1981 grad

Last season we were 2nd in the country in 3 point attempts but only ranked 127th in 3 point percentage. Currently we are 7th in 3 point attempts and ranked 19th in the country in 3 point percentage. Last year we ranked 296th in foul shot attempts. This year we are ranked 183 in foul shot attempts. Big Dog is leading the team with 138 attempts and is ranked 3rd among centers in foul shot attempts. (91st in the country in foul shot attempts. The leaders in foul shot attempts are all guards. Last year we were ranked 258th on foul shot percentage. This year we are ranked 187th in foul shot percentage. Last year I did not like Akron's dependence on the 3 point shot because we did not shoot it well and it limited us from drawing any fouls. This year playing KD's inside out game has worked to our advantage. Since our guards are young I am hopeful that in future years an Akron guard will be one of the leaders in foul shot attempts. (Jimond?)

I agree with you that this team is playing well because players have found their roles. It is nice to see Kwan passing on the 3 points shots and feeding the ball to Big Dog. Jimmond is slashing to the basket and drawing fouls. The passing on this team to find the open man has been fantastic. However, I still think this team still has major weaknesses when playing top level competition. We are not athletic, our team is not quick on defense, and our guards are young, small and are not great defenders although they have improved. Our offense is built around getting the ball to big dog and Pat where they have been dominating in the MAC. Not sure if they will be as dominating playing in the tournament against high level competition. A good team will bury us if we open the second half like we did against Bowling Green or Central Michigan. Most importantly, we do not have experience playing against top level competition. I think if we play good defense and shoot the ball well we could compete against a top level team but I do not think that we are a top 16 team.

Great to see Pat play well and score in double figures. This is the 2nd game in a row where we lost a lead starting in the 2nd half. We stopped getting the ball into Pat and start taking outside shots without working the ball inside. It seems like this team has a brain freeze starting the second half and forgot how they built the lead. It is amazing how this team started the 0 for 7 in 3 point shooting and ended the game shooting 50%. Antino was on fire from the 3 point line. It seems like every night a different player gets hot from behind the arc. I hope that Big Dogs injury is not serious. Nice to see Jimmond get some extended minutes. He had 4 turnovers but played good defense and scored 6 points. I think he will get better as he plays more.

I would really like to see Pat have a great game offensively. The last 2 games he got called for travelling and it seems to get in his head and he hesitates on his post moves. Pat had a great year last year and we need to feed the ball in the post and then everything seems to open up. It is always tough to win on the road so I expect a close game. The one difference this year than in previous years is that we have guys who can finish off games at the foul line. At the end of the Central game we had a lineup of Josh, Noah, Antino, Jake and Big Dog. Everyone but Big Dog is shooting over 80% from the foul line. Go Zips!

Thanks for the link: "You're allowed 2 steps upon completion of a dribble, so if you dribble while pushing off of one foot it is not counted toward one of your 2 allowed steps." The Central Michigan player had already picked up their dribble before they take the push off step. That is why I think it is a travelling.

I looked at the replay and you are correct. Several of the drives by the Central Michigan guards were 3 steps to the basket. They drive to the basket and pick up their dribble and then take 3 steps to the basket. I could not see it until I looked at it in slow motion. But what is most interesting is none of the Akron players or coaches complained. I see it in the NBA all the time but usually they call travelling in college much closer.

That is the one. The replay showed that the Central Michigan player just lost control of the ball. It looked like the ref indicated it came off Jake. Unfortunately, Jack had a turnover last game when he dribbled the ball off the foot of the opposing player. The ref indicated it came off his foot. Hopefully, the bad calls will even out by the end of the season.

That is called the "Can't Step." When a player goes from the top of the key and makes a layup without a dribble to win the game.

I also thought the refs were terrible at the game. I recorded the game and reviewed the plays that I thought were bad calls against Akron and I hate to say it, but the calls were not terrible. Antino got called for an offensive foul and on the replay you can see him pushing off. The foul where Kwan got knocked over was a 50/50 call that could have gone either way. Kwan moved over just before the guy ran over him. The same for the offensive call against Big Dog, it could have gone either way. On the 3 point foul against Kwan that I thought was a total flop, Kwan definitely hit the guys arm on the follow through. The guy did flop but it was a legitimate foul although it did not effect the shot. The only call the refs missed was an out of bounds call against Akron where the replay showed that Jake did not touch the ball. I also noticed at the end of the game when Central was fouling that the refs blew a very quick whistle. I guess when refs get suspended for 2 games the message was received to blow a quick whistle when the other team is trying to foul. To our players credit, no player gave the refs any problems. I remember last year when some players picked up technical after a bad call. I also noticed that Scirotto looks like he is having a great time at the game.

