clarkwgriswold

Against BG on Saturday, they played yesterday without Pritchard, their leading scorer, and Harding, their big man, only played 3 minutes. Pritchard suffered a foot injury a couple of games ago.

Just saw that. Under/over yet is only 134. That's an implied point total of 159.5-160 for CMU. Wow.

We'll find out how good CMU really is tomorrow night but I have to give them credit. They were picked to finish last in the MAC pre-season poll yet here we are half way through the season and they are tied for second place.

I'd sure like to see more out of Sammy. I expected him to be the Zips' 3rd scoring option, but other than in the WMU game when I thought he'd turned the corner, he's been inconsistent and generally underperformed in MAC play. At this juncture, even with the 19 point game against Western, he's averaging 7.3 ppd and 3.5 rpg a game in MAC play. I wouldn't be surprised to see his minutes decrease as Shammah and Tavari's increase.

Okay, so you weren't a bookworm but you did learn "ipso facto."

...and the best representative of Zips sports in recent memory.

I went back over their last three or four boxes and noticed that they played yesterday without Pritchard, their leading scorer, and Harding, their big man, only played 3 minutes. Sophomore guard Paul McMillan stepped into the starting lineup and led the Chipps with 19 points, including the shot that took it to OT, though he was pretty inefficient at 7/21 from the field, 0/5 from 3 with 4 turnovers. Pritchard suffered a foot injury in last week's game against NIU.

6'2" junior guard Anthony Pritchard, leads the Chipps at 14.6 ppg. 6'6" grad student guard Brian Taylor leads rebounding at 7.5 rpg while also being the team's second leading scorer at 12.5 ppg. They are 10th in MAC offense at 68 ppg and 5th defense surrendering 71.7 ppg.

CMU/BG in their second OT!

After Ali got his tech he walked down towards the Toledo bench and appeared to be saying something or motioning towards them and Kowalczyk was whining at the refs to T him up again. It was a pathetic display by old Tod.

...and I had them at +7.5!

Takes me back to the days of Zeke Marshall. That guy really cleaned up for guys getting beaten to the basket. He had 122 blocks his senior year for the Zips!

This team has had issues facing pressure this season. There are spots on the floor that you teach grade school kids not to get trapped in and this team seems to somehow fall prey into getting pressured into those areas. Also, the perimeter defense lacks lateral quickness, maybe with the exception of Tavari and Thornton (who can get pushed around) to slow down the penetration. Tribble bodies up to make up for it but others have issues. The good news is these issues are fixable to some extent by better technique or adjustments I'm confident Groce and staff can make. I did like the switches to the 1-3-1 at times last night, though Toledo did a good job of combatting it a couple of times.

The Chippewas come to the JAR Tuesday night to face the first place Zips. The Chips are 12-9/7-2 headed into today's contest at Bowling Green. After that game I'll update the thread.

3151... and the winner is...@Head coach Huell Jackson with a guess of 3135.

I too thought bringing in a guard, Tavari, to handle the pressure late was a good idea, until it wasn't. I'd have switched him out for Thornton quickly given his experience and assist to turnover ratio over his career. I'll give Toledo credit. They are scrappy as hell and their speed and dribble penetration can kill you. The Zips just need to stop any kind of celebration to try that can result in the petty technicals. It's obvious that it has been made a point of emphasis for the MAC refs and while it's clearly not being applied consistently, they just need to redirect the energy before it makes a huge difference in an outcome.

Just checked in.

Zips defense has been suspect at times tonight.

Survive their run then have one of our own.

Our smaller lineup when Enrique is out is working okay against the small Rockets

Nice to see Dawson go to the hole (that's an old-timer equivalent of "swish").

Best offensive half of the year.

I hate the call, but at some point you have to start reading the refs.

The M AC refs apparently got a memo to not allow any sign of excitement without calling a technical.

Classic MAC refs tonight.