clarkwgriswold

Let's see. A kid gets a chance to go from a program that's won 11 games this decade in a poor conference to get paid to play for a program that is regularly in the top 40 in the country in a top 3 or 4 conference. Hmmmmm.

Hardly any crowd.

The Zips head to El Paso for the WestStar Don Haskins Sun Bowl Invitational on December 20th and 21st. In the first game of the tournament, the Zips face the 5-5 Yale Bulldogs. The Bulldogs have beaten Vermont, Fairfield, Stony Brook, Quinnipiac and Emerson, while losing to UIC, Purdue, Minnesota, Delaware and Rhode Island. They are led by 6’6” senior guard Poulakidas at 21.1 ppg. 6’7” junior forward Nick Townsend is the Bulldogs second leading scorer at 13.1 ppg while leading rebounding at 6.1 rpg. The other teams in the tournament are Jackson State and UTEP. Jackson State is 0-10 but their schedule has been brutal, with losses to Iowa State, Houston and Kentucky. They lost to common opponent Arkansas State by only two points. UTEP stands at 6-3 with a very pedestrian schedule, but one of the three losses was a 3 point loss to Louisville.

I listened to Groce on the post-game. He indicated that the defensive game plan going in was based upon Milwaukee being a poor three-point shooting team and then they were just on fire. They then made the adjustments at half to counter the threes and were then unable to stop them off of the dribble. He was relatively content with the offense but not at all with the defense. He also criticized the veterans for their approach at the beginning of the game while praising Young and MMK for their play despite their inexperience. He was also unhappy with the offensive rebounding disparity. Milwaukee is a decent team. They'll likely win the Horizon. As I mentioned in the post opening the thread, they were the preseason favorites along with Purdue-Fort Wayne. Their best player, Pratt, is now back. All that being said, the Zips who we consider to be the class of the MAC should not be thumped as they were by them. If the Zips performed like that on their exams we could have a lot of academic ineligibles coming up! Our bigs are not helping. Okonkwo, Lyles and MMK were 5 of 12 from the field, 0 for 1 from the line, had 6 rebounds and 11 points.

So much one on one basketball today. Getting run by a Horizon League team. This is on hell of an alternative to the Browns.

This game is number one on the season for the number of times I have screamed a vulgarity.

MMK is our best big man today.

Need a run pretty soon.

Way to much one on one today. Hardman and Young are defensive liabilities.

Don't know. Just heard through the grapevine.

Well, my over bet looks solid. No way they shoot like that in the second half.

Not given a chance to go to the arena or last night or earlier in the day for a shoot around/walk though.

Ugly perimeter defense, bad rebounding for the Zips. I also understand they weren't able to do a pre-game shoot around.

Damn zips. Wake up.

Announcer is adequate but the production is awful.

Nice to see Amani in.

Announcer is doing both the radio and the TV call. They need to stop doing the replays while the ball is in play.

Announcer: The bigs will play big in this one."

There can't be 500 people there.

No Josiah again today. Okonkwo and Hardman in the starting lineup again.

This one's going to come down to who wants it more.

Game day. The Draftkings lines are the Zips +1 with the under/over set at 154.5. I'll take the Zips and the over, thanks.

I care. I 1) am an SVSM and UA alum; 2) enjoy D1 basketball; and 3) like free things. It's also fun to see it up close in the smaller setting.

It's the Dambrot-Dru-SVSM connection. If they wish to do something for their alma mater good for them.

This is the start of a stretch that could determine an at-large bid. 😁 Sorry, couldn't resist.