1981 grad

I knew that in the past 5-6 games that Akron has been on a tear shooting the 3 ball but I was surprised to see that we are now ranked 11th in the country at shooting the 3 ball at 39.3%. What is amazing is that last year we were last or close to last last year in shooting the 3 ball percentage. The most bizarre part of the story is that we lost our best 3 point shooter last year, Daniel Utomi when he transferred. Although we picked up the X man, somewhere between this and last season Banks, Cheese and LCJ are now shooting lights out behind the three line. I do not know if the guys are passing the ball better with a year long experience, they worked on their shot on the off season, or Groce had them all fitted with contact lenses. If the Zips keep up this shooting percentage this team will continue to win.

Yes, it was a typo. My mind was thinking LCJ and my fingers typed Ali. In a couple of years maybe Ali will become a scorer. Not there yet. I corrected the typo. Thanks for reading!!

This team is just shooting the basket amazingly well. You have 4 players, Williams, Banks, LCJ, and Cheese that can score from behind the arc or just about anywhere. I saw Miami play good defense and Akron not able to do anything and LCJ just squares up and hit a deep three. There is nothing you can do about that. We are blowing teams out on the road. Remember last year when we could not win a game on the road. I watch William come around the pick on the inbounds play and square up and shoot a 3. The guy just exudes confidence when he shoots. LCJ is just playing smart basketball. The one thing I have noticed is that in the beginning of the season we pushed the ball down the court and we were always looking to score in transition. Now we push the ball down the court but always work the ball for a good shot. Right now this team is fun to watch!

I think the attendance will be a problem no matter how well this team plays. A popular coach leaves, have 2 years of mediocre basketball, never get past the quarter finals in Cleveland, get blown out in Cleveland by Buffalo last year. There are a lot of fans who left the program. Akron has done absolutely nothing to get these fans back into the building. No publicity, no marketing, nothing. I saw that Norhern Illinois was marketing 5 tickets for $25. That is more marketing than Akron has done. Akron tickets are $15 per game. They offer a season ticket program that gets worse as the season progresses. It would be nice if Akron did some marketing to get butts in the seats.

Thanks. Not having him in there really hurt although they should be able to play better without him.

I do not think I have seen Williams in the second half. Reese got hurt. Sayles and Ali look horrible on offense.

Wow!!!!!! LCJ is having his best game as a Zip. What an ending to the half. Not sure if I can remember any Zip being that dominant in a half. Three steals, 4 or 5 3 pointers, 18 points. The 3 pointers have been from distance. I am getting used to the annoucers. They seemed worse in the beginning of the game. How about the time keeper not starting the clock when there were 2 seconds left on the time clock. He must have worked for the Astros before taking this job.

Zips cooled off from the 3 line. It had to happen. Surprised to see Tribble miss that layup. I think the frosh have a more difficult time playing on the road.

No, just a comment on the discussion above about the possibility of Jackson transferring to a major program. No guarentee that success at a mid major will lead to success at a higher level school for a player. (might say the same thing about coaches)

Speaking of Utomi he is coming off the bench at USC and averaging 5 points per game and playing 20 minutes. Do you think transferring to USC has improved his chances of picking up a pro contract in Europe?

In yesterdays game the team got the ball to Riak on 4 of the first 6 possessions on pick and rolls and he either missed the shot or fumbled the ball. I keep hoping that he will develop into a better offensive player. But he is a great defender and has been making his foul shots. However, we do have inside scoring with our players driving to the hoop and scorig or dishing off to a big man. Not having a post up player clogging the lane works to our advantage with this team in that it keeps the lane open to make it easier to drive to the basket. Watch LCJ drive to the basket and you will see how the lane is open when he starts to the basket and then the defense collapses to the lane leaving somebody open on the wing. I wish Klac the best of luck but most people on this board recognized that he did not have division one speed. He always seemed a step slow to the basket.

Not sure if Jackson and William can play any better than tonight. I love the way Jackson controls the game. He is quick and can get to the basket. He has developed a nice floater and now is stopping short and taking a short jumper. Williams has been on a tear from the 3 line the last 3 games. In the first half Ball State played great defense creating turnovers and forcing the Zips to rush some shots. We also missed a lot of open three balls. The Zips usually come out flat in the second half but tonight that dominated the second half. Cheese is so good around the basket. The team has some great balence the way they are moving the ball. Looking forward to the next game.

And they said that KD did not know how to draw up great inbound plays!!!

