Diamond Head Classic - South Carolina

[zippy5]

KD got outcoached this weekend. Halftime adjustments were non existent.. Other teams adjusted and dominated the second half.

[Dave in Green]

Right. No one wants the Zips to always have to fall back on "3 days at the Q." But after a certain number of losses each season, reasonable people acknowledge the reality that no other options are left for that season. That's the reality of where we are right now this season. It's absurd for anyone to insinuate that acknowledging reality is the same as being satisfied with reality.

[bigzipguy]

Seems like year after year the 1 bid mentality becomes a self -fulfilling event.

[phil]

I only saw the last 7 minutes so I really cannot comment on the game. However, I heard one of the sportcasters state that the Zips need to

1. Have a guard dribble penetrate to create scoring opportunites

2 Have players move without the ball and use backcuts to get to the basket.

I always try to stay positive because I believe this is Keith's most talented team. The reason they are not winning is they are playing a better out of conference schedule with lots of travel. We are not playing Detroit, Bethume Cookman or Cleveland State at or near home. We are playing in a major tournament thousands of miles away against major conference schools.

They played 3 teams in 5 days from major conferences in hAWAII. When have we done that before? Never. Because we did not have the talent this team has. We stayed with the last 2 teams in the first half. However, we do not have the talent to win these games unless every player, especially role players bring their "A" game against better competition.

We are playing against better competition and these teams will exploit our weakness. We get the ball into Tree, he is immediately double teamed. He passes the ball to Kretzer who misses a 3 or passes the ball again. If they double Tree, we have to hurt them with a 3 ball or score. If not, they keep doubling Tree and we lose. Tonight, we were down by 5 and back to back turnovers by Evens and Q. Q missed a 3 pointer with 4 minutes left from 5 feet behind the line and it did not come close to the rim. Foul shooting?

Evens has to play well- did not happen

We need to have Reggie and Kretzer do more than stand in the corner and shoot 3s.. Or if they are going to do that, they need to drill the ball. These teams are too quick, the charge out at Kretzer or McAdams and change his shot or he does not shoot. They needs to fake the shot and drive to the basket. The role players have to come up big against good competition.

Hopefully, this experience will help us during the MAC season and if we make it to a tournament.

Do not give up on this team. These are growing pains against good competition. Bring the "A" game or find somebody who is will to bring it.

[RowdyZip]

Seems like year after year the 1 bid mentality becomes a self -fulfilling event.

What does that even mean? Some fans on this board were hoping for the Zips to lose the tournament and a shot at an at-large? I've got to say, leaving Hawaii 8-2 with wins over Oregon State, Iowa State and Boise would've given the Zips resumé the clout they need come March, assuming a strong MAC run per usual. I'm as disgusted with those last two performances as the next guy. It's nice to have had a shot, like we will next yr in Charleston.

[bigzipguy]

yes, winning the tournament would have given them a great shot at an atlarge. My point is, many years they have the attitude that they cannot get an at-large bid no matter who they beat

[bigzipguy]

And that attitude seems to filter down from KD.

[skip-zip]

We are playing in a major tournament thousands of miles away against major conference schools.

Neutral court with hardly anyone in the stands? Can't get a better opportunity than that to beat these teams. Those teams were all thousands of miles from home also. And none of them are coming to Akron. So, what situation would have been better?

And two of those three teams were in the bottom level of their conference.

[phil]

Neutral court with hardly anyone in the stands? Can't get a better opportunity than that to beat these teams. Those teams were all thousands of miles from home also. And none of them are coming to Akron. So, what situation would have been better?

And two of those three teams were in the bottom level of their conference.

I agree. But the bottom level teams in a major is still better than our usual schedule. We beat one team and stayed with a ranked team for a half, The last 2 teams exposed our weaknesses. Good teams make you realize that you are not as good as you think you are. That is a good lesson for this team. We may have talent, but there is a lot of talented teams. The trip to Detroit last year and the game on Monday makes me realize that this team must play near perfect ball to win. Did not happen.

[odhgibo]

I agree. But the bottom level teams in a major is still better than our usual schedule. We beat one team and stayed with a ranked team for a half, The last 2 teams exposed our weaknesses. Good teams make you realize that you are not as good as you think you are. That is a good lesson for this team. We may have talent, but there is a lot of talented teams. The trip to Detroit last year and the game on Monday makes me realize that this team must play near perfect ball to win. Did not happen.

This team will be fine by March, but they are not fully ready for prime time yet. Still a work in progress.

They need to learn to stop dribble penetration (staying in front do the ball handler would be a good start) and to take better care of the ball.

I'm not convinced the offensive scheme is a good match to the talent, although I suspect it will look a lot better against the lesser level talent in most of the MAC.

