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Tree was a man child again. Liked what I saw from Big Dog. Jake was on fire. Loved the ball movement against the zone. Can they do that against a tough man to man D remains to be seen. I've been one of Melo's biggest detractors so far so I have to give him credit. Best game in a Zips uniform. Hoping KD can settle in on a rotation sooner rather than later. Liked what I saw out of this starting five for much of the game.

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To me, this game shows what the Zips are capable of doing when getting even mediocre PG play.

Betancourt had a serviceable game, and the Zips were dominant against a solid team, on the road.

Kudos to KD for riding his horses, and straying from his script.

I miss Zeke whipping Riley's butt. Riley still sucks.

Can't wait to see if Betancourt can back up this performance.

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Several good insights from GT:

“We occupied them on the low box and they’re not used to having to cover down-and-in and that allowed [Kretzer] to get open,” UA coach Keith Dambrot said.

Dambrot said that Kretzer is just now getting back in gear after not practicing much during the summer because of back issues.

“He missed two months out of the year, so he’s just now getting himself into game shape,” Dambrot said. “We think he’s a tough kid. He can shoot the ball. He has good understanding of the game. He plays hard defensively.”

The Eagles cut the lead to 48-41 before the Zips settled back down. Treadwell, Kretzer and Nick Harney led the Zips on an 8-0 run to make things more comfortable.

“I was pleased with that,” Dambrot said. “I thought our old teams used to do that. I didn’t know if this team had it in them yet.”

And one stat I missed last night that shows how much effort they were putting into defense: The Zips had 14 blocked shots, including 5 by Tree and 4 by Q.

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I would have thought going against that EMU zone would have meant more time on the floor and more production for Kretzer and McAdams. It certainly worked out that way for Jake, but what is going on with Reggie? Did he just see less time because Jake was playing so well or is it that he is ill or in KD's doghouse a little right now?

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I would have thought going against that EMU zone would have meant more time on the floor and more production for Kretzer and McAdams. It certainly worked out that way for Jake, but what is going on with Reggie? Did he just see less time because Jake was playing so well or is it that he is ill or in KD's doghouse a little right now?

I do not think Reggie played poorly but that Jake was in the zone and having a career night. I think Reggie has picked up his game and I was surprised that he only played 10 minutes. Many on this board have complained that KD will take a player out when he is hot. Here is a case where he kept the players in that were playing well.

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Jake and Reggie are similar players who play similar roles. It's not that unusual to play one more than the other depending on who has the hot hand. A lot of fans here have been asking for Coach Dambrot to leave players in the game longer when they're hot, and that's what happened last night. Jake was so hot that he took some of Reggie's minutes. I'm pretty sure in the future that we'll see Reggie get long minutes if he's shooting lights out.

By the way, I personally witnessed Hilltopper giving Jake some great shooting advice Monday when we were at Zeke's D-League game in Canton. After first joking with him that he should take a couple of more steps further back before shooting his treys, Hilltopper's final words to Jake were "Just keep shooting."

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To me, this game shows what the Zips are capable of doing when getting even mediocre PG play.

Betancourt had a serviceable game, and the Zips were dominant against a solid team, on the road.

Kudos to KD for riding his horses, and straying from his script.

I miss Zeke whipping Riley's butt. Riley still sucks.

Can't wait to see if Betancourt can back up this performance.

I'll bet he can; just you wait and see.

On a related note, when is the next time we play a team that tends to play zone D?

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I'll bet he can; just you wait and see.

On a related note, when is the next time we play a team that tends to play zone D?

In two weeks when we play EMU again. :)

By the way, the report of the West arising from the dead may be a little premature (with the exception of Toldeo, who is 2-0 and has given Buffalo and Akron their only losses). The East is currently 13-4 against the West (the only other West wins over the East are WMU against Miami and EMU against BGSU). Can't State has their only two wins against the West. And looking at the Zips upcoming schedule it looks like the scariest game until Feb 19th (@Buffalo) right now is @BGSU. Never would have guessed that - BGSU knocks off @WMU and @Ohio in consecutive games. Wow.

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But, that wouldn't explain Reggie's diminished role tonight. And Nyles would have played more than Carmelo if that was the case.

And Big Dog playing more than Pat?

This was a major shakeup, to say the least. It didn't end with just a different starting lineup.

In his post-game talk with Frenchie, KD basically said Nyles had 10 games to show what he could do and didn't get it done, so now it's Melo's turn again. He didn't use those exact words but that's basically what he said.

Of course, the other explanation might be hidden in the pre-game. When announcing the starting line-ups, Frenchie listed Rafael Betancourt as a starter.

"Reports of the Zips' demise have been greatly exaggerated."--Mark Twain

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In his post-game talk with Frenchie, KD basically said Nyles had 10 games to show what he could do and didn't get it done, so now it's Melo's turn again. He didn't use those exact words but that's basically what he said.

Of course, the other explanation might be hidden in the pre-game. When announcing the starting line-ups, Frenchie listed Rafael Betancourt as a starter.

"Reports of the Zips' demise have been greatly exaggerated."--Mark Twain

I was responding specifically to the statement that we had our best shooters in the game because they were playing a zone. And I was saying that with Betancourt in there, and no Reggie, that obviously wasn't the case.

I remember hearing Frenchy saying something like that. I thought he fumbled with his hometown, but I guess it was his name. :lol:

I did hear the statement about Nyles also.

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To me, this game shows what the Zips are capable of doing when getting even mediocre PG play.

Kudos to KD for riding his horses, and straying from his script.

It's amazing what a team can do when they just maximize their chances by playing the best players as much as possible.

This is a wonderfully talented team and should continue this course of action as much as possible.

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I thought KD did a good job of matching his lineup to take advantage of what the opponent gave him. KD started his most sure handed guys and his best three point shooter. To beat Eastern's zone you have to just keep passing the ball until you run them out of position. Bettencourt was effective because Eastern didn't pressure the ball. He was effective because all he had to do was keep quickly passing the ball around the perimeter until there was a hole to feed the post. Then post guy would either pass out to Kretzer for an open three if they collapsed or get a nice clean look if they didn't. After Kretzer hit all those threes to open the game it opened up the post even more. A great strategy against a 2-3 zone team. I would imagine that we will continue to see different lineups based on what our opponent dictates.

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