Oral Roberts

[Dave in Green]

ORU comes into tonight's game with a 5-5 record. Ho-hummer? Not so fast. Their 5 losses have been to current #6 Wisconsin, #8 Wichita State, Kansas State, St. Louis and Missouri State -- teams with a combined record of 46-6. They've beaten every team they were favored to beat, including Bowling Green. So the Golden Eagles deserve respect because they're fully capable of upsetting a Zips team that takes them lightly.

Unfortunately for ORU, they lost their star player in the 4th game of the season. Guard Obi Emegano, who averaged 23.3 points in their first 3 games, went down with a season-ending injury in his team's loss at St. Louis. Forward Shawn Glover has picked up some of the slack, with the 6-7 senior averaging 20.4 points over 10 games. The only other player averaging double-digit scoring is 6-3 sophomore guard Korey Billbury at 11.5 ppg.

Jorden Kaufman, a 7-0, 255 lb sophomore center, is the only player in their regular rotation taller than 6-7. But he only averages 13 minutes per game and isn't much of a threat. Most of the time the Zips will enjoy a height advantage. ORU has fair defensive rebounding and poor offensive rebounding, so the Zips should enjoy an advantage on the boards. ORU's greatest team strength is free throw shooting, where they are ranked #27 in the country at 75.1%.

With Emegano in the lineup, the Golden Eagles would have been a good challenge for the Zips. Without Emegano, the biggest threat would come from the Zips taking this game too lightly.

[akronzips71]

"Obi"!

[Dr Z]

"Obi"!

Their only hope?

PS no line

[Dave in Green]

TeamRankings projects the Zips as 80.4% likely to win.

[akzipper]

I think the refs need to let these teams play. Way too many fouls being called. Neither team is going to get into rhythm that way...

With style of basketball we play, I say the constant stoppages in play put us at a disadvantage.

[LZIp]

Tree seems to be letting the game come to him instead of forcing some shots that he was earlier in the season. Huge positive.

[zippy5]

This game is brutal to watch. No flow. I think they called 30 first half fouls.

[Quickzips]

This game is brutal to watch. No flow. I think they called 30 first half fouls.

Game? What game? I thought this was a free-throw shooting contest?

[LZIp]

we run the press and get beat time and time again. We get pressed and turn the ball over time and time again.

Stop trying to be VCU

[LZIp]

Wasn't very pretty, bull I'll take the win. We have talent, but fundamentals such as foul shooting and taking care of the ball prevent us from being a great mid-major team. Bring on Detroit.

[ZachTheZip]

Fifty two fouls called. Fifty two.

[Dave in Green]

Ironically, the Zips won this game on turnovers. While they had 12, which isn't great, ORU had a much worse 20 turnovers. In almost every other category, the teams were very close -- 36 rebounds apiece, 17 free throws made to 18, 43.9% shooting to 42.6%. Having 8 fewer turnovers gave the Zips 8 more possessions than ORU, and that was a key factor in the 10-point victory margin. Obviously there are still many areas that need improvement in order to beat teams better than ORU. But the Zips are showing good progress from game to game. Even when ORU made their second half run and briefly went ahead, I was confident that the Zips would come back, and they didn't disappoint me. Nick, Tree and Q took over at the end. Expect to see those 3 a lot in crunch time.

[The Hip Zip]

Q gets an A+ in my book. He was flying all over the floor in the 2nd half making plays. Great work on the backside boards as well.

[ZachTheZip]

What was with all the errant passes by Zips tonight? Flying into the stands, out of bounds, or to places 10+ feet from any player. It was an epidemic.

[Dave in Green]

For some reason Elton seems to have gone sour on the Zips. After excluding them from his personal ranking of the top 8 teams in the state of Ohio, he wrote a puzzling review of tonight's game leading off with the line that the Zips had a "misleading 74-64 victory over Oral Roberts." In the rest of the story, he never explains what he meant by "misleading." But he does talk about all the fouls and how ORU was called for more fouls than the Zips. So maybe he meant if ORU hadn't gotten so many fouls that they would have beaten the Zips. Who knows? I just find this story extremely odd.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Oral Writing

[zippy5]

That was the most un-entertaining game I've ever seen. Just from a basketball fan's perspective. Can't wait to come back Wednesday

[ZachTheZip]

Oral Writing

I tend to agree with this statement: "Akron plays like an AAU summer league team - a disciplined squad with equal talent would beat them by double digits."