[Balsy]

[GP1]

This team will be fine by March, but they are not fully ready for prime time yet. Still a work in progress.

I agree. If we had only built them a new arena, this group of players would be playing a lot better.

[GP1]

But the bottom level teams in a major is still better than our usual schedule.

Respectfully disagree. College basketball is much different than college football. The bottom feeders in "BCS" conferences are not in the same league as high level mid major teams. SC is a horrible college basketball team. Akron considers itself a high level mid major and we should be disgusted with the performance against SC yesterday.

Akron played a completely emotionless and heartless games over the last two. Little difference between the first half and second half. In the first half of both ISU and SC, the Zips scored 31 points. In the second half against ISU and SC, the scored 29 and 28 points respectively. There is no "close" in this team. They operate like robots going trough the motions and it needs to stop.

The players need to perform better and the coach needs to coach better. KD isn't setting the team up for success right now by getting guys in the game and running plays that will make them successful. However, when the players have a collective case of Cantplayharditis, it makes the coaching part a lot more difficult. For those of you who are unaware of the medical condition called Cantplayharditis, it initially presents itself with a soreness in the throat causing the gag reflex to be activated.

For those of you who think all national exposure is great for a program, you are about to get more on Saturday, ESPNU. It could be our third nationally televised game in seven day. Great exposure, right? I would bet a lot of people were watching yesterday as it was one of only two basketball games televised in North America. If we lay an egg again on Saturday, all of North America will have gotten to see the Zips lose three games in a row and two against a horrible team. Am I supposed to love that exposure? I have tickets for the game Saturday. They sure as Hell had better play better than that disaster we saw yesterday.

[jhl385]

Seems like Kretzer isn't fully recovered from back surgery as he moves slowly and can't jump much. Maybe he would have been better off taking more time for recovery - like a year off. Poor losses in their last two games are sure to have repercussions at tourney decision time but a strong MAC season will go a long way towards making us all feel better. KD will get this team headed in the right direction soon. Lots of team chemistry just isn't there yet. By mid-season hopefully some of these first year players will be able to contribute. Trying to replace an entire backcourt isn't easy. Lets see how they respond this Sat.

[Balsy]

They sure as Hell had better play better than that disaster we saw yesterday.

100% agree with you. I was completely and utterly embarrassed. On Christmas I asked my extended family if we could watch the Akron basketball game together (because its not usually televised and we all like sports). Out of 10 of us, this was the first Akron basketball game for 7 of them. And I'm embarrassed I even suggested it to my family, because they will not forget watching Akron completely go to sleep and lose a winnable game. Here I was talking up all the good points of Akron basketball to only be made to eat my words.

Instead of possibly going into conference play with a 10-3 record and a 4 game winning streak, we're now starring at possibly worse than 9-4, which is what we had last year. I still believe overall this team is better than last year, but we seem to lack leadership. I see a bunch of Lieutenants out there, no generals, or even captains. There will be no Top 25 ranking for us, unless we sweep the MAC. And even that is unlikely.

[Derrt]

What I learned from this Hawaii weekend:

The basketball IQ on this team low

This team can not run a press to save their lives

Q would rather pass the ball on open lay ups off dribble penetration than actually laying the ball up

Kretzer is going to shoot the 3, damn 2 pointers

Our big men can not gaurd verstile guys

Deji is dope

McAdams needs more minutes, but needs to wake up on defense

Carmelo was benched

Tree is the new point forward

Harney plays when he wants to

Oh Tree and Harney will look to pass to each other oppose to making the SMART play. (goes back to IQ)

And we'll probably be in the NIT again.

5000

[GP1]

What I learned from this Hawaii weekend:

The basketball IQ on this team low

This team can not run a press to save their lives

Q would rather pass the ball on open lay ups off dribble penetration than actually laying the ball up

Kretzer is going to shoot the 3, damn 2 pointers

Our big men can not gaurd verstile guys

Deji is dope

McAdams needs more minutes, but needs to wake up on defense

Carmelo was benched

Tree is the new point forward

Harney plays when he wants to

Oh Tree and Harney will look to pass to each other oppose to making the SMART play. (goes back to IQ)

And we'll probably be in the NIT again.

5000

You could set this post to "The 12 Days of Christmas".

[Captain Kangaroo]

What disgusting, loser, anti-Zips fans wrote this (below). This stuff from so-called "fans" makes me angry!!

I just thought our effort wasn't any good. We just died physically again, quit guarding and that led to the issues. We let offense dictate defense again. We've just got character issues that we haven't been able to overcome when things go badly for us.

[Derrt]

You could set this post to "The 12 Days of Christmas".

[GP1]

What disgusting, loser, anti-Zips fans wrote this (below).

