1981 grad

Antino is showing a lot of toughness. He tried to fight threw a pick and went hard to the floor and got right back up. He had 5 rebounds. On one play he got a jump ball by grabbing the ball from a Buffalo player. KD played him with Robatham. KD mentioned that he likes how Antino is picking up a lot of assist. He now has 2 technicals with Kwan leading the team with 3. Before this year I cannot remember the last time an Akron player got a T. Now this team has 5.

Akron had to play well tonight to win. Buffalo is a good team. Buffalo struggled at the end and you have to wonder if they got tired because they only played 8 guys. I really like how we scored from the paint tonight, especially in the first half. We kept on attacking the basket and that is why we had 26 foul shots tonight as opposed to 6 at Ohio. Numerous times we had the ball under the basket and we took the ball straight up instead of passing outside the paint. It looked like KD made scoring inside a priority. I hope that we continue to work the ball in the paint. Pat missed some easy shots but still played well. Big Dog pounded the ball low. It was also nice to see the balanced scoring with 5 guys scoring 9 or more points We also got lucky in that one of the refs, the small guy, was calling touch fouls. He called some against Buffalo at the end of the game that were questionable. We didn't make the foul shots so I guess it was a wash. Great game to watch. Looking forward to Can't State.

I remember last year that he really put on a show and it was entertaining. I am almost regretting that he has toned it down last year. He got a technical last year and he could not contain his emotions the whole game. The students really got on him with the chant: Bobby's going to cry. Looking forward to the game tonight.

Whether Deji should start or not: We had this same discussion last year with Q. KD liked bringing Q off the bench and did it for about half the season. I hated it because he was too good not to be a starter. Tree was the only consistent scorer in the starting lineup and when he was off we started bad. KD finally made Q a starter and we played much better and he stayed a starter. When you look at Dei's stats, he deserves to start and get more time! He and Pat are leading the team in foul shot attempts. There is something wrong when we only get to the line 6 times during the game. We need more guys driving to the basket and less three point shooters. Give Deji the start tonight and see it improves the team. When he is the second leading scorer he should not be sixth on the team in minutes. He plays good defense. When he scores 13 points in 5 minutes and has a career high he should start the next game. Kretzer has player 456 minutes this season and has attempted 20 foul shots. Deji has played 399 minutes and attempted 77 foul shots. Reward the senior with the start tonight.

I agree with you on Deji. He scored 13 points in 5 minutes and then he sits until about 2 minutes left in the first half. I would have like to see more of him in the first half. I think he played more in the second half. Great game to watch. The first half we played our best offense but our defense was bad. We gave up too many easy layups. They shot 24 foul shots to our 6. I said it another post (statistics) but this team is not getting to the line enough because we take too many 3 point attempts. There is one great positive: This young team is getting experience in playing in close games. That will help us when we get the Q

I think we have beaten Ohio U the last 2 years at their place. Two years ago Kretzer went off and made 5 three pointers. That was the year of the streak. Last year I think Ohio had a chance to tie or win and Harney made the defensive play of the game and blocked a layup. (my recollection) It will be tough winning three in a row at their place. I would love to see Kretzer have a good offensive game like he did his freshman year. I hope that we can have a decent start. There should be a big crowd and if Ohio gets a big lead early in the game it could be difficult for this young team to overcome.

I went to Gozips.com and they gave me the link to BG where I paid the $6.95. It would have been nice for them to give a link to the MAC digital network and I would have saved the money since it was the same feed. I won't make that mistake again.

I just watched the Zips highlights. Robotham got away with a little push off on his jump shot and Gladden bullied the rebound with a little muscle to get position for the rebound. The refs kept their whistles quiet. No more comments about how the refs hate the Zips for at least a week.

I watched the Bowling Green feed. It was comical. Almost every time BG scored we saw a replay of the basket while live action was taking place. Missed some of the Akron offense. They never replayed an Akron basket. Never showed a replay of the game winning basket. The feed was OK but not fantastic. It was worth about 8 bucks. I wondered if the MAC feed was the same with the constant replays of the BG baskets? The announcers were pretty good and actually commented on some bad calls by the refs against Akron. They only went ballistic once when an Akron player slid on a loose ball and called timeout. The announcers thought a travelling should be called.