I agree that Pat has not been playing well offensively. He only took one shot tonight. Last year when we lost Tree he played great and had a great season. Now that Big Dog is playing well he seems to have lost some confidence in his shooting. Pat has always had great drop step moves and it seems like he just is not using them and just goes with his left handed hook. Hopefully, he will get the confidence back. The team is really playing well with some great passing. Josh is just on fire. Heard him on the post game interview and he credits the team with his open looks. It reminds me of how Antino came on real strong at the end of the season. I like how Kwan is concentrating on defense and passing the ball. Both Reggie and Jake have been very active rebounding. It is the most aggressive I have ever seen them play. They have some nice offensive put backs. Jake had a terrible shooting night and we still won. My only complaint is that the last 4 minutes we seemed to go into a prevent defense when we were up by 20 and KD told the team not to foul. Central made a nice run and almost stole the game. I would not have changed our defense since we were playing so well. This team is playing great team ball and we had 22 assists. I hope we keep getting better and it will be a great season.

Great to see a Zips 12 point win on the road when we did not play our best ball. Josh Williams had a great game and hope that continues as he gets more experience. Great tip ins by Reggie and Jake. These guys are not great offensive rebounders and it just shows how hard these guys are playing in their senior year. Robotham can certainly finish a game at the foul line. Big Dog seems to get better every game and Kwan did his best Zeke imitation in the first half. We shot 80% from the line. I think our team may get a little tired from back to back MAC road games. I thought we played better at Ball State. It is interesting that we got our best game from Josh Williams who did not log a great number of minutes at Ball State. Looking forward to a great game on Friday. Go Zips!

After the Toledo game, I questioned how this team would perform after they got blown out by Toledo and KD questioned the heart of the team since he indicated on the post game show how they were taking poor shots and not playing with any toughness. However, the last 4 games the team has turned it around. We are playing better defense, forcing more turnovers, and stopping the uncontested dribble drives. More importantly, we have improved in the one area I thought was a weakness on this team this year and last year, getting to the foul line and making foul shots. In the first 4 games, we were outshot at the foul line, 96 to 73, In the last 4 games we outshot the opposition 95 to 57 and are shooting around 80% at the foul line. In our last game we had 18 assist. We are no longer seeing guys dribble left, dribble right and shoot a three or a pick and pop three. The ball is going through our big men who draw fouls, our wings are attacking the basket and our three point shots are coming off assist. I think KD has done a good job of getting these guys to play good team ball and stop taking the easy three ball. Further, this is the only year that I can remember where there have not been any complaints from this board about the rotation. KD is playing 7 guys full time and the frosh, Josh and Ivey, are getting about 25 minutes together. Although the post might be premature, I think KD has done a good job turning this team around.

Thanks. I got it corrected. A long time ago I probably had problems logging in and created the second account under 1981 grad. I prefer to use that account. Thanks for your help.

Maybe P. J. Carstensen is not such a bad ref. I saw him doing an sweet 16 game, Duke v. Utah. Almost made me feel bad for yelling at him when he missed the travelling call at Can't, almost. He did our tournament home game and was great. Obviously, one of the better refs in our league.

Now that our season has officially come to an end, I am inviting any members to post any comments, the good, the bad, or the ugly about the past season. Here are my observations and comments: First, I would like to confess that I was wrong about how I thought our team would perform this season. When Tree left the team, I thought we were going to suck. I did not foresee how good Pat was going to be and that he would be our leading scorer. I never expected Deji to be a great 2 guard and be able to consistently get to the basket. I also never expected Kwan to be a great defender, especially when it came to the MAC tournament. I also did not expect Evans to improve his game, especially early in the season. Big Dog had some great games after Pat went down. These guys improved greatly from last season. I also did not expect Robotham to be a good floor general. We were a good MAC team without Tree. Second, I was really wrong about Antino. When I saw the 2 freshman guards, I thought we had a very good one, Robotham, and a very bad one, Antino. Early in the season he turned the ball over and had a tendency to shoot the 3 without attempting to run the offense. However, half way through the season he really picked up his defense and seemed to play more under control and had some nice penetrations and dump offs. When he took over the starting position, he really played outstanding especially after the Can't game. He had some great chemistry with Big Dog on the give and go. I thought as long as he kept playing good, we had a chance to win this thing and we came close. Third, I was one of the guys who did not like our offense that revolved around the 3 ball. Reggie and Kretzer were frustrating because we did not get consistent scoring from the wings. However, when we shoot the 3 ball at 45%, like we did starting with the game at Can't, our offense certainly looked good. The wings were just fine and they played great defense. If we could have kept that percentage or near to that percentage, we would be dancing right now. I think our 3 ball shooter benefitted by the short roster, knowing they would not be pulled if they missed their first few shots. Finally, I would like to thank everyone for posting this year. I knew I could always find up to date information on the Zips on this site. Each year I know that I will see posting about how the refs suck, the streaming sucks, and the out of conference schedule sucks. However, because we did have a down year on the win column I did miss our discussions about how we should receive an at large bid and how our RPI should be higher. Hopefully, we will continue these discussions next year.

