clarkwgriswold

Congrats Matt. The Zips family is most proud of you.

The Canada game wasn't exactly a thing of beauty, but I guess it wasn't that bad. The shooting was bound to cool off eventually. I'm just hoping it rebounds a little. Teams have figured out that the Zips go as LCJ goes. He's going to continue to get bounced around by defenses and given no space. That's easier to do with a zone like EMU as you don't have as much opportunity to ball screen and do other things to free him up on the perimeter. Reece needs to be smarter so that he can give them more quality minutes. As the Zips best big, he needs to cut out the dumb fouls and be more game aware so that he can be there in crunch time.

The BG/Toledo game was entertaining. Justin Turner is really good. I hope Channel is healthy for Tuesday as the Zips will need him against Turner.

The first place Bowling Green Falcons come into the JAR to face the Zips Tuesday night. The Falcons are 8-2 in the MAC. They are coming off of a last second 85-83 win over their biggest rival, Toledo. The Falcons are led by All-MAC 6'4" junior guard Justin Turner at 19 ppg. Turner had a hamstring injury early in the season that slowed him down but not seems to have his legs back under him. 6'6" junior guard/forward Daeqwon Plowden leads rebounding at 8+ rpg while also kicking in 12 ppg. The Falcons were dealt a blow today when their second leading scorer Dylan Frye left the team for "personal reasons." Here's hoping Matiss Kulackovskis still has those awful braids in his hair. This is a HUGE game for the Zips.

They finally figured it out after 23 games.

Yep, Frye is gone for the ever ambiguous "personal reasons."

In every successful season, a team needs to steal one or two that they didn't deserve to win. That was definitely one for the Zips. Just a few observations. For EMU, who in God's name tries to milk the clock up two with 3 or 4 minutes left? Also, with the players they have, there's no reason they should be that inept on offense. That Groce kid is woefully underutilized. As for the Zips, playing like that won't get you very far in Cleveland. They're going to see more and more of LCJ getting pressured and being given no space to get off a shot. EMU also made an effort to exploit him on defense for a little today, but then stopped. I think they'll see more of that. The Zips did a very poor job of pushing the ball in transition today and getting points before they could set up the zone. There are some very basic principles to combating that zone and the Zips rarely stuck with them today. If they're not going to use Sayles, when the bigs are in foul or playing poorly, I don't understand why they don't just go small and push the tempo. I don't think I've ever seen a guy who gets caught with his back to the basket in rebounding situations as often as Riak. The refs could have called a foul on the final play. They certainly called a bunch of touch fouls today. I will give Banks credit for going straight up with both hands and refs will often swallow the whistle on plays like that at the end. When Channel hit the floor he immediately grabbed at his groin, but it looks like his back which has ailed him this season. Hopefully, he's okay. He was their leading scorer today in the first ten minutes today with 2 points!

A big shout out to Rob Murphy for his help today.

Wow.

EMU's coach makes Mr. Pinky look like Red Auerbach.

EMU milking the click up 2. Unbelievable.

Looked like Tyler was getting on Deng in the huddle.

Jayden finally up.

Points from LCJ!

...and so it goes....

Reece back in, to foul out soon.

He's having fun dancing in his seat to the music during the timeout.

Settle in. Reece has 4 fouls and Jayden seems glued to the bench.

X scores his first points 24 minutes in.

I need something to keep me here!

Halftime adjustments then throttle them to start the half.

So that's what a week of rust looks like.

I'd take any 3 guys that didn't play on offense like they were CYO grade school spazzes. Defense is good again today. It, along with bad EMU free throw shooting, is keeping them in it.

That may have been the worst 10-minute stretch of zips basketball I have ever seen.

7% shooting so far for the Zips.