skip-zip

No. It's being able to play Evans for 32 minutes. I think you're going to still see plenty of Betancourt this year, but I expect that his minutes will work back in very slowly. Deji does nothing to help us in the ball handling dept. But, he is helping us. He's actually playing very "big" for his size.

Having another winnable game can't be a bad thing! I still don't know why Toledo didn't get OU's or Buffalo's bowl bid anyway. Plus, it would have been good for us to have "we beat a bowl team" on our resume going into next year.

We should be playing all of the teams in our own division.

Right.

The point you mention above about Big Dog is actually pretty amazing, and very noticeable. I also see all of these references above to players learning to move their feet quicker to become a better defender. The truth is, you can sometimes coach players to defend by moving their feet, and teach other techniques to help them defensively. But unfortunately, there's very little you can do to make their feet faster.

Hopefully better than "OK". If we compare him to recent point guards after 10 games in an Akron uniform, it's very promising. If a guy uses his time at a JC wisely, they SHOULD be much more ready to contribute early than a freshman. He has the 3rd most minutes of play. Whether that's a result of Carmelo's poor play or not, that shows that the coaches surely have confidence in the guy. Is he really the first JC player of the Dambrot era?

That would be nice, wouldn't it? Heck, he's already played a record amount of golf even when he IS performing his duties as President, if you want to call it that.

Playing Diggs at the 1 spot and making him a full court ball handler is wasting a player's primary strength too.

I believe he turned the ball over on our first two consecutive offensive possessions, if I remember correctly. That was enough for me. I was really close to the action, and it seems like everything is just moving too fast for him, and he just can't keep up. He just clearly is starting to look like he doesn't belong. The analysis of this game is simple. We played our worst 10 minutes and our best 10 minutes of the year in the same game. What a roller coaster. Here's a few highlights... 1) We scored 5 points in approx. the first 10 min. of the game. And we were stuck on "5" for quite a few minutes. 2) We cut a 9 point lead down to nothing in just the first 2 minutes of the 2nd half. 3) In total, we went from a 9 point deficit to an 18 point lead in roughly the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half. If someone wants to split up the stats (Dave?), I'd love to see our 3-point percentage in the 1st half vs. our 3-point percentage in the 2nd half. I'm probably exaggerating, but it seemed like 10% in the first half, and 80% in the 2nd half.

True. There are consortiums of officials that work several different conferences. But, the frustration here on Zips Nation for many years has been, "Why do they seem to be at their worst when they are doing MAC games?"

I don't know if "underachieving" is the right word. I think you might truly be seeing what he's able to contribute. Keith has mentioned trying to get Big Dog more in the mix. I think this would be a good move. We've seen his potential in terms of his quickness and power. I just don't know how well we'd do in the long run with Treadwell being the lone primary workhorse, both offensively and defensively, under the basket. We got away with that Treadwell/Harney/Kretzer front line against ORU, but only because the matchups were favorable. The makeup of some other teams may prevent us from being able to do that.

Unfortunately, I think you're right on the money with most of this.

I don't know either. As scared as he must have been to start in the MAC tourney last year, he still took a few shots that were there for the taking. I just don't think he's ever quite broken the fear of making mistakes. And as mistakes compound, you compound the problem and lose confidence. That pass he threw into the stands last night was just unbelievable. He's a good defender. That's all he's contributing right now. Sit him on the bench and let him be a spot defender on the perimeter, and give Nyles some rest. I really don't want to see him on the floor right now for any kind of regular duty.

So, you're saying that a SET PLAY is called on every possession? That would be a first among basketball coaches. What you described in your post would be an offensive rotation (or scheme, as you call it), and not a set play. This is the distinction I am drawing, and the reason I pointed this out to Dave. I don't think you two are understanding the difference.

