Zips vs Ou

[yazan07]

I heard that DJ said to Zeke "Hey I bet I could beat your high score on Guitar Hero" and then Zeke went up to him and told him to take back what he said.

[FromdaBurgh]

- Zeke Marshall has yet to be a gamechanger in a good way against Ohio. If he can make an impact, that's huge.

17 POINTS, 6 Rebounds, 3 blocks & 2 assist...sounds like a gamechanging nite to me! OU wasn't Tebowed..they were MARSHALLED!!!!

POW! BANG! BOOM!!!

[Derrt]

Good game. Great Win.

Sources tell me Q said chill out and got T'd up

[FromdaBurgh]

I heard that DJ said to Zeke "Hey I bet I could beat your high score on Guitar Hero" and then Zeke went up to him and told him to take back what he said.

OMG..+500...U WIN Yaznasty!!!! I'm CRACKIN UP!!!!

[MDZip]

After three games, the Zips are the only undefeated MAC team. Ball State lost at home to Eastern and Central lost at NIU. Didn't expect either of those, but it makes me feel better about having to go to Ball State and CMU. The whole league is either 2-1 or 1-2 except for the Zips and Toledo (0-3). Nice place to be sitting but the trip to Buffalo is going to be a tough one.

[MDZip]

Yeah I saw that they took back the balloons. Stupid, just stupid. This OU coach bitched the entire game, and postgame about everything! No wonder he'd have a problem with some freaking balloons.

Loved the AK-Rowdies "John hates balloons" chant afterward.

[skip-zip]

After the game, Hilltopper and I were discussing over dinner at a local restaurant the bad old days of long scoring droughts and the fall off in skills when the subs came in.

No more. It doesn't even matter to me any more which 5 of the top 9 Zips players are on the court at any given time. They're all contributors in some way, whether scoring points, dishing off, rebounding, playing D. I can't imagine all 9 of these guys being so cold from the field that they couldn't find a way to score.

It's a different kind of Zips basketball from what we're used to seeing. Yeah, they still make some of the same old mistakes, and they also make some creative new mistakes.

But they have the talent and physical ability to offset mistakes with brilliant plays.

There's never been any doubt in my mind that this edition of the Zips basketball team would be more entertaining to watch than any in recent memory.

Most importantly, in their first 3 conference contests they've demonstrated the ability to do whatever is necessary to close out close games.

I'm a happy Zips basketball fan right now.

First of all, let me say how happy I am that we've gotten two tough ones on the road, and found a way to win this one against a team that throttled us at home lastd year. Being 3-0 at this point is fantastic.

Dave, it's funny. I was having some post game discussions as well with some people, and in most respects, we all think that pretty much nothing has changed. Yes, there's some new parts. Some athletic parts that we may not have seen before. And we might be a bit deeper than in most past years. But so much hasn't changed. The styles, both offensively and defensively. The very spread out scoring. The scoring droughts. Not much running. So, I'm really surprised that someone got the impression that the game we saw tonight was something dramatically different from what we've seen before.

[Zip Watcher]

I'm astounded you still can't see the difference in the team on the court. Nice win today.

B)

Go Zips!!!!

[skip-zip]

I'm astounded you still can't see the difference in the team on the court. Nice win today.

B)

Go Zips!!!!

Agreed.

[akzipper]

First of all, let me say how happy I am that we've gotten two tough ones on the road, and found a way to win this one against a team that throttled us at home lastd year. Being 3-0 at this point is fantastic.

Dave, it's funny. I was having some post game discussions as well with some people, and in most respects, we all think that pretty much nothing has changed. Yes, there's some new parts. Some athletic parts that we may not have seen before. And we might be a bit deeper than in most past years. But so much hasn't changed. The styles, both offensively and defensively. The very spread out scoring. The scoring droughts. Not much running. So, I'm really surprised that someone got the impression that the game we saw tonight was something dramatically different from what we've seen before.

We're still a team that plays to the level of our competition and suffers from slow starts to games. We beat Miss St, but lose to Valpo and Duquesne? doesn't make much sense! We beat Miami and BG but both were close wins. Teams like that we should beat by 10-15 easily, especially if you think we're going anywhere in the postseason. Now we beat OU, a team I haven't been impressed by all season. But at least they have a decent record. Now how do we play against Buffalo? I'm not impressed with them either but I bet it will be close.

For once in a conference game this season I want to see us jump out to a 10 point lead early. Not play catch up all game and depend on a 8+ point run to win us the game!

[skip-zip]

I didn't want to forget to talk about the attendance. The announced is about 1,000 more than I anticipated.

But, where did it come from?

Too many empty seats in the lower blue sections. But, the GA seats, especially the ends, were much more full than they were for the VCU game. Is this an indication that maybe some of the regular fans stayed home, but the casual fans dropped in on this contest in pretty high numbers?

