Cleveland State Game

[Quickzips]

Zips REALLY sloppy early. Way too many turnovers, not boxing out on the boards. CSU is gonna slaughter us if these guys don't settle down and start running their stuff.

[Quickzips]

If the Zips could ever stop turning it over this game is there for the taking. 23-21 CSU with 3:50 left in the first half despite the fact that the Zips have an astonishing 11 turnovers. Vikings aren't doing anything fancy, Zips just aren't making good decisions with the ball.

[MDZip]

This one was just given away.

[bobbyake]

it's a good thing we're in the MAC, this team is not NCAA tournament material

[yazan07]

Wow.

[zipsfan13]

I can't believe how bad they looked tonight. They played downright awful on offensive end of the court.

[zipsfan13]

it's a good thing we're in the MAC, this team is not NCAA tournament material

+1

[Quickzips]

Zips had the opportunities tonight and they didn't bring anything close to an offensive game. Can't turn the ball over as much as we did tonight, give up as many offensive boards as we have, miss as many point blank looks as we have and expect to win the ballgame. KD needs to re-think some of the things he is doing out here recently. For the life of me I cannot figure out why we have all of a sudden decided to play zone. Every time we've gone to it this year we've given up all kinds of points. It is painfully obvious that it isn't working and yet we go to it a couple times a half every game??? We are going to have to find some resemblance of a bench at some point here. For the second game in a row the starters played almost the entire second half. Diggs wasn't having a bad game, but rarely sniffed the floor in the second half. Abreu didn't even see a minute. Egner and Euton got one or two minutes a piece. I know these guys are young and new, but at some point KD is going to have to start trusting these guys. Are starters looked spent at the end and it showed with a lot of shots that weren't even close. And for the love of god can someone tell me what is going on with Steve McNees? If Steve can't or won't take some shots then why is he out there? He isn't exactly a dynamic passer. I don't know what has happened to him, but this is not the Steve McNees we've all come to know and love. Ohh yeah, and Nikola, remember against YSU when you were finishing strong around the glass and not just slopping up shots hoping to draw fouls? Could ya get back to that please?

[bobbyake]

Zips had the opportunities tonight and they didn't bring anything close to an offensive game. Can't turn the ball over as much as we did tonight, give up as many offensive boards as we have, miss as many point blank looks as we have and expect to win the ballgame. KD needs to re-think some of the things he is doing out here recently. For the life of me I cannot figure out why we have all of a sudden decided to play zone. Every time we've gone to it this year we've given up all kinds of points. It is painfully obvious that it isn't working and yet we go to it a couple times a half every game??? We are going to have to find some resemblance of a bench at some point here. For the second game in a row the starters played almost the entire second half. Diggs wasn't having a bad game, but rarely sniffed the floor in the second half. Abreu didn't even see a minute. Egner and Euton got one or two minutes a piece. I know these guys are young and new, but at some point KD is going to have to start trusting these guys. Are starters looked spent at the end and it showed with a lot of shots that weren't even close. And for the love of god can someone tell me what is going on with Steve McNees? If Steve can't or won't take some shots then why is he out there? He isn't exactly a dynamic passer. I don't know what has happened to him, but this is not the Steve McNees we've all come to know and love. Ohh yeah, and Nikola, remember against YSU when you were finishing strong around the glass and not just slopping up shots hoping to draw fouls? Could ya get back to that please?

The zone wasn't the problem today. It was the guards on the offensive end. They looked slow and sloppy.

[GoZips]

Do NOT over analyze this pathetic loss.

Plain and simple the core of the problem is the complete lack of defense.

Its a team problem. Its not some one missing cuts, taking poor shots. Its the total lack of defense.

You can not win basketball games with your hands in your pockets. Cleveland State played defense.

CSU played defense well. Their understanding and executing their defense was the difference in

winning or losing the game.

When you play hands in your pocket defense you are never in a position to get rebounds. Your hands

must be high (both of them) to catch a rebound.

I love Keith Dambrot and consider him a friend. That said, Keith, scrap all the fancy offense and

get your kids on defense. Without defense you will win nothing.

The next several practices should be defense and free throw shooting. No scrimmages, no offensive

sets, they don't need them. The complete lack of defense killed this team.