I never thought we would be 15-6 and tied for first in the Mac at this point in the season after Tree left the team. I do not think that anyone would predict we would win a close come from behind game on the road with a lineup of Gladden, Aron Jackson, Kwan, Evans and Robotham and that Gladden would make a winning basket with 3 seconds left. We should be very proud of the basketball team and how well they are playing.

I think the press at the end of the game was very effective. Gladden and Aron Jackson are great on the press. Would like to see that more with those guys. Great to see Gladden, a guy who was at the end of the bench at the beginning of the season sink the game winning shot. Fun game to watch. I have noticed how much better Antino has been playing lately in the past 4-5 games. Here is his scoring line: In 11 minutes he scored 8 points, had one steal and one rebound and no turnovers. Big Dog did not have a good game and KD did not have him in at the end of the game. Was a brilliant move since we went small and quick.

Just noticed my error, "Pat and Big Dog" not tree

The one stat that would make this team more consistent is shooting more free throws. We rank 259th out of 345 teams in free throw attempts. One of the reasons is that our team loves to shoot three pointers (Pat and Tree are exempt) instead of driving the paint. After the bad first half against Ball State, the team made a concerted effort to get the ball inside. We played a much better second half. Kwan is a perfect example. He is 6-9, athletic and long but he has only has 36 free throw attempts and only 11 attempts in conference play. Ibitayo has played 100 less minutes and has gone to the line 72 times, 31 in conference play. I believe this team would play better with Ibitayo as a starter. (Last year KD mad Q a starter about half way into the season.) For Kwan to be a consistent double digit scorer he needs to drive to the hoop more and stop shooting so many 3 pointers. Over half his shots are from the 3 point line. He shoots 33% from the 3 line and only shooting 24% from the 3 line in conference play. I hope that the team will start understanding that they play better when they work the ball inside instead of relying on the 3 ball.

They do not function well together. Last night Pat had a bad first half and still scored 16 points. Big Dog needs to be on the bench when Pat is out there and Pat needs to rest when Big Dog is on the floor. Pat needs the paint to himself to be effective. That is why after Tree left he has been so successful. When Bid Dog is playing you have two guys in the post and Pat gets double teamed immediately and has a difficult time. I was glad to see that KD did not have them out there together last night.

In Noah's defense, a couple of those 3 balls were at the end of the game when we were killing clock and he forced them up with a couple seconds left on the clock. That being said, this team would play better if they would stop shooting so many 3 balls and try to work for a better shot or throw the ball into Pat or Big Dog. I think Reggie is a better player when he does more than shoot the 3. I watched Kwan during the half time break shoot about 15 3 balls and made about 10 of them. I knew his first shot in the second half was going to be a 3. It was, he missed. He shot only 1 of 5 tonight. However, he played good defense and had 7 rebounds. He had improved his defense so much from last year.

I wondered whether Reggie's breakout game of 31 points would make him a consistent scorer. Got my answer tonight. His first touch on the ball was a quick 3 and then rattled two more 3 point shots and did not score. I was hoping that he would do more that attempt three pointers. Heard the post game show and KD specifically mentioned Aron Jackson. He played with a lot of energy tonight and was fun to watch. Took an offensive foul. Really plays with enthusiasm and a lot of guts. I think he will be getting more time. We really had a difficult time in the first half. Ball State was packing it in the middle and closing off the driving lanes. We missed a lot of 3 pointers early in the game and had a lot of misses. Pat's first shot was a missed layup. I think we had only 7 points in the first 10 minutes. Pat really played great after a difficult first half. He seemed to have trouble holding onto the ball. I think he was a little rusty after missing a game. Played a great 2nd half. Good win for the Zips after a poor first half.

