1981 grad

Williams is having a nice career in Greece playing for Aris basketball club and their arena holds 5,000. I just hope they do not have a track in the middle of the stands. Glad to see X is doing well.

Before yesterdays game, many on this board thought we would lose yesterday. Rather than give up on this team, it made me think about the weaknesses of this team compared to previous Zips teams. No right or wrong answers, just your opinion on the teams weaknesses and what the coach can do about it. Here are 3 points that I see: Need more quickness on this team: First, the big difference in Groce teams and KD teams is athleticism. Groce has always recruited athletic quick guys. I do not see any of our current team being particularly athletic except for Freeman based on his size. (not a Groce recruit). Freeman is very quick to the ball for his size and that is why he such a great rebounder and shot blocker. I do not believe there is anyone in the MAC that compares to him. However, our guards are not particularly quick or athletic. LCJ was quick and was able to score with that floater. Tribble is probably the most athletic of the group and is a great leaper but struggles to penetrate. X does not consistently penetrate to the basket. For this team to succeed I believe X is the one player who could carry this team because he has shown the ability to penetrate, shoot and get to the foul line. If he struggles, we struggle. Tribble can penetrate but has not shown any ability to hit a consistent shot. Clark has the worst shooting percentage on the team. Because we are lacking in team speed we rarely score on the fast break. Fast breaks lead to easy points on layups. Tyler Cheese was the best on the break. Although we are long, we are not a relatively quick team. Need to do a better job on opposing guards: Which leads to my second point, the Zips weakness has been opposing guards scoring points. With Kent it was Carrey and yesterday it was Farrakahn, a frosh who scored 21 points. Our defense simply has difficulty keeping these guys from scoring. Clark needs to learn to move his feet on defense. I watch Farrakahn blow past him numerous times. Our lack of team quickness hurts this teams staying with quicker guards that can shoot, especially from the three. Countless time I see Azziz coming out to defend a guard and he gets burnt on a three. Groce has tried to double the guards which is great. However, I have also seen our players collapse to the middle from the weak side and leave their man. If you are getting killed by guards, stay with him all the time. We have rim protectors with Azziz and Freeman. This team needs to do a better job staying with quicker guards. Hit the boards, especially the offensive boards: Finally, I like the effort of this team except on rebounding, especially offensive rebounding. Rebounding should be a team effort. There are a lot of offensive boards that are long rebounds and our players stand and watch when a shot goes up. That is why Wynn and Dawson can be effective. I would like to see everyone hit the boards. Many times Freeman is the only one to hit the offensive boards. Needs to be a team effort.

That is coach speak for Trimble is not listening to me anymore and I am not putting up with it anymore.

Nothing on Trimble is not a good thing. If he were hurt I think he would have so indicated.

You jumped ship a tad early but we will throw you a life line and let you back on board. Go Zips!!!!

Winner Winner Winner!!!!! I got the win with X scoring double digits but did not see an Akron blowout.

Am I the only one that hates it when Ali dribbles with his back to the basket for 10-15 seconds. It seems everyone stops and just watches. Need to move the ball on offense.

Why not?

Eastern is starting to make some shots. Great 2nd effort by Freeman. Once we get the ball to him I see our players cutting to the basket but we never seem to find an open cutter.

Anyone listen to the pregame or have any idea why Trimble is not playing?

And take Tribble with you!

X is playing great. We need him to play at this level. How unusual is it for us to score the last 8 points of the half. Very good half for the Zips. Need to keep the metal to the petal in the 2nd half and grow the lead to 20.

I do not like Clark's defense. He keeps getting beat causing our team to collapse in the middle. Luckily, they are not hitting their 3 pointers. Move your feet and keep your man in front of you.

2 great blocks by Freeman. Refs are letting them play. On his dunk it could have been a foul. Good for the refs to let them play.

Terrible spacing with Aziz and Freeman. Aziz needs to get out of the lane. His man is doubling Freeman and when Freeman gets it to him he freezes

You must be the guy from the movie Titanic telling everyone to get on the lifeboats. I still think this ship is afloat. Only one of us is going to be right.

