phil

I do not think Reggie played poorly but that Jake was in the zone and having a career night. I think Reggie has picked up his game and I was surprised that he only played 10 minutes. Many on this board have complained that KD will take a player out when he is hot. Here is a case where he kept the players in that were playing well.

Keith finally went with the players that are producing and it paid off great dividends. Pat did not play well on Sunday and looked slow tonight on the boards. Big Dog got more playing time. Evens has not shot the ball well and has added nothing on offense. He did not get many minutes. I thought Benecourt had a good first half on Sunday. Keith gave him the start and played his best game. He was patient on offense and faked the 3. He hit is only shot. He showed Keith that he can play under control. If he can keep this up we will be much better team Harney, Q and Tree should start every game. They play well together. The fast start tonight was the difference in the game. I thought he should have benn using this starting lineup the last 4 games. Kretzer had the hot hand and got lots of minutes. He also hit the boards hard and picked up numerous rebound. It was a fun game to watch. I think playing time should be earned. I hope is the starting lineup for the rest of the season.

Bentacourt again had a very solid 1st half. He is really trying hard to keep it under control. We are up 20 and probably let 10 points off the the table with misses on fast break where we had number. We are running wiht Harney Tree, Q and Bentacourt. The team looks very good. Love to see them put 2 good halfs together and blow these guys out at home.

Looking good with the new lineup. Akron up 10. KD is brilliant!

Still hoping for a new lineup. Evens only took one shot last game, a three that wasn't even close. He does not even try to drive to the basket and just settles on shooting threes. I would like to see Q get the start. I even think Bentacourt may be better right now if Q comes off the bench. Evens is 0 for his last 10 covering the last 3 games and 7 for his last 43. (16%) He is having a tough year shooting.

Respectfully disagree. Each year some players get better and some players get worse (sometimes because of injuries) and some stay the same. Pat is much better this year than last year (Sundays game may not prove this point), and Tree is better this year than last year. I think Harney has also improved this year. I have not seen a great deal of consistant improvement from Ibatayo or Bentacourt. The player improvement is expected and that makes up for the loss of talent. We have not seen the improvement from these players and it hurts the team. That being said I thought Bentacourt had a good first half even though he did not score. He played good defense, some nice rebounds, and some nice passes. The 2nd half he tried to drive to the basket and had some turnovers. I thought he outplayed Evans even though neither one of them scored.

Can anyone tell me when Nile Evens last scored a basket. He is playing with no confidence and not even trying to get a shot. Meanwhile, Julous Brown is everything you need in a point guard. He can beat his defender and nice jump shot. He creates space using his quickness and movement without the ball. This is a tough loss. Our 3 point shooting Kretzer, kept us in the game the first half. When Q picked up 2 fouls, Keith and Bentacourt and Evens both playing at the same time with Big Dog in the middle. The Toledo spread when to 10 and they never looked back. Having Evens and Bentacourt in at the same time is a recipe for disaster. Would have kept Q in. This team has little depth. Big Dog did not look good today. Pat did not look good today. .I think they had one rebound between the two of them. Mcadams did not look good after have 3 solid gamees. This team needs to play better. I cannot remember the last time we had a double digit loss at home.

I am glad the zips won but I disagree with the strategy of starting guys who are not producing. I just checked the stats and Even went 0 for 4 and Ibitayo went for 2 with 3 turnovers in 6 minutes of play. Our 2 starters did not score. Reggie was the only person to score from the starters hitting 2 three point baskets before the subs came in. I can't even remember when either of these players has scored a basket. Evens only takes 3 point shots. I know one of his shots did not draw iron. These guys are not producing. We start slow again. Evens need to take shots inside the 3 line and Ibatayo is a great athlete and needs to drive to the basket. I think Reggie is playing the best I have seen him play. I would have liked to see him on the floor at the end of the game instead of Kretzer, especially after the walk when he is dribbling through the press. Lots of stupid plays at the end of the game but Miami helped us missing a key free throw. Q had a great steal. Bentacourt had his best game in a while hitting a 3, couple nice passes, and only playing out of control once or twice. He also had a nice rebound.

My point exactly. Deji, Evens and Bentacourt are not scoring. We are notorious for slow starts on offense. It is time to try something different.

