Akron vs Western Illinois

[Dave in Green]

... Also, does anyone remember a Zips team that played so well together as a team? They're really playing some beautiful team basketball right now that's a joy to watch. ...

How about 20 assists on 24 field goals in this game! When you get assists on 83% of your shots made you are really moving the ball around well as a team. The 9 turnovers was also pretty good. Of the 9, 7 were by the two centers (Pat and Big Dog), who were being double- and triple-teamed every time they touched the ball. The rest of the team combined had only 2 turnovers. They're now averaging 13.5 assists and 11.8 turnovers per game, a reversal of last season's average of 11.4 assists and 13.1 turnovers per game.

[Quickzips]

Kwan has NBA potential. No doubt about it. 6'9", long, with good outside shooting and a nice mid-range game. If he continues to develop he will at least get a tryout at the next level.

Right now this teams biggest asset is its diversity. Unlike in years past where we were primarily reliant upon 1 or 2 good interior players and a whole bunch of 3 point shooters to space the floor, this years team can beat you in a variety of ways. Noah and Deji can break you down off the dribble or beat you with perimeter shooting. Jake and Reggie have to be accounted for on spot-up jumpers. Kwan has a nice mid-range game and can stretch a defense out to the 3 point line, Pat and Isaiah can make you pay out of the low post. Nyles and Antino are sort of X factor kind of guys who can do a lot of things as well. Almost all of these guys are solid passers as well. When you put it all together and add in some good ball movement (which we've had most of the year) you get a pretty darn lethal team.

There are going to be stumbles along the way. There always is with a team this young. What is encouraging is their early ability to learn from mistakes. I'm thinking particularly about the Pine-Bluff game where we turned the ball over early and often in the first half but we made the adjustments at halftime and came out and put a hurting on them in the second.

This team has the potential to be real special if they continue to work hard at it and grow as a group.

[skip-zip]

I think Kwan has improved but not sure he is destined for stardom. He needs to get stronger, rebound better

Not sure about this. For a guy who probably still has a guard's mentality, and still isn't spending much time under the basket, I will be more than happy if he can continue to pull down rebounds at a 4.5 per game pace.

Heck, we had a 7' Center a few years ago, who averaged about the same his sophomore year, and it was his 2nd year as a starter.

Getting 4 or 5 rebounds out of Kwan per game is just fine.

[Blue & Gold]

And I have to keep reminding myself the dude's only 19! Crazy.

[Ham]

As Big Dog improves his conditioning, I think his interior passing will add another punch we haven't seen much of yet.

[1981 grad]

Against decent competition:

Miami, 20 minutes 2 rebounds

Penn State 27 minutes 3 rebounds

S. Carolina 29 minutes 1 rebound

Kwan has a great deal of potential. However, he needs to get stronger, learn to box out better, and be more aggressive to be a better rebounder. Without Tree, we really will need him to be a better rebounder when we play better teams.

[Z.I.P.]

^{The team has been very inconsistent -- but clearly improving in regards to passing to the open man and getting assisted field goals. I noticed that a lot of games I've seen this year have had fewer assists than normal -- and one thing came to mind: this damned "new" hand-check rule. Not only has it created a lot more of a free throw shooting contest on the floor, but I believe it has turned the game into more of a one-on-one game. Ball-handlers without any contact allowed by defenders are much more likely to drive deeper and take the ball to the hoop sooner. Whether you like that or not is up to you (same question as "Do you like the NBA?"), but there's a clear change in the game.}

^{Next question: What's wrong with the font size today? The default font is so tiny you can't read it, so I had to increase to 24.}

[Hilltopper]

^{The team has been very inconsistent -- but clearly improving in regards to passing to the open man and getting assisted field goals. I noticed that a lot of games I've seen this year have had fewer assists than normal -- and one thing came to mind: this damned "new" hand-check rule. Not only has it created a lot more of a free throw shooting contest on the floor, but I believe it has turned the game into more of a one-on-one game. Ball-handlers without any contact allowed by defenders are much more likely to drive deeper and take the ball to the hoop sooner. Whether you like that or not is up to you (same question as "Do you like the NBA?"), but there's a clear change in the game.}

^{Next question: What's wrong with the font size today? The default font is so tiny you can't read it, so I had to increase to 24.}

The problem is on your end. Check your monitor zoom %.

[zen]

hold down the CTRL key and scroll your mouse

[Z.I.P.]

The problem is on your end. Check your monitor zoom %.

LOL. Yes, my monitor zoom WAS set on 100%, but it still showed the type for the entire site as 8 rather than the apparent default 14 (see Hilltopper's font above). It is fine now, so not sure what went wrong yesterday.