It stems from the lack of a true floor general. It's great that Q, Melo, and Evans can all be the primary ball handler, but there's no one out there that is actually running the offense.

[LZIp]

I tend to agree with this statement: "Akron plays like an AAU summer league team - a disciplined squad with equal talent would beat them by double digits."

Likewise.

[phil]

The best example of that is when McAdams hit 2 threes in a row. He did not see the ball after that. A good team would try to get him the ball again. This team has talent but needs to play better as a team.

We need to develop some consistentcy. Evens looked great at CSU and did nothing offensively. Pat has to be more consistent. Showed very little tonight. Harney, Tree Q and Big Dog looked good. Pat needs to play with more intensity or Big Dog will be getting more minutes.

[GoZips]

My money is on Coach Dambrot and his coaching team. They see the Zips every day. They know the kids. They plan well

and scout the opponent meticulously. At shoot around prior to the game 90% of what ORU would throw at us was covered.

There were no surprises. ORU is a well coached team. Akron has slightly better talent at most positions. It showed over forty

minutes. No one has blown out ORU. High quality teams fared just about the same as the Zips. Ten point wins closed at

game's end.

Detroit will present a new set of parameters. Should send the Zips to Hawai'i riding on a small winning streak. Can not look

past Oregon State. Iowa State awaits if the Zips take care of business. Good shot at WINNING the Diamond Head Classis.

Pray for Coach Peters.

oh, and, by all means, Go Zips ... !!!!

[MaxZIP]

That was the most un-entertaining game I've ever seen. Just from a basketball fan's perspective. Can't wait to come back Wednesday

I enjoyed watching and hearing Zipswin! call out the officials. Tree put on a show.

[skip-zip]

A few observations:

1) I knew it was going to be a long game when ORU hit the 7 foul mark with 12 minutes to go in the first half.

2) Reggie's back-to-back 3-pointers in the 2nd half were HUGE. And they were called plays. Up to that point, Tree and Quincy were carrying us offensively.

3) Interesting to see the front court of Kretzer/Harney/Treadwell when the game was on the line. Keith tends to go with who he can trust. He did mention that he wished he had given more minutes to Big Dog. But, it's becoming apparent to me that Pat is probably going to be sitting more, no matter which way he goes with this frontcourt as the season progresses.

4) And Carmelo can join Pat with more bench time, as far as I am concerned right now.

[Dave in Green]

The AAU comment sounds a lot like previous comments from some Zips fans that the team doesn't seem to run any plays but just runs around aimlessly freelancing. In reality, Coach Dambrot teaches the team dozens and dozens of plays during practice sessions, and the Zips shift back and forth from one to another depending on what the defense gives them. But it's always good when your opponents misinterpret and underestimate what's actually going on. If your opponents can't figure out what you're doing, they can't prepare for it.

@GoZips is exactly right about how ORU has performed against top teams. Wisconsin only beat them by 9 points, and ORU was only 4 points down with 3 minutes to play. Missouri State only beat them by 3 points. The Zips performed as well against ORU as teams with higher rankings and better reputations. With all their weaknesses and flaws that we're so familiar with, the Zips have a lot of talented, well-coached players who are starting to show signs of realizing their strengths and jelling as a team. They still have a long way to go to reach a consistently high level. But I saw some positive signs last night mixed in with the few obvious errant passes and occasional brain fades.

[skip-zip]

The AAU comment sounds a lot like previous comments from some Zips fans that the team doesn't seem to run any plays but just runs around aimlessly freelancing. In reality, Coach Dambrot teaches the team dozens and dozens of plays during practice sessions, and the Zips shift back and forth from one to another depending on what the defense gives them.

So that you don't mislead anyone, make sure you are making a distinction between a called played, and offensive rotations. I pointed out the 3-pointers by Reggie last night because they clearly appeared to be called plays.