1981 grad

I did not think this team played well the last 3 games against Kent, Toledo, or last night. We played well on the first half but shot ourselves in the foot when we were in the red zone and only scored 3 points. We needed to go for it with 2 minutes left and fourth and 4. No question after we punted we would be down 21-3. Might have been a more interesting game if we could have scored and gone in at half 14-10 or 14-6.

Groce should hire him next time he has an opening on his staff. If Brian makes that 12 foot jump shot in the finals, Akron gets to the big dance, Ohio does not win any games in the NCAA tournament, and Groce never gets to Illinois. That missed jump shot made him a rich man. Also, Brian was one of the first Akron guards who could rebound, play good defense and always played smart. He would be a great asset.

I believe that we have played Middle Tenn numerous times at the Jar and it was always a great non conference game. They always brought lots of fans and we always had great crowds at the games. Would like to get them back on the schdule and lose Miss. State.

Thanks. I did not see that. I have seen Ivey get angry during a game but it is usually against the opposition.

I agree that it was a sloppy game. After we got a 20 point lead the team seemed to coast and Miss. actually closed it to 12 until we made a few shots. In the first half we had a large lead in rebounds. In the 2nd half they seemed to control the boards. I remember a couple of long rebounds that we did not chase down. The team just did not seem interested. On the post game show they indicated that Miss Valley scored almost all of their points in the paint. We would try to block the shot and they would get the offensive rebound. The passing was not as crisp. Poke missed some easy baskets. Eubanks looked slow on defense. Is he a walk on or scholarship player? I also hate these games. It seems Akron always plays down to the competition. I really like Parrish on defense. He has a great eye for anticipating the pass and is leading the team in steals. Patton does not look like a great shooter. He took a 3 today that did not draw rim. I saw he is 1 for 5 on the 3 ball. The coach indicaed that Patton needs to box out. Ivey seems to be shooting the 3 ball better. I did not see Ivey get upset with Cotton. I just noticed he was not on the floor towards the end of the game. Does anyone know what happened? I do not think that Cotton had a great game but he has been playing better. This warmup game did nothing to boost my confidence to indicate we will have a great tournament.

Yes,. Would like to see that on the big scoreboard on Saturday. Still my favorite. Thanks for sharing.

I would like to see the old cartoon promo ad when Zippy kills all the other mascots on the new big scoreboard during a timeout this Saturday. Still think that is the best promo ever. Anybody on this board can make it happen?

Do you think that time will heal all wounds and that we would ever put the Dukes on our non conference schedule?

I would like to add to your list: Inbounds plays that lead to layups instead of just tossing the ball into our center Fighting through the screen or pick. Duviver is the best! Team is much better at boxing out. NO early shots. This team always run an offense unless we have numbers on a fast break. Anticipating the pass and looking for the steal. We had 11 steals in one game!

Mississipi Valley State is a historically Black College that supports the University by travelling the country playing basketball across the country. They play their entire non conference schedule on the road. The game at Akron will be their 8th or 9th straight road game. I recently watched a sports news show regarding this team or similar team and the issue raised was whether it was fair to the student althlete to be travelling across the country instead of attending classes. They will have visited 10 states in 6 weeks. and have lost all their games including losses by 30 or more points. They play Duquesne three days before they play us. (can anyone imagine KD scheduling this game) I would like to know how much Akron is paying this team to come into the JAR. Personally, I would rather save the money and play an opponent that is more challenging. Does anyone on the board believe it is a good idea to schedule these types of games?

The coach on the post game stated that Ivey played his best game and I agree. He is becoming a great passer and finding the open man. Duvivier and Utomi hit some big 3 balls and each night Poke looks like he is for real. The refs let the teams play until the last 5 minutes and then they started calling ticky tack fouls. I wish they would keep it consistant. I really enjoy the basketball and how closely matched the teams have been this year. The guys are playing great team ball and racking up the assist. Defensively, we had some struggles inside. Poke getting into foul trouble caused us problems. Kostelec looked slow tonight and had a bad pass and bad defense on consecutive plays and went to the bench. Great team to watch.

I hope that is the last dunk contest we ever see. I just saw today that you need to check your ticket bar code at half time to see if you have won the chance to shoot. You would think that after a whole season of nobody winning the pizza contest that they would change it this year. The only one that came close to winning the pizzas was the president of the U, he had to make the money ball to win and threw up an airball.

I went over 20 based on the improved guard play. I believe our guards are much better than last year. I really like Duviver's play, We have guards that are quick, strong and can rebound. They are also able to fight through high screens. If Poke becomes a factor and can repeat his performance from Wed. I think this team will have no problem hitting 20. I do not think the MAC will be that strong.

I thought that Fort Wayne played very good basketball. They moved the ball well, were good shooters, and played good defense. We were great on the offensive boards. Everyone on this team is athletic, can jump and is strong. It lead to a lot of offensive rebounds and 2nd point shots. Poke had a career game. I heard him on the post game, (his first radio interview) and he indicated that his teammates were looking for him and gave him some great passes. The Zips did a great job of penetrating and dishing. We also had some great baseline movement without the ball. I am very impressed with this team and the coaching. I think we had 11 steals. I cannot remember our team having that many steals against a solid team. The played the 1-3-1 zone well and it lead to several turnovers. Never thought the team would play this well this early. Looking forward the the next game Saturday. Go Zips!!

After reading that Big Dog is currently out of basketball, it makes me wonder how much better he would have been last year if he would have lost weight, slimmed down and hit the weight room. He had great offensive moves for such a big guy but that extra weight slowed him down. I like how we are now a stronger quicker team. This will only pay dividends. We need Poke to put on some weight and muscle to help him rebound. A missing part of his game. Looking forward to Utomi having another big night after a letdown in West Virginia.

