1981 grad

Just when Akron basketball became fun to watch we have an unwatchable 2nd half. Whistle after whistle, missed foul shot after missed foul shot, and running the clock down to the end before we took a shot. The 2nd half was slow but a win was a win. KD indicated on post game that the Zips shot poorly and he was going to hear it from the fans what they were doing wrong. Here is my take. This is the first game that KD took all his players off the foul line and there was nobody to high 5 the players when they made their fouls. Put the guys back on the foul line. Maybe it is a sight thing. I may be superstitious but if we shoot poorly from the foul line when you change it up, go back to having guys at the line. You may even get an offensive rebound off a missed foul shot. The zone that they play is weird. As soon as we got the ball to Big Dog at the foul line, everyone stayed with their man and Big Dog went 1 or 1 with their center. It was a mismatch pure and simple. Big Dog can drive from the foul line because he has quick first step and a nice ball fake. Once he gets moving nobody can stop his drive to the basket. That zone does not work against Big Dog. Hope they use it at their place. KD also indicated post game that he wants our guards to guard the 3 line even if we gave up drives to the basket. Our guards got beat on penetration numerous times but our big guys had some nice blocks. I hope that KD works with Josh because he is having a tough time. He is not particularly quick and had 2 turnovers. I am surprised that KD sticks with him since Dunn Martin is clearly outplaying him. KD had done a great job with our teams rebounding. Only gave up 9 offensive boards.

As I am reading these post about Kwan, it occurred to me that he probably would have benefitted from a red shirt season. I know that he started school young and I think playing at this level took a certain mental maturity that is hard for a 17 year old. I thought the same for Zeke Marshall who did not seem to take b ball seriously until he became an upper classman. Playing division 1 b ball at a high level takes a commitment level that far exceeds what is required in high school.

I did not like the call on Ivey but it was not a bad call. Just before that call the Ohio players and Akron players had gotten into each others face. Not sure what happened and the refs separated them. The next play was the Ivey dunk then stare into the opposing player after the dunk. Not sure if he said anything. The ref was merely trying to control the game and stop the nonsense before it got worse. You see the stare after a dunk in the NBA all the time but this is college. It was a taunt and considering what had just happened the call did not surprise me. I felt the same way about the double T. The refs were controlling the game. Unfortunately, it was Antinos 4th foul and he came out of the game and Ohio had a brief comeback until KD put him back in.

Half way through the season and to me one of the biggest surprises and one of the reasons this team is playing so well is Kwan Cheatham Jr. I am going to eat crow because I had him pegged as a soft outside player who would never develop an inside game. A guy who loved to pick and pop out for the 3 ball or take fade away jump shots when he could not penetrate. However, this year he has proved me wrong. He has developed an inside game and muscled guys to the basket, has made some athletic drives to the basket, has made some short jump shots, has improved his 3 point shooting, made some unbelievable shots and played great defense with solid rebounding and some great blocks. Most importantly, he had done this every night, even against top ranked competition. Tonight he had 17 points and 13 rebounds. He made a great pass to Poke for a dunk. In many respects he is having an MVP season.

I agree with you 100%. I am not sure if it is physical or mental but he is a different player after the injury. The best I saw him attack the basket was against the division 3 team. KD said something at half and Noah came out with a purpose on defense and offense and he was in attack mode. My point is that you have to give Dunn Martin the opportunity to be that type of player. I remember when Noah went down with the injury Antino became a prime time player. I would like to see if Dunn Martin can obtain the skills to penetrate. We need that type of guard to reach the next lever.

Tired? Dunn Martin clearly outplayed Josh and Noah. He deserves more playing time. I watched the Xavier-Creighton yesterday and the commentators indicated that you need guards to attack the basket and be able to finish at the rim in order to be successful. Josh and Noah do not have that ability. We need to get Dunn Martin more playing time to see if he has that ability.

I have really been impressed all season with the play of Kwan, Big Dog, and Jimond. Utomi had a monster first half and KD has to find some playing time for this young man on Tuesday. Somebody on this board questions his defense but his defense looked fine on Sat. I am also hoping that KD can find more playing time for Dunn Martin. He clearly outplayed Josh and Noah on Saturday in very limited minutes. Noah had a bad game with 4 turnovers and 2 of his 3 point shots did not even hit the rim. Noah always seems play great at home (Marshall game) but we need him to be more consistent, especially on the road. Antino is the best defender among the guards and forced some turnovers on Sat with good defense. Looking forward to the game on Tuesday. Go Zips!

Now that the president of the U is a B ball fan, maybe we can bring her back! Best half time show Akron ever had.

I think winning on the road in the MAC is tough no matter what the opposition. We got a great first half from Utomi and a great 2nd half from Dunn Martin. I think good guard play is a must on the road and we got very little from Williams and Noah and still won. I rather have 4 close wins than 3 blowouts and a loss. Great defense from Kwan sealed the win. This team is showing some heart by winning games when they are down in the 2nd half. It is ironic that we are getting help from teams missing their foul shots since this has always been our weakness.

Dunn Martin playing well hitting a 3 and getting a layup. Why take him our for Noah unless he is tired. Let's see if Noah rewards KD with some good play.

KD brings in Dunn Martin and he hits a 3! He needs to leave Noah on the bench and go with the other 3 guards.

