clarkwgriswold

Mike Beaven getting assigned to the Zips has been a real blessing.

Payton was on the PRE-season team selected by the coaches. He's obviously played himself out of it.

To stir up some conversation, as the 2023-24 regular season winds down, who are the members of your 23-24 All-MAC Team? Give us your first team, POY and COY. As a reminder the preseason team was: First Team Ali Ali, Guard, Akron, Sr. Enrique Freeman, Forward, Akron, Sr. Chris Payton, Forward, Kent State, Grad. Jaylin Hunter, Guard, Ohio, Sr. Dante Maddox Jr., Guard, Toledo, Jr. Second Team Tyson Acuff, Guard, Eastern Michigan, Jr. Jalen Sullinger, Guard, Kent State, Jr. Anderson Mirambeaux, Center, Miami, Sr. David Coit, Guard, Northern Illinois, Jr. AJ Brown, Guard, Ohio, So. From what I have seen so far, my All-MAC team would be: Enrique Freeman- Akron Basheer Jihad- Ball State Tyson Acuff- Eastern Michigan Marcus Hill- Bowling Green Jaylin Hunter- OU POY- Freeman COY- Groce

Here's a line for you- 13 minutes played; 0 for 5 from the field; 0 for 2 on threes; 0 assists; 0 rebounds: 1 turnover. This performance brought to you by last year's MAC Freshman of the Year Reggie Bass.

With Tavari, Scott and Thornton, the Zips have the ability to play whoever is the best on a given night, an advantage many teams don't have. My only worry would be that that splitting up the time may keep any single one of them from getting into the flow. In Groce I trust.

We're not being critical, we're just explaining what might be in the coaches' minds relative to his minutes as compared to the others at his position.

He's apparently not wanting it more and leaving it all on the court!

Some food for thought. Tavari has a higher rate of turnovers per minute played than Tribble, Scott and Thronton and has a lower assists per minute rate than the other three. Do with that what you will.

I really like Nate but I think we need to pump the brakes on our expectations. The kid averaged 8 points and 3 boards a game when healthy. I like him and think he'll help but he's not likely to be a huge difference maker.

The Zips headed to Athens Tuesday night to face the Bobcats. The Bobcats are 14-12/8-5 going into today's game against NIU. The Zips beat the Bobcats 67-58 earlier in the season in a relatively competitive game at the JAR. The Bobcats played the Zips even in the second half. Senior guard Jaylin Hunter continues to lead OU in both scoring and assists.

The coaches see every minute of a player's life with the team, from team meals to interactions on the bus to practice to play in the games. You have to trust what they're seeing over what we see 80 minutes a week.

At least Mr. Pinky didn't go with "the game wasn't important" schtick to put a gloss on his @$$ kicking this year. Tavari is still an immature player. Some nights, he'll play under control and intelligently and earn more time on the floor, other nights he'll be out of control and lack attention to detail and settle in on the bench.The good news is that he is growing up as a player and gets closer to a 30 minute a game player every day.

Groce making a point in the post-game to credit Dawson for being impactful/forceful even when he's not scoring.

Welcome back Dawson.

I think we've seen an even brighter hue of pink tonight.

Now let's step on their necks to finish this.

Shot clock violation out of a timeout. Beautiful work Mr. Pinky.

I don't know what's better, Mr. Pinky exploding or Dawson making a three in the middle of Pinky's fit.

If history tells us anything, they have a run left in them. Be ready to punch back.

I'm gonna need more than 3.4 ounces.

I saw a brief excerpt from a PCCC post-game where Pinky was openly critical of Payton, saying it was the worst he'd ever seen him play.

When we last played PCCC, their starters were Bass, Davis, Sullinger, Payton and Bekelja. Since then, Payton was moved to the bench against Miami on January 30th, and their newest starting lineup is Sullinger, Davis, Santiago, Hornbeak and Bekelja. Hard to believe you'd have a player better than the preseason MAC POY coming off of the bench. LOL.

You can see teams coming to double him now, not unlike they do with Enrique, when he backs it down into the post. Toledo was ready for it last night and drew a charge or two.

My gut told me Tavari's minutes we re up but to my surprise that's not been the case. In the 5 games in February, his minutes have gone: 13-23-12-17-13. Scott's:22-22-14-11-13. Thornton: 13-17-12-5-10.

Transfer number two on the way!