Blue & Gold

Sweeeet! 💪💪

Exactly. If they'd exempt football from the Title IX quota it'd make a lot of sense & even it out. You've got to sponsor quite a few additional women's sports to meet the Title IX quota for football alone.

Oh, and I don't want to neglect to publicly note how incredibly impressed I was with their style of play and team-ism today. I'll be honest that I was skeptical and prepared for the worst coming off a couple years where Jordan Dawson really seemed to dominate the ball & play of the team. With Dawson being so dominant I wasn't sure what kind of team we really had and what kind of coach Melissa Jackson really was. Today I thought we were playing better team ball than we had been the last couple of Dawson years. Camp really looks more than comfortable and competent running the show & Reagan Bass is great. Layne Ferrell is a 6-2 guard who can hit threes and handle the ball & Faith Stinson is going to be another load down low to complement Bass.

On the bright side I thought she looked confident. She definitely didn't look out of place, or sheepish at all. After Christmas break I'll bet she starts to contribute even more.

Thanks. She's amazingly fluid!

Who’s this PG #1 Dominique Camp. In the little I’ve seen of the team this season she’s looked really good. GoZips.com says she’s a senior but doesn’t list her as a transfer.

Ugh. Sunday morning and I'm still awfully bummed about our showing Friday night. I had let myself believe our days of getting blown out by 20 to P5 teams was over.

”GOR”?

Has anyone been able to closely watch Cam Threatt? Do his problems look physical, mental, technical? Does he look like coaching, or an increasing familiarity with our defensive scheme, could fix his problems? @catdaddyp

Yeah, I shouldn’t have said that. It was early & I was cranky. I take it back. I’ll edit my post but it’s already been quoted a couple times.

Can't wait for the EMU game. Bring it on!

Good Groce teams are never big dominant. They have 6-8 bigs who can run... and ideally even the "bigs" spread the floor with their shooting ability. (Getting Sammy untracked will be absolutely vital going forward.) Groce ideally needs 3 guards who can be consistent threats to shoot (and make) from distance (why losing Mikal Dawson is such a huge blow. I spoke to Dawson at the last soccer match & told him that losing his defense and 3-point shooting from the wing were going to be awfully tough to overcome.) 3 point shooting is the key for a Groce offense. "Two for you but three for me." Especially if we have a big who demands a double-team (a luxury which Groce never enjoyed at OU), we need our guards to be 3-point assassins. If this doesn't materialize we're going to be rather easy to defend. We saw that against SDSU. If X wasn't simply unconscious from behind the arc we lose that game as well. If Sammy & Hankerson get untracked we'll be okay, though still lack depth. Fortunately playing tough D is our #1 priority so we can always do that, regardless of whether our shots are falling on any given night. Sorry to hear Nate Johnson was only 0-2. He seems to be who Groce is trying to plug into Dawson's role. Nate is supremely athletic, but young, and is still hesitant to shoot the 3 (during the SDSU game I saw Dawson talking to him saying "Those shots are there all night!"). Hopefully he finds his stride in the Cayman Islands & gains the confidence to just let it fly.

No. We've probably known about him for a month or two now, maybe longer. I lose track of time.

I wasn't able to watch last night's game, but following the SDSU game I noted that, with Freeman getting consistently doubled, we need another real 3-point shooter. Apparently Groce is seeing if Tavari can be that man. It's certainly not Tribble or Clarke - both of which I'm luke warm about... at best. People keep saying "Boy, once Tribble practices his 3-point shot he's going to be tough to defend." Well, I'm sorry to keep saying it but Tribble's never going to have a solid 3-point shot; it's simply not in his genes. NEVER going to happen. And Clarke is not a natural-born finisher; he misses all kinds of layups. I love both b/c they're Zips... They'd better play absolutely stellar defense and leave absolutely everything on the court to help this team beat good D-1 opponents. How did Nate Johnson shoot last night? And I'll mention it again, with our lack of real 3-point threats, I can't believe Kobe Mitchell can't find his way into the lineup. He must be too slow on defense, or something. Idk.

Regular updates would be much appreciated, fellas 💪

I'm pulling for the Big East; a conference where we can hope to join in other sports. All sports sans football? I think that'd be pretty great. BUT... football is the driving factor in all college athletics. So, big decisions ahead. Exciting time!

UConn is a member of the Big East, which does not sponsor football. Is UConn an independent in football?

Exactly. There are always unintended consequences.

Well, we know it won't be The Missouri Valley Conference 😂 I'd love to see us in the Big East. Men & Women's Track & Field to follow. This would help us with top-level OOC scheduling & probably get a Big East school to visit the JAR once a year.

While I'm working I've had the game on in the background a few times now and it still gets me pumped up the way the entire team immediately rallied around Greg Tribble after he missed the layup. Almost gives me chills. You couldn't ask for a better reaction... from the ENTIRE team!

I was gauging by how full the end zone sections were because until MAC play starts you can usually count the number of spectators in those respective sections on one hand.

Indeed. If that was anyone's first exposure to a Zips game they'll certainly be back!