johnnyzip84 Posted February 15, 2014 Report Share Posted February 15, 2014 I realize 2013-2014 has been a challenge for numerous reasons, but it's a little strange to not even have a game thread started less than 6 hours from tip-off.Zips are 11 point favorites. The improved Huskies have won 4 of 5.I look for Tree to get the NIU bigs in foul trouble, allowing Big Dog to prosper. Might be closer than 11, but I like our chances. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zipmeister Posted February 15, 2014 Report Share Posted February 15, 2014 Zips by 14. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balsy Posted February 15, 2014 Report Share Posted February 15, 2014 I'll be at the game! I expect to see a rebound from the recent loss. I will be interested to see who gets more playing time in lieu of Reggie and Harney being out. Who shows leadership potential for next season?As always, this season will boil down to what happens in Cleveland, need I remind everyone that in 2009 we were 23-12 and went on to the NCAAT...in 2011 we were 23-12 and went to the NCAAT. All those years in-between we still fought our way to the MAC C game and narrowly won it. We are having a good season, though not ideal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staton14 Posted February 15, 2014 Report Share Posted February 15, 2014 We're on our way to another 20+ win season, so that's certainly nothing to be upset about. Also, still a great chance to get to the NCAA Tournament. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZachTheZip Posted February 15, 2014 Report Share Posted February 15, 2014 The rotation will be interesting. Whatever it is, we better have it figured out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staton14 Posted February 15, 2014 Report Share Posted February 15, 2014 Toledo lost to Eastern Michigan. Zips can move back into a tie for 1st place with a win tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staton14 Posted February 15, 2014 Report Share Posted February 15, 2014 Buffalo and Ohio tied at the final media timeout. An Ohio win (and Akron win tonight) would move the Zips back ahead of Buffalo. Go OU???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staton14 Posted February 15, 2014 Report Share Posted February 15, 2014 Ohio wins 73-70. Good results, so far today, for the Zips. A Miami win over WMU would top it off, but that isn't likely to happen. Let's make sure we take care of business tonight against NIU!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staton14 Posted February 15, 2014 Report Share Posted February 15, 2014 If WMU wins this afternoon against Miami, they would move into 1st place via tie-breaker. Toledo would be 2nd, Zips 3rd (with a win against NIU). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomzip Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 I realize 2013-2014 has been a challenge for numerous reasons, but it's a little strange to not even have a game thread started less than 6 hours from tip-off.Zips are 11 point favorites. The improved Huskies have won 4 of 5.I look for Tree to get the NIU bigs in foul trouble, allowing Big Dog to prosper. Might be closer than 11, but I like our chances.Well I have seen my excitement tempered so much this year, this team being so dysfunctional is a turn off for me. I still watch/listen to the games, but a loss doesn't drive me into depression as in years past, not getting my hopes up at all for the ending to the year. With that being said, that could be the type of ending to a season that I haven't experienced, a NCAA win. If they don't make it there, hoping next year will be the year as they will come together imo. I hope we see Tree and Harney next year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZachTheZip Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 It was good to see the guards/wings drive to the hoop; they just need to finish their layups. Glad to see Deji back, looked rusty but should be better next game. Pat looked better, though he has a strange ability to get fouls called on him just by being in the general vicinity of an opposing player. We won despite horrible shooting percentages from the FT line and especially the 3-point line. Kwan looks tired, and missed absolutely everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave in Green Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 I see there's not a lot of interest here in this game. I think we're all suffering a hangover from last season's 19-game winning streak. This season's team is more up and down. They were up just enough tonight to beat a so-so NIU team. Nothing to get too excited about other than the fact that EMU beating Toledo and OU beating Buffalo creates a 3-way tie at the top between the Zips, Toledo and WMU at 9-3. This is a nostalgia trip to the way it was in previous years when the Zips weren't dominant but were just good enough to get a good MAC tournament seeding, earn a trip to the championship game and have a fair shot at earning an NCAA tournament bid. I'm still not sure how well the season will end for this team. But I like watching college basketball and winning is better than losing, so tonight was good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 After the first 5 minutes, I actually enjoyed the game. Our guards looked good with Evens and Bentacourt driving to the basket and getting some layups. Evens had 9 points and made some clutch foul shots. By driving to the basket he got fouled. Good things happen if you just don't stand at the 3 line and shoot three shot baskets. Bentacourt also had some really nice feeds.I thought Cheatum played well although he did not score. He had some rebounds and played good defense. He needs to learn to drive to the basket.KD was critical of Q but I thought he had a good game. The one thing we did well during this game was getting out on the fast break. Q had some great breakouts especially during the second half. I thought we fought hard for some rebounds. Tree obviously was amazing and was 7 of 9 from the line. However, we he gets the ball almost everyone on Northern Illinois had their eyes on him. I wish our guards would move without the ball and get some easy jump shots. You do not need to shoot a 3 every time. The funniest part of the game was when Q had a fast break and threw Tree an a lob pass for a dunk. The only problem was that it was above the backboard. Tree looked at Q like he was crazy if he thought he could slam home that pass. It looked like these guys were having fun even when Q made a mistake.Looking forward to Wed game in Buffalo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quickzips Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 Zips found a way to beat a below average (and to be fair below average is a massive improvement over the NIU teams of the past few years) opponent at home under far less than ideal circumstances. You look at the rotation last night and there were really only 3 guys (Tree, Q and Kretzer) who have proven that they can play at this level. The rest were either unproven freshman who have shown some ability but need more polish (Johnson and Cheatham) or guys who have been varying levels of disappointing to this point in their careers (Betancourt, Evans, Ibitayo and Forsythe). Right now we are basically just on life support trying to get through the next couple of weeks until Reggie