1981 grad

I went to the game today and was very impressed how we were able to penetrate to the basket and use our athleticism and strength to muscle our way to some good shots around the baskets. We had quickness, hustled to the ball and shot the ball well after the first 5 minutes of the game. I thought Youngstown played a great first half and thought it would be a close game but they threw the ball away and started forcing some bad shots. We were too quick for them. Every Zip has the ability to penetrate to the basket. Also, we kept our man in front of us. THey had some pick and rolls and some offensive put backs but they mainly shot from the perimeter. Also, Jackson played an amazing game for his second division one game. He was a step quicker than everyone else on the floor and can beat anyone off the dribble. He is not afraid to penetrate and finishes well at the basket. He fights through the screens and his defense is just fine. I think this guy will be great and looking forward to seeing how he plays against better competition. Utome and Ivey had great games. Poke still looks rusty and I think it will take a little time for him to regain his form.

WE have seen a lot of bad ref calls. That unsportsmanlike call was probably the worse. Player just frustrated. No reason to throw that flag!

I hope so!! THis offense looks terrible. Ramart does not have any quickness and is not an option to run on the run option and that is the only play in Milwee's playbook.

It is difficult to judge anything about this team since we played a division 2 team. HOwever, I did notice that we really had no post up game. You would think that against a smaller team we would try to dominate inside but that did not happen. Most of our inside points were off of drives or offensive rebounds. Did not see a great deal of offense that generated easy shots. Most of the shots were drives and kick outs for 3 pointers. We missed a lot of open threes in first half and made more in second half. Utomi was off tonight and many of his shots were short. He barely touched the rim on a foul shot. I was most impressed with Jackson. He was fearless driving to the basket and fought through the screens. He played a great second half. Looking for great things from him. Was looking for improvement from Klac and Poke. Poke looked rusty but glad to see him on the court after last year. Klac was in for 2 minutes and drew 2 fouls and gave the ref the "who me" look. I hope I am wrong but not sure how much he will contribute. We seemed to want to push the ball up the court. However, it did not lead to many easy points.

Still, he was playing all over the world. AT least he is closer to home. I hope he does well no matter where he plays.

B ball home opener is at 7. Maybe they did not want a conflict.

Everybody on this board is to honest. Nobody can really sell this team as being really good because there are way to many unknows. This is the 2nd year in a row where the team will start out as a complete enigma. The one thing I miss about the KD years is that players rarely transferred out of the program unless they never developed into a division one player. We could watch players like Zeke, Big Dog, and Antino develop. I hope this is the last year we have so many players transferring out of the program.

I find it hard to know what to expect from this team. We have 2 players, Utomi and Ivey that were consistant contributors. Both Sales and Poke showed promise but had their seasons cut short last year. (really glad to see Poke playing!!) Kostalac and Smith were bench players. I have real doubts whether Kostalac will ever be a great contributor as he often seemed a step slow and committed way to many fouls. Everyone else is gone. Can someone on this board tell me why they expect great things from this team. i know very little about the other players coming in such as the transfers and frosh. Sell me that this is a winning team.

The thing I do not understand about this team with Bowden is that we played our best football early in the season. This team looked good against Northwestern and against Iowa State. Two good teams. We dominated the first quarter against Miami where they did not have a first down. We moved the ball but gave up an early fumble. Miami then went hurry up and our defense floundered giving up 5 or 6 third down plays. After that first quarter in the Miami game our football team has been mediocre at best. The last 2 games we won but can anyone say they enjoyed watching these games? (Except for some spectacular runs by Kato and some great defensive stops) Last year we were big underdogs against Western Michigan and after a day rain delay we pulled out an upset. I just wonder if there is anyway this team can regroup and play some good football, especially on the offensive side. I would really like to see Kato get some easy passes to his backs coming out of the backfield. I would like to see Bowden do something different on offense to get this team to where it was early in the season.

That is 2 weeks in a row that winning ugly is still winning. The Chips have a terrible pass defense and we could not pass on them. Maybe it was the weather but the guys were not open and the long ball was not there. We only had one decent drive the 2nd half that resulted in a missed field goal. The defense had a great goal line stand and we had a penalty free first half.