As Noahs guy beats him off the dribble forcing Jimond to pick up a foul KD finally takes him out. Noah is having a bad game. Bring in Dunn Martin and see what he can do or leave Antino in.

When you have Noah and Josh in at the same time you have 2 guards that cannot penetrate to the basket and things can get ugly. Noah tries to penetrate and has lost the ball 4 times. We are missing our foul shots. KD has not played Dunn Martin. I believe that we need our guards to play well on the road for us to win and hopefully they will have a better 2nd half. No way we can keep shooting the 3 ball as well as we did in the first half. We need better play from our guards.

Thanks for verifying that it was Romeo.

Best answer thus far, from 2007 against Bowling Green: "Zips senior forward Romeo Travis set a career high with 37 points in his final regular season home game. He did much of it at the foul line, making 16 of 23 free throws."

Because the way Kd plays a team oriented game with an emphasis on defense, I cannot remember the last time anyone scored 33 or more points in a game. I tried looking it up but could not find an answer so I will throw out this question to someone who has a higher Zip IQ than me. Who was the last Zip to score 33 or more in a single game?

I think that Big Dog has played himself into shape tonight. I thought he would wear out in the 2nd half but it never happened. Big Dog played the best game I have seen from a Zip in a long time. I think Antino may be the go to guy in the clutch. Great 3 point shot to finish the game. Also, Antino played solid defense the last couple of possessions. These high scoring games are really entertaining. Great to see Akron pull out a close one on the road!

I think one of the keys to the game is how well our 4 guards shoot the 3 ball. In the last 2 home games, they have shot the ball poorly, 3 ball less than 25%. These are open looks and they need to shoot the ball better. Unfortunately, this year in our 3 away games, we have struggled to shoot the 3 ball well. Big Dog, Kwan and Ivey are playing the best basketball of their careers so it will be interesting if we can dominate in an away game. Go Zips!

When did the team leave? I am also curious if you know how the team travels, on the MAC road trips outside Ohio. Do they usually travel the day of the game or the day before the game. I would think it would help if they did not play the same day after a 5 hour bus ride.

He may have an NBA body, but he is another guy who likes to fire up the 3 ball and 11 of this 18 shots are from the 3 line. His defense has not stood out as bad but have hardly seen him play except in blow outs.

I think it is way to early to give up on Josh. He is one of our best 3 point shooters and made a clutch 3 point shot at the Bowling Green game. His defense has improved. (although last night he had his back to the ball and let his man cut to the hoop for an easy dunk) He needs to develop confidence to dribble drive to the basket and finish at the basket on a consistent basis and work on this part of his game. Historically, one of the negatives of our inside out game is that our outside players just rely on the three and never develop an ability to drive to the basket. This season 80% of Joshes shots are from the 3 line and he has only gone to the line 12 times. Antino who has played just about the same number of minutes, has gone to the foul line 34 times. KD needs to get the guards to develop this part of their game. I think that in guard play Antino is best at dribble penetration followed by Dunn Martin, Noah and Josh.

I stated earlier when trying to predict how this team would do I could not find a "go to guy." But tonight I thought there were a couple of key plays that turned the game around. One was a steal and dunk by Jimond that started our run to the lead and another was a clutch 3 pointer by Kwan. Big Dog also had some key baskets down the stretch. Western Michigan double teamed Big Dog and covered Jimond under the basket leaving our 3 point shooters open and we could not hit the 3 ball. Antino missed wide open 3 balls, Noah, missed wide open 3 balls, and Josh did not score in 27 minutes of play. These guys are supposed to be our shooters, they are playing at home, they have open looks, and there is no reason for them to shoot the ball that badly. Luckily, Western Michigan shot 37% from the line. Kwan has really played smart this year and is having a great senior season. After he scored he pressured the inbounds play causing a turnover. He is also giving us some inside scoring. I think if our guards struggle away from the Jar we are going to have a hard time winning on the road. Hopefully, this will be their worst shooting game. Looking forward to Tuesday's game. Go Zips!

I do not think you have to reinvent the wheel. One of the best things I saw at our football game was having the brass section of the band or the drum line go to different parts of the stadium and perform during the timeouts. It was entertaining and fun to see the students perform close up. Is it an unwritten rule that our band can only perform at football games? Why not utilize our band during B ball and have the drum line or brass section at the game at do a 10 minute performance during half time or go around the jar on the track during a long media timeout. Our baton twirlers or flag team could also do something at a b ball game and it would not cost the U one cent. (I also have to mention the worst promotion at our football games was the play of the game. If we would be losing 40 to 0 and late in the game they had to show a good Akron play of the game late in the 4th quarter to the 400 fans in the stands who did not leave during the blowout.)

It is interesting to hear KD indicate that they found a way to get Jimond the ball off the Big Dog double team. Last year and earlier this year I would see Jimond standing out on the wing like he was Jake or Reggie and I thought that it was a waste to have such an athletic guy so far away from the basket. Great adjustment to have him cutting to the basket where Big Dog can get him the ball. He was 10 of 11 from the line. Hopefully, we finally have a guard/ small forward that can get to the foul line on a consistent basis.

Thanks, just played it and it was great. I remember the 1st time they played it at the Jar and people were loving it, especially the Kent part.