#1 would clearly be my choice. Wow, doesn't that sound familiar, and it's probably the thing about Akron "supporters" that bothers me the most. That reminds me. I often hear people make statements such as "Well, I grew up a Suckeyes fan, how can I change my loyalties just because I went to school at Akron?". And My answer is.....WHY NOT? I grew up a Notre Dame fan, and became loyal to the Blue and Gold almost as soon as I stepped on Akron's campus as a student. In my opinion, if someone is a student and fan, and is not making that transition, then they aren't trying. Students, particularly, are around the environment 24/7. Go to the games, get excited, start following the players, etc., and you can easily get hooked forever. Just like me.

Reggie got open because we ran a set play specifically for one guy, to get him a screen and a wide open shot from a good spot. It may have even been a double-screen with him circling up from the baseline, I'd have to see it again. They weren't "leaving him open" because they were concentrating on defending somewhere else. That had nothing to do with it. In fact, he was being chased closely by a defender when the play opened up. The point was that I was just cautioning you about indicating that actual "plays" are being called continuously throughout a game. I many instances, teams are simply calling a rotation for a trip down the floor, not a particular set play. I just wanted to point out that difference.

So that you don't mislead anyone, make sure you are making a distinction between a called played, and offensive rotations. I pointed out the 3-pointers by Reggie last night because they clearly appeared to be called plays.

A few observations: 1) I knew it was going to be a long game when ORU hit the 7 foul mark with 12 minutes to go in the first half. 2) Reggie's back-to-back 3-pointers in the 2nd half were HUGE. And they were called plays. Up to that point, Tree and Quincy were carrying us offensively. 3) Interesting to see the front court of Kretzer/Harney/Treadwell when the game was on the line. Keith tends to go with who he can trust. He did mention that he wished he had given more minutes to Big Dog. But, it's becoming apparent to me that Pat is probably going to be sitting more, no matter which way he goes with this frontcourt as the season progresses. 4) And Carmelo can join Pat with more bench time, as far as I am concerned right now.

Dave, You can pull out all of the micro time periods you want, and try to make something of them. Fact is, they outscored us in the 2nd half. And played pretty even with us for more than half of the first half.

Are you sure? You mean, the 2nd half wasn't just meant to be a practice session? He wasn't the only one who got pulled for playing carelessly in the 2nd half. But, don't be pointing this out to some people on this board, who contend that it was OK that we played like crap in the 2nd half, or that we were just resting people, or that it was "pretty much a practice session", etc. Unfortunately, we only played about 7 good minutes the entire game, and the guys who were sleepwalking the other 33 minutes were sometimes pretty noticeable. Obviously, it didn't go unnoticed by the coaches, as you point out.

It was. During the last part of the first half. I wonder what game some of you folks were watching too.

I wish it was just "a run" of good play. Instead, WE were the team who had a run of good play, in the last part of the first half. Besides that period of time, they played us evenly, or outplayed us in the other 30 or so minutes of the game. Sorry. There were several guys who played very, very lazily in this game. If that's going to happen in a game like this, then give more of the playing time to the guys who really want to play.

I wasn't too bothered about the score being 15-15 after about 10 min. of play. I was much more bothered by the lazy way some guys were playing after we went on the run to get the 30 pt. lead before halftime. They played us fairly evenly for more than 20 minutes after that. Some people can criticize those who weren't happy with the "sleepwalking" for most of the game, but I can tell you that the guy running our team didn't look happy either. I join with those who were watching Kwan quite closely. I'll say this again. We need him. We'll need more help in the paint both this year, and beyond. Right now at least, Kwan and Big Dog are our future around the rim.

Thanks. I voted. And the link on that page to the Alex Morgan body painting layout was a nice bonus

Interesting. We were "experimenting" with guard combinations back then too. We were starting Abreu and playing McNees at the off-guard, and bringing Darryl Roberts off the bench. It didn't last long. Thank God. We ended up winning a title by putting Steve back to the point, and starting Darryl again. Maybe a similar outcome will eventually come out of this situation also.