Give credit where credit is due: With about 90 seconds left in the game, a Zip missed a shot and Western Michigan player got the rebound. The whistle blew and I had no idea what the call was since it was not obvious. It was against Western Michigan and Big Dog got fouled. They replayed it on TV and when the players were boxing for position before the rebound you could see the Western Michigan player grab Big Dogs arm for half a second to get position and get the rebound. It was a good call that allowed Big Dog to make 2 foul shots and take the lead. If you were at the game, it is doubtful that you would have seen the foul since you would have been watching the shot and not the guys boxing out for the rebound. Good and bad calls go both way and you need to get pass the refs.

There were an excessive number of offensive fouls called, especially in the first half. On one call Big Dog touched the guy with no momentum and he fell over. When you saw the replay it was an obvious flop but the ref called it. We also benefitted from some dubious calls.

Great feed from Western Michigan. Terrible officiating! What a great win by Zips!! KD goes 11 deep most games and we all pull our hair on his substitutions. But today it turned into genius. We are missing 2 starters and Big Dog and Ibitayo get into early foul trouble. Our bench did the job. Really impressed with the play of BJ Gladden and Aron Jackson. This is by far the best game that Antino has played. He is great at driving and dishing. He did not shoot any threes and really played well. The T was garbage as he was fighting through a pick and did nothing unusual to earn a T. Big Dog played great and made all the foul shots at the end to win the game.

I am assuming that the Zips stayed in the Chicago area after the last game and did not have a long bus ride to Western Michigan which is a plus. I did not expect this team to play well on the road because of their lack of experience. I think the keys to the game is that the Zips must score inside. Pat and Big Dog have to score inside. Pat did not have a good offensive game against Northern Illinois. I still think that it is a mistake to have Pat and Big Dog playing together because Bog Dog clogs up the middle and Pat needs the room for the post up moves. It would help if Kwan would drive more to the basket. When he drove to the basket last game we picked up some easy baskets on his misses because he drew players with him when he goes to the hoop. We also need Robotham to have a better shooting game. I would like him to score more inside the three point line. This team takes to many three point shots and we simply are not a good 3 point shooting team. (Unless Reggie hits 6 of 9)

I just looked at the stats: Pat was only 2 of 8 from the field and attempted only 2 foul shots. They killed us at the foul line where they took 28 foul shots to our 13. (We may complain about the refs but when we rely on the 3 ball we are not drawing any foul shots while they are drawing fouls driving the lane) They shot 50% to our 36% We took 19 more shots than they did and still loss.

No Kretzer and no Pat at the end of the game. First time in crunch time for Aron Jackson. He had a nice three. Could have used the 2nd free throw. KD decided to go small with no center and it almost worked. It is obvious we are going to struggle on the road no matter what. Did not think NIU played that well. We did not shoot the ball well and live and die by the three. We had a difficult time against the zone and Pat and Big Dog had a difficult time scoring in the paint. Ibitayo did not have a good finish to the game and it hurt us. Missed a couple of free throws and a 3 at the end of the game.

I think that the young guys always seem to struggle on the road: Aron Jackson, no defense on the pick and roll, standing still instead of going for a rebound, and then an air ball for a three. Antino Jackson, Not much except a three without running the offense. With Big Dog and Pat in at the same time, Pat will struggle. Pat turns into Big Dogs defender. When Pat has the ball Big Dog needs to get out of the paint. I agree, would like to see more Deji. I like Reggie's hustle attacking the offensive boards and some nice passes inside. As bad as we played in the first half, only 7 down. It could be a lot worse. Hopefully we can pull things together in the second half.

Reggie has recently been a non factor until his break out game on Saturday. He hit the offensive boards, went inside to score four baskets being 4 of 4 from inside the three line, and was 6 of 9 from the 3 line. There is no way he will keep shooting that high percentage from the 3 line but he can keep scoring. I am hoping to see him hit double figures tonight. The Zips need another consistent scorer and Reggie would fit the bill. We need to win on the road and that is always difficult with a young team. I wonder if KD will shorten the bench to get this victory playing the guys that have experience on the team.

Since he is not on the permanent roster, gives a new meaning to "Rent-A-Center"