1981 grad

Desperate times call for desperate measures. We have lost 3 in a row, going to Buffalo where we rarely win, just lost our starting point guard to injury, might have lost our other starting guard for other issues, and Kd has never lost 4 in a row. Last game KD was looking for more production in the starting lineup and started the twin towers. We scored 4 points in 5 minutes. When he went back to the twin towers late in the first half we were outscored by 9 in two minutes. It is time to put your second leading scorer, one of your highest percentage shooters, and the guy who gets to the foul line more than anyone except Pat into the starting lineup. KD likes to bring a spark off the bench. Last year it was Q and this year it is Deji. But Antino was 2 of 10 last game and 0 for 5 from the 3 line. This team needs more scoring in the starting lineup without Robotham. Last year KD finally inserted Q in the starting lineup and it immediately improved the team. Deji is a senior and having a great season. Give him the start.

Thanks for the information on Evans and Robotham. I thought the parents yelling at the coaches stopped at high school. I noticed that KD has continued to start Evans but he has been getting less and less minutes. His production has tailed off offensively but you could say that for a lot of players on the team. I hope it was a one game thing because Friday is senior night and he should be recognized.

Worst combination of the night: Pat, Big Dog, Kretzer, Robotham and Kwan towards the end of the first half. Three straight Zips turnovers and Miami scored 3 layups and a three pointer. Close game the rest of the night. I hope we never see this combination again.

I did not see the meltdown by Noah. What happened? Does anyone know what went on with Evans? That explains some of the combinations last night if he was not on the bench. In the beginning of the year Evans was a big surprise about how well he was playing. He has certainly trailed off toward the end of the season and has been getting less time. We need him big time. Kd decided to shake things up and started Reggie instead of Gladden and Reggie does not score a point all night. He also started both Big Dog and Pat. We still only scored 4 points in the first 5 minutes of the game. That was the last of the twin towers. I was hoping that he would shake things up by giving Deji the start. Putting the second leading scorer into the starting lineup would add some punch in the beginning of the game. However, even Deji did not have a good scoring night and missed several open three pointers. I thought Noah looked tired the entire game. He did not drive to the basket and seemed to miss a lot of opportunities to get the ball to Pat. I would have like to see Malcom play more. He looked good last game and should have been rewarded with more playing time. KD used Noah and Antino together and the ball did not move well and we did not score well. Gladden and Aron Jackson did not get much time in the second half and I think that was a mistake. If Kretzer and McAdams are not scoring he should have gone to Gladden and Jackson. I thought KD did one thing well and that was pressure the ball in the last 42 seconds instead of letting Miami run out the clock like we did against Toledo. It resulted in a turnover and a 3 point play by Jackson. However, at the end of overtime when we needed to keep the ball out of the hands of Number 33 he puts Jake on him for defense. Jake was way too slow to cover 33 and he easily got the inbounds pass. Should have put Deji or Antiono on him. We only scored 4 baskets in the last 16 minutes of the game including overtime. That is pathetic. KD needs to get this team easier shots or get them to shoot better. Hopefully, can turn it around for Buffalo.

The wheels have come off the bus. Three losses in a row in the MAC and two in the row at home. Now we travel to Buffalo. A recurring theme of this team is that we cannot score at the end of the game. We probably scored less then 10 points in the last 5 minutes of the game and the last 5 minutes of overtime. We just do not have a go to guy at the end of the game. Antino was 2 of 10, Reggie and Kretzer were a combined 1 of 8 for a total of two points. These guys are juniors and suppose to be leaders of this team. Big Dog missed an easy shot in the last 5 minutes. Kwan missed a wide open three that would have won the game. You could tell that Robotham was not 100%. He had 5 turnovers and just did not seem to be able to feed the ball to the big guys the way he has in the past. KD used a lot of different combinations but offensively we really never clicked. At one point he used Kretzer as a second guard and it was a disaster when we kept turning the ball over on the press. We had 20 turnovers. This offense seems to be built on feeding the ball inside or shooting 3 pointers. Well, our offense is not clicking. Hopefully we can turn it around in Buffalo.

I think is a must win for the Zips but it will be a test of how strong this team can compete: Playing without their starting guard. Just lost a tough game at home. Have now lost 2 in a row. Playing a Miami team that just won by 11 points against OU. I think it is important that we start strong. However, against Toledo we once again started very slowly. Among the starters, Antino was the only player to score in the first 5 minutes by hitting 2 3 pointers. The one thing I have noticed is that Evans is simply not scoring very much. We need to get more from our starting 5 in the beginning of the game. I would still like to see Deji start but know that is unlikely to happen. Looking forward to the game. I hope the snow does not deter anyone from showing up.

