clarkwgriswold

They were on the floor together a lot today, especially in crunch time.

The 4-11 Central Michigan Chippewas come to Akron Tuesday night to face the Zips. They are coming off of a three point lost to Toledo. The Chipps wins have come against Adrian, Coppin State, Olivet and Appalachian State. 7-foot senior center and Ferris State transfer Nathan Claerbaut leads the team in scoring and rebounding at 12.8 ppg and 6.5 rpg. They average 72 ppg while shooting .453 from the field and .281 from three point range.

Shammah's 3-pointer that didn't fall was really good look too. They made the plays down the stretch. The Zips didn't. On to CMU.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Blown opportunity.

Jesus Amani.

Time for the senior leaders to bring it home.

..and doesn't like it when Evan bangs him back.

Suder has seen enough of Eric.

I don't begrudge the refs letting them play. The issue is that Tuesday they'll be calling every damn ticky tack foul. I'd just like to see consistency.

Keep it close and let your senior leaders take it at the end.

Zips need to guard Byers like Miami is hounding Hardman.

They really need to get Sharron rolling.

He's not a bad defender but he went to the bench when they switched up the lineup for better defense and replaced him with Halligan.

Need to stop giving up offensive rebounds.

I think when they see an improvement on defense he'll see more time.

Marvin with some meaningful minutes today.

Even doing a nice job on Suder.

Steele thought Amani pushed the defender away with his left forearm.

Not a fan of Amani leaving his feet on the 3 point line against their big or Young's foul on the 3 pointer. Otherwise okay so far.

I think @Let'sGoZips94 and @kreed5120 are both right to some extent. The Zips defense this season, including the Yale and Murray State games, has been inadequate, especially om the perimeter. Groce has referenced it repeatedly in the post-games and I'll take his work for it. At the same time, those two teams were unconscious in their shooting. Poor perimeter defense + hot shooting = 97 and 115 points. This team's pace is always going to result in more points by the opponents. More opportunities for the offense results in more opportunities for opponent. Also, the team plays help defense. Watch how they sag on the off ball side of the court. If they're a little slow to recover, there's an open shot. They'll tighten it up but they'll never be the 19-20 team that gave up 66 points a game.

3 years in we need more than moral victories over conference opponents.

This game worries me, as do all games in Millett Mausoleum. Maybe it's the ghost of Charlie Coles.

I thought the same thing for the first 5 minutes and last 5 seconds of last year's MAC Championship game.

Porter was a senior at Wichita State when Shammah was a freshman. They bonded over their work ethic, see each other as big brother/little brother and have maintained contact. PS- I survived every Literature class through Cliffs Notes.

Ohio.com article on Shammah's relationship with the Cavs' Craig Porter- https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/sports/college/zips/2025/12/30/shammah-scott-akron-zips-basketball-cavs-craig-porter-jr-cleveland-cavaliers/87935128007/