Blue & Gold

Another great game. This team has to give 100% effort for 40-minutes to win. Fun to watch when they pull it off. Cheese has come into his own. Also glad to see Roscoe firmly back in the rotation. E-man gave us some good minutes last night, especially defensively. I still don't really trust him, though, & wish Sayles would kick it up a notch. I've never seen Utomi off for an entire game. He finished the night with zero points. Ohio.com: Defense propels Zips to victory Cheese had a double-double w/ 12 points & 12 rebounds. Zips won the rebounds battle 46-42.

Yeah, I’ll have to get back on that. I’d let it go since the early signing day came and went.

He’s no longer with the team.

I’m on my phone so can’t post a link, but we got a verbal from a good looking linebacker from Humboltd State, CA named Demetrick Watts (6-0, 225).

We should have beat them in Mount Pleasant. In addition to wanting revenge, I'm a little nervous about the direction the season will go if we lose tonight. So, yeah, I'm pretty excited about the game tonight.

Even though I can only make maybe half of the games, I still buy a season ticket. It's a steal.

Agreed. It looks like they're having fun with the snow. I thought it might have been a disaster. Especially considering one of our recruits, whom I believe visited last week, had an OV to USF this weekend. Lol.

UAZippers, I agree with your post save one caveat, which I highlighted above. Utomi is built like a Greek god, but I don't think he's an athletic freak. To me he looks kinda slow, kinda stiff, can't elevate & can't handle the ball very well. He's a shooter. When his outside shot's not falling I don't think he has great confidence taking it to the hoop. Even on occasional fast breaks he can't elevate to throw it down. It looks like he's usually trying to draw a foul. I know Utomi's awfully chill, but you're right, it looks like he's playing passively. Kreed's point about having to spend so much energy on defense may be the problem. Anyhow, I like the attitudes of Ivey, Cheese & Banks (even Toles - in street clothes on the bench - is a wellspring of positive energy). I wish Utomi would follow suit.

ABJ/GT: RedHawks crash the glass to dominate Zips From the article: -Zips shot only 39% -including only 23% from behind the arc -were out-rebounded 43-31 -Zip's bench only scored 4 points to Miami's 23. All stats courtesy of George Thomas -click the article please

Ivey & Utomi both with quiet 1st halves. Riak playing nice D down low.

Love how Cheese is taking it to the hole. Gotta keep breaking down their defense off the dribble penetration.

I wasn't complementing Ivey. I was trying to say that if LePear is playing even close to the level Ivey is come his senior year, I'll be very pleasantly surprised. LePear has a lack of self-confidence Ivey never did. LePear has a tendency to hang out beyond the 3-line & he didn't start driving to the hoop even against high school competition until the state tournament of his senior year. That's just my prognostication and of course I hope I'm wrong.

^^Fully agree. Watching him develop mentally and emotionally into one of the best leaders I’ve seen in a long time has been a joy.

Nice. And thank you! I don't know if Zip Watcher (who started this thread & maintained the up-to-date scholarship chart) is on here anymore.

I love LePear & enjoyed watching him in high school. But Ivey’s on a different level than LePear right now.

+1. This past year’s OOC schedule was perfect.

We must have already had our 3 verbal commits last year before it became obvious Cotton wasn’t going to mesh with the culture Groce was looking to implement?

ABJ: Zips struggling offensively in MAC play Pretty good article concerning our offensive woes. I'm not surprised by this; the MAC is a physical conference and this is the 1st go-around for a number of our guys. They'll adjust. But I'm not optimistic about tonight. EMU's really feeling their oats right now.

We desperately need another PG & we don't have one coming in for next year either.

I liked Cheese coming off the bench as 6th man.

Northern Illinois dominates second half to rally past Zips 73-56. Give this a read. Brief, utterly demoralizing article. GT lays out lots of troubling stats.

My ESPN+ playback wasn't working properly, so I wasn't able to see most of the second half. However, I thought this team might struggle once MAC play started. It's the first MAC go-around for most of our players and the MAC is a tough, blue-collar league where you have to be physical & give it 100% every game to win. LCJ is struggling right now & I think he will struggle a bit more in the MAC than the OOC just because MAC guards are going to be physical with him & beat him up. Cheese & Banks are struggling w/ their shots but they have MAC bodies & I'm confident they'll come around. Ditto with Roscoe (glad to see him being worked back into the rotation). Utomi's built like a Greek god, but looks slow & isn't a very explosive player - to say the least (I wonder if he can even dunk the ball in open gym?). What surprises and disappoints me is hearing you guys describe the poor body language and making it sound like the team's unravelling & regressing (again, I couldn't watch the majority of the second half). If true, I would not have guessed that with this bunch. I really like the personalities of most of the guys on this team. Cheese & Banks seem like really nice guys who have good, competitive streaks. Ivey is a good leader. Utomi gets down on himself pretty easily. LCJ seems like a good leader. I know LePear Toles, though taking a redshirt, has a fantastic, positive attitude. Idk, I wish I could have watched the second half. I'll probably give it another try this afternoon. Another point: this is the second game in a row we've laid an egg in the second half. Idk what's up with that, but I'd say it either has to be tired second-half legs (both games have been on the road) or getting out-coached. We played excellent D the 1st half last night & then NIU went on to score the 1st few baskets of the second half. The announcer said something like, "This is where you kick yourself in the pants as a coach; the Zips played great D the 1st half, then they come out playing a different D in the second half and NIU gets right back in the game." If true, Idk why Groce would do that. 1st half we had NIU out of their game; 2nd half we let them get into rhythm offensively.

Thanks, @zzx, you've really been on top of things.