1981 grad

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.

It will be interesting to see if we are any better against the zone tonight. I think frosh have a tough time playing against a zone and we are loaded with frosh. I think we will see a lot of 3 point shots if we cannot penetrate. It would be great if Utomi can find his range from the 3 point range. With Duvivier, Cotton, Jimond and Utomi we have guys can shoot the 3. I would love to see Cotton have 3 great games in a row, especially a great game on the road. Let us hope that his confidence continues to grow.

The Zips have a few negatives going into this game. They have struggled on the road. They have also struggled against the zone. You can penetrate a zone with quick passing and quick moves after you are able to penetrate the zone. Unfortunately, with our young team, once we penetrate the zone we have had difficulty finishing and if you hesitate you are done once you are in the paint. The positive is that the win against Bowling Green has given this team confidence that they can compete in the MAC. They have played 4 games in the MAC and two were competitive that could have gone either way. I heard Cotten on the radio and he indicated that he felt confident on the floor and had no hesitation shooting the winning shot. If he can continue his great play it would allow Duvivier to play the 2 guard, his more natural position. We won on Sat. with Utomi going 1-8 from the 3 ball. We need him to play better, especially against the zone where he should get open looks.

That is 2 great games in a row for Cotten. I am hoping that he continues his great play. He is under control and playing point really well. Not afraid to drive into the trees and draw a foul. My only question is what happened to Utomi's game. He had an open 3 ball and did not draw rim He missed a one and one that started the BG ralley. This is the second game where the Zips were called for more than 30 fouls. I thought a lot were ticky tack fouls. But at least the crowd gave the refs a hard time. Great win for the Zips!!

I am going out on a limb and predicting a win for today as long as the big three, Utomi, Jimond, and Duvivier play like the big 3. We need these 3 to score collectively at least 50 points. Utomi is the key and has to play like early in the season. Jimond needs to limit his turnovers. Duvivier needs to hit the 3 ball and drive to the basket. If we get production from any of the frosh it will be a bonus. (Can Cotton put together 2 good games in a row) I think that based on the Buffalo game that Bowling Green will pressure the ball. How we handle the pressure early will determine whether this team will compete. Looking forward to this game. Go Zips!

I could also see some small ball with Utomi at center. We did it at Toledo and it was effective. Having Utomi at center opens up the lane since they have to respect his 3 point shooting. We can also move the ball up the court faster. On defense we can play zone. Sayles and Klac have to be more offensive minded and move to the basket. They need to post up, move well on a give and go and rebound, rebound and rebound. Sometimes a sickness or injury can bring a team together. Go Zips!

I hope his surgery goes well. I saw him go out of the game and thought it was a minor injury. Wishing him a speedy recovery.

I am curious to see if other people on this board believed there was a lack of effort? Buffalo pressured us all over the court. We had a lot of early turnovers, many of the stupid variety. We could not make a shot. I then saw a young team get frustrated. Since we are a young team, we have to play well to compete, especially our big 3, Jimond, Utomi, and Duvivier. Utomi was non existant, Jimond was driving into a brick wall and Duvivier could not make a basket. As I stated before, we got nothing from our center. Patton and the other first year players went into panic mode with the pressure. I don't think Groce had this team prepared for the constant pressure on the ball. I did not like the offensive sets where our center has the ball 30 feet from the basket and just passes the ball backward. This team did not look prepared to handle the pressure and with the lack of talent played like a high school team. I thought the second half was better offensively and Cotten looked good. Do people on this board agree with the coach that the effort and attitude were lacking?

I think that is the worst display of basketball I have seen on the offensive end. Buffalo was shooting only 10% from the three ball on wide open looks so it could have been a lot worse. I heard the post game where Groce indicated that there was a complete lack of effort. Not sure about the effort but it looked like we were outmanned, frosh against seniors. The one thing that stood out on the offensive end is that their center doesn't play defense against our center. He keeps his eye on the ball and when we drove the lane he double teamed the ball and stopped our penetration. Their center was big, muscular and quick and we could not finish around the basket. We got killed in points in the paint. Our center comes out 30 feet gets the ball and then looks to pass without any intent to penetrate to the basket. Our center sets picks and then that is about it. No post up, he just clogs the middle. Kostallac points were fade aways. When our center did get some nice passes they hesitate, bounce the ball and by that time they have 3 guys on them. Groce needs to get our center away from the paint to open up lanes to the basket. The picks and rolls are not there. Other teams realize that our centers do nothing and it is killing this team. Finally, Utomi started like he was going to be a star. Tonight had to be his worst game. His defense is suspect and he seems to disappear. He did not score his first points until the end of the second half. Patton cannot make a foul shot. I did not expect this team to be blown out in our own building. There is no place but up with this team.

He was also a great coach. In Antino's first year, we lost Robotham to injury and we had to win 5 games in 6 days to win the MAC. Antino played his best ball of the year (maybe his career) and we won our first 3 games including a win over Kent at the Q. We played Buffalo in the semi final and Hurley put full court pressure on Antino when he brought up the ball. It wore him out and he was ineffective and Akron lost.

The Zips played well. The mental part is going to be able to close out close games on the road. Duvivier had the shot but he hesitated and then missed. Looking forward to Tuesdays game. We did not shoot many foul shots tonight and that hurt us.