Don't tease us like a stripper with tassel accentuated pasties over her nipples. Who was it?

[Captain Kangaroo]

Don't tease us like a stripper with tassel accentuated pasties over her nipples. Who was it?

Keith Dambrot

So for every person here who said the Zips quit in the second half, said the Zips are lacking character, that the Zips are not mentally tough...give yourself an extra glass of egg nog. You saw the same thing as our Coach.

[UAZip0510]

Am I the only one not down and out on this team? Last night's game was the only one where I thought they had no business losing.

It's important to remember that our point guard tandem came into this season with very little experience. Aside from the post-Abreu games, Betancourt was playing around 10 minutes or less per game. Evans transferred from a community college. Did anyone expect either of them to step up and lead this team successfully right out of the gate?

Nyles has shown flashes of turning the corner despite an awful performance last night. Betancourt...well...I think we better hope Nyles is the answer.

This team just wasn't good enough to be a top team for an entire season. Last year's team was, but unfortunately losing Diggs kind of blew that up.

My biggest worry is the body language - even when last night's game was close, I saw South Carolina's players bouncing all over, the players jumping up off of the bench and clapping, and more energy altogether. The Zips lost to Iowa State because Iowa State is a better tam. They lost to South Carolina because they didn't come to play.

Let's hope that loss was a wake-up call, they stomp SC on Saturday, and finish OOC play strong. Who knows, they may still get their shot at beating a Top 25 team at home on January 18th.

[Captain Kangaroo]

What I learned from this Hawaii weekend:

The basketball IQ on this team low

This team can not run a press to save their lives

Q would rather pass the ball on open lay ups off dribble penetration than actually laying the ball up

Kretzer is going to shoot the 3, damn 2 pointers

Our big men can not gaurd verstile guys

Deji is dope

McAdams needs more minutes, but needs to wake up on defense

Carmelo was benched

Tree is the new point forward

Harney plays when he wants to

Oh Tree and Harney will look to pass to each other oppose to making the SMART play. (goes back to IQ)

And we'll probably be in the NIT again.

5000

I think that pretty much sums it up.

I give Ibitayo credit for never giving up. He always plays hard. That can't be said for some of his counterparts.

Kretzer's shooting form looks bad. He needs to watch himself on tape. His hands/arms are flailing to the side on his release. It doesn't look like the Kretzer I have seen in the past.

Harney is frustrating. Does he like playing basketball? I wonder.

When Tree walks up the court in the second half, is he

A.) Tired

B.) Pissed at his teammates

c.) Pouting

I hate when I see Tree pack it in, because once he's given up, it gets really ugly, really fast.

When we had lesser talent, the Dials, Middleton, Roberts, etc. era, we were a better team. That crew would have won at least 2 games in Hawai'i. This group has great talent, but collectively doesn't play to it's potential.

How many times does that sports psychologist need to intervene with this team?

[Dave in Green]

A lot of really good observations from a number of people here. I had questioned the Zips' physical energy and endurance while others have pointed out the mental aspects that can affect the physical posture. It may be a combination in that some of the players do not put in the work required to maintain high physical energy throughout a game and some don't have the mental and emotional toughness to buckle down and give more effort when things are starting to go wrong.

Deji is a great example of a high energy athlete who never quits, but who lacks the skill and finesse of his teammates. I've never seen him sulk or back down on the court. He's always giving it his best effort, especially on defense, even when the game is slipping away. Deji is earning more playing time with his positive energy, and more playing time is slowly improving his skills and finesse. If the rest of the Zips players performed at Deji's energy level, we would not be having this discussion about the second half collapse against the Gamecocks.

Somewhere in the total package some things have broken down between last season and this season. The Zips lost their defensive anchor (Zeke), their offensive leader (Alex) and two other key players (Brian and Chauncey). Offsetting that was the return after a year off of the MAC 6th Man of the Year (Q), the arrival of a juco transfer who was originally expected to learn the Zips system as a backup to Alex (Nyles) and adding to the mix two talented but raw freshmen (Big Dog and Kwan). It was reasonable to expect that this major turnover would result in early-season problems. But I didn't expect to see the team chemistry so far off at this point. It will be interesting to see how Coach Dambrot handles this and turns things around before "3 days at the Q" starts looking shaky.

[skip-zip]

Keith Dambrot

So for every person here who said the Zips quit in the second half, said the Zips are lacking character, that the Zips are not mentally tough...give yourself an extra glass of egg nog. You saw the same thing as our Coach.

Looking back, I don't think too many people on this board seemed too concerned when I harped and harped about how we played so lazy for most of the Bethune-Cookman game, including nearly the entire 2nd half. Even when I pointed out how disgusted Keith looked.

There is a method to his madness. Don't ever forget that.