1981 grad

I heard Groce on the radio and it is the same speech, guys are not hustling and not playing hard nose basketball except for Smith. Makes me wonder if he has lost some of the players on this team. Duvivier and Ivey were out for long stretches of time. We were terrible on offense. Only 4 assists the entire game. We missed at least 3 layups if not four. Missed 5 foul shots. Most of our points were on drives to the basket or three point shots without a pass. I hate the spacing on the offense. Their center justs sits in the lane and double teams when we drive to the hoop. No dish offs, no give and goes, no back door, no shots coming off a screen. I think Klac may have posted up 2 times. Most times Klac sets a screen he goes to the basket before he draws contact from the other player. Our offense just looks sluggish at best. I hate watching us take a shot and nobody follows the ball looking for the rebound. I watched Daniel move away from the offensive end when we shoot the ball. I guess he is saving energy. I am glad to see him get out of his shooting slump but he looks a step slow on defense. We are also starting to take quick three point shots. Great if you hit them but sucks if you miss. I think we missed every 3 pointer early in the shot clock. Duvivier kept playing off his man at the 3 point line. He kept hitting 3 pointers. You woud think by the second half he would get in this face. You would think wrong. This is a young and athletic team. This team work and cohesiveness on this team just looks bad today. Not sure whether to blame the coach or the players. No place to go but up after this game.

Listened to Groce on postgame. He thought loss was because lack of toughness and lack of defense. I see a trend to settle for the 3 and lack of penetration. We rarely get the ball to Klac for any type of post up opportunities. Cotten did not penetrate tonight. Very few steals after the first 5 minutes. Very few penetrations and dishes. We also did not get to the foul line. This team will struggle on the road until we get that first road win.

I almost hate to watch Utomi shoot a 3. He is obviously a streak shooter and lately it has been just awful. I had a bad feeling about tonights game. If we cannot win with Jimond going for 40 I just wondered where we were going to get the offense. This team cannot win on the road without a strong showing from Klac and Utomi. I do see Patton display some nice moves. We play well in spurts but we play some brutal basketball in spurts. It seem that we have trouble scoring insided because other teams know we do not have much from the center position. There center just clogs the middle. I thought playing Utomi would open the middle but it has not worked that way. This team needs to shoot well from the 3 ball to win and it is just not happening. I did not see Cotton play that much tonight and I wonder if he is still sick. Lets hope they can turn it around at home.

We are dependent on the 3 ball to score. If we cannot shoot 40% from the 3 ball it can get ugly.

I hope that Groce's experiment with starting Lucas Smith was a one shot deal. I have nothing against the walk on but we just do not have enough offense to start him. Klac and Utomi have not been reliable scorers. We struggled in the start of the first and second half with this starting lineup because all of the pressure to score is on Jimond and Duvivier. I stated in the last game that the key to us winning is getting production from Klac, Utomi, and to shoot the 3 ball at 40%. It didn't happen and despite an amazing game from Jimond we lost. Winning on the road after a tough loss will be difficult for this young team.

I was at that game and you are right, great shot. No hesitation, he was going to take that shot from the get go. I would have to rate them equal. McNees did it at the Q. Jimond did it in a game where he score over 40 points. It wasn't just one shot, he played the entire game in the zone.

I was thinking of a Zip buzzer beater. I was at the Q when Penno made that shot. I try to forget about the shots that lost us games at the buzzer.

It sucks that it came in a loss. I cannot remember a more difficult buzzer beater 3. He was well beyond the 3 point line and had a hand in his face and was off balence.

Great game. I cannot remember a Zip with a better effort than Ivey this afternoon. It is a shame that we are so young and have a limited bench. Cotten is really playing well. Also, this is the best that I have seen Patton play. The effort is there it is so difficult to win when your best shooter cannot hit an open three and we get nothing from Klac. The call on Cotten on the lose ball was a terrible call but not going to blame our loss on the refs. We did not box out on the foul shot that gave them an extra possession. I also thought that Groce made a mistake going to the starting lineup in the second half when we started out so poorly in the game.

