1981 grad

The Zips played poorly on the road and deserved to lose the game yesterday. However, I find it ironic that in our last loss to Gonzaga, we had a questionable call and technical against Big Dog that took him out of the game with 4 fouls. In that game, Big Dog was playing defense and put his hand on the Gonzaga's centers back and he reacted like he had been shoved in the back and nearly fell over. The Gonzaga crowd reacted and the ref under the basket called a foul on Big Dog away from the ball. Big Dog complained, and then was hustled to half court by his team and the ref whistled a ridiculous T while Big Dog was at half court. Big Dog went off the court and it changed the complexion of the game because he was ineffective with 4 fouls and did nothing the rest of the game. Yesterday, the 2nd foul on Big Dog was an offensive foul when the defender held Big Dogs arm as Big Dog was going for position and would not let go. The ref did not make a call and the arms became entangled and Big Dog raised his arm to try to get rid of the defender and the defender fell backward. Ref called double foul? The third foul was at when after the half when Big Dog and an Ohio U player started jawing after the half and as Big Dog was walking away from the player towards the Zips locker room the ref called the T. On the last foul, the slow motion replay shows that the defender was not looking at the ball or Big Dog when the foul was called. Instead, he was looking directly at the ref under the basket. Big Dog's shoulder makes contact with the defender's head as Big Dog is moving toward the ball. The defender is looking at the ref and as soon as Big Dog touches his head it snaps back and he falls over like he had been hit by a freight train, the crowd reacts, and the ref under the basket calls the 4th foul on Big Dog away from the ball and we take him out of the game. (Just like Gonzaga) It is unfortunate that 3 of the 4 fouls against Big Dog were garbage. However, coaches watch tape and I think we will see more of this, especially on the road where refs react to the crowd. The good new is that Poke got plenty of playing time and looked good. We will need him to play well with Hughs injury if we are going to win a tournament game.

The refs did not help but you have to overcome that on the road. Big Dog picked up 3 bogus fouls, a T, a double foul, and a foul away from the basket where the guy put his head into Big Dogs shoulder and jerked his head. Kwan had his first bad shooting game and it hurt us with Big Dog out. Utomi did not contribute at all this game. Poke played well and had a nice turnaround shot around the basket. Dunn Martin had a good first half but did not see him in he 2nd half. Bottom line, this team did not play well enough to win.

Another great game that is going down to the last 3 minutes. Why should we expect anything different.

Another terrible 1st half. There is no way they can play this poorly on the road. Jimond has stopped scoring inside. Utomi has done nothing. Noah turning the ball over. Josh air balls a wide open 3. Kwan is a rebounding machine, Antino is playing great defense, and Dunn Martin has a couple of steals. This game is still winnable with a good second half. The defense has been good. The refs have made some terrible calls. The drive by Antino was a clear continuation, the offensive call on illegal screen by Utomi was worse, and the double foul on Big Dog was absurd. Big Dog is getting killed when he has the ball and no call. It sounds like there may be a T on Big Dog at the end of the half which would be his 3rd. Not sure who these refs are but they are killing us.

I think part of it is conditioning. On numerous occasions late in the game he seems to always miss short indicating he is tired.

I said it in an earlier post in Northern game but the inbound lob to Big Dog late in the game is a mistake. KD needs to come up with another play to a player who can shoot foul shots. (Antino would be on top of my list)

Different play. The play I am referring to was very late in the game and they fouled him as soon as he got the ball on the inbounds and he missed the first half of the one and one.

Dunn Martin got beat on the last play of the half. We were in catch up mode and KD went with his veterans. When you are a first year player you will get taken out if you get beat on defense.

KD needs to come up with an inbounds play to a guard late in the game so that we can keep the ball out of Big Dogs hands late down the stretch. The pass down to Big Dog late in the game was a mistake.

I thought this game was winnable even after the first half if somebody would step forward and lead this team to win. Antino was that somebody. He played a great second half. This is the type of player you need on the team. Somebody who will step up when the team is playing poorly. Look at that steal on the next to last possession. Hitting the foul shots when we needed them. As a Zips fan you have to love this guy as a player. He is our best guard, especially when we are away from home.

