Zips @ North Dakota State

[Dave in Green]

Like Middle Tennessee, North Dakota State is a solid program in a major rebuilding season. While NDSU won the Summit League championship last season, this season a poll of coaches, SIDs and media has projected the Bison to finish 5th in their conference. They graduated star players Taylor Braun and Marshall Bjorklund, their 2 leading scorers, as well as the team's 3rd leading scorer and 3 subs who played in every game. So they obviously lost a lot of talent and are in serious rebuilding mode. That didn't stop MTSU from upsetting the Zips, and NDSU could do the same if the Zips don't perform better than they did Saturday.

[The Hip Zip]

We certainly could lose again but we shouldn't. I believe that a very, very important part of the Zips offensive scheme require some consistent production from our wings and right now we aren't getting it. If we could get about 15 ppg or better combined from Reggie and Jake it would take a lot of pressure off of our guards and Pat. 35% shooting from the floor from your wings just does not quite cut the mustard. It seems that it is few and far between games when Reg and Jake are both on. On those occasions when that does happen our offense looks great.

Just my take.......

[GJGood]

NDSU also had a head coaching change. I admitedly don't know much about them this year but they could be learning a whole new system compared to seasons past.

This is Akron's final return game from the BracketBusters series. I really miss that event. I always made the trip to Akron to see the home games for BracketBusters. I just liked seeing the variety of opponents at our level that it let us go up against. I hope in some way shape or form that some type of event like this comes back into the fold.

[Dr Z]

I admitedly don't know much about them this year but they could be learning a whole new system compared to seasons past.

True, some coaches make it pretty easy on their players by letting them put the little round ball through the hole. Some coaches try to prove how smart they are and confuse their team with a bunch of multiple offenses. Let's hope Richman confuses his team with a real complex system.

David Richman was named the 23rd head men's basketball coach in North Dakota State University history on April 8, 2014. Richman, 36, was a Bison assistant coach for two seasons before being elevated to associate head coach under Saul Phillips for the 2007-08 season. Saul is now with the Bobcats.

In the "experience" category, KD gets the check mark.

☐ Richman___vs___☑ Dambrot

In the efficient shaving category, Richman fills the square.

☑ Richman___vs___ ☐Dambrot

The Zips are underdogs to a first year 36 year old coach!?!? Ouch.

[Captain Kangaroo]

We certainly could lose again but we shouldn't. I believe that a very, very important part of the Zips offensive scheme require some consistent production from our wings and right now we aren't getting it. If we could get about 15 ppg or better combined from Reggie and Jake it would take a lot of pressure off of our guards and Pat. 35% shooting from the floor from your wings just does not quite cut the mustard. It seems that it is few and far between games when Reg and Jake are both on. On those occasions when that does happen our offense looks great.

Just my take.......

1.) Great to see a Hip Zip post. Hope all is well with you!

2.) If you had to pick a Zip to hit a 3-pointer with 2 seconds left in the game, who would you pick:

a.) Robotham

b.) Cheatham

c.) Jackson

d.) Evans

e.) McAdams

f.) Kretzer

I don't think McAdams or Kretzer would be in my top four?

Hope that changes.

[skip-zip]

1.) Great to see a Hip Zip post. Hope all is well with you!

2.) If you had to pick a Zip to hit a 3-pointer with 2 seconds left in the game, who would you pick:

a.) Robotham

b.) Cheatham

c.) Jackson

d.) Evans

e.) McAdams

f.) Kretzer

I don't think McAdams or Kretzer would be in my top four?

Hope that changes.

I'll say this much. If I needed about 5 long shots in a relatively short period of time, I think I'd go with Kretzer. If I needed one when it counted, no way. I still have visions of what he did in that big 2nd half comeback two years ago at OU.

But, I still want to believe that Reggie is the "best" long range shooter on the team.

And since you brought it up, I'll assume I am not the only one who is very disappointed with the offensive output from both Kretzer and McAdams this season, so far. I felt that these two guys would automatically pick up the scoring slack with Tree gone.

