valpofan56 Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 Final proof that Horizon >> MAC! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RACER Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 i was upset with the refs at ball state,but the zips cannot blame the refs for this loss.we just don't have an inside presence.valpo kept feeding the post,and i thought thier big guy was pretty decent.we had no answer for him.i hate to point to next year,but that should all change with zeke.when we needed a bucket our offense does not have a go to guy.next year we will be able to run the offense totally different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootforRoo44 Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 Thank god this game basically doesn't count for anything. so whatever! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vuweathernerd Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 i see why you all hate those refs. that was a nightmare. thanks for a thrilling game, and hopefully those who were there enjoyed a (mostly) good atmosphere, minus the tech on homer and the foul immediately preceding it. hopefully the return game next year is just as good so you all can have some fun at your place. best of luck on the rest of your season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleacher Bum Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 I think that Crawford guy was one of the officials. At least he looked like him.From the Box Score:Officials: Terry Anderson ,Glenn Mayborg ,Sid Rodeheffer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Z Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 I hate to state the obvious, and I know this doesn't help us now, but I am looking forward to seeing Zeke play. Watching Bardo being sideways to the basket most of the night was disturbing. If I were coach, I would demand that he doesn't shoot for the rest of the month, he should only be instructed to box out and rebound. He needs to focus on his job. That was a winnable game. The refs really reduced the enjoyment of college basketball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 Dr. Z....I totally agree with you. Just watch his footwork sometime. He rarely...RARELY...gets himself into a positive position with the ball in his hands in the low block where he has any kind of advantage over the defender, and has a reasonable chance of scoring. I've seen everything from him trying to spin and scoop the ball under his defender's arm (yes...a 6' 10" guy), to shooting short jumpers or semi-hooks from point blank range that barely touch anything let alone go in the basket (both attempts during the Ball State game, as an example). I'd be more than happy to never see him take a shot again this year. But then again, that kills your ability to play inside-out basketball. And with the general feeling from the coaches that Mike is further along than Steve S......I'd say....Zeke can't get here soon enough.I want to comment about what I see on the MAC scoreboard from last night also. For the most part, it's an unimpressive list of performances against a pretty unimpressive list of competitors. If anyone noticed, there are quite a few OVC teams in there, and we didn't fare so well. Is this who we compare to as a conference now? A conference that we left 20 years ago for better opportunities? And I think the real kicker is going to be that, even though we are expected to light up the MAC over the next couple of years....is it going to mean anything to anyone on a national level? Don't get me wrong, I haven't seen us in a NCAA tournament game in 23 years...and I'm aching to get back there. But has this conference reduced itself to the point where their tournament participant will be viewed in much the same light as when Akron popped up on the bracket 23 years ago as an OVC member? And will the particular ineptness of our West division ultimately drag the rest of us down with them? These are not "lets get out of the MAC comments". But I just think the MAC as a basketball conference has a lot of work ahead of them. Maybe our new commish can make some things happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apalmison Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 What a disappointing game. And one we should not have lost. The only consolation is that it was a rather meaningless game for us. I'll share some images from the game once I figure out how to do it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave in Green Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 i see why you all hate those refs. that was a nightmare. thanks for a thrilling game, and hopefully those who were there enjoyed a (mostly) good atmosphere, minus the tech on homer and the foul immediately preceding it. hopefully the return game next year is just as good so you all can have some fun at your place. best of luck on the rest of your season. It's nice to have confirmation from a Horizon League fan that we are not just imagining what we see on a regular basis from MAC refs. Sorry you folks had to suffer through it on your home floor. But at least you got to leave the floor happy with a win. Valpo has a good young core of players to go with a strong recruiting class, while the Zips only get one new player next season. So the battle in Akron next year won't be any easier for the Zips. The best thing about next year's game may be the Horizon League refs!I had to turn off the video last night and walk away with a couple of minutes to go when the Zips reverted to early season form, clanking shots and free throws in crunch time while the other team could do no wrong. Aside from the first half aberration when the Zips couldn't miss, this game was pretty much what I expected from seeing what Valpo did to Loyola Chicago. Except I thought the Zips had learned to play with more confidence and decisiveness at the end of a close game. So I don't know what they take away from this game. All the usual players played all the usual minutes, and I didn't see any non-conference experimentation. So if this was fine-tuning for the conference stretch run, it's hard to be optimistic.Then again, it's pretty sorry that the MAC went 4-8 against 12 teams of which only 4 had winning records. Northern Illinois, Central Michigan, Ball State and Can't were the only winners. The most impressive performance was by Can't against a pretty fair Morehead State team (2nd in OVC). Can't trailed most of the game, but executed in crunch time when it counted most to pull ahead and win their 8th straight game. Can't is currently the most consistent team in the MAC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GP1 Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 Valpo was 7-20 going into the game last night. I don't care how young the Zips are or any other excuse. There is no excuse for losing that game last night.At one point, Akron had a very good lead in the first half and they blew it. Should we