Using that rationale, we should bring Tree off the bench to keep him fresh and the Cavs should bring Kyree off the bench to keep him fresh. This team needs a leader and Q could be that person. Start him and see if this team takes off where they left off on Sunday.

Based on what I saw on Sunday, I think you reward good play and Q should get the start. I think everyone on this board would agree theat Q is better on the point than Evens. It is not even close. We are notorious for slow starts. These guys have to learn to play with tenacity from the opening tip. There is only one way for that to happen and that is start with your best 5. New starting lineup. Pat Tree McAdams Q Harney

I watched the 2nd half of the game. What surprised me was how few people were in the stands. You can hear the ball bounding on the court and the coaches yelling at the ref. It looked like a high school gym but with the Lakers banners I assumed it was their practice gym. Except for the TV, it looks like a step down from college ball. Zeke has to be frustrated. His teammates are not feeding him the ball. He has to more aggressive on the boards. I saw the same thing as everyone else. He is getting boxed out and does little but lean on the defender. I hope he succeeds and would love to see a Zip in the NBA

After tonights game, I think you need to reexamine this post.

So much for keeping Evens in because he makes foul shots. This team show a lot of heart tonight. Keith should reward these guys. The starting lineup should include Harney, Diggs, MCadams, Tree and Pat. Diggs should play the point. This is the best they have played all year with clutch shooting.

Who sez Harney cannot play defense?

I would go with these five the rest of the game. They are playing well together. Athletic and big.

McAdams is having a career game. I don't know why KD had him sitting so long. he and Pat are carrying this team

We start off so slow each game, Tree taking a fadeaway jumpshot airball Q taking a 3 pointer from 4 feet behind the 3 line miss Kretzer lauches a 3 on his first touch of the ball miss Bentacourt and Evens adding nothing on offense. correction Evens made 4 straight at the foul line. Keep him in. We looked better toward the end of the half. McAdams playing tough defense. Glad to see it. Need Tree and Pat to pound the ball inside. Good to see Kretzer hit a 3. Things are looking better. Need to start off well in the 2nd half The 2 traveling calls were both bogus.

Q knows when to shoot. He was looking for his shot all the time and kept this team in the game. KD indicated on the postgame that the "team gutted one out" Using coach speak that means we did not play well and still won. This team is struggling and we won our last 2 games. But it is not pretty basketball. I did not see the entire game but what I did see was Bentacourt and Evens struggling. They cannot penetrate. Evens loves to dribble East and West. Our offense looks so stagnent. I hate seeing Kretzer and Q lauching threes several feet behing the 3 line. Reggie shot a three off a screen when he rushed the shot. Both of them missing open threes. The good new is I saw both of them drive to the basket. They need to learn to penetrate. Harney, Q and Tree can penetrate a defense but if they pass off to a wing who misses an open 3 in does not help. This team needs to get better to make a run for the Mac championship. Cheatham got a few minutes and had only one shot, an outside 3. That is not the way to get more playing time. Also, our 3 balls were not even close. Winning ugly is still winning. They will have to play better to win at OU

I thought Harney had a good game. Every time he got the ball he went to the basket. He made things happen and had some nice passes. Bentacourt wakes up from the dead. He played really good defense. He made some nice passes and hussled his butt off. He played smart. When he drove the lane and went off his feet he always found the open man. He outplayed Evens who jacked up some awful threes and on a crucial last possession had no idea that there is a time clock in college basketball. Love watching Big Dog play tonight. Would like to see him get more minutes. Pat also played well The one player who always brings intensity to the court is Tree. Well, almost always. Did not show a great amount of intensity tonight. Kept settling for the outside shot. Teams are now doubling him and he threw the ball away. Q also did not have a good game. His shot was off. Had some nice drives at the end of the game and a banked 3. If Q and Tree are both off Keith indicated this team is in trouble. This team was in trouble tonight. Kretzer, could not bother to come to the ball on the next to last possession and it was an easy steal and dunk for Marshall. He looked surprised that a Marshall player would jump into the passing lane to steal the pass. Showed no hustle after the ball was stolen. Reggie had a nice drive to the basket on a fast break Need him to get to the basket. The most fun I had tonight was watching the Marshall coach. This is one animated guy. He was after the refs all evening.

