagon Wheel postgame interview with Lingard. According to him he absolutely LOVES it here and plans on being a presence around the program for the rest of his life. He's played at both Miami-FL and Florida, so I'm sure he's letting the fellas know they're in a good place and the grass is definitely not always greener.

The color analyst made some good points. When Freeman has the ball down low there is no need to have somebody cut down the middle. Just draws another defender. Also, he indicated that Hunter needs to be more active down low and rebound. When Freeman is out he needs to be a rim protector.

Yes and no. Utah State's length isn't allowing for many "good" looks, but we've missed some decent ones.

Dawson has taken one shot. That needs to change.

big shot Scott!

I didn’t watch but had been wondering if they could effectively employ HAVOC two days in a row.

3 seperate Johnson’s in the game rn. I could make an Austin powers joke

Looking at the roster, I can easily count in the teens the number of guys who wouldn't hurt us at all by leaving under the criteria of having been here multiple years and haven't sniffed the field, or transferred in with multiple years of experience and didn't sniff the field. There aren't many players who could leave that aren't easily replaceable IMO. Handful of guys we want to keep like Fish, McCoy, Nunnally, Adams, Lewis, and a few others. Probably looking at 30-ish new faces is my guess. I'm currently showing about 17 open scholarships due to graduation, and 13 current HS commits and 1 current transfer commit. Don't see us adding more than a few more high school commits, so that means looking at 15+ transfer portal players. Plenty of opportunity again to improve the roster. Keep most of the guys who've shown they can play at or near all-MAC level, find a QB, and find a couple Nunnally and FIsh type transfer portal players and we'll be cooking next year IMO.

Bandaogo cleared to play Immediately at UC https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/38946754/cincinnati-aziz-bandaogo-cleared-play-immediately-ncaa-reverses-course

So in a few weeks on December 4, players will officially be allowed to enter the transfer portal until January 3. I fully expect this to be another year of enormous turnover on this roster. I’m sure the coaching staff will tell several players to move on, I’m sure several players will leave because they are unhappy with their playing time, and I’m sure there will be several players leave because they want to be a part of a winning program and/or they think they are too good for this team. Every team will have its share of players hitting the portal, but it just seems like this team is likely to have more than the average. What’s that number…20…30…40..new faces? Time will tell.

Tavari has changed his game this year. Really playing under control and not turning the ball over. He seems to be more of a facilitator than a scoring threat. His offense has been limited because he has not driven inside that much and his floaters have not been falling. I have not checked the stats but I believe he has less than 4 turnovers all year.

An old joke comes to mind: Why did the chicken cross the road? (A: To show the possum it could be done) Why did one Ohio MAC football team get AP ranked? To show the others it could be done.

I believe the dust has settled for this period. The only question I have at the moment is when will Ali Ali get the green light to play. But I'm assuming it will be this year sometime. I'm staying with Mikal Dawson as a Junior with another year of eligibility. Marvin Musiime-Kamali and Darrian Baker are red-shirting this year. And the Zips added Rich Brisco, Eric Mahaffey and Sharron Young for the 2024-5 season leaving 2 scholarships open.

One thing I am looking forward to seeing more of is that shift where Dawson, Scott and Thornton come in together. Those three teamed with Sammy or Nate with Enrique was as effective or more effective than Tavari, Tribble and Nate with Sammy and Enrique. Thornton is a very good distributor. Thanks to Xavier and Hankerson for helping to get him here.

34-16 Utah State points in the paint