Actually, Poke made his early free throws. He also had some nice baskets. I think he outplayed Sayles. Sayles looked flat footed all night. He did not have a very good game. The Zips looked flat as a team. They need to box out. Way too many easy put backs by Marshall. A young team may have difficulties on the road and it showed tonight.

Too many stupid turnovers and too many offensive rebounds for Marshall. It also seems that they have twice as many foul shots as us.

Second road game for a young team. Our 3 point shooting has been awful. Getting open looks and just not hitting. When Utomi is cold this team is going to suffer. Maybe the second half will show some improvement.

I bought the feed and it is high quality. I did not know that we have a winning streak against their team. Looking forward to tonights game as it should be an even matchup

We played 3 centers tonight, Poke, Sales and Kostelac. I think that Sales will soon be the starter because Poke just looks like he is struggling. He just does not have the big body on defense to defend and gets pushed around too much to be a good rebounder. I like his effort but he just seems like he does not have instinctively basketball moves to defend. He had a great block tonight. I was surprised to see Kostelac get so much time because he only played a few minutes the first 3 games. He took one jump hook that was off target. However, he is a big body. If he could develop a post game it would be great. He knows how to box out and defend. Jimond had his best game tonight. I think he needs to stay away from the 3 ball. I never thought he was a great 3 ball shooter. It is so nice that we were taking short jump shots. Every shot does not have to be a 3. This team is very physical compared to the typical KD team. If you drive the middle you will have guys jumping at you. Only saw one uncontested layup. With the KD team you would always see the penetration off the high screen. Not happening with this team. Very disciplined on defense. Utomi hit a clutch 3 at the end of the game. Tenn threw the ball away when they had a chance to close the gap. Looking forward to the Marshall game. Go Zips!!!

Duvivier missed a lot of open threes and his made 3 was a bank shot. Most of this 3 pointers were not close. However, I liked the way he plays defense. He keeps his man in front of him and fights off the picks. I still prefer him over any of the guards we had last year based on his physical play. The team is very disciplined on their shot selection except for Ivey. He forced up some shots and shot 4 for 14 including 1 for 5 from 3 point area. HOwever, he led the team with 7 rebounds and had some nice assists. He is not getting many easy shots like last year. He needs to stop pressing and let the game come to him. Poke went 4 for 4 from the field, Mr. offense! However, he only had 2 rebounds. Somebody needs to teach him to box out and use his body to get position for a rebound. He gets pushed around under the boards. Zeke was the same way his first couple of years. Great shot blocker but not very strong on the boards. Utomi had a strong game but did not make any shots when we needed them in the second half. Did anybody else notice we had 2 inbounds plays where we scored easy baskets. I haven't seen that in many years. This team will only get better. Go Zips!!

Because it is the coaches decision. If he believes leaving the individual stats off the scoreboard makes his team better, why should we complain. I watched great b ball the last 13 years and if KD decided to leave the stats off the scoreboard I would support his decision also. A new coach brings new ideas. I liked hearing Utomi indicate how he lost almost 10% body fat this past summer based on the coaches advice. If this team continues to play well they could leave out the team stats as far as I am concerned. Considering how late this team was brought together, I am just happy that we are winning. Go Zips!!

I would rather watch good basketball than read crappy individual stats. If the coach thinks this will help his team win, I am 100% for it. Considering the 2 of the 3 vets from last year have not had great games, it has been fun to watch the last 2 games. I know it is early but thus far I have been impressed with the discipline of this team, the foul shooting, the defense, and the overall team quickness. I also liked the coaches post game comments where he talked about where the team needs to improve and how far they have to go to get better.

I think it is way to early to judge Poke's game. They played a zone last night that really packed the middle. Both Poke and Sayles only took one shot because they were giving us the outside 3 and we shot the 3 really well. Both Sayles and Poke will have more offenseive opportunities when there is a man defense. Ivey also struggled against the zone and had 2 offensive fouls trying to drive into the zone. Right now Poke is a good shot blocker like Zeke. He had 3 offensive boards but still needs to learn to use his body to block out and become a better defensive rebounder. The coach starts him over Sayles so it will be interesting to see if that changes as the season progresses.

I was a little frustrated when I kept looking to my left to see how many Utomi was scoring and there was no scoreboard. (scoreboard behind band is gone) I did not know that was a coaches call not to show the players individual stats. If it helps the team I guess I can live with it but it is weird not knowing how many fouls or points each player has during the game. Our team shot about 50% from the 3 land and Utomi was 8 of 11. I heard the post game where he indicated that Groce wanted him to reduce his body weight to 10% and he did it. He also indicated he shot 2000 shots a week during the summer. It is great to have a player that dedicated on our team. Also, KD always had the philosophy of taking the quick 3 if you were open. How many times would we see Akron players take the ball down the floor and shoot a 3 early. It was great when it went in but if it was miss it was a quick possession with nothing to show for it. This Akron team does not take quick threes. They always run the offense. This team is so much quicker than last year's team and that equates into better team defense. I also thought they played with composure against the zone and did not force many shots unless they were at the end of the clock. I would still like to see more points from the paint. Poke had one open layup and rushed it. It is so weird not seeing any post play from this team after having Big Dog, Pat and Zeke the last few years. Really enjoyed hearing from the coach on the post game interview. He summarized some weak points on the team. It will be interesting how they do next week against Dayton. Go Zips!