be surprised? NO! This is the story of UofA sports. When the basketball team loses, KD catches a lot of flack. When the football team loses, JD catches a lot of flack. When the WBB program loses, JK catches flack. Etc. Akron has been losing games like this long before any of the coaches we currently have got here. I'll say it again and again and again. At some point, the PLAYERS themselves are going to need to take control of these programs and say enough is enough and find it within themselves to win some big games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valpo Zip Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 The answer is very straight forward. We are a good team who can beat good teams without a dominant inside player (see niagara, Can't, miami) but we are easily defeated by a bad team if they have a dominant inside game (see NIU, Valpo). We simply couldn't find anything to do with their egvaboa(sp?) guy. And with the general feeling from the coaches that Mike is further along than Steve S......I'd say....Zeke can't get here soon enough.I don't know how did you get that general feeling. Can anyone please explain to me how can Mike be better than any other center? when he doesn't deffend, doesn't score, doesn't rebound, doesn't box our, and doesn't create a screen. Did you ever ever, i repeat, EVER see Steve screw up? and by that i mean allow someone to dunk over him, or miss a 1 foot shot, or have a ball bounce of his hands in a rebound attempt?If we all have to endure through seeing 7-15 minutes of terrible center play in each game (assuming that both our centers are terrible) why don't we alternatively give both of them fair chances? Even with Zeke next year, he's not going to play 40 minutes/game, is he? we still need someone to play C for 15 minutes/game. Is that still going to be Bardo? If KD is trying to free up a scholarship for Darryl Roberts (which he deserves one), why is Swiech being pushed out not Bardo himself?Why do i feel that I am the only one who is terribly irritated by this situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vuweathernerd Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 i see why you all hate those refs. that was a nightmare. thanks for a thrilling game, and hopefully those who were there enjoyed a (mostly) good atmosphere, minus the tech on homer and the foul immediately preceding it. hopefully the return game next year is just as good so you all can have some fun at your place. best of luck on the rest of your season. It's nice to have confirmation from a Horizon League fan that we are not just imagining what we see on a regular basis from MAC refs. Sorry you folks had to suffer through it on your home floor. But at least you got to leave the floor happy with a win. Valpo has a good young core of players to go with a strong recruiting class, while the Zips only get one new player next season. So the battle in Akron next year won't be any easier for the Zips. The best thing about next year's game may be the Horizon League refs!there was actually some debate on our board about the quality of the officiating. mostly because i expect a foul called when a guy gets pulled out of the air, and from my vantage point, it looked like that's what happened to little, causing him to leave for a bit. but hey, that's life sometimes. the zips played a very good press last night, which enabled them that big lead in the first half. the problem was that when we started to break it, there wasn't much of a switch to keep our guards off balance. depending on the date of the game in akron next year, i may drive out for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyzip84 Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 I think it's pretty clear that MAC Men's hoops, at least during the period in which Akron has been a member (1992-present), has reached a low point. I don't even think it should be considered "mid-Major", at least until I see some marked improvement. The conference will be lucky to get a 14 seed in this year's NCAA's, and rightfully so. Nevertheless, I'm still pulling for these young Zips to be the best of a pretty sorry bunch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 skhorbotly...we all share your frustration with the center play. But my post was in regards to what is happening with the people who make these decisions. And besides comments that indicate that they don't feel that Steve is ready, and about playing their best players, I don't think it's that difficult to figure out what is going on when one center plays 10-15 minutes per game, and the other one rarely plays at all.I know...it's hard to believe that Mike is the best we have...but apparently that's the thinking right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootforRoo44 Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 skhorbotly...we all share your frustration with the center play. But my post was in regards to what is happening with the people who make these decisions. And besides comments that indicate that they don't feel that Steve is ready, and about playing their best players, I don't think it's that difficult to figure out what is going on when one center plays 10-15 minutes per game, and the other one rarely plays at all.I know...it's hard to believe that Mike is the best we have...but apparently that's the thinking right now.personally i think Cventinovic can handle the center position better than anyone we have. Might as well play smaller and at least have guys able to catch the ball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 RootForRoo...I don't think anyone is going to disagree with that. The disheartening thing is that we have two guys close to 7' tall sitting over there on the bench, and neither of them is really helping us at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave in Green Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 It's not uncommon in basketball to have some taller guys sitting while some shorter guys play because the shorter guys on balance have more skills and better execution. I've seen a number of teams visit the JAR where some really tall guys ended up riding the bench while shorter guys played most of the game. The Zips are far from alone in not having highly skilled bigs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootforRoo44 Posted February 24, 2009 Report Share Posted February 24, 2009 It's not uncommon in basketball to have some taller guys sitting while some shorter guys play because the shorter guys on balance have more skills and better execution. I've seen a number of teams visit the JAR where some really tall guys ended up riding the bench while shorter guys played most of the game. The Zips are far from alone in not having highly skilled bigs.it's called being anyone other than a top 25 school. There aren't many big guys that have big time talent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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