1981 grad

I like how Noah is taking the ball to the hoop. It is not pretty but he draws a foul. That is what this team needs is penetration instead of relying on the 3. Nice start to the 2nd half. Now lets keep it up and not rely on the easy shot.

We cannot afford another weak opening to a second half. Open it up strong! Get it to Big Dog!

Both Noah and Josh are driving more. I am sure that is something they are working on. I saw Noah hit the deck for the first time this season. These guys need to penetrate if they are going to be guarded closely at the 3 line. Noah has missed several easy baskets driving to the basket the last 3 games but at least he is making the effort. I do not like seeing Josh, Noah, Antino and Utomi in at the same time. Not one of them is a good rebounder and we are getting killed on the boards. We are slow to the ball on the offensive rebounds.

Great play by Josh and then he screws up a 3 on 1. Bounce pass, Bounce pass, Bounce pass!

Our bench players looked bad when they were in there. Dunn Martin missed 2 three pointers, Utomi didn't draw iron on his 3 and then fouls a 3 point shot on the other end. Josh has not taken a shot and Poke got blocked. We need the bench to step up. Stop forcing the 3!

Great start! Keeping Kwan inside and letting him work inside has paid dividends. Noah and Jimond hitting open three balls. Noah still has to keep his man in front of him. Keeps getting beat off the dribble.

Noah is not an athletic guy but I thought he had one of his better games at Bowling Green going 2 for 3 from the 3 line and attempting to penetrate and score. He is not the same player after his injury but KD loves his steady influence so I expect him to start.

There are certain changes that I am looking for to turn this thing around. Big Dog only had 1 foul shot at Bowling Green. The guy was living at the foul line earlier in the season. At Kent and at Bowling Green he has slow starts. We need to get him the ball early and get his to score or shoot foul shots. Kwan needs to find his shot. He was so consistent earlier this season and we need a solid performance in Buffalo. He needs to finish strong at the basket and find some easy shots. Does anybody remember when Jimond was getting easy baskets off of Big Dog passes? Jimond is our best cutter to the basket and Big Dog is not connecting with him. That needs to change. Antino clearly had his worst game at Bowling Green. He is the most competitive guy on the team and if his game goes south we are going to be in trouble. He likes to shoot the transition 3 but at Bowling Green he was coming up empty and we had short possessions without any passing. Utomi had only 1 shot in 15 minutes at Bowling Green and was coming off a great performance against Kent State. This guys gives us serious offense and then at times disappears. We need consistent scoring from him when others are tanking. KD needs to use his bench including Poke and Dunn Martin. Dunn Martin had a good game at Bowing Green. KD should reward him with more minutes. We will need our best game to beat this guys and execute down the stretch. Remember, at Bowling Green we had 2 turnovers in the last 2 minutes and a defensive lapse that allowed a coast to coast drive that cost us 2 foul shots at the end of the game. We can do better. Go Zips!

Antino played amazing basketball at the end of the season and at the tournament after Noah went down with an injury. In the semifinal with Buffalo Hurly showed me how smart he was as a coach when he pressured Antino full court when he brought up the ball. It wore him down and he did not have a great game. I always thought that KD should have has somebody else bring up the ball that game to keep Antino fresh. That was the last year of the double bye into the semifinal for the winner of the MAC.

I watched it also and it should have been a no call at the end of the game. Big Dog was set. However, we should practice these end of game situations because Kent did the same thing last year. Coast to coast while the defender back pedals (not Big Dog) and allows him to get to the paint. There is no way Big Dog should have been left defending in the paint.

Guys shooting 3 point shots in transition is great if they are making them. Antino had the worst game in a while. One for 8 shooting and 3 turnovers. Kwan 2 for 10 with 2 turnovers and 0 offensive rebounds. These guys both having bad games is a killer. I really think these guys are wearing down at the end of the season. Utomi played 15 minutes and only took one shot. We need him to get involved in the offense. Dunn Martin played well. At the end of the game would liked to see him in there instead of Antino. For the last shot would have like to see Poke in there for his jumping ability and maybe an alley oop to win the game.

This game is going down to the last 3 minutes. This should be no surprise to anybody considering this season. Need to pull it out.

Need to get the ball into Big Dog and finish this game. The MAC championship is ours for the taking. Need to close this out now!

Great come back. Antino and Kwan are struggling at the 3 line. Need to get the ball inside. I have never seen so many fast break opportunities by Akron in 1 game. Looks great!

Aron Jackson made a nice move to the basket, made the 2 foul shots and then gets pulled. I feel bad for the guy. KD should reward the guy for driving to the basket. Need Utomi to score. BG has limited Big Dog to 2 points. Antino is taking some quick threes, unfortunately he is missing. We need to keep getting the ball to Big Dog. Eventually, he will get some calls and can start scoring.

Big Dog is getting killed when he shoots and the refs refuse to blow the whistle. I do not believe he scored. Looks like KD may get a T soon if this keeps up.