I think Reggie and Kretzer are good Mac players. However, they do not have speed or athleticism when playing tournament level teams to be impact players. They were recruited as 3 point specialist. When they are on, they really help the team. When there shot is off, they are not going to drive to the hoop like Chauncy, the Serb, or some of the other past players. Nitro was the same type of player. Rarely went to the basket. I don't believe that Keith will keep recruiting these types of players in the future because they are one dimentional. Ferry was the same type of player with the Cavs in the NBA. Stood at the 3 point line and rarely drove to the hoop. He would never foul out and hardly ever shoot foul shots.

I agree. But the bottom level teams in a major is still better than our usual schedule. We beat one team and stayed with a ranked team for a half, The last 2 teams exposed our weaknesses. Good teams make you realize that you are not as good as you think you are. That is a good lesson for this team. We may have talent, but there is a lot of talented teams. The trip to Detroit last year and the game on Monday makes me realize that this team must play near perfect ball to win. Did not happen.

I only saw the last 7 minutes so I really cannot comment on the game. However, I heard one of the sportcasters state that the Zips need to 1. Have a guard dribble penetrate to create scoring opportunites 2 Have players move without the ball and use backcuts to get to the basket. I always try to stay positive because I believe this is Keith's most talented team. The reason they are not winning is they are playing a better out of conference schedule with lots of travel. We are not playing Detroit, Bethume Cookman or Cleveland State at or near home. We are playing in a major tournament thousands of miles away against major conference schools. They played 3 teams in 5 days from major conferences in hAWAII. When have we done that before? Never. Because we did not have the talent this team has. We stayed with the last 2 teams in the first half. However, we do not have the talent to win these games unless every player, especially role players bring their "A" game against better competition. We are playing against better competition and these teams will exploit our weakness. We get the ball into Tree, he is immediately double teamed. He passes the ball to Kretzer who misses a 3 or passes the ball again. If they double Tree, we have to hurt them with a 3 ball or score. If not, they keep doubling Tree and we lose. Tonight, we were down by 5 and back to back turnovers by Evens and Q. Q missed a 3 pointer with 4 minutes left from 5 feet behind the line and it did not come close to the rim. Foul shooting? Evens has to play well- did not happen We need to have Reggie and Kretzer do more than stand in the corner and shoot 3s.. Or if they are going to do that, they need to drill the ball. These teams are too quick, the charge out at Kretzer or McAdams and change his shot or he does not shoot. They needs to fake the shot and drive to the basket. The role players have to come up big against good competition. Hopefully, this experience will help us during the MAC season and if we make it to a tournament. Do not give up on this team. These are growing pains against good competition. Bring the "A" game or find somebody who is will to bring it.

The most important thing about Evens is that this is his first year on the team and he is still learning. If he can drive the lane and hit the 3 ball we are going to look very good this year. The point guards need to get the ball to the big men in a scoring position. I would like to see Evens dribble less and pass more. When he is dribbling nobody else is involved in the play and our offense stagnates. I think Q is by far our best point guard and does a great job of distributing the ball. I also have seen some nice give and goes between Tree and Q. Tree is a very smart player and a good passer. We need to get him the ball. If you can't find him on the court, just look for his socks. He is not easy to miss. I would like to see Tree have a 20 point game during the tournament. He can only do that if his team gets him the ball. The other weakness on our team is that I noticed is that Kretzer, Mcadams and Big Dog need to learn to move their feet quicker on defense. They have to keep their man in front of them. Against athletic guys these guys are getting beat off the dribble. Playing man to man this will hurt us against better teams.

I missed the first half. I guess I did not miss much. The 2nd half is what I expected this year. I cannot remember a Zips team playing this well. Q was amazing. He distributed the ball well. Got by his man and then dished off. Found Kretzer in the corner for 3. This team can be amazing. Harney had some nice moves to the basket. Tree had a career game and during the post game interview he was talking about the other players. Ketih should play the 2nd half to these guys before every game to show what team basketball can accomplish. I thought Detroit looked good. They were very athletic and shot well from the 3 line. I hope that this team can play this well every night.