phil

Why do we still have so much trouble inbounding the ball. Alex threw the ball to nobday.

Thanks for the video. I am curious. When does the team travel? I assume since I see the buses at the JAR that the teams leave the same day and return after the game. Although the kids are young, that is still a lot of traveling and helps explain why it is difficult to win on the road.

When I checked the MAC scores this weekend, only one away team won. It is difficult to win on the road after a long bus trip. We know that because in the past we have had some talented teams get upset on the road. We have a good team in a fair league. This weekend some nationally ranked teams lost on the road to less talented teams. Give our guys credit for hanging tough and winning. As long as this team keeps winning it deserves to be receive votes for the top 25. If we win the next 4 games I expect we could finally break into the top 25. One of the disadvantages of being in the MAC is that we are probably a one team NCAA bid conference. The upside is that with a very good team you can have the longest winning streak in the nation. We complain about the bad. Now it is time to enjoy the good!

The only redeeming thing about this game was that Walsh had a great game with 5 of 7 shooting and some great rebounds and defensive plays. It is tough winning on the road and tough bringing your best game to the floor each time. But the Zips still won. Early in the game they had a 3 on 1, tokk 3 shots and did not come away with any points. I thought it was going to be a tough game. When Zeke gets tired, his foul shots are short. His last one did not hit the rim and he played over 30 minutes. We did not get a great deal from Chauncy and this is his 3rd weak game in a row. His knee must still be bothering him because he is not moving very well. I hope he gets better because this is his senior year and would love for him to have a great year. He can slash to the basket but have not seen him do it this year. Hopefully, we can keep this streak going on Wed. Go Zips!

Good start to the 2d half. The refs aren't helping when the Miami center is in the lane for 6 seconds and then an offensive foul on Zeke. Let's get this one back Go Zips

On one occasion, CMU took 8 seconds in the backcourt and were trapped. The coach called a timeout a the team got another 10 seconds to bring the ball out of the backcourt. That seemed to penalize us for playing good defense.

My friend said that the reason Tree picked up the T when that he told the ref the foul on him was a BS call. I saw the foul and it was underneath the basket and the guy acted like Tree knocked him out of bounds. The ref called the foul on the reaction of the player but I could not tell how bad tree bodied the guy. This was a weird game. We started well leading 13-3 with Walsh and Alex hitting their first shots that were threes. And from that point it was a struggle. We could not penetrate the Zone, we missed some easy shots, and we could not hold onto the ball underneath the basket. We also were not getting any offensive rebounds. Our zone also did not look very good. When Tree got into foul trouble Zeke and Forsyth did not play the zone well together. Central had a lot of open looks. The saving grace for this team is that we seem to wear teams down at the end. Tree and Zeke were monsters on the offensive boards at the end of the game. We also had some great steals and shots to seal the victory and ended on an 11-0 run. Ibitaya forced some great steals at the end. This team needs to learn how to penetrate a zone. I think this is a weakness. Good teams find a way to win and this is a good team. Go Zips

I agree with you that Rico deserves a great deal of the credit for the win over OU. He is the engine that makes this team run. When he is playing well this team has no limit on what they can do. I love his comments in the paper because this team has the ability to play great ball with any team. However, I wish we could start this engine on the opening toss. I would like Rico and Walsh to get off to quicker starts so that we are not behind after the first 10 minutes. Hopefully, with the solid game on Saturday, Rico can get this team off to a fast start tonight.

It is true. I watched them prior to the jump and not one handshake among the players. One of the radio announcers indicated that Chancey and someone from OU had a verbal exchange during the pregame warmup. Obviously, the teams do not like each other. Also, the opening ball toss for the jump was terrible. It was low and went to the OU player. One of the few opening jumps that Zeke did not get.

Is there any hard fast rule that we could not get Creigten. Would love to see a rematch on our floor.

Thanks for the detailed stats. I did not jinx Zeke since he did not foul out today. He picked up another moving pick violation. Would have liked to see that on replay to see if he actually moved or was it a good acting job by the OU player. It seem that if the opposing player falls down the refs like to call a moving screen. The refs were very weak tonight and were calling a bunch of ticky tack fouls.

Going into a big game in previous years one of the concerns was whether Zeke would get into foul trouble. I don't know the stats but one of the reasons he has been successful this year is he has stayed out of foul trouble. I believe that Zeke is playing smarter. He is avoiding the fouls 30 or 40 feet from the basket that he used to get. All of his fouls this year are almost always in the paint. He is getting less offensive fouls for a moving screen. ( I still remember a few this year) Most importantly, I think the refs are finally respecting his ability to block shots. Because he is the career leading shock blocker in the Mac they are giving him the benefit of the doubt on close calls that he never got when he was an underclassman. Looking forward to a great game today. Go Zips!!!

I think the starters played great and Forsythe had a great game off the bench. Chauncy had an unusual game in that he did not take a shot. It shows that he can play well without shooting. Alex had only one turnover the entire game. Tree not only scored and rebounded but had some great passes to Zeke. Our bench still has room for improvement. Kreitzer shot poorly and was pushed around under the boards. McAdams shot a 3 and after the miss his man beat him down the court for an easy 3. Bentacourt, 3 turnovers in 9 minutes and the ugliest foul shot of the season. Ibitayo did not hit a shot. We need more from these guys in close games. I think Kreitzer and McAdams need to do more offensively than shoot the 3 ball. Can't wait till Saturday. If Alex has another great game I think we will be hard to beat.

The Zips have one 11 in a row and generally you do not make changes or want your picture on the cover of Sports Illustrated (not that it would happen) during a winning streak. If the Zips win Wed at Bowling Green, I would stay with the old jerseys on Sat. What do others think?

