Captain Kangaroo

Big Dog has done a nice job tonight keeping his arms vertical in charge situations tonight. Kudos to him and the coaches. For the bulk of the night the Zips have done a nice job making the extra pass. Much better shot selection tonight.

Calming influence...steady game...nice free throw percentage...ratios...mid-30% 3-point shooter...sounds great in post game interviews. Yippee... I want a point guard that impacts the game and makes things happen. Too many games you wonder if Noah was even there...and you look at the box score and see that he played 30 minutes. Noah needs to amp it up if we're going to make any hay in the MAC tourney, or have any chance of winning an NCAA game. If you want to win a Super Bowl with Trent Dilfer, you better have a hell-raising defense or a monster running game. If you want to win college basketball games in the post season, you need stellar play at the point guard position. If we simply have a Dilfer-like game-manager, our present surrounding cast isn't sufficient to compensate.

He's racking up assists. He can score consistently. He pushes the tempo. He impacts the game. His performance merits a start. His defense is a concern. Opposing taller guards are pretty confident they can get a shot off over him. But the Zips other guards aren't exactly conjuring comparisons to Gary Payton. Start 'em. The team needs a kick in the a$$.

If we get back to the basics...move the ball...pass up a good shot for a great shot...we are fine. If if we think the road to a MAC championship is hoisting 25 foot threes as soon as the ball hits your hands...if we continue to panic in the game's final 5 minutes rather than play smart basketball... we lose.

It was a question...notice the question mark. I swear after I posted the comment I was going to add an * except on game days in Lot 9 disclaimer. I was too slow.

Alcohol in the morning is a bad idea... ?

Every year I just buy the cheapies and end up sitting wherever I want. Spend my saving on beer at the Corner Alley. Still waiting for the Ohio Lottery deal to surface...

Where do we go from here? I think the Zips warts are exposed. By February, there's enough tape out on the Zips. People know how to best negate our primary threats. The Zips shoot a lot of bad 3's, which lead to fast break opportunitiess. Big Dog is typically slow to get up/down the floor. So push push push the ball up the court. Get Big Dog away from the hoop. Early in the year he was getting the ball on the low block. Now he's having to work his way inside. Once he puts the ball on the floor, a quick guard can make a steal...a quick double-team forces long cross-court passes...if Dog is 16 feet from the hoop with the ball, 3 things can happen...and two of them are bad. Kwan has forgotten how to let the game come to him. If you're red-hot, and the basket looks as big as Terry Bowden's old trousers, by all means fire away. But when you aren't...firing up shots as soon as the ball hits your hands...regardless of your balance, distance, or openness of your teammates, that will quickly run us out of games. Anyone know why Kwan now sits at the complete end of the bench, even beyond the trainers, when he gets subbed-out? We need to execute in tight games. We choked against OU, playing like we were behind 5 when we were up 5. We got lucky against Ball State. Our luck ran out against Kent. And BG simply out-hustled us as we hoisted our way into a hole. The bungled "what the hell was that?" inbound play after 2 timeouts was flat-out pathetic. We had 1.3 seconds, which is ample time pump fake and shoot, or to dribble-shoot, and we panicked. I guarantee in the same scenario, Buffalo would have gotten a good look at the hoop. I said a few days ago that we need to get our swagger back. Instead, we tossed more swagger away. We'll be a force in Cleveland. We always are. I remain confident we'll cut down the nets at The Q. But we have some key players that need to get their act together asap. Guards and bigs alike. You don't lose to BG because 1 guy had an off night...you lose to BG because you collectively stunk up the joint.

We can't even get the post game right tonight...

It ain't a party on my couch right now either.

I saw some familiar faces in the Zips crowd. Kudos to them for making the trip. Tough late night drive home for sure.

No he wasn't.

We spent 2 time outs to draw up a lob to a 320 pound guy moving away from the hoop? Another bad inbound pass in crunch time from Robotham. Good news is - if we blow the 1 seed, I won't need to use as many pto hours for our round 1 tournament game.

Big Dog put his arms forward. He wasn't vertical. They'll call it every time.

What's our KenPom rating?

No.

Can Kwan pass the ball? Ever?

The ones from 25 feet are wide-open looks. Wonder why....

I can't believe someone put forth that much effort to write about Troy football. Nice job for sure, but...I couldn't do it.

If the alternative is hoisting a 25 foot three, what would you rather he do? I don't care if Kwan gets hot and cans a couple consecutive 25 footers. I get it...it's a shot he can make. But it is very low percentage, and it is the opponent's dream that the Zips hoist 25 footers when games get tight...because the percentage that we fail is very high. It's not just Kwan...in crunch time the Zips lack poise, and begin chucking bad 3's instead of taking what the defense gives them. That's why we don't blow anyone out. That's why we lost to OU. That's why we lost to Kent.

I think George does a nice job 44% of the time, which is a HUGE improvement from last season...where he submitted a good effort 43% of the time.

Embarassing to not have even known about this guy. Seems to be one of our all-time great Zips NFL success stories? How was he never recognized by UA?

I think it is safe to say from George's last two columns, that he wasn't a statistics major in college. I would also say the statistics don't need to be rehashed to tell the tale of last night's game. Kent simply wanted it more. They hustled down the floor after every missed shot. Their double-teams on Big Dog were lightning quick. They disrupted what the Zips like to do offensively, and we obviously struggled. What a joy it would have been for me to see Hall frustrated, sulking at the end of Kent's bench. Instead it was our all-MAC candidate. If you aren't mentally tough in the Akron-Kent game, you're no help. Thankfully Utomi stepped up, or we'd have been blown out. Who showed up? Ivey was rock-solid yet again. Big Dog played tough. Utomi, of course. And although Dunn Martin (9 minutes) didn't score, he had 4 assists compared to Robotham's 0 in 33 minutes. Robotham continues to offensively rival Carmelo Betancourt. If your point guard that's playing 30+ minutes per night is repeatedly putting up goose eggs in the points column, and not offsetting it with a bucket full of assists, it's a problem. As we entered the arena I said to my friend "The book on Kent is they're tough, aggressive, and they can't shoot." I received a pretty good scouting report. Joe Akron got a good show last night. A riveting game...packed house...electric atmosphere...even if he was underneath the heat lamp on a wooden bleacher he couldn't have complained he didn't get his money's worth. All our goals remain in front of us. Wins against BG and Miami will give us another regular season MAC Championship. But our road, and post-season nemesis Buffalo is getting hot. Kent's dangerous and confident. We need to get our swagger back soon.

Seeing Brett McKnight hugging his late father Phil in the stands is a tear-jerker.