[ZippyforPresident]

Attendance tonight: 4,661. Not a terrible turnout, but it also didn't seem like a very energetic crowd until around the end of the game. Maybe it's just me, but I've been jacked up for this one for a while. I think both teams would agree that the officiating was pretty horrid in the second half, but at least we got the W, and that is all that anyone cares about at the end of the day. Being 3-0 in the conference is awesome. I'm stoked about it and can't wait until the game coming up on Saturday. First things first though, Buffalo is going to be a crazy challenge. Buffalo is very good and it's going to take a huge effort to get over on them at their place.

Also, the technicals at the end of the game were just terrible calls. No player from either team physically did anything to warrant one. The only explanation I can fathom is that each of the 3 players said something very uncouth to an official.

Go Zips!

[UAZip0510]

Superstar is such an understatement. Lebron James is the NBA, people even call him KING Lebron, or KING James. Even with no rings, he is bigger than the league. It really is amazing just how good that guy is.

Haha, that's a good one. Oh wait...you're serious...?

[johnnyzip84]

Was forced to watch this one on ESPNU due to a scheduling conflict. I think, on balance, we may have had a few more calls go our way than OU, but I still believe the deserving team won. Both teams seemed a bit tight, leading to numerous missed bunnies on both ends. I do think OU's team defense is improved and that Ivo Baltic has stepped his game up considerably. Cooper was dishing it early but his shot was off, assisted greatly by the defense of Abreu and Q. I really liked KD switching these two opposite Cooper. I also thought Alex was well prepared from a scouting standpoint. Numerous times, when DJ dribbled to the right of the key, AA shaded to the opposite wing and correctly anticipated the pass back to this side. Both teams were well prepared defensively for that matter. Tree was huge in crunch time as he has firmly established himself as the team's most reliable rebounder by a wide margin. Zeke's maturation at the line was equally huge. The big guy has me confident when he steps up there now. Count me in the camp that thinks this team is NOT the same old (not necessarily bad) Zips. This team can still improve quite a bit. When have we been 3-0 in MAC play when you could say that?

[zipseuph]

17 POINTS, 6 Rebounds, 3 blocks & 2 assist...sounds like a gamechanging nite to me! OU wasn't Tebowed..they were MARSHALLED!!!!

POW! BANG! BOOM!!!

I wish nights like this were his "off nights"

[Valpo Zip]

Superstar is such an understatement. Lebron James is the NBA, people even call him KING Lebron, or KING James. Even with no rings, he is bigger than the league. It really is amazing just how good that guy is.

Savannah ?! Nah... Savannah won't say that. You must be Gloria, aren't you? No one else can write something that ridiculous

[The Hip Zip]

Attendance tonight: 4,661. Not a terrible turnout, but it also didn't seem like a very energetic crowd until around the end of the game. Maybe it's just me, but I've been jacked up for this one for a while. I think both teams would agree that the officiating was pretty horrid in the second half, but at least we got the W, and that is all that anyone cares about at the end of the day. Being 3-0 in the conference is awesome. I'm stoked about it and can't wait until the game coming up on Saturday. First things first though, Buffalo is going to be a crazy challenge. Buffalo is very good and it's going to take a huge effort to get over on them at their place.

Also, the technicals at the end of the game were just terrible calls. No player from either team physically did anything to warrant one. The only explanation I can fathom is that each of the 3 players said something very uncouth to an official.

Go Zips!

You are correct when saying the crowd was not energetic for much of the game. The refs never allowed the game to develop any kind of flow so it was not pleasing to the eye. Cooper was probably the only guy deserving of a T. All Zeke did was to stand his ground and told him to knock it off. To Cooper's credit he did extend a handshake and apologize. Hell. I'd be frustrated too if I went 2/15 from the floor. Looking back at some OU box scores, it appears that he has significantly regressed.

Other observations:

Good crowd. Granted that we sat on our hands for much of the game but everybody really got fired up in the last 5 minutes.

Good to see Nitro get some good minutes in, he played quite well.

When AA was on the bench, Q probably played his best point guard of the year.

Nik continues to fail to finish more than he should when close to the hoop. He blew a couple of really easy hoops inside of 5 feet.

The Zips played really well when Harney and Tree were on the floor together. Harney had a plus/minus number of +11. Most impressive.

Zeke was outstanding on both ends. he didn't block a ton of shots but he altered a bunch

Despite a poor offensive game, AA played Cooper really well on D and responded with a couple of huge hoops in crunch time.

I'd like to see CG fire away when open. He seemed tentative out there and passed on a couple of wide open looks.

Sorry boys, no balloons for you. Quite funny

One of our cheerleaders took a hard fall, glad she's OK

This new group of MAC officials have been horrible so far. I take back all of the bad things I have said about Larry Scirotto.