Go review the game tape and watch how Cleveland State ran their defense. In your face, hands high,

force the turn over and be ready to rebound.

One last thing. Steve McNees .. get a hair cut. A flop mop may be cute on a freshman, but, you, sir,

are a senior. Its high time to look and act like one. Steve, take the leadership reins. This team

seems to be rudderless. Its YOUR job to lead since KD essentially clipped Nikola's wings or other

parts.

[meatwad]

Do NOT over analyze this pathetic loss.

Plain and simple the core of the problem is the complete lack of defense.

Excuse me?

We give up 64 points to a team averaging in the mid 70s in points and you think the problem is defense?

We scored 51 freaking points and turned it over countless times. No one could create their own shot. Our offense was terrible tonight and we still had a chance to win. I disagree, the D was not the problem.

[GoZips]

Meatwad, thanks for the laugh.

[meatwad]

Meatwad, thanks for the laugh.

The only laughable thing was our offense tonight.

We held CSU to 38% shooting. I'd take that any night. Problem is we only shot 36%. We also gave up 11 offensive rebounds which was on the defensive side of the ball. However, we had 16 turnovers! You aren't going to win many games scoring 51 points, sorry.

[meatwad]

Meatwad, thanks for the laugh.

The only laughable thing was our offense tonight.

We held CSU to 38% shooting. I'd take that any night. Problem is we only shot 36%. We also gave up 11 offensive rebounds which was on the defensive side of the ball. However, we had 16 turnovers! You aren't going to win many games scoring 51 points, sorry.

[bobbyake]

Do NOT over analyze this pathetic loss.

Plain and simple the core of the problem is the complete lack of defense.

Its a team problem. Its not some one missing cuts, taking poor shots. Its the total lack of defense.

You can not win basketball games with your hands in your pockets. Cleveland State played defense.

CSU played defense well. Their understanding and executing their defense was the difference in

winning or losing the game.

When you play hands in your pocket defense you are never in a position to get rebounds. Your hands

must be high (both of them) to catch a rebound.

I love Keith Dambrot and consider him a friend. That said, Keith, scrap all the fancy offense and

get your kids on defense. Without defense you will win nothing.

The next several practices should be defense and free throw shooting. No scrimmages, no offensive

sets, they don't need them. The complete lack of defense killed this team.

Go review the game tape and watch how Cleveland State ran their defense. In your face, hands high,

force the turn over and be ready to rebound.

One last thing. Steve McNees .. get a hair cut. A flop mop may be cute on a freshman, but, you, sir,

are a senior. Its high time to look and act like one. Steve, take the leadership reins. This team

seems to be rudderless. Its YOUR job to lead since KD essentially clipped Nikola's wings or other

parts.

You're not going to win a lot of ball games with only 51 points. Our guards can't make free throws, how do we expect them to make 3's?

[bandzip]

A lot of their points came from threes with a hand in their face or Zeke nearly blocking it. They were just knocking them down at the end of the game and we couldn't get anything going. We put up little "3" signs every time we hit one. A grand total of 3 tonight. Live by the three...

[RowdyZip]

This game (like Dayton) was won on the glass. In addition, CSU played MUCH better defense than the Zips. Did you see how they completely took away the 3 ball with their perimeter defense? I think we attempted 3 or 4 from behind the arc that entire 20 minutes. We seemed lost when we played the inside-out game with Zeke and then the perimeter shots were not only covered well, but we were unable to get off an attempt for the most part. McClanahand was again one of the only reasons we were in the game. It appears that he and Zeke are the only ones able to create their own shot. I think QD has that ability and will eventually gain that confidence that's needed to open those lanes driving to the rim.

I'm confident that this team will gel and be another solid squad under KD, but man these next 4 games on the road are going to be ROUGH. We could be 2-6 before coming home to face the mighty Bethune Cookmans. How will the team handle adversity? I'm not sure that any of the guys have ever been below .500 in college, let alone 4 games under. Still optimistic, but dimmed slightly.

[skip-zip]

Do NOT over analyze this pathetic loss.

Plain and simple the core of the problem is the complete lack of defense.

Excuse me?

