clarkwgriswold

Let's be brutally honest. Kostelac is 6-11, 250 and is playing at the University of Akron after high school at NDCL and a year at IMG. At NDCL, he was 3 time All-League Honorable Mention. The NCL is not a basketball powerhouse league. He seems like a great kid and has potential, but he's a freshman who would never see the floor on a decent team or a team with some depth at the bigs. He has been thrown to the wolves and hopefully that will benefit his long term development, but given his background we shouldn't get too excited by his potential or too disappointed when he has difficulties.

Mr. Pinky and the 12-14 Golden Flushes of PCCC await the Zips this Saturday at the MACC. PCCC has been one of the MAC’s most inconsistent teams (6-7) with wins over Buffalo and Western and losses to BG and NIU. Jaylen Walker leads the Flushes at 17.2 ppg. Adonis De La Rosa leads rebounding at 7.8 ppg. Be sure to get there early so that you can get a seat with a view to most of the floor. It’s very odd to head into this game with both teams essentially out of the MAC East title race.

Groce was happy with the effort, not happy with the mental breakdowns at the end of the first half. 6'9" 245 LBS > 6'5" 195 LBS. It's simple math.

Once they figured out how to get the ball inside to the big men, the game was over. I think their big men were 15 of 19. Kostelac had a couple of cheap ones called on him, but he he contributed to the cause with a couple of mind numbingly stupid fouls, the worst on which he fouled out. It would have been a different game with E-man and Sayles, but that could be said of many games. After that first half run where they looked so good, the rest of that game just plain hurt. The last minute of the first half was a real momentum killer.

We can pee and moan all we want about the refs, but the Zips are just playing getting out played.

Stupid foul Mark.

Amen, but that goofy haired dude can score the basketball.

Kostelac has to have taken E-man's fouls per minutes played record away.

I stomped my foot so hard it's still tingling.

Ugly start and end to the first half.

Cotton finally coming in.

Two 3 seconds calls in a college game. What's Next, calling traveling in the NBA?

Nice 21-7 run.

Nice to see Virshon just watching to start.

Nice start. Ugh.

This may be the least amount of chatter on a gameday thread this year.

...and to think I've been giving away bobbleheads! I really like the coasters. The glass mugs last year were OK. I demand a lot for my $60 GA season tickets!

Ahhhhhh, the black market of Zips gear. Gus meeting in dark corridors...

The excitement is building...

So, will Ball State defend Jimond differently this game? I really hope Saturday's showing by Parrish was the beginning of big things from him. He has been the team's most frustrating player for me this season. He has the build and skills to really be a player, but his lapses have driven me crazy at times. Him becoming a major piece could really help this team. It seemed at times Saturday that the Zips were intentionally slowing things down on offense (maybe to conserve energy?) and using the clock. Curious to see if that continues. One common set was 4 on the perimeter with Utomi drifting through the middle in the key and to the elbows on the ball side. I guess that shows how he's having to play out of position in part.

I catch myself sometimes wondering how KD would do with this team. I then realize he would do very poorly given the difficulty of coaching two division 1 basketball teams at the same time.

Oh goody, we're back here. Sigh.

I posted about how bad the crowd was 5 or 10 minutes before the game (which started this discussion). It then filled in some. The crowd was on the lower end, but I have seen worse. Sub .500 basketball at a 2:00 tip-off isn't likely to get much of a crowd. All in all, it was an entertaining game in large part because the teams were so evenly matched. Unfortunately, that comment is not a positive for either team. On a more important topic, could someone please explain to me why the pep band has "Fat Bottomed Girls" as a part of it regular repertoire which if often plays with the dance team on the floor. It's the equivalent of playing the cavalry charge at the Indians games.

The Ball State Cardinals, fresh off a convincing 19 point win over PCCC, come into the JAR Tuesday night to face the Zips. The Cards are 16-9 overall and 7-5 in the MAC. Tayler Persons leads scoring at 14.2 ppg, with Trey Moses leading rebounding at 8 per game. Since beating the Zips in double overtime on January 27th, the Cards have beaten Toledo, BG and PCCC and lost to Eastern.