I would rather see Utomi in instead of him.

This game is still winnable. They are shooting 75% from 3 land. That will not continue. We are getting killed on the boards. No reason for that. I am curious to see who will step forward. Looking for a big 2nd half from somebody. My guess is Antino, Big Dog or Kwan. Go Zips!

I expect more from Noah in this type of game. He misses wide open shots and is getting beat off the dribble. After Kwan went to the bench this is getting worse. I still think we can come back. We are playing terrible and still in this thing.

Big Dog is getting doubled and nobody is cutting to the basket. Jimond used to score off the double team and it is just not happening. Need better offense.

I have noticed when Poke gets in we give up offensive rebounds. He has to learn to box out. Kwan is keeping us in this game!

Worst start ever, Big Dog missing foul shots and turning ball over, Noah missing wide open 3, Kwan missing fade away jumpers. This has to get better.

Since we are going into our wish list, I have bought my seats to the Kent game, the last game of the season. How about we take our winning streak to Kent where the only thing between us and an undefeated season is the Kent State flashes. I don't think we have won in Kent the past few years so it would make for a great game and great atmosphere.

We cannot have it both ways. If this program wants to get into the top 25 or get an at large bid, we need the national spotlight so moving the games to national TV on Friday is a great thing. This program has a chance to get some national attention. All it needs to do is keep winning.

There were some great things at last nights game. It was good to see Josh have solid game. He penetrated to the basket and hit some big threes in the second half. Kwan was once a again a monster with his outside shooting. Big Dog was once again unstoppable under the basket. Antino had some great dribble drive penetration and hit some key shots. The bad is obvious. Big Dog had 18 foul shots and hit less than half. (although he made the one that counted) Buffalo had 5 guys that can dribble drive to the basket and they must have had 20 layups last night. Our guys are not quick enough to keep their guy in front of them on the dribble drive off a ball screen. Teams can see how bad we are on the high ball screens and they keep coming each game. Big Dog and Kwan were not great rim protectors last night. Poke is a great rim protector but when he is out there we give up too many offensive rebound. Guys who block shots are not always great rebounders (Zeke Marshall) I said it in another post and last nights game just illustrates the point but this team has to improve their defense in order to be considered for an at large bid or to win its first tournament game.

It had to be on their nest to last possession when they made the 3. I watched the replay and Kwan is holding up 6 fingers. I have to believe since he was near the bench that he saw something to indicate they had 6 players. The video feed does not show it and the refs did not see it so maybe Kwan was wrong. It is moot but I was just curious what happened.

Thanks for the explanation but he did not complain until Big Dog missed the foul shot and they inbounded the ball. He raised his hand trying to get the refs attention when they had the ball and then made a 3. Kd too up the cause and called a time out to complain to the refs. If it had occurred prior to Big Dog's foul shots he would have said something earlier.

I am curious what was Kwan complaining about with 12.9 seconds left. The refs stopped the game but they did not mention it on ESPN or during the post game show. There were not to many players on the court. I thought maybe somebody had fouled out and was still in the game. Does anybody have a clue?

We called them picks but it is a player standing still and the player with the ball will dribble the defender into the pick on screen thereby creating space for the person with the ball. The defender can step up and go in front of the screen, step back and go behind the screen, or call a switch and have the player who was guarding the screen now guard the ball handler. A high screen is a screen far away from the basket usually near the 3 point line.

Kd wants the player to over the screen. If he goes under or behind the screen it sets up an easy 3 ball. You rarely see an Akron player go behind a high ball screen. After you see the screen and step up you have to be quick enough to keep your man in front of you and that is where we seem to get into trouble. I agree with you that among our guards Antino is our scrappiest player. When you look at steals Antino and Jomond are leading the team.

It is not fair to compare the Zeke and Big Dog until after the season so I am going to defer my vote.