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Akron @ Toledo


zipsrule

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Wow!!! Win by 20.....lose by 17!!!!! gonna be a roller coaster of a season!!

Yes, as I said before this game, this isn't likely to cure itself overnight. The road vs. home games may also produce big swings in our performance. We'll see.

But also, I am pretty certain that Toledo is just a much, much better team than WMU. In addition, a Wittington-less Broncos team, with a bunch of other un-athletic guys, is just a much better matchup for us than Toledo.

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I thought that after the first half when we shot the 3 ball well and still were losing by three points that we were going to be in trouble. We lost the game on the boards where we were outrebounded, at the foul line where they shot twice as many foul shots, and on defense where they penetrated the middle coming around the screens. I still think that KD needs to do something about this teams love affair with the 3 ball. Now even Pat is shooting the 3 ball. I can't wait to see big dog launch a 3.

We are not a good 3 point shooting team and only shot about 30% from the 3 line last night. Although there were complaints about the refs, this team is not going to draw fouls when we settle for the outside shot about half the times we run our offense. The good news is that we only had 10 turnovers and big dog and Pat looked good when we got them the ball. Evans also had a good game.

With a young team, any games on the road will be a struggle. Hopefully, we can return to form at home next week.

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Let's get this out of the way up front: The Zips came into this game as underdogs for a reason. Toledo has a talented, well-balanced team led by veterans. Brown, Weatherspoon and Drummond are all seniors and Boothe is a junior. They played like talented veterans with their backs to the wall after being upset in their conference season opener. This was as much a statement game for them as WMU was for the Zips. With all of that, the Zips played them even for the first half in a tough road game even with an 11-6 disadvantage in personals over the first 20 minutes.

I think the game would have been closer had Kwan not been hurt. On a successful shot block by Kwan, he was clobbered by a Toledo player (no foul called) and sustained a serious hip pointer that sent him to the bench and required ice. He wasn't able to play the rest of the first half, and was only able to limp through the first 3 minutes of the second half for a total of 9 minutes. His absence on the floor for the other 20 minutes he'd normally play left a hole the Zips couldn't plug in scoring, rebounding and defense.

Kwan started the game defending Weatherspoon, and Kwan's length and quickness was effective in holding him in check. When guarded by a healthy Kwan, Weatherspoon scored 1 point on a free throw (the foul was not on Kwan). After Kwan was hurt Weatherspoon scored 16. The other Zips who tried to cover Weatherspoon in Kwan's absence didn't have the length, athleticism and experience to keep him in check. As Weatherspoon became more effective it opened up the floor for other Toledo players. Having a healthy Kwan guarding Weatherspoon the whole game may not have resulted in a Zips win, but it would have been closer.

It wasn't all bad news for the Zips. The Zips' center combination of Pat/Big Dog outperformed the Rockets' Boothe/Garber combo, outscoring them 14-11 and outrebounding them 11-7. The Zips have an advantage at center over every other team in the MAC, including Toledo. And the margin of victory would have been greater if the Zips hadn't outperformed their season average free throw shooting by hitting a commendable 87% (13-15). Considering all of the above, I expect the younger Zips to continue improving and have a solid chance of beating Toledo when they meet again Feb. 18 at the JAR.

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How do they not have GT (or whoever is on the beat at the time) go and cover the game?

I would assume GT is in Arlington to watch his favorite team play Monday night. I come here to read the opinions of Zips fans. DIG was at the game and he wrote about it (see two posts above). I would encourage any member that was at the game to write a little something. Seems like I'm in the minority, but that's what I enjoy the most about ZN.

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The turning point of the game started with 50 seconds left in

the first half. Zips were up 34-30 and we gave up 7 unanswerd points including the desperation 3 by Witherspoon at the buzzer. That was a big momentum shift. The game w a s lost when Toledo scored the first 8 points of the second half to go up by 11. After that we hung around for a while keeping the score within 4-6 points. Everytime we would make a run, we would get whistled for a cheap foul or UT would pop in a 3 to push the lead back out again. After it became obvious that Cheatham was not going to be able to play in the second half we were in trouble.

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I wouldn't say that Kwan has established himself as the Zips' MVP. But with the early departure from the team of Tree and Harney the Zips are thin on experienced forwards who can shoot, rebound and defend opposing teams' athletic forwards. As a matter of fact, Kwan is the only pure forward left on the Zips roster. All the others are either centers, wings or guards with the exception of BJ who's listed as a wing/forward. Jake and Reggie lack some of Kwan's abilities and BJ and Aaron (a guard playing backup power forward) are still too raw and inexperienced to fill Kwan's shoes. Prior to this game Kwan was tied for second leading scorer and was second leading rebounder. He leaves a pretty big hole in the Zips lineup when he's not playing.

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He was our best option to match up with Witherspoon last night.

You would think a coach that seems to pride himself on defense AND rotating deep on the bench would have one other player that would be able to help slow Spoonman down. At least provide help, or double team? If Kwan isn't the MVP, who is?

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I don't think there's a clear MVP yet. Surprisingly, Pat is the leading scorer, rebounder and shot blocker, which makes him a candidate. Noah's steady play at the point as a true freshman has been crucial to the team's success so far, which makes him a candidate. Deji has been a great 6th man off the bench, but MVPs are almost always starters. There's just no obvious star now that Tree is gone. It may take the rest of the season to see if one player separates himself from the rest to be an obvious MVP.

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