and Nick get back and hoping we aren't too far down in the standings at that point.Tree was an absolute beast last night. Even more so than usual. Every time we needed him he put the team on his back. We are going to need that to continue to have any chance at winning games.Q to a large degree continued his recent disappearing act. It is pretty clear (at least to me) that the extended minutes at PG are holding him back from playing his overall floor game that he excels at so much. The two early fouls didn't help anything either.I thought the PG's did a fairly decent job last night. Melo had some early turnoveritis, but came back and played a reasonably good second half. Evans had probably his best game in a long time. For once he wasn't settling on just standing around the 3 point line. He actually started to take his man off the dribble and it seemed to relax him to a degree.The keys for the Zips over the next two-three weeks:1) Tree must continue to beast at a level we haven't seen from him before2) Q has to come back into form3) They have to limit the points off turnovers (either by limiting the turnovers, which is unlikely, or getting back good in transition)4) Someone outside of Tree and Q has to step up each night to provide a reliable third scoring option (last night it developed into Evans in the second half)5) Defense, defense, defense Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 I think it's obvious now that the personality of this team is that they play well at times, but rarely good enough to put a MAC team away. Yet, in the past, we were always good enough to put average MAC teams away, especially at home. Now, I know a few people will say that they show an ability to find a way to win at the end of a game. But, all that shows is that you are giving opponents a chance to beat you at the end. See Ken+ State and WMU for examples. And we're lucky to have beaten EMU at home and BG on the road in the last week or so. And it's only going to get tougher with 2 guys out of the lineup. But I will keep saying this:This schedule this year ABSOLUTELY favors us. We get 3 games at home to close out the season in that last week. If we remain tied for 1st at that point, will any other team in the MAC be in such a great position to win 3 in a row to capture the title? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balsy Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 My friend and I went to the game last night and we're both recent grad alumni. The one comment we both had to each other was how absolutely pathetic the student body is being. Seriously? We had an attendance of 3642? And from what I noticed, most in the student section were recent alumni, with a few current students sprinkled in. I don't know how we'll ever get support for a new arena if we can't get students (who get into the games for free) to the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GP1 Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 We had an attendance of 3642? I have a different take on this. Is Akron such an exciting place to live now that attending a Zips basketball game falls far down the list of things to do? My guess is it isn't. I'm more upset with the lack of community of support for the BB team. They may not be as good as in the past, but they are still pretty good and entertaining. There is a lot of value in the purchase of a ticket. Seriously, I just don't understand it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 About last night's attendance.....Did anyone notice the dozen or so students behind the basket by the NIU bench? I swear I've seen more people in that area during some ladies games. I turned to my wife and said, "Are you sure school is in session right now?".Something needs to be done about this asap. It's reached a new low. No chants while the visiting team is being introduced? The small pep band as the only vocal, organized floor-level cheering section? As we are in the stretch run of a title race, ties for first place?Forget the "Official Rowdies Membership" requirement. We MUST have students in those seats. It's past pathetic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balsy Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 @skip-zip that's exactly what I'm saying. I often went to the floor seats, but now that I graduated I'm not allowed too. However that's the problem I was trying to point out. The students on campus are at an all time low when it comes to being interested, and I just don't get it. I'll throw it back to the culture conversation, how on earth to we fix the culture in this place!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 The administration is on top of the issue. In the game against Buffalo they are having a Proenza bobblelhead night. I am sure that will pack the students into the rafters. I can't wait!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staton14 Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 About last night's attendance.....Did anyone notice the dozen or so students behind the basket by the NIU bench? I swear I've seen more people in that area during some ladies games. I turned to my wife and said, "Are you sure school is in session right now?".Something needs to be done about this asap. It's reached a new low. No chants while the visiting team is being introduced? The small pep band as the only vocal, organized floor-level cheering section? As we are in the stretch run of a title race, ties for first place?Forget the "Official Rowdies Membership" requirement. We MUST have students in those seats. It's past pathetic. There is no "Official Rowdies" requirement anymore. I was down there in the floor seats last night and it was pretty sad. I, once again blame the Rowdies leaders. They aren't doing anything more than sending e-mails reminding students when there is a game. Need more interaction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valpo Zip Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 I said this before and as much as it hurts, I will say it again:When you spread the mentality that only three games at the Q matter, people will only attend the 3 games at the Q. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balsy Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 Staton14 +1. Are you still a student? Perhaps you could rally some others and turn it around without the worthless AkRowdie leadership. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staton14 Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 Staton14 +1. Are you still a student? Perhaps you could rally some others and turn it around without the worthless AkRowdie leadership.I am still a student. I've tried to get friends to come in the past and they weren't interested. Its usually just me and my brother. We go to every game that's not during winter break, because we are from Youngstown and go home for break. Although we made the drive for two games during break as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZachTheZip Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 Wanna know a secret? This weekend is traditionally the first weekend since winter break where most students go home, because of President's Day.Not an excuse, since there wasn't really any promotions happening for the game. The Rowdies twitter account was completely silent leading up to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.