UAZippers

I really don't see a joke about Dambrot losing weird early noncoference games as trying to degrade him or "turn him into a villian". The fact that we won so many games last season just proves further how bad the YSU loss was. Its certainly true that Akron always seemed to have one really bad effort early in the year. I can think of the Green Bay game off of the top of my head as another recent example. No need to be so uptight.

Its a great quote and all but we are talking about a player who Akron tried to recruit out of high school and he repeatedly turned us down. He went to 2 different junior colleges before committing. Sounds like the 21 wins seasons didn't exactly set his heart on fire. Quite the coincidence that he finally committed right after Dambrot left and the Zips are heading into a "down" year. Either he is settling hard, or the 21 win seasons isn't actually what convinced him.

From what I have seen, Lester and Jackson will both be RS Sophmores next season. Riak will be a RS Junior. We will have 8 players expected to be seniors in the 20-21 season.

My immediate (over)reactions to the game: 1. Great comeback win to start the Groce era. It is easy to give up when things don't go well and that first half was brutal. 2. I am amazed that Kostelac only played 2 minutes. As the only true center on the team, I expected him to be on the floor for the majority of the game. I don't know if it was just the matchup, or if JG is committed to playing small ball all year. 3. I was really impressed by Parrish. He performed like a much older player, calm and collected at all times. He also showed that he has a really well rounded set of skills that make him a threat in multiple ways when he is on the court. 4. On the flip side, I was thoroughly unimpressed by Cotton. He seemed to rush everything and made way too many mistakes. Hopefully, he can find the flow of the game better in time. 5. Ivey had a pretty bad game by his standards. It looked like he knows that he is the "star" of the team the year and he pressed a little too much. Once Utomi and Parrish got going, I think that took a bit of the self-imposed pressure off of Ivey and he played a bit better.

Nasty block followed by an even NASTIER dunk! That's what i want to see out of this team!

This game has pretty much gone as I expected. Zips are showing zero chemistry and the freshmen are making some rookie mistakes. Missed passes and unforced errors everywhere. Most of what I am seeing can be fixed with just continued practice time though.

https://twitter.com/ZipsMBB/status/928372576920985600

Small in the frontcourt, but that is probably our tallest backcourt in quite a while. The shortest player is Duvivier who is listed at 6'2". It is going to be strange after seeing two players 6' or under on the court at pretty much all times for the Zips last season.

I would guess Olojakpoke and Kostelac. They are the two others that have experience playing at a level above high school (only slightly above in Kostelac's case). I believe Utomi will start at the 3, but play the majority of the game at the 4 as the Zips are super short on front court players.

I expected that we would be 4-4 at best by this point in the season, but that doesn't mean that I am happy that I expect the Zips to win 50% of their games or less.

There is the upset the Zips needed for a chance to get bowl eligible. If they continue to take care of business, we have a pretty decent shot now. Doesn't hurt to be 3-0 in the MAC either.

Nice play to end it. Had to scare the crap out of me first though.

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He must be one hell of a practicer cause he has not shown anything in games to earn all this time.

That was almost really bad.

Yards per drive for the Zips: 24 (short field), -2, 80 (one good drive), 36, 9, 3, 23, 21, -8 Yards per drive for WMU: 66, 23, 34, 36, 61, 68, 8, 2, 68 Zips are anemic on offense and have given up way too many yards on defense. Lucky to be in it, let alone winning.

Manny Morgan running the wildcat. Interesting.

What a Pick! That was sorely needed early.

http://wmubroncos.com/watch/?Live=17&type=Live MAC link isn't working for me, but that one is.

I haven't payed particularly close attention, but it seems to me like Miami is just exceptionally good at screwing up the 4th quarters of games this year. They have been really close and should have won multiple times this season only to lose in spectacular fashion. You have to wonder how long it will take for fans to turn on their coach. He is a great recruiter, but terrible in-game. As for Buffalo, their defense is quite possibly top of the MAC. After losing Anderson today though, they are now on their 3rd string QB. I thought they were done for when their starter (and star player) went down only for Anderson to come in and play better than his predecessor. The season will rely on one of those 2 getting healthy or Vantrease (a Freshman from Stow) will need to step up big for them.

Kent State beats Miami 17-14. I hate to see Kent win anything, but probably a good result for the Zips. Though they now have the same record, I believe Miami will be the stronger team through the rest of the year.

OU up 34-23 with 14 minutes left.

I loved the way that the Zips overcame the adversity of giving up the one goal. You could tell that SIUE was pressuring for a change of momentum after the play, but the Zips held strong and answered quickly to stop any sort of run before it could begin.

Big loss for Toledo as they lost one of the best receivers in the MAC for the season.

I said something very similar to that last week. Seems like it might be routine.