OU fans may cry about all their bigs fouling out but they were pounding on Zeke all day.Most all of the calls were warranted

OU seems to have limited offensive options. If Cooper and Baltic both have sub par games the Kitties are toast.

I love the fact that we are closing out these tough victories. Learning how to win is not as easy as it sounds.

As deep as we are, I'd really like to see KD make a determined effort to push the pace and let the boys run on occasion. I know that our six through ten are a far better bench than anybody in the MAC.

We have made the road trip to Buffalo the last few years. By staying home this year maybe our guys will have a better chance ????

Top of the MAC East at 3-0 is a perfect start, Can we take it in wire to wire fashion ??

Good to see Miami take down Buffalo and also to see Ball State take a loss as a double digit favorite at home.

[Dr Z]

Attendance tonight: 4,661. Not a terrible turnout, but it also didn't seem like a very energetic crowd until around the end of the game.

Crowd looked, and sounded good on TV, and I spotted some ZN members.

[Hilltopper]

Crowd looked, and sounded good on TV, and I spotted some ZN members.

With the amount of fouls called, it took the crowd out of the game a little bit.

[K92]

I spotted some ZN members.

I always try to identify some faces in the crowd, but its hard to do when ESPN broadcasts in standard def.

[zen]

17 POINTS, 6 Rebounds, 3 blocks & 2 assist...sounds like a gamechanging nite to me! OU wasn't Tebowed..they were MARSHALLED!!!!

POW! BANG! BOOM!!!

Zeke as the right to declare Marshall Law and take control of the game

[GP1]

As deep as we are, I'd really like to see KD make a determined effort to push the pace and let the boys run on occasion. I know that our six through ten are a far better bench than anybody in the MAC.

Good points. Specific to this one, I'd like to see Diggs start and the Zips go up tempo from the beginning of the game. KD2.0 could use the bench to manage the game while the starters rest. Instead of scrambling, get a lead and put pressure on other MAC schools...MAC schools choke under pressure. The start of our games could sound something like this, "Marshall blocks the shot.... Zips get the loose ball...AA quickly up court and passes to Diggs and he slams it home."

Season Stats

Diggs is our best #2 guard and should be starting. He brings a different dynamic to the game than Walsh as he is able to get far more steals (he has over twice as many steals this season as Walsh). A guy like Diggs can turn steals into early points and pressure on the other team. Walsh is a nice player, but the direction of the program lends itself to Diggs starting.

Go Zips!

[Quickzips]

OU seems to have limited offensive options. If Cooper and Baltic both have sub par games the Kitties are toast.

OU has a lot of offensive options. Cooper and Baltic refuse to give the ball up. Nick Kellog is one of the best pure shooters in the league. He got half the shots that Baltic and Cooper did. Walter Offutt has proven himself an effective scorer in a variety of different ways. He only got 7 shots. This is absolutely poor coaching on Groce's behalf.

I really don't understand all the praise for Baltic in this thread. The guy played an absolutely miserable game. He made a couple shots early on Zeke and the rest of the game he was a black hole. Every time he got the ball he started trying to run all of these crazy spin moves, pivots, reverses and up fakes. Every time Zeke stayed at home, moved his feet well, and the play ended with Ivo taking a wild shot that had zero chance of going in. Dude was 5-17 from the field last night and pulled down only 3 boards. Nothing at all impressive about that. He needs to learn to pass the ball out of the post once in a while.

[Jalapeño Zippy]

My DVR cut out at a 1:12 left in the game so I don't know what happened at the end between Zeke and the midge but if Q came over to defend his teammate that to me shows something that was seemingly lacking in the early part of the season which is Leadership. This team has needed it and will need it going forward. It also sounds like Q was the unlucky receiver as well as Zeke of a tech to keep the game in check and more so neither said anything deserving of the T's.

On another note, 3-0 feels good.

[zen]

My DVR cut out at a 1:12 left in the game so I don't know what happened at the end between Zeke and the midge but if Q came over to defend his teammate that to me shows something that was seemingly lacking in the early part of the season which is Leadership. This team has needed it and will need it going forward. It also sounds like Q was the unlucky receiver as well as Zeke of a tech to keep the game in check and more so neither said anything deserving of the T's.

On another note, 3-0 feels good.

no Zeke got fouled hard bringing down a rebound, and after the play was done, Zeke turned around to say a few words. He was immediately T'd by the ref. Zeke had walked away when Q rolled up to dish his thoughts to Cooper, ref turned and gave him a technical too.

To me, it's not the same thing as jumpin' into a real scrape when you got your teammates back.

Also, I can't really criticize, because I don't know how cool I could be with cooper climbing down my back, but Zeke needs to know that he's going to take some licks and accept it. It sux to get banged but the time and place for expressing your aggression is while the game clock is running.... and I don't think that means holding in your resentment between plays. The only score that matters is the one in lights, not the one between you and others.