clarkwgriswold

The Zips conclude their home regular season Tuesday night by hosting the Eagles of Eastern Michigan. Stan “Somehow Schools Keep Hiring Me” Heath’s Eagles come in at 12-17/5-11 and scored a mere 37 points in their last game, a 52-37 loss to Miami. Tyson Acuff continues to lead the Eagles and the MAC at 21.7 ppg. Despite Acuff’s numbers, the Eagles are last in the MAC in team offense. They are 8th in defense.

If I had to face the Zips I would use a lot of zone.

Roda called it a "strong Saturday night throng."

They've carried over their confidence from Toledo.

This team has come a long way from when we played them at the beginning of January.

How's the crowd?

Wow! Nice defense.

...on a Nerf hoop hooked to the top of a door.

Yes, on an attempted dunk from what I hear.

Word from Brimfield is that the guy who proclaimed himself as better than Enrique has broken his wrist and is done for the season.

The Zips were spoiled by bringing in LCJ and X through the transfer portal. I think that skewed some of the expectations of their successors. At the end of the day, you brin in kids who can contribute to the team. Thornton has done that. In a mere 16.4 minutes a game he leads the team in assists and and is second in steals.

I have friends who have attended all of these schools and received quality educations. As a graduate of UA, I wish the education I received was substantially better but there's really little or no objective evidence to support this conclusion. Where there are areas where a school is better than the others, it is program specific (e.g. Akron and engineering) as opposed to across the board quality of education. These schools need not merge but need to look to areas of consolidation and cooperation where they can save money, such as supplies, human resources...

Make sure to cheer extra loud for me tonight guys as I am out of town. I hate to miss senior night! NIU is likely to come in with some extra confidence after their win at Toledo. Hopefully the Zips can put that down quickly with a fast start.

Nate played 25 minutes to Sammy and Mikal's 23 on Tuesday night. Any chance we see Nate return to the starting lineup Saturday?

The LCJ jersey hits next week.

This guy likes it for UMass basketball (not)- https://www.masslive.com/umassfootball/2024/02/umass-move-to-mac-is-brutal-blow-to-its-mens-basketball-program-vautour.html

Not likely as a freshman but I could see him getting minutes.

Tavari has played a total of 888 career minutes. I think if he matures as a player and hits the weights to bulk up he can still be a valuable upperclassman and starter at some point. I think Sharron Young will also be in the mix at PG next year.

Northern Illinois comes to the JAR Saturday off of an impressive and unexpected win over Toledo. The Huskies stand at 10-18/4-11. Pre-season All-MAC guard David Coit, a 5’11” junior, continues to lead the Huskies at 19.9 ppg while also leading the team in assists. 6’7” junior forward Zarique Nutter contributes 15.4 ppg while adding 5.4 rpg. The Zips beat the Huskies 73-51 in DeKalb to open the MAC season with Enrique leading the way with 21 and 10 and Coit leading the Huskies with 21 points.

That was so damn frustrating, in large part to the fact that it exposed problems we know exist but would rather not admit. The good news is that last night's misery was not the result of a lack of effort, but was one of execution. We always seem to have one of these stretches in the season. The run to MAC championships starts today.

Awful showing down the stretch by the Zips. OU earned that one.

Refs just gave one back. LOL. Lord they're bad.

Hunter slips and falls and they call a foul.

Feet in concrete getting back on defense.

Ummm.....guys.....open microphones.