Captain Kangaroo

We should be concerned that we've played 1.5 good games over the past 3 weeks. NCAA tourney seeding is the absolute furthest thing from my mind. I'm concerned about being an 8 seed in the NIT.

Kwaful performance. lazy passes by Robotham and Ivey in crunch time sealed the deal. That, and Dog missing 80% of his crunch time free throws. Miami had lost every road game this season. They were down 15 in the 2nd half...11 when Kwan took himself out of the game...and won. Like the Kent game, our opponent was tougher than us, and wanted the win more than the Zips. League MVP's don't finish the season like this. Lucky for Dog, there's not much competition. He should still win it. I guess we now know how much Kwan means to the Zips. Hope he sees it too, and finishes his career like he played the first 2/3rds of the season.

Kwan...Kwan...Kwan...

The bench is making an impact tonight. Emmanuel "The Elevator" Olijapoke may need an oxygen mask he's spending so much time above the rim!

Former Brookhart Grad Assistant now New England Pats TE Coach A former Zips coach told me 10 years ago - "Watch this kid...he's gonna be a star." He was right. From walk-on punter at John Carroll...to Zips Grad asst...to Super Bowl Champs TE coach in 11 years. Super nice kid too. Very happy for him. Amazing how many of the Brookhart ex-coaches have landed noteworthy college and pro football gigs, while JD himself has been out of football for years.

That's not a smashed oar they're using on those flat bench presses, is it?

You'da thunk "Carlitos Anderson Bobblehead Night" = standing room only crowd? I blame the millennials.

From "Row the Boat," to "Trap the Lobsta' " Good hire by UMass. Too bad they're UMass.

Has the countdown to Zips baseball reinstatement begun yet?

Miami sucks! Zips win!

Certainly Bulletin Board material for the Red Hawks. Has any team in the history of basketball cut down nets after a loss?

I didn't see anyone with him on a "crap list," but I saw multiple people saying he needed to amp up his game. They were right. Noah had a good game tonight. Now he needs to back it up. If he plays tough at Kent, we win. If he's invisible for 33 minutes, we lose. That's the cross you bear when you're an Akron Zips point guard. If you want low expectations, play for Northern Illinois. Their fans are happy just to make it to The Q. Akron fans expect more.

Ok Zips...you're up 5 with 4 minutes left. You aren't down 5. Play like a it.

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.