Utomi is probably 1 for 10 from 3 point land. When will he learn to follow his shot?

Whoops: Smith See above edit.

Groce, you started Smith the first half and could not score a basket. You start him the second half and guess what, we can't score a basket. Where is your offense coming from. Smith is not a threat, Utomi cannot score, Klac can't score, putting all the pressure on Ivey and Duvivier.

The refs have been calling a lot of offensive fouls off the screen. Klac needs to stop moving when he sets a screen. Has been called for an offensive foul twice. Jimond is keeping this team in the game. Love his penetration. I think he is one of the few Zips who has not turned it over. Utomi cannot find his shot on the road again. Threw up another air ball on 3 pointer. Last year he started on the road for Kwan and could not miss. This year his shot has been way off away from the Jar. Maybe he can find it in the second half. He did have a nice drive for his only basket. Great pressure defense the first 10 minutes. I thought they slacked a little on d in the latter part of the second half. Fun watching Groce play defense from the bench. One of the benefits of a young team, they listen to the coach. Klac not doing much from the center position offensively. This game is winnable. Need to close it out!!

Not sure if I like the Smith start. He does not add anything offensively and this team struggles on the road. Very slow start again and Smith turns it over on his first touch. Utomi can't hit his shot on the road and now walks. Need to play better!

Will this be the game we get our first road win? To me the keys are how well we shoot. We need to hit our 3 ball around 40% or better. We need to score points in the paint. We outscored Ohio in the paint on Tuesday. We need production from Klac. He is our only true center and he needs to be part of the offense. Utomi is also a key player. He cannot disappear on the road. This team has to play well to win. There is simply not enough experience or talent to win when we play poorly, don't hustle or rebound, or do not shoot the ball well. This team has won 3 out of 4 so they should start playing with some confidence. If they win this game we are squarely in the race for a direct trip to the Q. GO ZIPS!!!

I did not see or hear the OU guards running their mouth. I saw their center pick up several Akron players. I also Ivey talking and smiling with one of their players. I thought the sportmanship by OU was exemplary and I was happy to see a hard fought game with the players showing respect to each other.

Really enjoyed the game tonight. We are a young and inexperienced team and we pulled out a win with Duvivier on the bench after he fouled out. Great foul shots on the 1 and 1 from both Cotton and Ivey. I cannot tell you how many times as a Zip fan I have seen us miss those foul shots. Klac had a good game. He dove for a ball late in the second half and the refs called a jump ball leading to our possession. He scored 10 points and had a nice touch around the basket using the backboard. Getting all this time is helping his game. Ohio closed the gap starting the 2nd half when we started 1 for 6 from the 3 line. It looked like we were rushing the 3 point shot. Patton is a good rebounder but he was telegrahing his passes tonight and looked a little lost on D. He just does not look confortable out there. The stats were almost even. Most importantly, we held our own on points in the paint. This is about as good as we can play. If we can keep shooting this well on the road we should be able to pull out a road win. I still think there is a higher ceiling for this team. Great to see a great team effort. Half way to 20!! My prediction is still in play. Go Zips!!

If you compare frosh years, I would agree that Klac is showing some athleticism around the basket. I also thought that in his last game that Klac looked a little winded at times playing all those minutes. That is also something that he shares with Zeke when he was a frosh.

Big game on Tuesday. If we win we are 3-4 in the MAC, gives us a winning record, and puts us in the middle of the pack. I think there is a reason to be optimistic. We are rebounding much better. A highlight in yesterdays game was a defensive rebound by 3 zips. This team needs to understand that they need to go for every rebound because we need to outhustle every team we play. Utomi came out of his shooting slump. He is a key to our offensive scheme. Plus Cotten is also shooting the ball very well. This team has already played the class of the league, Toledo and Buffalo early. Although we got killed by Buffalo at home, we stayed with Toledo on the road. That is a good sign. We are getting production from our center. K is getting more confidant. That will only help his game. Finally, this is a very young team. The more experience they get this season, the better they may get. We have already seen Cotten and Klac make big jumps in their play. Who knows what the ceiling is for this team at the end of the season. The one thing I disliked about last years team and many of the recent teams with Dambrot, was our reliance on the 3 ball. Here we have a new coach, new players, new system, and we once again are relying on the 3 ball with about 30 per game. When we shoot the 3 ball well, we win. If not, it can get ugly. Looking forward to the game, go zips!!

