1981 grad

I agree. I also think it is also harder to win on the road in the grind of a long season. As much as this board gives Miami grief about their weak schedule, they have won all of their road games. Something we have not done.

Wow, I knew he had been off but I am surprised by how bad those numbers are in conference play. Is there such a thing as a sophomore jinx? I think Tavari also had better numbers as a frosh. I just remember he did not get in some games as a sophmore but he also had issues on defense.

When I looked at the stats this morning, I noticed that in the last 6 games the Zips have not shot 40% from the 3 point line. In our lost to Troy and our narrow win st Eastern Michigan we shot the 3 point ball around 27% for those games. Earlier in the season against good out of conference teams including Perdue we were averaging well over 40% from 3. I even commented that this might be Groce's best 3 point shooting team. I hate that our three point shooting in trending downward at the end of the season. Not sure what is the cause except the grind of a long season. Also, Groce has been playing some players long minutes and there has been a greater emphasis on defense. In our loss to Miami we only shot 25% from 3. Hoping that we can regain our outside shooting touch in the remaining games.

I watched the replay 5 times and it was a reaction jab that was no where near hitting the other player. Difficult to call it a punch but I guess it was techically a punch out of anger that was about 5 feet from striking the player. Again, watching the video 5 times it was clear but in real time nobody would call that a punch.

Really happy to see Marvin get some minutes and really play well. His foul shots were pure gold. You could tell he has been working on that part of his game. Made some real hustle plays. That was the 2nd bizarre game at the JAR in a row. Kent went 1 for 23 from 3 and in this game we almost shot 50 foul shots. That 10 minute intermission while the refs reviewed the scrum like it was the Kennedy assasination film was rediculous. I thought the Zips played well but our 3 point shooting was well below 40%. We also played slow and often shot near the end of the shot clock. I was surprised to see how much trap zone we played. The Zips did a great job on the boards against a very physical team. I thought we were more athletic and quicker than Mass. Great win for the Zips!!!

How would you like to play for this coach who basically threw all of his players under the bus. I think everyone on this board knew that Nate was a great MAC player but few thought the would be a great player at the next level. The coach has to accept responsiblity for assembling a team that cannot compete at the level. Basically, the players are pros and mayber the colleges should have a gm who evaluates talent and brings in talent. Tang might be a great coach but not sure if he can evaluate talent. When K State lost to Bowling Green he had to know this was going to be a losing season.

Freeman was called back up to the Timberwolves. Maybe he will finally get to be on the active roster.

I hate these probablility charts ever since somebody posted on our board that we had a 96% probabiity of beating UCLA with about 4 minutes left in the game for our first NCAA victory. When I saw that post, I knew it was the kiss of death. And we all know what happened in that game.

I have a vague recollection of Kent winning at the JAR and going over to our fans and taunting them. I thought it was classless then and classless now. I saw the same thing in soccer this year by our soccer team and others. A coach should teach his players how to win and how to lose. I don't know what happened after the Kent Toledo game but if it was inappropriate I am glad the coach called it out. Regardless if you win or lose, student athletes should not act like jerks after the game.

I hope you did not bet on this one.

Give Hardman credit for a game winner. I cannot remember an Akron game winning shot in the last 10 seconds this year. I really thought it was going to be a Tavari drive or pull up jumper for the last shot. Give Groce credit for the game winning play.

Lyles has thrown some passes that have been directly to the other team. Worst game I have seen him play. And no we can not play 5 minutes of good basketball.

Can the Zips play 5 minutes of good basketball running their offense and not throwing the ball away.

Speaking of alumni parents, I remember only one parent that used to post on this board and that was Kwan's mom. She was always very nice. I started thinking about Kwan and it looks like he has had a very successful career playing all over Europe and in Israel. I copied his Twitter picture and he looks great with a very handsome family.

I just wonder who is happier, Tavari who is having a break out season in the MAC and has an opportunity to go to the big dance or Nate who cashed a much bigger paycheck but is stuck on a losing team with no personal accolades such as MAC player of the year and no chance of an NCAA tourney. Money or fame? Difficult decision for 22 year old athletes.

Underwhelmed by college kids playing 3 on 3 basketball in front of the biggest crowd of the year. I am sure the red panda was booked.

