1981 grad

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"

It is weird looking at Ohio University being winless in the MAC when only 3 years ago they went to the sweet 16 and were a jump shot away from defeating No. 1 ranked North Carolina. (And we were a Brien Walsh jump shot from beating OU in the MAC finals) Since then John Groce moved on to the fighting Illinois, Jim Christian then takes over and stays for 2 years and moves to Boston College. Ohio University is on their 3rd coach in 4 years. Not a recipe for success. Makes me appreciate the stability we have in our program with KD. He certainly has done a great job this year with all the turmoil in our program with Harney, Tree and Alex.

I noticed last game that Reggie was hitting the offensive boards. It is great how competition for minutes can get a player to elevate his game. Reggie has basically been a sub this year and lately averaging 15 minutes a game as Aaron Jackson and BJ Gladden have been getting more minutes. I think it is amazing that a 15 minute player scored 31 points. He was perfect from 2 point land making 4 of 4 and 6 of 9 from 3 point land. I really like the fact that he is taking shots inside the arc and going to the offensive boards. He played 23 minutes tonight and Gladden and Jackson only combined for 11 minutes. I wonder if this will carry over to the next game. If Reggie can turn into a consistent double digit scorer this will really help the team. Although this team almost choked up this game, you must give credit to Evans for hitting the big 3 and Biji for making foul shots at the end of the game. The crowd was really into the game and I thought it was great with the Reggie chant when he hit 31.

It was a great game to watch. I think that at this point in the season Deji and Pat are huge surprises on how well they are playing. Last year they did not even start and on many nights were hardly in the game. Now they are leading this team. Deji had a tremendous layup and got fouled. Pat was once again perfect from the field. I have been very critical of this team because I believe they take to many 3 point shots. I noticed tonight the Robotham was getting closer to the basket when taking his jump shot and he was drilling them. I wish that the others would understand that every jump shot does not have to be a 3 pointer. This year shooting threes is not our strength. The bald headed ref called the worst travelling call of the year. Our guard was standing still and got called for travelling. I wish I knew what the ref saw but it was weird. Looking forward to Saturdays game.

I thought that after the first half when we shot the 3 ball well and still were losing by three points that we were going to be in trouble. We lost the game on the boards where we were outrebounded, at the foul line where they shot twice as many foul shots, and on defense where they penetrated the middle coming around the screens. I still think that KD needs to do something about this teams love affair with the 3 ball. Now even Pat is shooting the 3 ball. I can't wait to see big dog launch a 3. We are not a good 3 point shooting team and only shot about 30% from the 3 line last night. Although there were complaints about the refs, this team is not going to draw fouls when we settle for the outside shot about half the times we run our offense. The good news is that we only had 10 turnovers and big dog and Pat looked good when we got them the ball. Evans also had a good game. With a young team, any games on the road will be a struggle. Hopefully, we can return to form at home next week.

In response to skip-zip, I am not speaking for KD, but merely repeating what he said during the pregame interview before the Western Michigan game when talking about the large number of 3 point shots taken at the Coppin State game. I agree that every team should strive to score points from the paint. I think this team would be better when we run our offense and try to score from the paint before shooting the 3 ball.

We have lost our only 2 road games this year against Penn State and North Dakota. Toledo is an athletic and talented team. We are very young and inexperienced. I believe that Toledo destroyed us last year at our place. This will be a difficult game. However, we played really well against Western Michigan and got contributions from Big Dog, Aron Jackson and B.J Gladden who were not contributing in the early part of the season. Pat and Big Dog dominated the inside against Western Michigan and if that trend continues I think we can play with any team in the MAC. KD indicated that he prefers to play inside out meaning he prefers to score points from the paint. At the Western Michigan game we were able to score from the paint. Even Reggie and Kretzer scored from the paint! I like the defense Evans has been playing and hopefully he can shut down Juice Brown. I think we need a good start to the game to be competitive and no long scoring droughts that seem to be our Achilles heal.

It was the best I have seen the Zips play both offensively and defensively. Pat had another great game and was perfect from the field. He dominated the middle. Big Dog also played well from the inside. It was great seeing Kretzer make moves to the basket. He had a dunk and a layup. (first time I remember Jake ever dunking the ball) Reggie also had a nice move to the basket. These guys will be great if they realized that there is more to the game than shooting the 3 ball. Kretzer missed his first 4-5 shots. What bothered me is that there was a two on one in the first 5 minutes of the game and instead of going to the basket he went to the 3 line and missed an open 3. We had some great blocks! Aron Jackson played great. I hope we see the same team in Toledo.

As a season ticket holder, I am tired of seeing the same teams over and over again. Who wants to watch the same movie 10 times. As a general rule, if I have no idea where the school is located, it is a cupcake: Bluffton?

You are correct in indicating that 3s do not draw fouls. Reggie has played 233 minutes and has only taken 5 foul shots. Kretzer has played 288 minutes and has taken only 18 foul shots making 17. Deji has played 245 minutes and taken 45 foul shots. That is a good reason to have Deji on the floor at the end of the game. We are ranked 256th in foul shots attempted.