phil

I think for this team to advance in any type of tournament they need the outside shooting of Nitro and Walsh. I thing Nitro is forcing up the 3 too quickly. I remember that he did that as a freshman but as he got more minutes the last two years he had a more all around game. In the W. Va game and the Oral Roberts game he did not shoot well. He needs to let the game come to him and do other things besides trying to hit the quick 3. I still have confidence in him because the kid has a great shot when he sets up and is open. I thought McNees had some subpar shooting during the last few seasons but he would come to the Q and light it up. I am hoping to see the same from Nitro.

Their arena is shaped like a football. Did anyone notice they put the white out shirts on the empty seats so that it looked like they had more people in the stands. The attendance was 7,000 and the arena holds 11,000

This team settles for the quick 3 when we need to score from the paint. They did not set up Zeke from the paint for any easy baskets. When we had the opportunity to take the lead, Alex took a 3. He had a solid game and played 36 minutes. Amazingly, the Serb was our best 3 point shooter hitting his only attempt. I though he had a solid game and played like a veteran. Remember, this was the first bracket buster for many of these guys and we were a little tight shooting the basket. We had several air ball 3s and Tree almost missed the hoop on a foul shot. Even when we were not shooting well, we stayed with a decent team. Nitro had another tough game. He needs to drive to the basket or take short jumpers instead of relying only on the 3 ball.

The refs must have looked at the 11 to 2 foul advantage and decided to give us some calls. I have seeen 3 flops and no offensive fouls. Go Zips!

Everyone complains about the Serb taking the 3 point shot. Today, he is the only one to have the common sense to pass on the shot. Walsh, Nitro, Harney have all taken quick 3s wtih terrible results. Harney is only one to make one. Nitro and Walsh have shot air balls. We could beat this team with our defense and scoring in the paint. Nitros quick 3 airball killed our mementum when we had the lead down to 6.

I think that kids today love shooting the 3 and the Serb is no different. I am sure that the Serb thinks this is a part of his arsenal of offensive weapons and if the defense is going to give him open 3s he is going to take them. However, even our good 3 point shooters Nitro and Walsh have been struggling at the 3 ball. If the Serb wants to shoot from the outside, take a 12-15 footer. Show that you can make open 12 footers before you take shots from the 3 line. He is still one of my favorite players to watch because of his enthusiasm for the game.

Unfortunately, I think the Serb will keep shooting 3s till he makes one. He is wide open when he takes the 3s but he has missed about 10 in a row so he seems to be aiming the ball instead of shooting it. Many of his recent attempts have been short and some even haven't made it to the rim. The first 3 he took was an air ball and Miami when on a run after he missed the 3. The Serb was very good around the rim the second half and had a great full court pass to Walsh. Late in the game he made a foul shot and wanted a high 5 from Zeke but Zeke was talking to Keith. The Serb grabbed Zeke's hand and got the high 5. Zeke was clueless. The Serb is definately a fun kid and a great basketball player. When he is playing his best this team can be unbeatable.

I don't expect Zeke to have 10 rebounds per game because Zeke's main job on defense is to keep opposing players from scoring in the paint. When a player gets beat Zeke comes over to block the shot and jumps towards the shooter, taking him out of position for a defensive rebound. Rebounding at this level is also about strength, quickness to the ball and desire. Zeke is not very fast to the ball and although his strength has improved a great deal, he is not going to be the strongest player on the floor. Tree is a great rebounder because he has all 3 qualities. Brian Walsh is a good rebounder because he is quick to the ball and has the desire. Brian picks off a lot of long rebounds because he wants to rebound. Zeke's game has improved from last year. He is shooting much better from the foul line. His hands have improved and he is holding on to the ball better. He is staying out of foul trouble. (Last game being the exception where we had whistle happy crew who blew the whistle every 30 seconds). I don't have the stats but he seems to better on defense blocking more shots and boxing out him man. I read that Zeke did not like playing basketball growing up. I think that is why is offensive game still lags behind his defensive game. That is the last part of his game that needs to develop. He needs to get the ball in the paint and take it towards the hoop. He is much better shooting the ball going towards the basket then when he fades away. I think Zeke has the desire to work on his offensive game and next year he will be a more consistant scorer.

In the first 5 minutes of the game last night the Serb had the ball in the post and had some nice moves from the basket. He was the leading scorer with 14 points on 5 of 6 shooting. I believe that all of his points were from the paint. He also went to the foul line because he was taking the ball inside. I hope this pattern continues. He took one outside shot by the 3 line and drew nothing but air. Harney and Tree also had some pretty post moves. This team plays extremely well when we can score in the paint.