Kwan was one of the KD players that really improved from his frosh to his senior year. As a frosh he did not rebound well or play great defense. However, he turned himself into a great rebounder and very good defensive player. His senior year he was playing amazing and many on this board thought he should be player of the year in the MAC. However, he went into a slump and had a good year but not a fantastic year. The only negative about Kwan is that he never had a great tournament in Clev and Akron did not win a MAC championship while he was with the team. Tough to compare the two players since Williams has not even played a third of a season. They are both good rebounders and play good defense. I like it how Williams is taking better shots and his shooting percentage is way up. I think Williams runs the floor better, drives to the basket better while Kwan could post up a player a little better than Williams.

I went to that game in Michigan and I remember how slow our guys looked against VCU. Tree was the only one that looked good on the court and had the quickness to stay with an athlectic and hard pressing VCU team. Zeke, as much talent as he had looked very slow on the court against a quick athletic team and was very ineffective. The game was over midway throught the first half.

LCJ has been nothing short of amazing. In the second half when the game got close he had a drive and dish to Ali for two easy points. He then went on a tear from the 3 line. Cheese then started hitting the 3. I love to see LCJ take control when the opposing team is making a run. Shows maturity. The Zips played great offensively toward the end of the second half. The Zips were shooting 28% from the 3 line when Western made their run and they then finished shooting over 40%. The big difference I see from the beginning of the season is how Williams is not taking 20 shots and his shot selection has really improved. Tribble's game has also improved from the beginning of the season. Groce indicated that the defense was bad in the second half. I thought that Western made some tough shots and got hot from the 3 line. I thought the intensity of the team on defense was good but both teams got called for ticky tack fouls that really destroyed the flow of the game. I am amazed at how well Banks and LCJ draw offensive fouls. It was driving the Western Coach crazy.

When this team hits the 3 ball well they will always be tough to beat. The Zips did a great job with ball movement after the first 10 minutes of the game. Jackson really played well by shooting the outside shot and had some great floaters. Tribble is a great backup. Our big men on offense are still the weakness on the team. Riak just can't seem to hold onto the ball. Ali is still a frosh and will make frosh mistakes. I like Camron Reese but would like to see him be more aggressive on offense. He has some nice moves on the drop step but never seems to be an offensive factor. Too many offensive rebounds by Eastern Michigan. Reese, Banks Jackson and LCJ really played well and are very athletic and can get to the basket. I still did not like it when Banks made a 3 and then stared down the opposing bench. I thought that would be done after the T on Monday.

Eastern Michigan has been very aggressive on the offensive boards. I like the way their players follow their shots. It does not surprise me that they are leading the Zips on the boards. Great shooting by the Zips. Some of those 3 pointers are very deep. There little chance that continues the entire game. (although I hope that it does). I love Jackson's steal at the end of the half. I have seen him do that several times. For a small guy he can get high to deflect the ball and then score at the other end of the basket. Great first half by the Zips. Lets see if they can keep up the intensity in the second half.

The lighting does suck. I had to brighten my tv. Glad to see it is not the streaming. Zips are having trouble against the zone. Too many turnovers. LCJ hitting the 3 ball is saving this team. We have 2 inside baskets.

I stand corrected. Being at the game I was unaware of the coaches box rule or that the coach had been warned before about talking to the refs from that position. I have a friend who is an experienced ref and he told me that he will only T up a coach that is abusive to him or another ref. I sit behind the visitors bench and did not see any abusive behavior. On the Bobby Hurley scale of I would have given the coach a 3.

The Mass press was ineffective most of the time. Once we broke the press we had superior numbers. In the second half our guards would drive to the paint and either dump to a player for a layup or pass it to the corner for a 3. Our offense broke down when we stopped hitting the open 3 from the corner. Banks and Williams missed several open three balls from the corner. I was really impressed wit the play of Tribble. He is very good for a frosh and is not afraid of driving to the basket. I think he has potential to be an all MAC player if he keeps improving. I was upset with Banks jawing to another player when he made a 3 ball. Play the game. There is no reason to mouth off to another player just because you sank a 3 ball. I think he deserved the T. However, I do not think the Mass coach was disrepectful to the ref when he got his T. The ref gave him a t from the other side of the court. I think in a way it was a makeup call for the Banks T. I was really impressed with the Zips foul shooting down the stretch of the game. We were not hitting our foul shots early but must have hit our last 10 when the game was on the line. Love watching 2 good teams at the JAR. I hope they visit us again.

I watched the Mass team play a ranked team (virginia?) and they played them tough till the very end. I believe this will a very tough game for the Zips.

I do not think that Youngstown is kicking in $275,000. We gave his his first division one head coaching gig. He owes us a game!!

I saw that Youngstown State gets to host W. Virginia? I know they were our first game. Do we get to host them next year?