clarkwgriswold

Kwan seems like a nice conscientious kid. I get the sense that he sometimes gets a little too down on himself and you can see it in the look on his face and in his posture, and occasionally in his game. He seems to be shaking things off a little better lately and his confidence seems to be coming around after his early season struggles. I'm happy to see him taking on a more diverse role, focusing more on defense and rebounding.

There were a lot of loose balls and rebounds that seemed to bounce Buffalo's way, but we also had some serious rebounding technique issues last night. Buffalo is very young. I expect to see them back as a top MAC contender in the near future.

Any idea what's up with Jake. Hopefully a cold or a brief flu bug. Every time I hear he's out I worry about the concussion stuff.

To our good fortune, Justin Moss is now a member of the Orangeville A's of the National Basketball League of Canada after being caught twice in his brief Buffalo career stealing on the Buffalo campus. With him gone and Bobby having taken his angry 11 year old act to Arizona State, the Zips shouldn't have much trouble with Buffalo.

Part of being a decent conference is having credible officiating. Unfortunately, the MAC seems to get guys that appear to be moonlighting from their usual CYO officiating gigs.

Wow, an awful of of enthusiasm over an unproven guy. I'm excited as this certainly has potential to be a real coup for Akron, but I wouldn't sign him up for UA HOF quite yet.

Amen. You're only allowed out of your dorm room for class, practice and games.

I was losing my damn mind on the travels. Between the tucking it under your arm like a football while going to the hoop and the foot shuffle before driving, they missed at least 6 or 8 travels. I counted five on one guy.

I think Pat just had a brain fart and forgot he was on offense. Looked like he got the rebound and turned to look for an outlet guy.

Some of the best ball movement I've seen from the Zips all year. Some of the worst officiating I've seen all year. I'm generally not one to b!tch about the refs, especially after a win, but that was pretty bad. I counted five travels on the Fowler kid that they just plain missed. He has a bad habit of shuffling his feet right before he penetrates and they missed it all damn night. It sure was a game of runs. Fortunately, our runs were more sustained. I think we may see CMU again.

I will miss Jackson's effort on defense. While he an Ivey have contributed little on offense, they are probably the hardest working guys we have on defense.

Maybe KD should get T'd up every game, if for no other reason than to fire up our lethargic fans! I saw a fabulous picture of him in mid-fit.

Last night, I'd have just been happy with consistency. They'd allow the equivalent to a tackle at one end of the floor then call some ticky tack touch foul at the other end.

I have a solution to the new rules. Stay between your man and the damn basket!

Kwan looks lost and at his low in the last two years. From the way he's carrying himself, it looks like a confidence thing. He appears to be a hard working conscientious kid and I suspect his shooting and turnover woes have gotten into his head a little. He must be doing OK in practice, however, as KD keeps putting him out there while tinkering with the lineup and altering other players' roles. For the time being, I'd like to see him out of the starting lineup while working with him to find his game in a reserve role. With respect to something being in a kid's head, poor Ivey might as well close his eyes when he's shooting foul shots. No way can that kid be that bad a free throw shooter. He needs to shoot free throws in practice until his fingers go numb (they already appear to be when he gets to the line in games).

One concrete observation I can make after tonight's game- EMU must have the worst college food services program in the USA. Their big men looked like candidates for the NCAA All-Famine Team.

Anyone have an update or any insight on that situation?

Sure, this team is very deep. While it may have depth, it has not developed leaders or a go to guy in the clutch. There's nobody on that team who's a coach on the floor or who I see take control of a situation or attempt to rally the troops. I keep waiting for it to click, but wonder if it will for this group. I'm also becoming frustrated with our rotations. When a group is clicking or a player is hot, ride it. Instead, we often seem to be making substitutions off a chart created before the game (like a CYO coach with a 12 kid team that has to make sure every kid plays a quarter).

An on the road loss to the pre-season west favorite is no anything to get worked up over. It certainly has the benefit of squelching the ridiculous predictions of us going undefeated in the MAC. The 21-8 run by CMU after the Zips took the lead was disconcerting. I sure wish they could get Reggie to play that aggressively on offense every night.

That's ridiculous. I sit in the lower bowl, splitting the season with a buddy. There have been empty seats down there all season. There are two seats next to mine that no one has sat in for the last two seasons.

What an odd game. That 6 or 8 minute stretch in the first half was as good as I've seen them play all year, but they had some very bad spells the rest of the game. The Zips seemed to have problems putting their bodies on the Broncos when going to the board with some awful or non-existent blockouts. It seems to me that Noah is still just a little tentative, but I expect that to dissipate with time, and Forsythe's rust will go away with time. Kwan really seems to be struggling and I keep hoping for that breakout game that boosts his confidence. I really like the way Ivey is working on defense. His offense hasn't yet arrived, but he's working as hard as anybody on the defensive end. This team leaves me scratching my head, but as long as they keep winning I'll be happy to scratch my head like I've come down with the mange.

I was also able to concentrate on the game more without being distracted by an angry 12 year old coaching Buffalo.

Nice work by Justin Moss. From MAC MVP to thief to the Orangeville A's of the National Basketball League of Canada.

They are 4-13. I'll stick with awful.

Looking at last night's MAC scores, it could be worse. Miami lost to SC State and at least we didn't play Oberlin.