I think everyone has made great points why Serb is not playing more in the post and using his post up moves. If KD is telling him not to post up, it does leave the middle more open for Q Alex and the other players to drive to the basket. I also notice that on our offensive set that KD often has our post players set high screens near the top of the key and the paint area remains clear of players. This allows Alex to beat his man off the dribble and get to the basket. I agree that the Serb has a history of missing easy layups but this year that has not happened as much if at all. Comparing our post up players, Tree, Zeke Harney and the Serb, the Serb has the best footwork and the best moves to the basket. If the Serb can get a couple of easy baskets near the basket, it helps his confidence. Looking forward to tonights game. Go Zips!

I thought the Serb is one of the most talented players on our team. He improved his game so much last year. I loved watching him post up players. He was very quick in the paint and had great drop step moves where he could always get to the basket or get guys off their feet and draw a foul. He is also a very good passer and could find Zeke when he beat his man and Zeke's man would come over for the double team. This year it seems like he has abandoned a large part of that game. I do not understand why he does not want to post up more and use his inside moves to get to the basket or draw a double team so he can pass the ball. I think our team is better when he post up. We certainly have enough wing players on this team. I am hoping that the will start using this part of his game.

Walsh had 7 rebounds. I thought one of the key plays was Walsh taking off from the top of the key for an offensive rebound and then tipping the ball in. When can you remember having an Akron guard that could rebound the ball. The Zips were terrible on the 3 tonight going 3 for 21. Alex hit 2 and Walsh hit one. Both the Serb and Nitro were in love with the 3 ball and went a collective o for 11 shooting and 0 for 7 on the 3 ball. I thought the refs were blowing the whistles a great deal tonight. It really slowed down the game. The good news is that we only had 9 turnovers and shot well from the foul line. The bad news is that is the only place we shot the ball well. It is great team to win on the road when several of your players are not shooting well. Go Zips

I cannot figure out what went on with Harney. He did not get into the game in the 2nd half until 10 minutes left and got a T within 30 seconds. Keith was arguing with the ref about it but he took Harney out. Harney returned with 4 minutes left and had 2 turnovers. He did score and had a nice pass to Tree for the dunk. Does anyone know why Harney got the T? He was waiting to throw the ball inbounds after someone fouled out.

The last foul on Zeke where No 5 jumped into him after the inbounds play was a terrible call by the ref. If I were Zeke I would be upset also. Zeke should not get be criticized for being upset about a bogus call that forces him to come out of the game. I did notice that early in the 2nd half, Zeke blocked the shot of No. 5, No. 5 got the rebound and then went strong into Zeke and Zeke got called for the foul. It looked like No. 5 then pushed Zeke in the back as he was walking to the foul line and Zeke pointed at him. I thought Zeke said something to the ref about whether he saw the push and the ref shook his head. The last minute of the game when the game was already decided, Zeke was swatting shots and never let up. I think Zeke is becoming more of a competetor and getting upset over bad calls that takes him out of the game does not show a lack of maturity but a competitive spirit.

I thought Toledo played well offensively. They shot the ball well and made their foul shots. They were also getting several layoffs off their set offense which should never happen against a Dambrot coached team. Our foul shooting was terrible the first half and kept Toledo in the game. It was nice to see McClanahan have a great game. I think Walsh has been struggling a little bit to find his open shot. I would also like Nik to go back to last years game where he took the ball inside and had great drop step moves. He took two 3 pointers, missed both and air balled one. He has quick first stop for a forward and is a good passer. However, he seems to start every game with turnovers. I hated the refs tonight. Way to many calls on touch fouls that did not influence play. I did not understand the hanging on the rim T since it looked like he hung on the rim so that he would not land on another player. Somebody thought he got the T for hitting the backboard while hanging on the rim. Looking forward to Satudays game.

At the VCU game, our team looked ready to play and we started the game quickly hitting our shots, passing the ball nicely and rebounding. Since we started MAC play, this team has started games very slowly. (last night we were down 9-0) We have turned the ball over, given up open shots and offensive rebounds. I don't think we have had the lead at half since we started MAC play. It it is just not just the starters, since even the bench bunch hasn't started rolling till the 2nd half. With all this talent, why can't we control the game from start to finish? Would you change the starting lineup even when we are winning? Does a slow start make a difference when we are winning the games?