A 2 for 1 was not an option because the Zips did not take a timeout until there were 53 seconds left. Even if we took a shot within 10 seconds, Toledo gets the ball back with about 40 seconds on the time clock. We get a few seconds left but not enough time for a good shot. The problems is that we did not score in the last 3 minutes of the game. Pat missed 2 shots, Antino took a bad 3 shot several feet behind the 3 line that wasn't close and Malcom missed a wide open three. (Antino also took a wild 3 at the end of the Eastern Michigan game) We do not have a go to guy at the end of the game. In the Buffalo game we did not score in the last 5 minutes. In the Middle Tenn. game, we did not even get off a shot trying to get the ball into Pat. The only buzzer beater we had this year is from Gladden on an offensive put back. (I still think that KD needs to have a guy in at the end of the game that can create his own shot, Deji, Gladden, or Aron Jackson) I thought Antino played great in his first start but you could tell he was wearing out in the second half. Malcom was great for a guy who never played any meaningful minutes until tonight. We are a young team and that is the problem with a young team. They have a senior point guard with experience,Juice Brown and we don't.

I agree they should have been out there but Antino may have been winded. He kept raising his hand to come out. He is not used to playing that many minutes and I think he tired at the end of the game. He took a bad 3 pointer with about 3 minutes left that was not close. KD pulled Aron when he did not hustle for a rebound right in front of the Zips bench. He was having a great game and I also would like to see him back in there.

I do not understand what KD is thinking when he did not have Deji out there the last 3 minutes. He is the second leading scorer, can drive to the basket, has senior experience and is very good defensively. We did not score the last 3 minutes. When I saw the lineup of Kwan, Pat, Reggie, Jake and Antino there was no question that the ball was going to Pat down low. They double teams him and he missed a hard shot. The last shot by Juice was a fade away 15 footer with a hand in his face. He made a great shot. Tough loss at home but at least we did not get blown out. When they were up by 10 I did not know if we could come back. At least we showed some fight.

I bought the feed from Eastern Michigan and with about 5 minutes left in the first half it kept freezing. The second half it froze almost every 30 seconds. The game was difficult to watch on two fronts. Did anyone else buy the feed and have a problem? Another road game and another road loss with unusual stats. At OU we only had 6 foul shots and missed them all. Today, we had 26 offensive rebound, took 29 more shots than Eastern and still lost. Amazing. Our big guys had problems with the zone. We would get the ball under the basket and not finish. Big Dog was 1 of 8. All of his shots were from 5 feet or less. Pat also missed some inside shots. I would like to say our foul shooting hurt us but we seem to get numerous offensive rebound off our missed free throws. I think we need to practice more against a zone in case we have to face these guys in the tournament.

Kwan is a young 2nd year player and has improved greatly from last year. He had some great passes last night. He played the high post and fed Pat into the low post for some easy baskets. However, he loves to shoot the 3 ball and takes too many 3 point shots. The fast break that you are talking about, the shot did not even touch the rim. He was 2 of 9 last night and 1 of 6 from the 3 line. Offensively, not good stats. If he could develop a quick first step, he could be a consistent double digit scorer by getting to the basket. Because of his size he should be picking up some points on the offensive boards. DJ had a nice offensive put back last night. Kwan also has a nice mid range jumper and should use it more instead of shooting the 3 ball.

I think KD is still trying to get the best lineup to finish off a game. We had a 17 point lead and with 5 minutes left it went down to 9 or 10. Thinking about Buffalo I was wondering if we could finish this off. KD went with a lineup of veterans including Reggie, Kretzer, Pat, Robothan and Kwan. With about 3 minutes left he took out Kwan and put in Ibitayo. We finished the game and won by 9. Reggie hit a big three. The crowd was great and it was loudest the JAR has been all season. KD has these guys playing very hard and physical. For the second game in a row we attacked the paint and did most of our scoring inside. Kretzer scored on a back door move. I wish this team would learn to do that more. Ibitayo and Robotham both missed easy layups and Pat also missed some easy shots. If we shoot more from the inside one day we may actually shoot near 50%.