In the postgame, KD indicated that there was nothing to gain from these tournaments and that our team was "too good" to play in these tournament. I do not agree with that since we have never won a game in these tournaments. I think we should consider going if the players want to play in the tournament, especially the seniors Are we healthy enough to play? Is BJ or Pat healthy enough to play? Would the experience help our program for next year? Either way, the Zips finished strong winning 3 of 4 in the MAC tournament.

KD indicated in the post game that playing 4 in 5 days was not only physically draining but also mentally draining. Look how many mistakes we made in the last 5 minutes when the game was winnable. Kretzer made a crossing pass that was easily intercepted and lead to fast break. Deji threw ball away when Kretzer was moving away from position. Antino threw bounce pass to Pat who could not control ball. Kwan shot a three 10 feet behind the 3 line. I also give credit to Hurley. I thought pressuring Antino bringing up the ball was a good coaching move to wear him out. He did not have a good game and I give Hurley credit. I would have liked to see somebody else bring up the ball to give Antino a break or have Big Dog throw some picks in the back court so their player would back off and keep his head up. Our team played with spirit and it was a winnable game. Hopefully will play dividends in the future.

This is a game that was winnable but we just did not execute our offense very well in the second half, especially in the last 5 minutes. Antino did not have a great game but it was good to see Evans step up and play the point. Akron never gave up and played good defense but gave up to many offensive boards. There were a lot of deep rebounds and they always seemed to be a Buffalo player hustling for the ball. It seems like there will not be a post season tournament. I understand KD's thinking but feel bad for the seniors. Maybe he will change his mind. Congratulations to our 2 seniors, Deji and Niles, who both played great tonight.

For those interested, gozips.com has the video of the last shot and KD post game comments.

Big Dog did not get hurt. KD indicated in postgame that he liked the lineup of going small with Kwan playing center. He also had Pat in there a few times towards the end of the game.

Talking about amazing stats, only 3 turnovers tonight. When is the last time we had that few turnovers in a game. Kwan had 1 and Antino had 2. No traveling violations and no offensive fouls. I did not think we could keep shooting the 3 ball at 45% but certainly did not expect 20%. We won the game when both Reggie and Kretzer did not score. The team is playing their best defense of the year. Go Zips!!

For all those that think the refs are out to get us. In the Can't game, Can't had 21 fouls to our 15, we shot 24 foul shots to their 17. Most importantly, after Can't took a double digit lead, KD called a time out and Kwan took the ball and bounced hard into the floor and it went up about 15 feet. Instead of calling a T, the ref went to talk to Kwan. He could have called a T but understood that the player was just upset. The refs let the teams play and it was a very well officiated game.

Key to the game: Keep shooting the 3 ball into the basket! Akron is now 2nd in the nation in 3 ball attempts. In the last 3 games we have shot the 3 ball at: 48.3% Can't 46.7 % Northern Illinois 41.4 % Western Michigan (should be higher since we had a 3 point heave at end of 1st half and 2nd half heave running out clock) To put that in perspective, the best 3 ball percentage team in NCAA (Cal Irvine) is shooting 45%. We have gone from being ranked 166th in 3 goal percentage to 106. I find it hard to believe we are favored since Can't is well rested. In my mind we are still the underdog but it makes no difference once the game starts. Go Zips!

Keith put some plays in for Reggie and he was working very hard on offense trying to get open. Good to see that happening. I really disliked the offense when Reggie and Jake just stood on the wings. Would still like to see more back door movement with Reggie and Jake for some easy inside baskets. Reggie has really benefitted from the short rotation knowing that he coach will let him keep shooting till he finds his touch.

Offensively, we did not look very smooth and our offense did not produce like it did at Can't and against Northern Illinois. Our defense was great. Kwan played an outstanding defensive game and had some key rebounds. He was holding the ball at the end of the game and the Western Michigan player kept reaching in attempting to get the ball. Clearly, a classless move. Kwan kept his cool until the guy would not stop. Bad ending to the game and the players did not shake hands. Weird stat of the night. We only scored 5 two point baskets. Those four 3 point baskets in a row won the game. Bad news is that KD did not use Arron Jackson and almost all of our guys played between 25 and 30 minutes. I hope they have something in the tank for Can't. Looking forward to Can't but will need to play better offensively than tonight. Go Zips!!