I think we learned something important tonight. When the other team is going to foul, try to keep the ball in Walsh's hands. He looked very confident at the line and none of his foul shots even hit the rim. I wish Nitro would try to get to the basket. When he just shoots 3 pointers he starts pressing and the shots just don't seem to fall.

What an amazing 2nd half. As soon as we grabbed a rebound or forced a turnover we were looking to run and Can't was just looking. Nitro was on a fast break and hit a 3. Q then followed it up with 2 threes. And then Nik hit a 3 after missing 2 wide open threes during the game. With 2 minutes left and we were trying to run down the clock Nik had an open 3, looked like he was going to take the shot and everyone in the crowd yelled no and Nik then passed the ball with a sly grin. This team has personality. I am also going to compliment the refs. They let the guys play ball and kept the touch fouls to a minimum and let the flow develop. Great win for Akron.

That was a great win yesterday but it seems that our offense and our rebounding are very sluggish in the beginning of the game. In the Miami game there were several putbacks on offensive rebounds (We saw them twice thanks to the Miami feed) and yesterday Ohio had several offensive rebounds in the first half. I noticed we were stuck on 15 for several minutes while we could not put the ball in the basket. Our guys need to get into a better offensive flow the first half and do a better job of keeping the other team off the boards. I was extremely happy to see Nitro score 10 points. He did it by driving to the basket. Even when he did not score he created scoring opportunities for others. He is a much better player when he does not just sit on the wing waiting for the 3 point shot. Because he is a senior I am hoping that he has a good year. Because there is so much talent on this team, he needs to step up to keep his playing time. I think Alex had the shots of the game at the end with his drive and 3 pointer. It is amazing how each game a different player steps up and makes clutch shots. I hope the young players realize what a great coach they have and if they work hard and follow Keith's directions this can be an amazing year for Akron B Ball.

Any chance we will get a replay of the winning basket? Guess not. How many times would they replay it if BG had won. Great game! Another Zip steps up!!

McClanahan is in a shooting funk the last few games and is pressing. He is forcing his shots and they are not even close to falling. The last shot with 2 seconds left was not a good one. Need him to step up and get under control.

I believe that stats can be misleading and Zeke did not have a terrible game. Keith would not let Zeke play 30 minutes if he was not playing well. Although Zeke did not have any rebounds, Miami only had 4 offensive rebounds. Zeke kept his man off the boards while his teammates rebounded the ball. In the 2nd half he was often away from the basket guarding Mavunga. Miami did a great job on the defensive boards and Akron did not have many offensive rebounds. (Tree only had 1 offensive rebound) When Zeke scores in double figures, it is because his teammates are getting him the ball in a position where he can score. That did not happen very much in the Miami game. I can only remember one time where Alex passed Zeke the ball and Zeke did not take the ball to the hoop and got the "Keith glare." Give Miami credit for their team defense. Zeke is not going to break down a defense like Q and Alex can. He is dependent on this teammates to score. If Q can penetrate and get layups, there is no reason to get the ball into Zeke. I still believe that Zeke is most effective when he gets the ball and makes an immediate move towards the basket. The VCU game was a perfect example when the game was on the line Keith got the ball into Zeke and he went towards the basket was fouled and made the free throws. Zeke is a much stronger player this year and expect to see him in double figures next game.

I do not believe this was an ugly win as winning a close game against a very good defensive team on the road that plays a very slow offensive style that limits the number of shots. I thought Akron tried to move the ball quickly up the court the first 5 minutes and then never could find any pace in their game after that. Tree went from having 8 offensive rebounds at Marshall to 1. Our team only had 5 offensive rebounds with Walsh leading the team with 2 offensive rebounds. (I love having a guard that can rebound). Mavunga and the entire Miami team did a great job on the defensive boards. Akron did a better job in crunch time at the end of the game by making their foul shots and playing great defense. When Akron was leading by 2, Mavunga dribbled the ball trying to penetrate against Zeke. He could not do it and passed the ball outside and the the ball went out of bounds. Great defense by Zeke at the end of the game. We then make our foul shots to win this game. This was a great win for our first Mac game. However, it was so much more fun watching VCU 10 second offense than the Miami 40 second offense. It is amazing how different the style of basketball is played by these 2 teams.

I paid the $10 with the 1st link and now have the video.

Great News? 2 years agoe Wistricil fired JD Brookhart with one year left in his contract and paid him approximately $200,000 not to coach our football team. He hires Coach I, gives him a 5 year contract. We now have the worst division 1 football team in the nation. He fires Coach I and we now pay Coach I $250,000 not to coach our football team. Nobody in the country wants to coach our football team.