1981 grad

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!

I watched Zeke Marshall on a replay of a G league game. He played 10 minutes and had several blocks. He rebounded well and scored some baskets. He played good defense and has gotten a lot stronger. However, he never got into an offensive flow with the team. He also seems a little slow on offense. I would love to see him improve and get an NBA shot but he will really need to get quicker on the floor. He is just not quick to the ball and is not a great offensive rebounder. His main atribute is still his shotblocking ability. Anyone who wants to watched him play can go to the G league web page and all the game are free and can be replayed. Not sure why he came back home. It seems like they make more money overseas.

What a great week to be a Zips fan!!! The soccer team scores with 17 seconds left in regulation to tie the semifinal game and then wins in overtime followed by a MAC championship on the road against a higher ranked team. The Basketball team wins their home opener after playing a horrible 1st half and playing first year players that have never played a minute of college basketball. The footbal team now wins with a 1st year backup quarterback who did not have a stellar performance last week. I never expected the Zips to be able to compete with Ohio U after tanking last year at the end of the season and then losing last week with Kato at quarterback. Kato had a great game and did not look like the same guy from last week. He played with composure and did not make any mistakes. In the second half the defense played well and came up with some great plays. Featherstone's interception set the tone for the game and was a great play. If the offense can run the ball we look dangerous. Finally, the refs did blow the offsides call. Ran it back on my DVR and the defensive player was offside and the offensive player did not move until after the ball was snapped. Not sure what hurt us most, the call or the 5 minutes to make the call. It killed our momentum on that drive and we had to punt. Great that we could overcome that bad call. Looking forward to the Kent game.

I think that everyone thinks going into the year that having so little experience and so many new faces is a negative. But it also a positive. Every player on this team know that there is no set lineup, no guys that have guarenteed playing time, no star that is going to get the ball on every play. If you play hard defense, play well, and show the coach that you belong on the court, there are minutes for you on the floor. In the past KD had his players that were almost guaranteed minutes. It worked for KD and it worked for the team. But I enjoyed watching different players with more athleticism and having no idea who will come on next and how long they will remain on the court. If familiarity builds complacentcy, this team should be the least complacent team in the MAC. Go Zips!

I think Jimond had a tough game because he is playing in a new system. Remember, Jimond had great games when teams would double team big dog in the post. Big Dog would pass out of the double team and this would create easy baskets for Jimond. We always played inside out and Jimond benefitted from having a dominent post player. When Big Dog got the ball all eyes were on him and it created opportunities for everyone else. In the new system, Jimond had to create his own shot and he seemed to be pressing. Jimond and Poke never seemed to get into an offensive flow whereas Utomi had a great game. I expect that these 2 veterans will pick up their offense once they get used to the new system.

I did not make the game tonight and watched the replay. Great replay but everytime there was a commercial it reset to the beginning of the game so it was a little anoying but the picture was great so no complaints. I really liked Duvivier. He had a terrible 1st half but played very well in the second half. He looks like a guard who can control the ball without turnovers. He missed a lot of open 3 balls but if he improves his shooting he will be tough. Loved his dunk. Cannot remember the last time a zips guard drove to the basket and dunked the ball over a defender. Eric Parish looked great and would not be surprised if he makes his way into the starting lineup. I was surprised that Poke did not set up in the post. We did not have anybody playing with their back to the basket except for Kostelac who was only in for 2 minutes. We are definately more athletic than in the past. Utomi needs to keep his man in front of him. Got beat off the dribble several times. However, he saved us offensively. We do not have many strong opponents this month so it will be interesting to see how this team progresses. I think everyone agrees that the foul shooting was amazing. Go Zips!!

This game reminded me of the movie Groundhog Day. Last year we needed one game to become bowl eligable and we played our first week night game at Buffalo who had a very losing record. The defense could not stop the Bulls and the offense sputtered. I thought that Miami ran the same misdirection play with the receiver in motion and a handoff to the back at least 10 times and gaimed positive yardage every play. I am hoping that the Zips can get Woodson back next week and win the big one against Ohio. Does anyone know about the injury to Sands and whether Woodson will play next week? (I just read the Beacon story that told me relatively nothing)

It looks like they use him as a perimeter player with 26 three point attempts to 11 two point attempts and only a couple foul shots attempted. It does not surprise me that Kwan leads the team in rebounds. He really developed into a great rebounder during his years at Akron. I hope he continues to have great success.

I usually don't post much during the off season but I am making an exception because the deadline to renew season tickets is this Friday. I just renewed today and I hope everyone else renews their season tickets. I heard some people indicating that they would not renew because Akron did not retain KD. I hope that season ticket holders would reconsider and renew. I know that this team will be a complete rebuild but I am still looking forward to the season and great basketball under our new coach.

Thanks for the reply. I hope that he has success in Sweden as his game continues to improve.

I looked on this board but did not see anything. Does anyone know if Big Dog signed to play professional ball?