Our offense has looked awful ever since we started MAC play and now we are turning the ball over. This has been difficult to watch. If we were playing a good team we would be getting blown out. Now a bad punt. I hope we can hang on. The defense has to hold on.

Bad snap. Holder decided to take off with instead of trying to put it down. Give Zips credit for rushing the kick and tackling holder immediately.

how many times does their punter have to kick it over the head of our return guy before he figures out to move back?

I thought early in the season we were running a lot of misdirection, jet sweeps, quick hitters to the wide receivers. Now it is zone read, zone read and you guessed it, more zone read.

I have only watched the second half but our offense has been in a funk ever since the first half of the Northwestern game, especially in the second half of the game. Tired of seeing the zone read ground game. Our only successful running play is Kato scramble. Difficult to watch!

Thanks, must be my internet connection.

I signed up for espn plus to watch the game and the game is like in slow motion except for the commercials. Anybody else watching on plus and having problems?

I really enjoyed the article. Great to see an Akron player doing well in life after football. With all the transfers taking place (B Ball team) it is great to see that a player was so successful by staying at Akron.

Went to the game last week. Felt like I watched the same game this week. This offense sucks. When Kato threw the last interception he looked confused at the line of scrimmage. HIs back had to tap him to hike the ball. Too many dropped balls, bad penalties and ref calls that killed us. I wish they would give Kato an easy check down pass to a back when nothing is open. Kato is best when he gets rid of the ball quickly. We need to make adjustments on defense. How many times did their QB run for a first down on third down. This looks like a long season!!

I bought my ticket 10 minutes before the game and had no problem. However, there was a very long line for the students to get their ticket and it looked like they only had one ticket window for students. Not sure what was going on but if they want students to attend they should make it as easy as possible. Also, the concession lines were also 20-30 deep. They needed to open more concession stands. The game day experience should be hassle free. The Akron defense in the first quarter was amazing and we did not give up a first down. In the second quarter we gave up a long drive and I think they were 5 for 5 on third downs. I did not think Kato was that bad. He missed some open receivers but I counted at least 5 drops and some were for big yardage. Also, the refs killed us in the second half. Every penalty in the 2nd half was against Akron. Also, the last interception the ball clearly hit the ground but the call was not reversed. We had several pass interference panalties that were hard to understand. On one pass interference the ref dropped a flag for offensive pass interference after we were back in the huddle. Our receiver was blocking downfield on the play but the ball was not near anyone. Not sure if I understand that call. We did not throw a deep ball all game. Not sure why. I also did not understand why when we were down 11 in the fourth quarter we went to the run. Between the turnovers, the dropped passes, the missed receivers and the penalties we were bound to lose. I was disppointed because I thought we played well against Northwestern and Iowa State.

I am not sure if anyone else noticed this during the game but Akron and Iowa State played with a great deal of sportsmanship. Early in the game there was a late hit and penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct on Iowa State the coach immediately took the player off the field. I cannot count how many times I saw Akron players helping Iowa State player off the ground after a tackle. I am hopeful that all the talking, taunting and stupid late hit penalties are gone and this team just plays hard nosed football. This team played with a great deal of maturity.

No penalties and we are looking good. Kato has made some great throws and nice plays with his feet. We are making this competitive!!

I was upset that this game was not on TV. It took me 15 minutes to get the stream working and the first play I see is our center taking a cheap shot clearly after the play was over and getting a 15 yard personal foul. I would have sat that guy down immediately. Why is there no discipline on this team. The personal foul on the kickoff set up the last touchdown. The commentatory is right, a MAC team cannot beat a big ten team playing with all these penalties. I expected a more competitive game. Maybe the 2nd half will be better.

I hated to lose an athletic guy that showed some potential as a frosh. It seems like a big step down from Akron. I wonder if he regrets his decision to leave.

Thanks for the reply. I do not know who is advising these kids but I think both had a future at Akron and would have only gotten better with experience. They both got extended playing time as a result of our depleted roster. If Parish left because he did not want to play defense good luck finding another school that does not want him to play defense. I thought Patton played his best basketball at the end of the year and I thought he needed to work on his outside shot but he could contribute next year. I hated to see these guys leave and I hope they were not pushed out for better talent.