1981 grad

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!!

The MAC promotion is not valid on all tickets. It is only for the seats in the corners that I think were 24 so that would lower them to 12.

I think if any team had a chance to 4 games in 4 nights it would be the Zips. We all complain about how our favorite players do not get enough minutes (Diji) but that should work to our advantage in the tournament. The player who logged the most minutes during the course of the season, 30 minutes per game, Robotham, is not playing. All of the guys now playing are averaging around 20 minutes per game. Reggie and Antino had several games where they played 10 minutes. If the Zips keep playing good ball like the last 2 games they should be competitive and then anything can happen including a Zips win.

The Zips played an almost perfect first half. This is the second game in a row where they played at a very high level. The first 2 possessions Antino made 2 very difficult shots as the time clock was expiring. Each game he gets better. That seem to set the tone for the game. Diji was amazing. He was driving to the basket and was to strong for his defenders to handle and made numerous baskets going to the hoop. Big Dog and Kwan had very solid games. This is the second game in a row that Kwan was in double figures and he had 3 offensive rebounds. Playing down low is helping his rebounding. Less may be better. Each of these guys knows that they are going to be playing 20 or more minutes no matter what they do. They are relaxed and getting into the flow of the game. Antino looked a little tired at times but Kretzer and Reggie are in amazing shape. We shot over 50%. Although we had 16 turnovers, a lot of those came in the last 10 minutes when we went to 4 corners. Malcom had 3 turnovers. Looking forward to Wed. Zips catch a break and have the late game. More rest for the team.

It would be nice if anyone on this team would learn to take mid range jumpers. The mind set seems to be 3 or bust. I blame the coaches for that. Our forwards such as the Serb or Chauncy Gilliam did not rely on the 3 ball.

Kwan had a solid game at Can't and scored several inside baskets. The first half is the best I have seen him play all year. He did not score in the second half. I have said it numerous times that Kwan needs to learn to score inside the 3 line to be a consistent double digit scorer. Hopefully, he will come up big tonight.

I really like the way we played at Can't and I think if we carry that over to the game on Monday we should have a good chance at winning. I like how Antino was working the give and go with Big Dog. He fed Big Dog some great passes. Antino played a solid game and yes, he was the go to player a crunch time when we needed a basket. He seems to get better every game and that is encouraging. Here are my keys to the game. Reggie and Kretzer continue to shoot the ball well. We get some inside scoring from Kwan, especially when Big Dog is on the bench. Diji stays out of foul trouble. That T was just dumb. The offensive foul was a bad call since they were letting it go all night. Antino continues to get better. Go Zips!!