We give up 64 points to a team averaging in the mid 70s in points and you think the problem is defense?

We scored 51 freaking points and turned it over countless times. No one could create their own shot. Our offense was terrible tonight and we still had a chance to win. I disagree, the D was not the problem.

Right on the money.

Not that our defense didn't have breakdowns tonight, but our overall defense, and our ability to keep the score down, is the only think that kept us IN this game.

[ZipGrad93]

Plain and simple - we couldn't handle their quickness on the perimeter, offensively or defensively. We didn't make any adjustments to compensate for that. The zone was a good idea, but #3 got hot, and busted it up.

I don't like how we have Marshall and Nik hedge screens 40 feet from the basket. It hurts us rebounding, and we lack enough quickness (at least against teams like CSU) to really recover on defense from that rotation. I also didn't like our offense tonight. If we're going to be going through Nik and Marshall all year, I don't think they're consistent enough for the Zips to win the MAC. McNees has to be more involved and he has to score more. He's capable, and that takes some pressure off of Marshall and Nik.

Honestly, after watching this game, I was wondering how we competed against Dayton...

That said, it's only one game. I have faith in the coach and the players. They will get it straightened out and compete for the MAC title once again.

[Dave in Green]

The Zips need a lot of work on both offense and defense. Correcting what went wrong with only one or the other tonight is not going to turn the Zips into instant winners. They have a long way to go on both offense and defense to have a chance to be decent by the end of the season.

I have formally lowered my expectations for this team for the first half of the season. Is anyone still dreaming about upsetting one of the tough teams were going to be playing over the next few weeks? Forget about it! This team is going to be taking a Miamiesque win-loss record into conference play.

The only hope for this team is to develop into something that has a chance to win the MAC Tournament. More than ever this year, that's the only hope.

KD played all the starters more than 30 minutes tonight to go for the win. The result was a big loss and little experience for all the first-year players the Zips are going to need to have contributing in order to be good by the end of the season when it counts.

Forget about winning right now. The focus has to be on developing the younger players and integrating them with the veterans. Stop playing all the starters more than 30 minutes per game and start giving the first year guys meaningful minutes, even if they screw up.

If this team can't develop an effective 10-player rotation by the end of the season, the starters are not going to be able to carry the whole team on their backs.

[eguins]

I think Cleveland State is going to win the Horizon League this year. Norris Cole is on the NBA Draft Radar for late 1st or early 2nd round. You lost to the best team, at least in my eyes, in the Horizon League. And yes, even better than Butler.

[ZippyforPresident]

The focus has to be on developing the younger players and integrating them with the veterans. Stop playing all the starters more than 30 minutes per game and start giving the first year guys meaningful minutes, even if they screw up.

If this team can't develop an effective 10-player rotation by the end of the season, the starters are not going to be able to carry the whole team on their backs.

You took the words right out of my mouth. How big is not having Brett McKnight right now? If Brett isn't going to be able to play this season, although hopefully he can at some point, I agree that Coach Dambrot is going to have to feed some of the new guys to the wolves. Let 'em play and work through the inexperience and hopefully they can get acclimated to playing in college. At least that gives us a shot at some significant depth by MAC Tourney time, or optimistically even by the beginning of conference play.

[OZoner]

Zips gave up .907 points per defensive possession tonight, which is excellent. Problem was the .74 points per offensive possession.

[meatwad]

Zips gave up .907 points per defensive possession tonight, which is excellent. Problem was the .74 points per offensive possession.

Thanks for the laugh OZoner

[RootforRoo44]

I agree with Meatwad...our defense wasn't that bad tonight, certainly good enough to win. Our rebounding and offense is a different story.

I really think KD might be on to something with his admittal in the post-game of playing some guys too much. We looked sluggish with the ball and really got pushed around late on both ends. Hopefully someone on the bench can step up and give Dambrot some minutes.

Also, i've watched countless basketball games the past few days with all the tournaments going on and what not. In none of them did i see the ridiculous petty foul calls that our officials seem to call every game. It's unbelievable how boring a basketball game can get when they stop play every 2 minutes over some ridiculous call (and it surely goes both ways). The refs are TERRIBLE. Yeah yeah i know....

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