Great win for the Zips. Not sure if there are going to be many double digit wins this year. KLac continues to improve. Had a few nice rebounds and a nice take to the basket. He looks better when he is playing against centers that are not very quick. The big difference is todays game is how well we shot the ball, (50%) especially the 3 ball (48%). It was great seeing Utomi hit the three ball in the second half. These were not open threes but he found his eye. This team can compete with any Mac team if they can shoot this well. Many of the 3 ball shots were NBA 3 balls, especially by Duvivier. We had a great rotation, rebounded well, had had more assist to turnovers. This is the second game in a row where the other team shot over 30 foul shots. We cannot blame this on the refs every time. I did think that some of the calls were dubious. There was one call where Duviver was on a center, the ball was rebounded by Northern Illiniois, Duvivier stayed in a crouched postion while the offensive player made a layup. Duvivier never made a play on the ball and he got called for a foul. Also, at the end of the game Duvivier fouled out on call where he did not touch the 3 point shooter. Hopefully, the Zips can keep shooting this well and pick up a win on Tuesday. Go Zips!

Give Buffalo credit, their students support their team. I remember going to some of our home games where they filled the stands and were louder than our students. We played them this year when the students were on break.

I do not buy the excuses for Utomi. His shot has been off the last 3 games. He has been playing some center but he is a great athlete, very strong, and he is working hard on defense. He needs to find his shot. This team will struggle if he does not score. The whole time I was watching the game last night I kept thinking about how Big Dog (low post) and Kwan (high post) attacked the 2-3 zone surround by perrimeter shooters. Instead we had two frosh, K low post and Parrish high post. NO comparison. The chemistry and experience to attack the zone is not there. We are very athletic and the experience will come as long as they listen to Groce. I think getting K extended minutes will help his game. Lock him in the training room, show him his post up move that he made in the second half, and replay it until he understands he has the talent to go strong to the basket. His extended playing time will hopefully pay dividends later in the season.

I just heard the postgame where it looks like Sayles will be out for some time. Does anyone know how long he will be out?

I said early on that this team needs Utomi to play well on the road to win. He didn't. We lose. His 3rd terrible game in a row. Once again saw him shoot a 3 without drawing iron. You would think that throwing up so many bricks that he would learn to follow up his shots. I cannot tell you how many offensive rebounds he could have if he would move towards the ball after he shoots since he often leave the ball short. Watching this team trying to attack the zone is hard to watch. When they do penetrate they freeze. Very few easy baskets. A lot of perimeter passing using up the shot clock with no penetration. We have Parish at the foul line trying to penetrate. I would rather have a senior, Duvivier in the middle. He has the experience of penetrating. A absolute terrible end of first half and 2nd half offensively. The only good I can see on offense is I finally saw K make a nice post move at about the 7 minute mark of the second half. He is a work in progress. Need to learn to go towards the basket and not away. He also had a nice pass out of the post to a man breaking to the basket for a layup. I know we are lacking in talent and they are frosh but Groce must do a better job of getting these guys to attack a zone!!

K hesitates when he gets the ball in the paint with the zone. Once he hesitates he going to be surrounded and things are not going to go well. He needs to take the ball right up. Typical frosh mistakes. Overall, he is playing good defense. We are down to one center. It looks like Rec Center Smith is playing backup center and doing a good job. We are giving up way to many open 3 balls but Eastern cannot stay that hot from the 3 line. I like the way we are moving the ball and staying under control. Need Duvivier to hit some shots.