Thanks for the explanation. I bet the ref just heard some words and thought it was taunting so he gave him the T. I was not worried about Zeke losing his composure, KD was the guy would would not give the ref the ball back and he was the one yelling at the ref for the call.

I was at the game and assumed it was taunting. KD went crazy and would not let go of the ball as he yelled at the ref who made the call. I thought the ref was going to give him a T. I guess things even out when a Buffalo player took a shot in the paint with about 40 seconds left and it looked like he got fouled but the refs did not call it. The Buffalo coach went crazy. You have to KD credit for going to the zone. Buffalo could not penetrate and they had constant pressure at the 3 line. I don't think they scored more than a couple of baskets against the zone. KD went back to the man with about 3 minutes left and after Buffalo scored he went right back to the zone. When Alex is bad this team stuggles. On the first 2 possession Alex missed a layup and an open 6 footer and then followed with a turnover. He had a bad first half but a great 2nd half. I agree with a previous post. Being up by 4 points with 2 minutes left in the game is not a time to sit on the clock and have Alex Dribble until there is only 10 seconds left. This team struggles to score with only 10 seconds to work a play. It resulted in a time clock violation and the momentum shifted to Buffalo and they made a 3. Finally, we lost the ball twice on inbounds play lobbing the ball to our centers. It is time for a new inbounds play.! Great game to watch and great crowd!!

It is amazing that a simple concept, if you are happen trouble hitting the 3 ball that you move in and start taking some 15 footers or try driving to the basket gets lost to these players. I thought that Nitro was the same way. If his 3 ball wasn't hitting he still would not try to take the ball to the hoop.

Congrats to Chauncey on his 1000th point. The last 2 games he has made a big difference off the bench. I hope he has a senior year to remember!

I don't know how Chauncy's knee is feeling but he might get the start on Sat because he clearly outplayed Harney. Harney did not hustle down the court after he turned the ball over. I am surprised that KD put him back in after that play. Harney was playing so well I guess he was due for a bad game. He did not score. Bentacourt is struggling. He gets in the lane and cannot finish and turns the ball over. He took 2 shots and they weren't close. He plays 6 minutes and turns the ball over 2 times. Alex is playing big minutes I am glad to see Walsh having a solid game. I think this is the best our team shot the 3 ball. Looking forward to Saturday night against the Bulls.

I thought that if the game was on ESPN3 that it could not be shown on sportchannel but apparently I was wrong. Would rather watch it on sportchannel than on the computer. I have a Panasonic smart TV and I thought that I could watch the Zips game on the TV but it will not download flash player and that is used on both ESPN 3 and the MAC sites for the the video feed. If anyone has another way of watching the Zips on TV for ESPN3 or on the MAC feed please post.

I love Tree's attitude. At the first exhibition game he came out like he wanted to win every game this year and that attitude has not changed. With that mindset anything is possible with this team. Great interview. Go Tree and go Zips!

Just got home from the game and had a great time. Akron dominated the boards in the 2nd half. You have to give our big guys credit. We could not shoot but we went after our misses the 2nd half like men possessed. I could not believe how many rebounds Tree pulled down. Our guys did not give up. It was nice watching Chauncy have a solid game after only playing a couple of minutes. The veterans really stepped up while our rookies looked like rookies. Zeke played a lot of minutes and played hard the entire game. I wish we could go inside more to him because he dominated his man. He hit a couple of foul shots in the end that iced the game. He had to know he was going to get hammered on the intentional foul but he hung in like a man and went up strong for the dunk. We gave up 2 offensive rebounds late in the game off of missed foul shots. That should never happen. One time we had only 3 men in the lane and I knew that was a mistake. This team has won 9 straight and 2 on the road. Go Zips!!

Thanks for the link. Great reporting. I am glad that Harney listens to his high school coach because rebounding and failing to keep his man off the boards has always been the weakest part of his game. I noticed that his rebounding has gone way up the past few games and it makes a difference. I also see that KD is playing Harney a lot more. Lets hope both continue as it makes the Zips a better team.

Zeke was limping at the end of the game last night. I hope he can resolve his knee issue. I don't believe that he scored or took any shots in the final 8 minutes of the game. That is part of the problem with Zeke's stats on offense is that he seems to average only 7 shots a game. This team needs to do a better job with spacing where Zeke can get the ball down on the low block. He is using his strength to take the ball to the hoop. However, this team still has a problem getting him the ball. Both Alex and Harney had great passes to Zeke that set him up for dunks. However, a good part of the night he is fighting for position on the block and not getting the ball. The good thing about last night is that the refs left Zeke alone and allowed the centers to battle without calling any fouls.

I have enjoyed watching Zeke play B ball for 4 years and will miss him next year. Akron has had a great run the past 3 years and he is a major reason they have done so well. He has always been a great shot blocker amd more importantly and intimidator in the lane. College players do not like to have their shots blocked and will ofter hesitate or change their shots when Zeke is playing. Zeke has never been a natural athlete. Instead he has to work hard to improve his game. As a freshman he had trouble holding onto the ball, was a poor foul shooter, would get tired after being on the floor for more than 5 minutes. had few offensive moves and was pushed around on on the floor. This year he has improved every facet of his game. He is much stronger this year and a much better rebounder. His offense is still dependent upon other players and the refs not calling ticky tacky fouls against him early in the game. However, instead of going away from the basket his first move is toward the basket and he has done a much better job of scoring and drawing fouls. He also has a jump hook that he can use on offense. I believe that Tree helps Zeke offensively because he will draw a double team leaving Zeke open for a pass or a putback on the rebound. I would love to see Zeke have a breakout offensive game this against OU or a strong opponent to show that he can be an NBA player.