They were on the floor together for about 2 minutes last night and it clogged the lane. Big Dog went to the top of the lane and tried to feed Pat. Unfortunately, when you have Big Dog at the top of the lane he is not playing to his strength which is posting up. Right now both guys are strong post up players and neither is very quick. If you take either out of the post you are not playing to their strength. Further, Pat has been foul prone. If you have both out there you are inviting a foul problem for both our guys. Both of these guys operate best when the lane is kept open. No need to have them both in there at the same time. If them playing together is down the line it will be interesting if there will be any success. I do not believe it will be effective.

Antino is showing a lot of toughness. He tried to fight threw a pick and went hard to the floor and got right back up. He had 5 rebounds. On one play he got a jump ball by grabbing the ball from a Buffalo player. KD played him with Robatham. KD mentioned that he likes how Antino is picking up a lot of assist. He now has 2 technicals with Kwan leading the team with 3. Before this year I cannot remember the last time an Akron player got a T. Now this team has 5.

Akron had to play well tonight to win. Buffalo is a good team. Buffalo struggled at the end and you have to wonder if they got tired because they only played 8 guys. I really like how we scored from the paint tonight, especially in the first half. We kept on attacking the basket and that is why we had 26 foul shots tonight as opposed to 6 at Ohio. Numerous times we had the ball under the basket and we took the ball straight up instead of passing outside the paint. It looked like KD made scoring inside a priority. I hope that we continue to work the ball in the paint. Pat missed some easy shots but still played well. Big Dog pounded the ball low. It was also nice to see the balanced scoring with 5 guys scoring 9 or more points We also got lucky in that one of the refs, the small guy, was calling touch fouls. He called some against Buffalo at the end of the game that were questionable. We didn't make the foul shots so I guess it was a wash. Great game to watch. Looking forward to Can't State.

I remember last year that he really put on a show and it was entertaining. I am almost regretting that he has toned it down last year. He got a technical last year and he could not contain his emotions the whole game. The students really got on him with the chant: Bobby's going to cry. Looking forward to the game tonight.

Whether Deji should start or not: We had this same discussion last year with Q. KD liked bringing Q off the bench and did it for about half the season. I hated it because he was too good not to be a starter. Tree was the only consistent scorer in the starting lineup and when he was off we started bad. KD finally made Q a starter and we played much better and he stayed a starter. When you look at Dei's stats, he deserves to start and get more time! He and Pat are leading the team in foul shot attempts. There is something wrong when we only get to the line 6 times during the game. We need more guys driving to the basket and less three point shooters. Give Deji the start tonight and see it improves the team. When he is the second leading scorer he should not be sixth on the team in minutes. He plays good defense. When he scores 13 points in 5 minutes and has a career high he should start the next game. Kretzer has player 456 minutes this season and has attempted 20 foul shots. Deji has played 399 minutes and attempted 77 foul shots. Reward the senior with the start tonight.

I agree with you on Deji. He scored 13 points in 5 minutes and then he sits until about 2 minutes left in the first half. I would have like to see more of him in the first half. I think he played more in the second half. Great game to watch. The first half we played our best offense but our defense was bad. We gave up too many easy layups. They shot 24 foul shots to our 6. I said it another post (statistics) but this team is not getting to the line enough because we take too many 3 point attempts. There is one great positive: This young team is getting experience in playing in close games. That will help us when we get the Q

I think we have beaten Ohio U the last 2 years at their place. Two years ago Kretzer went off and made 5 three pointers. That was the year of the streak. Last year I think Ohio had a chance to tie or win and Harney made the defensive play of the game and blocked a layup. (my recollection) It will be tough winning three in a row at their place. I would love to see Kretzer have a good offensive game like he did his freshman year. I hope that we can have a decent start. There should be a big crowd and if Ohio gets a big lead early in the game it could be difficult for this young team to overcome.

I went to Gozips.com and they gave me the link to BG where I paid the $6.95. It would have been nice for them to give a link to the MAC digital network and I would have saved the money since it was the same feed. I won't make that mistake again.

I just watched the Zips highlights. Robotham got away with a little push off on his jump shot and Gladden bullied the rebound with a little muscle to get position for the rebound. The refs kept their whistles quiet. No more comments about how the refs hate the Zips for at least a week.

I watched the Bowling Green feed. It was comical. Almost every time BG scored we saw a replay of the basket while live action was taking place. Missed some of the Akron offense. They never replayed an Akron basket. Never showed a replay of the game winning basket. The feed was OK but not fantastic. It was worth about 8 bucks. I wondered if the MAC feed was the same with the constant replays of the BG baskets? The announcers were pretty good and actually commented on some bad calls by the refs against Akron. They only went ballistic once when an Akron player slid on a loose ball and called timeout. The announcers thought a travelling should be called.

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