1981 grad

Toledo finally cooled off from the 3 line and Zips are really hustling on boards. This team is athletic and it is great to see the turnaround on the rebounding. Poke is getting some shots. Great comeback. Go Zips!

On Tuesday Utomi had a bad first half. Tonight it is Ivey. However, we are rebounding the ball so much better than Tuesday. Unfortunately, we are leaving them wide wide open for the 3 ball. Utomi got burned twice on consecutive plays on defense. He has to stay with his man. Once again we have no post up game. Poke, Sayles and Kostelac aren't even thinking of making a move toward the hoop. Once again nothing from the center position. The 3rd foul on Poke when he set a bad pick and had his feet wider than his shoulders. Just stupid B Ball.

Zips are boxing out and keeping Toledo off the boards. Really like what I am seeing. Looks like they are playing exclusive zone. Keeping with Toledo in the early going. Poke has 2 early fouls. Refs are calling it close.

I would love to see Kostelac get minutes but when he gets the minutes he looks a step slow both on offense and defense. Again, he is a frosh and most frosh big men need time to adjust to the quickness of college game. He is the one guy that Groce has on a tight leash. I feel bad for the guy because he wants to contribute but right now he hurts us when he is out on the floor. Sayles and Poke are not lighting the gym on fire but Kostelac is still the worst of the 3.

I am not as pessimistic as others on this board and still think this team can win 20. You can teach players to box out, to rebound, and to play with toughnesss. However, you cannot teach athleticism and quickness. We have guards that can penetrate to the basket, we have big men that are athletic, and we have guys that can shoot the 3. Our problem is that we do not have any experience. The college game is quicker and more physical than in high school. Our guys cannot relax on the court and forget to box out. We have to play well mentally. We finally get the lead to single digits and Jimond launches a 3 ten feet behind the 3 line. Just a stupid mental error. Most frosh are not great rebounders. Zeke, Kwan, Big Dog, Pat, were not good rebounders there 1st year. We have 3 experienced players, Utomi, Duvivier, and Jimond. Last night, Utomi had a terrible first half. We need him to play well to win on the road. We need to get the ball to our center and get them involved. We have gotten almost nothing from our center the last 4 road games. Groce should design some plays for them. We had one play to the center last night and it was a turnover. This team will get better as long as the team keeps listening to the coach and do not lose their desire to win.

The Zips played better the 2nd half. You could tell the coach talked to them about their effort on the boards. This team needs to learn to find a man and box out. Utomi had a better 2nd half. We got just about nothing from the center position. Poke had a couple of nice games with post up moves and haven't seen an offensive move from him all night. Sayles has to be more aggressive. We are so young that it did not suprise me that we will have troubles winning on the road. Groce needs to teach this team to be more physical and tougher on the boards. The main positive for tonight is that we played a better 2nd half for the first time on the road.

Very little effort to box out or to rebound. I saw it against Concord. Earlier in the season I saw 3-4 guys looking for the offensive rebound. Kostelac needs to go up strong with the ball. He hesitates. We do not need him to shoot 10 footers that clank.

Utomi finally drives to the basket and scored! They are killing us on the boards and in the paint. I don't think we have one offensive rebound. Expect more of an effort on the boards.

Can somebody on the Zips box out. We are getting killed on the offensive boards. We need more toughness. Utomi does not look very good. Duviver is keeping us in the game.

With the new coach and more athletic and stronger players I thought we would be more aggressive scoring in the paint. In a couple of the early games I would see Ivey penetrating and dishing. I saw a real effort to get offensive rebounds and then score inside. I saw some nice moves inside by Sayles, Poke and Kostalec and some nice bounce pass give and goes. Against Concord, I expected us to use our athleticism to score inside. Instead, we once again relied on the 3 ball. In the tournament, we were outscored in the paint by Davidson, 32-18, by Princeton, 28-16, by USC 24-14. Once again we relied on the 3 ball and averaged 31 3 ball shot attempts per game. All loses. Early in the season, Utomi was hot from the 3 line. Now it is Duvivier. But going into MAC play, we need some consistent inside scoring. I just don't see this team winning in the MAC unless we get more points in the paing. I am hoping that Groce gets these guys to understand that they need to penetrate, score and hit the boards. Otherwise, this is going to be a long MAC season.

Against a division 2 opponent I thought we would work on our interior game and score points from the paint. I was wrong. We shot a lot of 3 balls. Duvivier got hot and made 7 of 11. It is so hard to judge this team against an inferior opponent but I see some bad tendencies. Reliance on the 3 ball. Saw it agains USC. If we get cold from the 3 line we will struggle. What happened to our offensive rebounding. I liked it when we had 3-4 guys going for rebound. Not seeing much scrappy play. When we took a fould shot, Sayles immediate went to the shooter instead of trying for an offensive board. When we shoot the ball guys are going backward instead of trying to get an offensive rebound. Againt a division 2 opponent I expected more penetration and dish offs for dunks. We had trouble penetrating. If we cannot penetrate against a division 2 team we are hurting. Finally, in the second half Utomi went to the basket and score and he was fouled. Our centers had almost no post up moves against this team. Sayles had one basket under the basket. Kostelac had one at half. Poke had a couple of dunks on rebounds but really no inside game. At times Kostelac looks very slow on offense and defense. Do not expect him to see much time once we start conference play. This team needs to get tougher. Tired of seeing fade aways from our big guys instead of taking it strong to the hoop. Need stronger play from Poke and Sayles. These guys should have been in double figures tonight. When they played zone and we penetrated, we hesitated and did not finish. I hope I am being too critical but time will tell next week. Go Zips!

Groce went with his starters and stayed with them. Utomi played the entire game and 3 of the 4 starters played around 35 minutes We win this game if Daniel would hit the open 3 ball. He went 2 of 9. He was bad from long distance on Friday also. Once again we got nothing offensively from Poke. Our offensive rebounding, assists and steals were also in the low digits. At the Jar Ivey has been making great passes driving to the basket. The penetration and dish has not been there during the tournament. It could be the better competition that the players are quicker. At the Jar it seems llike we had at least 3 guys going for the offensive boards. Have not seen this rebounding intensity in the tourney. On the positive side Duvivier kept us in the game when we needed a basket. Always great to have a "go to" guy when the game is on the line. Parish had a great first half. The team definately played better in the second half last night. Hopefully, can salvage one game. Go zips!

This team being a young team has played decent in the first half against Dayton, Marshall, and USC only to lose it in the second half. Being a young team they do not have the mental toughness against good teams in the second half. They can play poorly against Miss. State and still win. They play like that against USC they will lose by 30. That zone was tough, especially for a young and inexperienced team. When we did penetrate the zone we hesitated and could not finish. We had 16 turnovers. Kostelac had a open dunk. He held the ball, hesitated, was surrounded and then walked. He did not see the floor again. We then relied on our 3 point shooting. In the first half we were around 40%. We ended up shooting 25%. I did not think our intensity against Miss. State was very good in the 2nd half and it carried over against USC. I do not see the value of playing weak teams before good matchups. I know it was finals week but that game was a bad tuneup against a better team. Hopefully will play better tonight. Go Zips!

Live by the 3, die by the 3. This team cannot penetrate against the zone. Almost no attempts from the paint in the second half. This team has folded in the 2nd half on the road several times this year. Nothing from Poke, Utomi 1 for 7 in the second half.

Speaking of buying tickets at Kent, I bought tickets to the Akron Kent game last week at Kent and they still had a few seat back seats left if anyone is interested.

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?