1981 grad

Is Clarke injured?

Currently, he is certainly an upgrade over all the additions except for Hankerson and Tavari.

I have seen young Zips teams struggle on the road as long as I have been a fan of this team. Our 2 blowout losses were at Marshall and now at Bradly. Although X scored at the foul line today, he struggled from the field. We have 4 vets, Freeman, X, Tribble, and Hankerson although he did not play with Akron last year. Clarke has not been playing and I am assuming he is injured. If X and Freeman come up empty, we are in big trouble because Tribble has offensive limits and Hankerson has not been able to carry the team. I think we are going to struggle on the road this year until we can develop players who can play well on the road.

I must be living right. I was travelling and assumed the game was at 7 or 8 and missed the game. Based on the comments on this board, I did not miss much.

Even when he is playing he is limiting his three point attempts. In the beginning of the season he was just letting them fly. Unfortunately, he could not make them.

If the Zips can shoot like that every night we may be very good. X and Hankerson were on fire from three line. Noticed that Tribble has stopped shooting from the outside and Sammy is limiting his three point attempts.

If you ditch the game against powerhouse Muskingon the stats would probably be worse.

Tavari is quickly becoming my favorite Zip with his ability to penetrate and also to get Freeman the ball and get him some easy shots. He needs to be confident when he starts the game as he looks now.

I think it went unnoticed but Tavari had 4 steals the first half. I like the way he can drive to the hoop in the 2nd half. X playing much better after he hit that 3 to end the half. I have not seen Garvin Clarke. Is he injured?

I have not given up on Clarke based on how played at the end of last season. When he runs the point he dribbles way too much. I also notice he often does not stand in front of his man when he is on defense. I am disappointed he has not improved from last season but I can say the same thing about most of the guys from last year. I really thought Tribble would be a better shooter this year. Although you have your doubts about Clarke, are you positive about Hunter? That has been my major disappointment this year.

Why do you say that? He has not played great thus far but last year he came on strong at the end of the season. I think Tamari has earned some of his minutes but he has the capability to raise his game and compete to earn the minutes back.

I am sure we got a big boost after beating Muskingon so handily.

Can anyone explain to me why we are playing this game: Sunday afternoon when the Browns are playing. A division 2 team that has not won a game. It is listed as an exhibition game on their website. What does that mean? Can anyone explain to me how this game does anything to improve the Zips.

You have to admit, this game was a perfect summary of the season. We played teams a lot closer than the last few years but always seemed to fumble a win.

It was not hard being the best player tonight but the Zips always start cold and as I stated earlier he should be starting at the one. Not sure if it would have made any difference tonight when X goes 1 of 12 from the field and 1 of 4 from the free throw line. This team cannot win if X plays like that. The Zips missed a lot of open shots. I thought Nate Johnson had a bad game. He played a lot of minutes and I think he scored only 2 points. I know at the end of the game he passed up on a 3 ball and then turned it over. We could not even make our fouls shots tonight. If you do not shoot the ball well you are not going to win.

If X would have just made a couple shots tonight this would be a close game. He has really been bad tonight.

Hunter cannot even make a foul shot. He looks like he has absolutely no touch when he shoots. Glad that he is taking the ball down low but when we are down we need to make the front end of a one on one. The announcers finally caught on that X is having a rough night.

Tavari started the 2nd half playing the point with X as the two guard. The team looks better offensively with him in this position. I think he will improve over time. He looks to push the ball up court and gives us another outside shooter.

X is having a really tough time shooting. He has to be one of 10. We again have missed a ton of shots. Finally getting the ball into Freeman when he can score. Hunter is trying to score inside. However, he has missed several close shots. He clanked another 3 pointer. Great that he makes them in practice. (LOL).

I hate the lineup Groce has in currently. Not a shooter in the bunch and they cannot get a defensive rebound.

I hope that Tavari gets the start based on his play last game. We could certainly use him if he plays anything like he did last Wed. I am an optimist and think he will continue to play at that level. We need him playing the point and X can be the 2 guard. We need outside shooting and thus far Hunter and Tribble have been shooting blanks. He also has shown the ability to penetrate and dish off to Freeman. If he starts do you go small and put him in for Hunter or do you bring him in for Tribble and have Tribble off the bench? Thoughts?

I think Flohoops did a great job broadcasting the tournament. The video was perfect and it was nice not to hear about the over and under every 10 seconds. (LOL) Well worth the $30 for 3 games. I just cancelled and got my e mail confirmation. Just a reminder to Zips fans to cancel your Flohoops or they will charge you every month. Also, saw a Beacon article on the game which is great. But it was printed on Saturday, 3 days after the game. John Knight is turning over in his grave.

He just made a tackle on special teams in the Brown game.

K State beat LSU on a last second basket to win the tournament. That was a great field for the Zips. I think we played much better than last year in Florida.

Sammy Hunter has had a brutal start to his Zip career. He is third on the team with shots attempted but is shooting 26% from the field and 15% from 3 point land. Both Tribble and Clarke have also struggled from 3 point land but have not taken nearly as many shots. It is still early and I remember other Akron players who struggled with their shooting early and came on as the season progressed. I hope it is the same with Sammy. The only thing that bothers me is that he has only attempted 4 foul shots all year. That indicates he is a perimeter player not taking the ball to the hoop. I remember his one dunk but he needs to take the ball inside more with his size. It will be interesting to see if anyone else can capture his minutes if he continues to struggle.