clarkwgriswold

Ohio U is as solid of a defensive team as we've seen since At. Bonaventure. Very good at doubling the post then getting back to the perimeter.

Time for a Zips run.

Elmore James just shoulder bumped Shammah leaving the court. Shammah said something equally polite to him in response.

Letting them back into the game.

So far Shammah was the only one ready to catch and shoot.

They are running the double team at Enrique whenever he puts the ball on the floor. Lots of opportunities for open threes tonight.

... And starting.

Tribble in uniform and warming up.

They also offered some of us unwashed an opportunity to move down into the lower bowl tonight with the privileged folks. I turned it down when they said I couldn't sit behind NWAkron with my vuvuzela.

Maybe Omega Upsilon Delta Sigma can win the Greek Night Philanthropy donation! @NWAkron and @csims0917 can rally the members.

I guess a postseason tournament is a chance for the team to get more time on the floor together against solid competition and being selected to the NIT would be nice, but at the same time I have a hard time getting very enthused with a tournament for 69th place.

5 hour and 45 minute road trip!

Freeman graduated from St. Martin de Porres High School, a very small Catholic co-ed high school located in the St. Clair-Superior neighborhood of Cleveland. He was 6'4" and played in the Lake Effect Conference, a small team conference that gets little attention. He averaged 12 points, 10 rebounds and 4.5 assists, which also failed to draw attention. He went to UA in the fall of 2018 on an academic scholarship and at the urging of his mother attended an open tryout in the fall of 2019 that landed him a spot on the team. In the 19-20 season, he rarely saw the floor, playing in seven games, scoring five points and grabbing four rebounds.

When they played at SVSM, I got the sense from watching them that they had some talent but that the talent and personalities weren't meshing well.

We're 16 games into a new coach's tenure. 16. It's a little premature to come to any conclusions

Duquesne is currently 10th in scoring and 9th in average points surrendered in the A10. Dae Dae Grant and Jimmy Clark are both in the top 10 in scoring in the league (3rd and 9th). Their best rebounder (Drame) is 21st in the conference and are 9th in team rebounding. That all adds up to 0-5 in the conference.

I'm confident we'll see one or two impactful portal players. I think some of the team's success will depend in Nate's development. Hopefully, with the loss of the veterans he'll have the confidence to step up and be more impactful. I think he has it in him but I don't know that he knows it yet, if that makes any sense.

I worried when they brought him on that they would get back to being competitive really fast and overcome the years of Saul but it hasn't happened, at least yet.

Amen, and another shame in it is that they took away what may have been to absolute highpoint in Tavari's basketball life.

I just watched the tech on Tavari again multiple times and I see nothing. He must have said something to Sullinger but whatever it was had to have been pretty low key and I am surprised a ref could hear it with the crowd noise. The technicals on Ali and Tavari were clearly very weak. The one against Tribble against Ball State was also very weak. That being said, it's seems that the MAC officials are out to set a tone on even soft taunting/celebratory behavior. It's also apparent the Zips have a target on their back as the presumed league favorite. As such, I guess the lesson, if any, is to be extra careful not to give some hypersensitive ref an opportunity to make a potentially game changing call.

The Ohio University Bobcats come to the JAR Tuesday night to face the Zips. The Bobcats are 8-9 heading into a home game tonight against Eastern Michigan. Ohio enters the matchup with EMU with a 2-3 mark in MAC play after defeating Central Michigan on Tuesday. The Bobcats average 78.6 points per game, while shooting .455 from the field, .341 from three and 70.8 percent from the line.. Bobcat scoring is pretty balanced with 4 players averaging between 11.7 and 13.5 ppg, with Jaylin Hunter leading scoring at 13.5 ppg. Their top player, second team All-MAC preseason second teamer AJ Brown, is out for the season with a shoulder injury. The natives in Athens are getting restless with the lack progress in the program since Jeff Boals arrival. Thus far, he has been 86-56 at OU.

Canton Repository/Beacon article on the game - https://sports.yahoo.com/still-perfect-akron-mens-basketball-104537328.html

I'm all for Groce picking up a monetary sanction from the MAC for post-game comments about the refs and the chicken$h!+ technical calls. I'll start the GoFundme for us all to contribute to pay it.

Groce won't "let the win be a deodorant for what stank" (the bad defense) in the second half. Shorthanded win over your arch rival and the refs in their barn. Priceless.