Jump to content

Western Michigan @ Akron


GJGood

Recommended Posts

Kudos to KD, the Zips Mens Basketball team, the UA Athletics Department, and our former soccer players and families who were able to attend. Great game and fun time for someone who has had football, basketball, and soccer season tickets. I hope Zips Mens Basketball is able to maintain the focus they showed last night throughout the grind of the MAC schedule.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good game by the Zips. Man does WM miss their big boy! I enjoyed watching the Zips on the web feed from the JAR. Yes, I just said that! Compliments to whomever fixed that problem!

Attendance seemed embarrasingly low for the MAC opener against last years champ.....guess Joe A. was prepping his shovel and broom, right?

Compliments to KD, staff and players - excellent effort and start to the MAC play.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One thing that really caught my attention was the continuous subbing. The Zips started subbing players less than 3 minutes into the game, and it seemed as if there was at least 1 sub made every minute or so throughout the game. I can't recall ever seeing such rapid player rotation. Then again, Coach Dambrot is asking his players to go all out on defense, and that can be tiring. As long as you have 10 or 11 good players who can contribute, why not use them? The Zips had 10 players with double-digit minutes, and BJ would have probably been the 11th to play double-digit minutes if he hadn't been injured in the last game. WMU had 4 players who were on the court 30+ minutes, and they were having a hard time staying with wave after wave of fresh Zips.

Loved it! The coaching staff has worked hard to put together a 10-man roster. Now let's use it! Everyone was playing with such energy and aggressiveness on D - leaving it all on the floor - it looked like WMU didn't know what hit 'em.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I also don't want to forget to mention something I saw from Noah last night. I saw him drive into the paint and make an INTERIOR pass for a bucket. I've been waiting for that. He hadn't appeared to be keeping his vision when he got close to the basket. I'm sure the coaches had noticed.

He only needs to do that 2-3 times a game, and it would help us tremendously. AND...it will help him create more space to make some of his own shots in there, rather than the forced, un-makeable scoop shots or extended 5 ft. layups that I had seen so often up to this point.

Just that one moment was a really good sign for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

“This is definitely a statement game coming into the MAC since last year they beat us going into the MAC Championship Game,” Forsythe said. “I feel like we owed them one and since [conference] play just started and they won the MAC, I felt like we owed them one. I felt we had to come out and play our best.”

Great quote by Pat. He seems like a different kid this season...last year he never seemed like he was enjoying the game. This year, he does.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great quote by Pat. He seems like a different kid this season...last year he never seemed like he was enjoying the game. This year, he does.

It has been mentioned before but there was some bad chemistry last year. I don't think Pat was the only one not having a good time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Speaking of crashing the boards, how about Aaron Jackson's performance. While Pat led the team with 9 boards in 24 minutes, Aaron was second in rebounds with 6 in just 17 minutes. When GoZips told us earlier in the season that Aaron was going to be Tree's backup at power forward, I was skeptical. Aaron was recruited as a guard and that's how he's still listed on the roster. Even though he's grown to 6-8 and 215 pounds, moving from the 4 to the 2 is a big leap.

But PF is the position Aaron was playing last night subbing in for Kwan, who had 3 rebounds in 19 minutes. Aaron does have some Tree-like intensity about him that may actually be better suited to rebounding in the paint whereas Kwan really plays more like a 3 even though he's a bit taller. It's going to be interesting to see how Aaron's rebounding looks in upcoming games as he gets more playing time. Coach Dambrot said Aaron's development process was slowed earlier in the season by a nagging injury, but now he's ready to go. I don't picture either Aaron or BJ riding the bench this season after the promising development we're seeing from both of them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Akron, aside from last years collapse, owns WMU. Completely agree with a complete game and excellent defensive performance. For those who like to pick on KD look at how he totally out coached Hawkins last night. Great game plan of wearing down WMU with a heavy rotation. Also, love the change in looks. Switching from zone to man while in the same possession. WMU was confused all night on O. Let's hope this is the start of a team that's hitting an uptick.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

WMU could not deal with the speed and quickness of our guards.

Right idea, but it was quite a bit more significant than that. It was inside and out, at both ends of the floor.

How often can we say that we were just far more athletically gifted than a team we played? Last night's matchup was clearly one of those times.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Right idea, but it was quite a bit more significant than that. It was inside and out, at both ends of the floor.

How often can we say that we were just far more athletically gifted than a team we played? Last night's matchup was clearly one of those times.

Not very often.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The caution here with college basketball players is not to get too excited our down about one or two performances. ...

That's true, though I think it's more true of shooting than rebounding. While size, strength, hops and technique all help a player become a better rebounder, desire and effort are what separate great rebounders from average ones. Everything I've seen of Aaron to date is that he is loaded with desire and effort and also has the physical tools to get the job done. So I think Aaron's first good rebounding performance in his first extended play game may be more repeatable than a player having their first good scoring performance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...