We have lost 3 in a row and have only one day rest and a trip to Michigan. In the best of circumstances this would be a tough game. What are the predictions for this game. I am an optimist and I predict a close game but the Zips win and X comes out of his slump and scores in double digits. Zips win by 4. However, I could also see this team playing another lethargic road game and losing in a blowout. Give me your predictions with who wins and by how much. And for those people on this board who think the sky is falling, the Dukes have lost 11 in a row and most of the losses have been blowouts. https://triblive.com/sports/duquesne-men-lose-11th-game-in-row/

All the above posts are great. I am more optimistic than most on this board. We just lost 3 close games and one of the games was to Kent which is the hottest team in the MAC. Basically, we have sucked in the clutch. Last night X caught a pass and his foot was out of bounds with a minute left in the game. We still had a chance to tie it when Ali tribbles the ball into his own foot. At Western, we had a 6 point lead and blew it in the final two minutes with some horrific passes and Freeman missed 2 crucial foul shots. At Kent, we had 3 empty possessions down the stretch and still could have won it if X had passed the ball to Ali who was open for a three. This team is struggling the last 2 minutes of the game where earlier we executed at the end of the game. I believe our defense is good enough to win but our offense has failed to on too many occasions. Also, it is difficult to watch. As somebody pointed out earlier, we do not push the ball up the court. If you watch Freeman rebound, he is not looking for a quick outlet but secures the ball and we walk the ball up the court. This offense has a lot of movement but in most cases the ball still ends up on the perimeter with 15 seconds on the shot clock. We need a LCJ type guard that can bread down defenses. We see a lot of one on one action with Ali and Freeman. However, it is rare that we see a pass to a cutter or a back door cut. Instead it is usually a kick out to the perimeter. X, Trimble and Dawson went 2 of 15 from 3 point distance. Shooting the 3 has been a problem most of the season and Trimble has been a problem. Bring him off the bench did not improve his shooting. Obviously, we need much better play from X. Clark has played better but he has not been able to penetrate the defense like last year and I hate the way he dribbles 40 feet from the basket with no purpose. I would like to see Tribble shoot more. I watch him practice between the halve and he makes everything. Obviously, he can't do much worse that what we already have. I believe this team can still have a winning season and win in Cleveland if Groce has not lost the team. I watch him get upset on the floor and if the players no longer have faith in him and do not want to play for him anymore then I do expect this downfall to continue and Akron will watch the tournament.

Uncoordinated? A 6 foot 7 guy being the leading rebounder in the MAC and one of the leading rebounders in the country is uncoordinated? I will respectfully disagree.

I am going to state the obvious. This team is in free fall. We need some decent guard play to lead this team. What happened to x. He had another bad game. It seems like it takes forever to get our offense moving. Groce talked postgame how we shot over 50% in the first half. However, we had 9 turnovers that included several time clock violations. Freeman sets a screen, cuts to the hoop but never sees the ball. It just seems the ball stays on the perimeter. Very few easy shots on offense. We just do not have anyone that can break down a defense. Several times Tribble drives to the basket and has nowhere to go. I like Tribble but he afraid to shoot the ball. Very one dimensional I think we shot 25% from 3. Finally, when I look at the players they do not look like they want to be on the court. Very little enthusiasm. If this continues we may not even make the tournament.

Crappy night, crappy team, Thursday game = crappy attendance. I will be surprised if the jar is half full. Does anybody think the students will come back in force after the last 2 games?

Did anyone else notice how we choked this game. Not as bad as Western at Akron where they blew and 11 point lead in the last 90 seconds but we blew a six point lead with about 2 minutes left. It was a team effort. We had some absolutely terrible passes by Trimble, Dawson, and X. Freeman missed 2 crucial foul shots. There were some missed shots and no offense the last 2 minutes except for an X three that was too little and too late. Teamism at its worse. I thought prior to this game Akron was playing its best ball of the season. This team is capable of playing well and we just have to play our best ball in Cleveland.

Great post!! We cannot win without X playing well. If he dishes the ball to Ali on the last possession and Ali makes the 3 I do not believe they would lose to Western. They played their worst game of the season yesterday. I still think this team can advance in Cleveland. Kent beat Toledo at Toledo and the Zips had the opportunity to beat Kent. This team has some offensive weapons. They just took the night off yesterday. Lets see how we do tomorrow.

If it were easy being a die hard Zip fan, everyone would be one. We always have a game on the road where we play like crap and tonight was it. I think the guys were still upset about losing the Kent game. The bad free throw shooting, no movement off the ball, the terrible passing. This was a team effort. Freeman was the only one to play well and he missed 2 crucial free throws down the stretch. Absolutely no rhythm to the offensive flow. Hopefully, they can recover on Thursday and not go into a free fall at the end of the season. Really expected more from everyone on this team.

Is it me or does it seem that we seem to start every 2nd half with a Trimble missed three. I am not complaining, at least he did not hit the side of the backboard like Ali. If this team was playing a better opponent we would be down double digits. We just need to continue to play great defense and get the ball into Freeman and hope they somebody will find the range.