clarkwgriswold

Well, the Zips just played their best home game of the season against the best team they've seen at the JAR so far. Some defensive lapses early in the second half but otherwise a solid effort. Fantastic ball movement tonight. P.S. I was happy to see NWAkron come out of it unscathed by the t-shirt cannon. He flinched a little when it rolled out, but never took his eye off of it and stood in there like a champ!

Nice first half. I think this App State team is the most talented team the Zips have faced at the JAR this year.

5 minutes to tipoff and very few people here.

So, will there be more people at the JAR at 2:00 or 7:00? I guess I can go to Tuba Christmas. LOL. I hope the tuba players aren't flying in from down south.

I have been critical of some of those things, yet I appreciate all that KD did for UA basketball. I'm not more going to assume Groce has a high win total based upon the quality of his coaching than I am going to assume KD will have 20 wins plus in his first year at Duquesne. They're both in transition years.

New Poll- Bigger Crowd: A) UA vs. Appalachian State Mens Basketball at JAR B) Tuba Christmas at EJT

It will be interesting to see the crowd a Saturday afternoon game brings in. The crowds thus far have been awful and I am curious how the Zips followers respond to a Saturday afternoon game.

I think they're above .500, but not a lot. Given their youth and makeup, I see them surprising us with a couple of big wins and demoralizing us with a couple of inexplicable losses. I think next year's the year we see a jump.

Unless of course you use NWAkron as a backstop!

What's the fun in that? LOL. Look what it did to the elderly NWAkron.

The 5-5 App State Mountaineers come to the JAR on Saturday afternoon to face the Zips. The Mountaineers have wins over Toccoa Falls, Bridgewater, Davidson, South Florida and UTEP and losses to Iowa State, VCU, James Madison, Western Michigan and Western Carolina. Nice schedule. 6-5 junior guard Ranshad Shabazz leads the team at 21.4 ppg while 6-9 sophomore forward Isaac Johnson leads rebounding at 8.7 pg. They have averaged 87.5 ppg and given up 73.8 ppg.

Haaaah! The 1.7 percent that don't come unfurled! I like the adult diaper idea. Huggies as a corporate sponsor.

The dunk contest on the Little Tykes hoop was awful. The Pizza Fire contest is an abominable failure as I don't think they've given away a single pizza in two years. The t-shirt cannon shoots duds 99.7% of the time. The whole promos thing is going great! Kudos to last night's halftime show. That was really worthwhile. I'd have preferred that the dance team not perform at the start of halftime to give those kids another couple of minutes on the floor.

So, I wasn't that far off on the raffle idea!

I think last night is a microcosm for the season ahead. Lots of ups and downs, but a few more ups than downs.

Poke was good around the basket and showed his offense has improved some. He range has increased from point blank range dunks to 3 feet. His free throw shooting has improved. I like how Groce jumps a kid but then takes a minute to give direction. He'll also yank a kid, give him hell, then get him back in. I like the short memory. His assistants are also well engaged in the process. Still not sure how that Smith kid ended up on the floor. He's not in the yearbook or on the online roster. I think maybe he won a student raffle.

We missed 16 damn free throws. So much for my early season enthusiasm about the free throw shooting. Awful perimeter defense tonight too. League play will be painful if that keeps up. Nice night for Poke. Good to see him get some reward for all his hard work. I think his career points doubled tonight.

Zips don't seem to want to put this one away.

Poke doubling his career points tonight.

Sayles with a dunk and a technical for hanging on. Ugh.

Thin yet colorful crowd.

Got my shirt! They only had regular portlies by the time I got here. Nobody is wearing white.

Have them save an Extra Portly for old Clarky.

Sarcasm Skip. On a 30 degree windy Wednesday night against an unfamiliar opponent, they may have some of those 500 white t-shirts left over.