I also felt the Lord's presence when the rowdies were yell F___K you to Kent.

Has anyone else noticed that both Scott and Tavari have step back jump shots that are almost impossible to defend. That is something new to their games this year. Also, Scott has been much more aggressive in attacking and finishing at the basket this year. That three point play where he got fouled and put the ball high over the defender was amazing.

I thought Cian Medley was a good player for Kent, very quick, and played really tough defense on Tavari. He had full court pressure on Tavari a few times and really made him work to bring up the ball. I was really suprised that he sat the bench the last 10 minutes of the game. He averages 10 points a game and we held him to 3. He did not shoot the ball well but the same could be said for every Kent player. Tavari leading the team in rebounds does not surprise me. One thing we are doing better is the guards coming back to the hoop looking for long rebounds. With Kent shooting poorly from long range there were a lot of long rebounds. Also, when I played street basketball there was a term, "following your shot" which meant after you shot you went toward the basket to get your own rebound. At least once a game an Akron 3 point shooter would pick up an offensive rebound if he would follow his shot, espcially when shooting from the corners. Finally, Kent missed a lot of open 3 point shots and shot 1 for 23. Maybe we start a new contest at the Jar: "the Kent challenge." Give somebody 23 three point shots and if they make 2 they win.

I learned my lesson in prior years not to park in the deck during the Kent game. Would it kill the U to have a police officer at the exit of the deck to get people out of the deck.

In the post game even the Groce agreed this was a strange game in that both teams struggled on offense. Akron got out of their shooting funk courtesy of Hardman but Kent threw up more bricks than I care to remember. They missed short shots, dunks, layups and shot 1 of 23 from distance. Yikes!!! I almost felt sorry for them. If we weren't turning the ball over and struggling ourselves on offense this would have been a blowout by the half. I am not sure our defense was the reason Kent shot the ball so poorly. Maybe the crowd and the excitement of this game was too much for the Kent crew. Kent had a hugh rebounding edge in the first half but it did not grow in the 2nd half. Maybe because Barre got more time in the 2nd half. I think Groce said it best in the post game that teams have to win even when their offense is not clicking. Finally, the game was very physical and I thought the refs did a good job in letting the teams play and allowing the physicality as long as they were basketball plays.

What better way to learn to be a coach then be a graduate assistant for Groce. Nick was a character when he played at Akron. We were in a close game and Nick was having a difficult time shooting the 3 ball and had missed his last 5-10 shots. At a critical juncture in the game he started lining up a three ball and everyone in the crowd starting yelling "NO" Nick smiled at the crowd while passing the ball. He was a good player while at Akron and glad to see him coming back.

I have been reading and posting on this board for more than a decade and this is the first time I can remember somebody posting that an Akron team is "more athletic" than Kent. On an unrelated note, I hope that they will bring back the cartoon where Zippy destroys all of the mascots for this game.

Toledo came out hot shooting the ball well and shot 73% from three. I have seen teams come into the Jar and have a hot first half where everything goes in and then struggle in the 2nd half. That is exactly what happened tonight and they shot 25% in the second half. I watched Halligan play really good defense on their quick guard. He really works hard on defense. Glad to see him on the post game show. I saw that he wanted to come out. He has a broken nose and it got bumped in the game and he was in a lot of pain. I thought Toledo played really good defense at the end of the first half and I was worried that would continue in the 2nd half but we came out on an 8-0 run. I thought we did a great job running down long offensive rebounds. I would like to see that in future games. Young and Hardman went for a combined 0 for 7 from the 3 line. I thought Hardman rushed his two three point attempts. Young's were open threes but just could not hit. I checked the stats and Young and Hardman are our worst three point shooters with Young shooting 29.5% and Hardman at 35.5%. I think Hardman is often a liability on defense although he tries hard he is just not very quick or physical. He only saw 15 minutes tonight. Tavari is so important to our offense that he played 37 minutes. He made so many difficult shots in the lane. I love the way he can penetrate through a defense. He is playing as well as any Akron guard I can remember in getting and finishing at the hoop.

The Timberwolves got blown out tonight and I checked the box score to see if Freeman got his first NBA action. Bad news, he was sent back down to Iowa. Good news, he scored 22 points and had 10 rebounds in their win on Sat. night.