Illini Zip

You might be right, but I am keeping faith that it will happen one day.

I too have concerns with Dawson's play. Not sure what the answer is. He seems uncomfortable, stressed or frustrated. Something is just off for him this year. Tavari is slowly progressing, but I'm not sure he should be back as a starter either.

That Anderson Mirambeaux is mind boggling. He looks like a Center in football, not basketball. And a french fry away from a heart attack. But he has skills and is effective. I know we had interest in him at one point. It will be interesting to see what Groce has to say about him.

Damn!! That sucks. We need to learn from this one. Miami did some things very good against us. Just couldn't get over the hump today. And such a promising start too.

Need to hit our free throws.

Tavari got away with a walk.

Me too.

Oy vey!!

We need to figure out both sides of the ball fast or this could get away from us.

We are slow to recover on defense.

Let's have a game guys. Keep them raining!!

I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but I don’t see a run away win. There were times in both the NIU and Kent road games when the Zips were poised to run the score up to a 30 point advantage only to get their momentum stymied by the refs. Now there are 2 ways to make the refs less relevant, hit a very high percentage of your perimeter shots or be so strong and dominant in the paint that you can still score with guys draped all over. Just don’t expect an And One. Past Zips teams had moments where they were completely on fire from deep. I hoping to see that from this team at some point, but I will take the win anyway we get it.

I agree that Dawson should drive the paint more. But as to his shooting percentages, I believe I have heard something about water finding it's level. I just hope it happens soon.

I thought Scott showed some fight tonight. We needed that energy.

Freeman with the mop. He's unbelievable.

https://letsgobigmoe.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2023-24/mentor-high-school/boxscore/5253

Yeah, I still don't see him making it. 😆

Thank you both. Don’t know why that was tripping me up. 👍

Stay with me please. So if you beat a very good team and they lose a bunch of players and end up tanking. That will be a less impressive win come Selection Sunday?

Does the NET equation calculate with the opponents ranking when you play them, where they rank at the end of the year or both?

I have been waiting for someone to react to that comment. Ha!! It’s a bit of wishful thinking on my part, I admit. But Groce will have these guys ready come March and believing that anything is possible. We can’t be afraid of success. There are some on this forum who just want to get that first NCAA Tourney win. And I too would be disappointed if he ever left Akron. I would prefer Groce with Akron leave the MAC, but you already know that. Go Zips!!

Good points guys. I'm out of likes again. I predict we will have 3 open scholarships. After we make our run to the Sweet 16, Groce will go after a few higher level recruits who have still not committed. Regular signing period is like mid-April to mid-May. And then, I agree we likely will add some leadership through the portal as needed.

We have 13 regular season games left, likely around 10 of those without Nate Johnson. Nate was averaging 25 minutes a game. That's a lot of basketball yet ahead of us and growth opportunity for the bench, especially for Tavari. Up until the Buffalo game, Groce had limited the roster to 8 players for the most part. That way he builds continuity within his rotations and frankly Tavari and Lyles were not grading out high enough. But if our entire bench keeps improving and playing winning minutes night in and night out, Groce would not only have better depth to lean on, he would have an opportunity to play differently. He could either play his starters slightly less and save their legs at times. Or play a style (which I love) that is more aggressive and uptempo. Constant ball-hawking on defense, leading to more fast-breaks. Right now Tavari (and Lyles) are fighting for minutes within the standard 8 man rotation, but a 9-10 man rotation is not entirely insane if warranted. We'll see how things progress and how quickly Nate can get back to form. I'm excited to see what Zips 3.0, Zips 4.0 and Zips 5.0 have in store for us.

…Kent State still sucks!!