LoyalZIP

Thornton doesn't belong in the same discussion as those guys. He is a classic 2-way PG who makes the most of his minutes as a distributor and defender. His numbers, though with limited minutes, reflect that. Scott has been the biggest disappointment. Dawson has at the very least had some moments, but Scott's shot has not come around. 29% in MAC play. He has also, save for the dunk vs. WMU, come up empty on fast break attempts repeatedly. The thing about each of these guys that still keeps them dangerous is the threat they are to make shots. It's not like we're surrounding Freeman with 4 Shaqs. While Akron lacks a 3-point sharpshooter, Hunter, Dawson, Scott, Ali, Tribble, Tavari, even Thornton all have shown the capability to be shooters. The archetype for the player Akron is "missing" wears #21 for Toledo. Keeping him in check back on 2/2 won Akron that game.

Huge win. Zips came out ready to play and held onto the big lead. First win over a winning-record MAC team in 2 years.

Kept it to 11 out of solidarity with the women’s team. Respect.

Trap game?

Whether people are willing to admit it or not, the team to outlast the rest if often also the luckiest. You can even look at most MAC tournament champs and point to something like that where they got an edge. A lot of the time, that luck is in the injury department. Nate is a bigger missing piece than I thought. Doesn’t mean they couldn’t have played better and won tonight, but he starts for a reason. I believe yesterday marked the 4-week mark for him. Hopefully he’s progressing on schedule.

I thought we’d lose by 12. I was close. Lots of shooters, not enough makers. Love that we could play this game. Practices will be brutal this week.

Buffalo!!

Been doing this too long 😂

My prediction is JMU -4.5

I really, really hate to get involved in seeding discussion at this point in the season. But I will add, the 2022 Zips had a pretty weak resume, even by MAC standards, and due to shifts in conference tournament week, they got all the way up to a 13 seed. NET doesn’t equal RPI, but for what it’s worth, the 2009 Zips, also a 13-seed, were 20+ spots higher in the committee’s metrics of choice than the 2022 Zips. Doesn’t mean a thing without the Cleveland ring.

Coaching in the NFL is a riot. Once you're in, you're in. Jon Cooley, who Arth had on his staff here in 2019 and was on the Kent staff in 2018, is on his 2nd NFL team already.

This area is also saturated with smaller colleges his son could play at and he could see quite a few games. Probably higher on the priority list than you may imagine.

Went down big early and wound up coming back a couple times. Cool to see. Players starting to find their roles. Ball State goes down at NIU.

TOS to Akron?

Supposed to be 21 days out but TV has not been cooperating. People aren't thrilled in the department.

He has always gotten these looks. He filled in for both Nate and Sammy last night, one game after shooting 40% at a high volume. Groce would have benched him had he not taken those shots. Opponents are not willingly leaving him open.

Dawson’s shot just isn’t coming around. But I wouldn’t fault him for taking the ones he did last night. Good looks, comfortable game, let it fly. Ali’s perimeter shot hasn’t quite come back around consistently, but my goodness is he fun to watch. Tribble and Ali can both “create their own shot” and Tavari can as well when he gets in the zone.

Jimmal Ball, Terry Weigand, JD Brookhart all in the building tonight

Best nonconference SOS in the KenPom era (1999). Said in regards to the JMU game. This season is essentially tied with 2012.

Quality depth. Onto JMU.

KenPom says 72-59. The Zips have scored exactly 77 points in four different MAC games (both sets were back to back games) as well as two non conference games. Funny. CMU is nothing to sneeze at, but they have moved up to #1 in KenPom's Luck ratings for a reason. Getting to 8-2 is very impressive considering their personnel, but they have still lost at home to Buffalo and lost by double digits at Ohio. If the Zips treat this game how they should every game, they can take care of business. But they can't afford to fall asleep like they did in Oxford, no matter the opponent.

With the wild win yesterday, the Chips have moved into 2nd in the country in Luck on KenPom. In MAC play, they're 9th in offensive efficiency, but 2nd in defensive efficiency. Winning a pair of 2OT games in a week is impressive no matter who you are, the Zips won't be able to sleepwalk their way to a win like they have a couple times this year.

They left it all out on the floor twice this week!

CMU is 4th in the country in “Luck” on KenPom. Essentially, they win much more than expected based on the stats they produce. BG is 11th, Ohio is near the bottom. The 2019 Zips, who finished 108 in KenPom despite their record, were also near the bottom in luck.

That was nasty. I can’t imagine what it felt like when he woke up this morning. Gonna be a long day in the training room.