Right now, with 2 seconds left, go with Cheatham. He's shooting 41% on 39 attempts. That's a great percentage with a relatively large sampling. Could that maybe explain why he was selected to came off of a screen on a set play for a 3 after a timeout with about a minute to go last Saturday?

[Dave in Green]

The Bison play a short bench with 6 players averaging more than 25 minutes per game, a 7th averaging 19 mpg and no one else averaging more than 5 minutes. Lawrence Alexander, a 6-3 senior guard, is by far their leading performer. He averages 17 points per game followed by 6-4 junior Kory Brown and 6-6 freshman AJ Jacobson both at 10 ppg. Their primary 7 players average from 3.4 to 5.3 rebounds per game.

Alexander is the only senior on the team along with 3 juniors, 3 sophomores and 7 freshmen (1 redshirt), so half of the roster consists of freshmen. Of the 7 who play most of the minutes, there's 1 senior, 2 juniors, 2 sophomores and 2 freshmen. Of those 7, the tallest is 6-8 followed by a pair of 6-6 players and the shortest is 6-3. There are no centers on the roster, and only 2 pure forwards play significant minutes. The other 5 are all listed as either G or G/F. But for a relatively small team they have a great defensive rebounding percentage of 77.4%, 7th best in the country. The Zips will have to fight hard for offensive rebounds.

[Dave in Green]

It turns out that one of the players tied for 2nd leading scorer, AJ Jacobson, will not be able to play tonight. That leaves the Bison with only 6 players in their regular rotation and a few players who've averaged less than 5 minutes per game. Source.

[akronzips71]

They keep showing a label on screen on the feed of KD. But it is NOT KD, some guy with a crewcut (sorry, I don't know all the coaches).

Did KD make the trip?

[akronzips71]

This is hard to watch. And I do NOT mean the stream. Yikes.

[ZachTheZip]

Maybe we should try scoring.

[Dave in Green]

8-28 vs. 8-27 from the field, 1-6 vs. 2-9 from the free throw line and a 22-19 score at the half?

How can you do anything but laugh, shake your head and say this may be a candidate for worst half of the year by two teams.

[zipsrule]

The good part is that we are only down 3 for as bad as we have played.

[Dave in Green]

I read the wrong stat line. NDSU was 2-9 on 3s, not from the free throw line.

[Zipgrad01]

We have zero inside presence on offense. We have basically turned into a jump shooting team. That better change or else we will never have any consistency at all.

[Zipgrad01]

Why is big dog playing so much? He is awful. He is so slow that it is painful to watch. He can't jump, he can't move. He is not a d1 basketball player. Get him out!!

[1981 grad]

KD cannot play big dog and Pat at the same time. Pat needs space to work his shot and Big Dog is taking up that space. Glad to see KD sub right after Pat lost the ball.

[gozips19]

S-O-F-T

[Dave in Green]

Whatever mojo the Zips showed in the immediate aftermath of Tree's departure is officially dead. I give Kwan a lot of credit for picking up a lot of the rebounding loss. But Tree's toughness may be irreplaceable.

[Dave in Green]

17-57 from the field (29.8%)

5-19 3s (26.3%)

7-13 free throws (53.8%)

[Sportsjunkie330]

Ouch.

[1981 grad]

It is difficult to win on the road and we are not a very experienced team. The announcers thought this was a big upset but after watching Saturdays game I did not expect to win tonight. I only saw the second half but that was enough.

Big Dog keeps missing easy layups at the end really hurt. One time he used his body to get position on the smaller defender and scored. He should have been doing that all night. Pat had his worst game. Ibi had some nice drives at the end of the game. We need him to drive to the basket the entire game. He is our most athletic player. It was interesting that we made our comeback without Kwan or Pat in the lineup. We also lost at the end without Pat or Kwan.

Rebounding at the end of the game was another problem. You cannot let the other team rebound a missed foul shot with less than 2 minutes remaining. This team needs to get better and attack the basket and rebound or it may be a very long season.

[akronzips71]

We were horrible on the boards. The loss of Tree really shows.

[Dr Z]

Obviously a 36 year old coach is the way to go. I would imagine he could get 30+ wins in the MAC. Embarrassing.

[zipinnc]

What could we expect in MAC play with those stats? BAD game!!!!