Great to see KD going to his bench early and Utomi is the first sub into the game. Kwan starting out hot shooting. Good sign

I understand what you are saying but this year Kwan has shown the athleticism to the basket and score. He just has to work harder than launching a 3. Look at the Kent game at the with 5:43 left in the game. Kwan could not do that last year. The best way to get more space is to blow by these guys with a first quick step.

We need Josh or Noah to have a big game in MAC play. I remember in the beginning of the season, Josh was our top 3 point shooter and one of the top 3 point shooters in the country. This year in MAC play, he is shooting 33.3% from the field and 28.8% from 3 point line averaging 5.9 points. Last year in MAC play he shot 46.8% from the field and 47.4% from the 3 point line averaging 8 points per game. Noah is also having a tough shooting year. In MAC play he is shooting 32% from the field and 27.7% from the 3 point line averaging 5.9 points. Last year in MAC play he shot 41.9% from the field and 39.1% from the 3 line averaging 9.4 points. These guys are getting the same minutes as last year. We need them to get hot to finish off the season. Hopefully, tonight will be the night. Go Zips!

Late in the second half at the Kent game Kwan drove to the basket and score in the paint. It has to do with footwork, a big first step to get pass your man, and the ability to drive to the basket. Kwan has all 3 and has driven to the basket numerous occasions this season and is one of the reasons I started this thread. However, the last few games he has relied more on the 3 ball and less driving to the basket. Once he beats his man it opens up the floor since somebody will come over to prevent the layup and leave somebody open. We need Kwan to drive more and stop settling for the 3 ball.

I see this as a must win. Win this game and the home game against Miami secures the MAC championship, a number one seed and at the very least an Nit bid. Lose this game and we possibly will have to win at Buffalo or at Kent to get the No. 1 seed. More importantly, we want to finish strong at the end of the season. During the Eastern Michigan game, one of the analyst commented that he thought Akron was a good team but indicated that he wanted to see the team drive more to the basket because on some nights you will not be hitting the 3 ball at a high percentage. I think those words ring true at the Kent game. We have to have a more balanced attack when the 3 ball is not going in the basket. Does anyone know why we are starting at 9? The game does not appear to be on national TV.

I did not intend to misquote KD and you are misunderstanding my point. KD did try to win the game playing his strongest players over 30 minutes except for Kwan. And we lost at home in front of a full house of Zips fans. No excuses, Big Dog did not foul out or get in foul trouble. My point is that KD should be concerned that considering our outside shooting, his players may be getting tired or wearing down at the end of the season and that he should play more of this bench, especially Dunn Martin, Poke, and Utomi.

KD indicated post game that he was not too worried about the loss since his main goal was preparing the team for Cleveland. However, if I were the coach, I would be worried. Home game, Rival game, winning streak on the line, national TV, full house, and we have a terrible offensive night with our 3 point shooters with the exception of Utomi, go 1 for 18. Further, we played against an athletic team that always seems to give us troubles. KD indicated all season long that he was not happy with the defense and that he wanted more intensity on defense. Further, to increase the intensity he was going to play more bench so that the players would stay fresh. I thought the defense against Kent was good but they are quicker than us and we got burnt on some back cuts. But KD did not use his bench. Kent slowed the ball down and had long possessions where we had to defend for the entire shot clock. Noah, Big Dog, Antino each played more than 30 minutes with Jimond playing 29. Big Dog was amazing but our outside shooters were bad except for Utomi, who did not play big minutes last night or the entire season. There is a possibility that these guys are wearing down playing more intense defense on 2 days rest towards the end of a grinding MAC schedule and averaging 30 minutes per game in the MAC season. Does anybody remember when we used to complain that KD used his bench too much and players did not stay in the game more than 5 minutes no matter how well they were playing? As somebody mentioned earlier, Dunn Martin had 4 assist in 9 minutes. Dunn Martin needs more playing time. He reminds me of Antino his freshman year, small, quick, and can attack the basket. I am hoping that we will see more Dunn Martin, Utomi, Poke and yes, even some Aron Jackson. I think we need to spread out the minutes more if this team is going to win 3 games in 3 days in Cleveland. Go Zips!

Utomi was perfect 4 for 4 shooting the 3 ball while the rest of the team was 1 for 18, Kwan being the only other player to make a 3 but he was 1 for 8 on 3 point shots. They guarded Kwan very tight up high away from the basket and I wish he would drive to the hoop. He is quick enough to beat his man off the dribble when the guy guarding him is right in his face. Josh, Dunn Martin and Noah were a combined 2 for 12 and nobody hit a 3 ball. Our starting guards did not have an assist. Kent is athletic and physical and it may have effected our outside shooting. I thought Big Dog played well and I could see how frustrated he was at the end of the game. I was impressed that he logged a lot of minutes and looked strong at the end of the game. I thought Kent played well. Hopefully, we can win at their place to end the season. The only good point is that Utomi continues to impress and we need to find more minutes for him. Lets rebound from this game and beat Bowling Green on Tuesday.

I hate the Z fund priority system that puts season ticket holders in the upper level in Cleveland and people that never attend a Zips basketball game in the lower section.