Jump to content

clarkwgriswold

Members
  • Posts

    8,085
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    287

Posts posted by clarkwgriswold

  1. 1981 grad, I get it that you have very strong beliefs on this issue. In my experience it goes on with every sports team and every fan base. Many fans of every team come up with ideas that seem so logical that they can't believe the coach is not doing it. The point I was trying to make is that in most cases coaches have very good reasons to do it one way rather than the other. It seems so logical that the second leading scorer on any basketball team should be a starter that it defies logic when it's not that way.

    I would just say that Coach Dambrot is no dummy. He reads the box scores and knows who his second leading scorer is. In spite of that he has well-considered reasons not to make Deji a starter. I wish I could tell you why. But to the best of my knowledge, no one here knows exactly why. We can only speculate. It's interesting as Deji nears the end of his career at UA that he has gone from the player who many on this forum wanted to kick down to D-II to the guy they want in the starting lineup.

    If Coach Dambrot was smart enough to keep Deji as a Zips player in D-I when fans wanted to dump him, he's probably smart enough to know if Deji contributes more to the total team effort off the bench than he would as a starter and also how many minutes he should play in each game for maximum effectiveness. Coach Dambrot might be wrong, but I have more confidence in him than in fickle fans -- Zips fans in general, not you specifically -- who went from dissing Deji to begging for more of him.

    You mean we should value the judgment of a person who has spent their career coaching basketball and who sees the kid play 10 to 12 hours a week over fans who see a kid in games maybe 50 minutes a week?

    Don't get me wrong. I get frustrated with KD at times as it seems like he makes substitutions off of a predetermined schedule, often taking out a player that is hot at a given time in a game. That being said, I figure he is in a far better position to make those calls than me.

    Regardless, this thread is a great commentary on Deji. As Dave points out, Deji hasn't always been held in such high regard by Zips fans. He has obviously worked very hard to improve his game and it shows, and the result has been him going from one of the Zips most critiqued players to a fan favorite. I hope he has a huge night on Senior Night and a nice tournament run to end his career.

  2. I'm pretty shocked that I've now seen several people who think it's no big deal to take this team to Cleveland with the task of having to win on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday........after playing a home game on Monday.........and playing against some very well rested teams.

    I wish I felt the same way. I need to find some of the stuff that you guys are consuming.

    They are undefeated this year when they've had to play 5 games in 6 nights!

  3. The Zips are extremely fortunate to have a backup PG of Antino's caliber as well as a quality walk-on PG like Malcolm. We just have to be realistic and remember that Antino is a true freshman whose HS team did not play the kind of national schedule that Noah's did. He doesn't have the calm maturity of Noah that has steadied the team, but is more of a streaky player with ups and downs. He's learning on the fly how to lead the team for 30 minutes per game as opposed to being a change of pace backup for 10 minutes per game. Malcolm is also going to be learning on the fly. But after watching his performance against Toledo, I couldn't recall another walk-on player the Zips have had in recent memory who could have done any better.

    Exactly Dave. While the season has had its low points, we've been in much better hands at point guard with the three freshmen this year than we were with Carmelo and Evans.

  4. I'm just glad Harney scored those 48 at Fairmont State. My blood pressure has dropped into the healthy range since he left.

    As for Evans at the point, let's not forget he split time at PG with Carmelo Betancourt, to combine to be the worst point guard tandems in recent memory, and when everyone is healthy, he is at best our 4th point guard. I like the kid, but I am not ready for a regular diet of him at the point.

  5. I chased down some info on the Evans and Robotham situations.

    Robotham's bickering with the trainer had to do with the trainer telling him he shouldn't go back into the game after he was hurt. Noah may have taken it a little too far, but that's a result of his competitiveness. Looks like the trainer was correct at this point.

    Evans spent the entire second half watching from the hall in street clothes. Apparently, something happened in the locker room at halftime. As the team went into the locker room after the Toledo game, his mother was screaming at KD from the stands about how her son was used. Maybe the situation boiled over.

    • Like 1
  6. Is Dambrot perfect? No. Is he the most successful basketball coach in the last 30 years of Akron basketball? Absolutely. If he did not have that elephant skeleton in his closet, he would have moved on to a larger program long ago.

    Sometimes, players just suck and there's nothing you can do as a coach to fix it. They are human beings and sometimes they have off nights and no matter what you do with rotations and substitutions, nothing works.

    This is a young team that lost its best player. The teased us with some big wins, but as a young team with average talent, they are going to be inconsistent.

    • Like 1
  7. I was unable to make tonight's game. Thank goodness. Looking at the box score, it appears that it must have painful to watch.

    I expected much more of Jake and Reggie this year. I love that they are good kids and students, but their lack of production is becoming most frustrating.

  8. Then this is just (another) asinine policy. Give free tickets to performers and groups. Performers only. Family and friends will buy to see said performance. Still selling g tickets and you're not playing band-in-a-can.

    Exactly. Last week, the Seton School choir sang the Anthem. There had to be 25 kids in that choir, all from the Hudson area. I'll bet between the parents, grandparents, and siblings, there had to have been at least another 50 to 75 tickets sold.

×
×
  • Create New...