Quickzips

The really good news here. If Willie commits to UA, we will be 60% of the way towards having the Jackson 5. Antino Jackson Aaron Jackson Willie Jackson Wonder if Tito and Jermaine have anything left in the tank.

This game is actually making me miss the old Miami games when Charlie Coles was on the sidelines for the Redhawks. This has been just a brutal game to watch.

Anyone who still wants us to play big more often with the twin towers on the floor needs to go back and watch the last 2 minutes of that first half. With Pat and Isaiah on the floor together with Kwan, Jake and Noah the Zips were an unmitigated disaster against Miami's zone press. An 11 point lead gets slashed to down 1 at the half in the blink of an eye. You have to have ball handlers on the floor against the press. This is basketball 101. There was no reason to stick with that lineup as long as we did. Just because you have two big guys doesn't mean you have to have them on the floor together.

At some point these young Zips have to stop wetting the bed every time they play away from the comfy confines of the JAR.

Zips didn't deserve to win this one. I think at one point they were about 8 of 25 from the free throw line. That is pitiful. Even Shaq and Ben Wallace would have been laughing at us for that performance at the line. Very nearly a total waste of Reggie's huge game. Not feeling very good about this one. The W is nice, but we should have won this one by double figures, easily.

New coach. Same result. Zips are 21 of their last 22 against BG. Dakich, Orr, Jans. It doesn't matter. KD owns these guys.

Maybe the most complete game the Zips have played all year. If one guy from Western doesn't go video game from the 3 point line for about a minute and a half this is a 30 point drubbing. Zips served an early notice on the MAC. We may be young, but the road to Cleveland still goes through Akron. Bring on the Rockets.

I think a big part of the issue with all the 3 point shooting last night was the fact that Pat was in foul trouble almost from the opening tip. I'll give Johnson credit, he played a nice game, but Pat has been our catalyst inside all year long. With him out it is only natural for us to become a little more reliant on the perimeter game. BJ going down early didn't help either. He had been coming on as a bit of a slasher presence lately that we don't otherwise have on this team. Overall I thought the Zips played reasonably well. Johnson easily had his best game of the season, wearing a path to the FT line all night. The Jackson's also showed up big when we really needed them. Aaron in particular brought some energy off the bench that we haven't seen from him yet. Noah's injury was scary. I was actually somewhat surprised to see KD put him back in in the second half. My guess is he has a nice welt on his leg this morning. Speaking of Noah, even before the injury he wasn't having his best game. 11 for Coppin State turned him over repeatedly. As I mentioned on here a few weeks ago, Noah has a tendency to over-dribble at times. He especially got himself in trouble dribbling with his back to the basket out beyond the 3 point line. Needs to learn from this one. The MAC has quite a few talented lead guards that will make him pay for that.

Akron rarely puts players at or near the top in very many statistical categories. It has been that way for the duration of KDs tenure. His teams have always relied on balanced scoring and team rebounding. As to who wins the conference tournament, way too early to predict. There are a lot of quality teams in the conference this year. Toledo, Akron, EMU, Buffalo, BG, Can't, CMU and WMU have all had pretty solid OOC seasons so far. I think the conference schedule this year is going to be a real slug-fest for a lot of teams. Going to be a very interesting year.

There is a temporal component to KDs comments that is kind of missing. At the end of last year I think his evaluation would have been perfectly correct. Johnson was playing reasonably well and seeing increased minutes while Pat had all but played himself out of the rotation at times. When they first arrived on campus, frankly, I think Pat would have been considered the better prospect overall. Either way, I'm just glad we have a reliable big man in the middle who is picking up the slack after Tree's departure. There have been a lot of guys who have stepped up this season that weren't necessarily expected to (Deji, Kwan and Nyles come to mind as well), but I don't think anyone has had a greater turn around than Pat. It really has been a pleasure watching him this year. As to Johnson, my thoughts on him are pretty well documented around here. Not much need to re-hash that again. For the sake of the team I hope Dave is right and he is just dealing with some lingering issues from his injury that have spilled over into a confidence drain, but I'm not buying it at this point.

I'm actually starting to wonder if Williams doesn't come in and play more of the 2 guard early on in his career. The more I read about him he seems to have more of a scorers mentality and I think he could fit really nicely as a scorer/secondary ball handler next to Noah. With Evans and Deji graduating at the end of the year there will be plenty of minutes open at 2 guard, but with Noah and Antino there won't be many PG minutes available. A lineup of Noah, Williams, McAdams/Kretzer/Gladden, Kwan and Forsythe could look really good out there.

Kwan has NBA potential. No doubt about it. 6'9", long, with good outside shooting and a nice mid-range game. If he continues to develop he will at least get a tryout at the next level. Right now this teams biggest asset is its diversity. Unlike in years past where we were primarily reliant upon 1 or 2 good interior players and a whole bunch of 3 point shooters to space the floor, this years team can beat you in a variety of ways. Noah and Deji can break you down off the dribble or beat you with perimeter shooting. Jake and Reggie have to be accounted for on spot-up jumpers. Kwan has a nice mid-range game and can stretch a defense out to the 3 point line, Pat and Isaiah can make you pay out of the low post. Nyles and Antino are sort of X factor kind of guys who can do a lot of things as well. Almost all of these guys are solid passers as well. When you put it all together and add in some good ball movement (which we've had most of the year) you get a pretty darn lethal team. There are going to be stumbles along the way. There always is with a team this young. What is encouraging is their early ability to learn from mistakes. I'm thinking particularly about the Pine-Bluff game where we turned the ball over early and often in the first half but we made the adjustments at halftime and came out and put a hurting on them in the second. This team has the potential to be real special if they continue to work hard at it and grow as a group.

Need to work on our end game situations, but that is somewhat to be expected with such a young roster. It also doesn't help when you have a guy on the other side who is just hitting ridiculous 3s from NBA range and beyond. Noah is the real deal, but I thought his defense was lagging a bit in the second half. Deji was the real difference maker. Have to say, he is starting to make me eat a little bit of crow recently. He took over for about a 3 - 4 minute stretch there in the middle of the second half. Seems to have really worked on his game over the summer and is relishing that 6th man role. Not sure I trust Antino Jackson that much yet. His shot selection was really shaky tonight and he made an absolute bonehead foul that almost resulted in a 4 point play late (as it turned out the 3 rimmed out and Bryant missed all 3 FTs). You can see the talent there, but he needs to get a handle on the pace of the game at this level.

All you need to know is that they are coached by Tim O'Shea and they are playing on the road.

So far, pretty darn good. It is really rare at this level to see a freshman come in at PG and look as poised, confident, and in-control of his team as he has. Add to that playing for Dambrot, a guy who has a history of having something of a short leash with freshman, and it is even more impressive. Really makes you wonder what might have been if we had him (or someone close to his caliber) manning the point last year. If I have one criticism so far, there are times when he does over-dribble a little bit. I'd like to see him pass the ball a little more, but that will come with time. Outside of that, my only concern is in how well he is going to be able to hold up to carrying heavy minutes over the course of the season. Freshmen who are asked to play big minutes have a tendency to wear down as the season goes on. We'll see how well Noah can handle it.