Central Michigan

[skip-zip]

I hope we learned something tonight. What more can you say? We need to find an answer to guards driving to the basket for easy buckets. Maybe when Pat gets full-time minutes we'll be able to protect the rim a little better.

[Z.I.P.]

Bowling Green winning at Ohio! Can't up just two at home vs Miami. Toledo leads NIU by one. MAC is crazier than ever!

Edited January 13, 2016 by Z.I.P.

[morris buttermaker]

I hope we learned something tonight. What more can you say? We need to find an answer to guards driving to the basket for easy buckets. Maybe when Pat gets full-time minutes we'll be able to protect the rim a little better.

Agree... Disappointing start to this swing

[dirtyolcrowe]

OUCH....LOSE BY 14!!

[ZachTheZip]

Pack it up. Season's over.

[phil]

We were down by 2 with 5 minutes left and then lose by 14. We did not execute down the stretch. Bad foul shooting, turnovers, and bad defense is not the way to close out a game. Antino was better defensively last year and needs to improve. Hopefully, we will get better in Toledo.

[ace]

I'm not actually too fussed about this one. Road league games are always tough and you're always bound to lose a few. For example number 1 Kansas got beat pretty solidly by wvu tonight.

They're especially not easy when you're playing maybe the most talented team in the league outside of ourselves....this is why they were so highly thought of to start the year.

I ain't worried. We'll be fine.

[Z.I.P.]

I'm not actually too fussed about this one. Road league games are always tough and you're always bound to lose a few. For example number 1 Kansas got beat pretty solidly by wvu tonight.

They're especially not easy when you're playing maybe the most talented team in the league outside of ourselves....this is why they were so highly thought of to start the year.

I ain't worried. We'll be fine.

But Zach said the season's over! I dunno, but I hear we play Toledo on TV Friday. Edited January 13, 2016 by Z.I.P.

[The Hip Zip]

I didn't expect to win this one so no biggie for me. CMU is no joke and they have very good guard play. Teams like that are going to be a tough out for us all the way through. Toledo looked like crap tonight so that is one that is well within our reach. They are struggling a bit and their guard play, IMO, is suspect.

[skip-zip]

I'm still sticking with the goal. No more than 3 conference losses. Although, I thought we'd win this one. Still a few tough road games to get through this year. We'll have to steal an unexpected one to keep the goal.

[Dr Z]

Akron opened up at as a -3 road chalk with a little early CMU money taking it down to -2' currently. I would like to share Rowdy's optimistic outlook but I just can't. We are just not where we need to be and CMU will be well hyped for this one. If I were a betting man I would find the points attractive.

Good call. Thank you.

Once again, nice broadcast by ASN. Good to see some other talent in the MAC. The loss may actually have been good for this team in the long run. Let's see how they respond on Friday in Toledo.

[LoyalZIP]

Looks like CMU's loss to Eastern woke them up as they've played really well the last two now. Hopefully this loss has the same effect on the Zips and teaches them that you have to bring it every night in the MAC. I don't know that you can win a game where your opponent shoots 25-28 at the foul line and you only go 11 times yourself. It's the type of loss that should make this team better. We've just got to win the return game. We need to go undefeated at home in league play.

Oh yeah, what the hell has happened to NIU?

[clarkwgriswold]

An on the road loss to the pre-season west favorite is no anything to get worked up over. It certainly has the benefit of squelching the ridiculous predictions of us going undefeated in the MAC. The 21-8 run by CMU after the Zips took the lead was disconcerting. I sure wish they could get Reggie to play that aggressively on offense every night.

[wadszip]

Hopefully, this game is a wake-up call for the coaching staff to make some sort of adjustmemts. Whether it is going to zone or going under screens to try to stay in front of defenders on the perimeter. What they are doing isn't working.

True, they are leading the nation in 3 point defense, and once again held a (good shooting) team well below its season average. But that doesn't matter if teams are getting to the rim at will. I've never seen a team that gets shredded like this. And it's not just the good teams. The horrible teams like Coppin State and SCSU guards also abused this defense by getting to the rim.

[skip-zip]

I guess the real answer to how we match up against a team like CMU, and their style of play, will come in a month when we get another shot against them in the JAR.

I heard a lot of "we need to get better" in the postgame last night, in reference to our deficiency in guarding people heading to the basket. It's not quite that easy. If you don't have guys with the physical ability to stay with those kinds of players, and you can't make up for the deficiency with a different way to defending them as a team, those teams are going to continue to attack you the same way, and will probably continue to be just as successful.

I'll be very interested to see how the home game goes.

[Blue & Gold]

... call for the coaching staff to make some sort of adjustmemts. ...

For Zips fans, this has been a point of frustration for a number of years now.

Generally with KD, it seems that when his original game plan doesn't work he just blames it on poor execution.

I do remember KD making an in-game switch to a zone defense against Buffalo a few years ago & it totally changed the game. But in-game adjustments seem to be few & far between.

Edited January 13, 2016 by Blue & Gold

[ace]

I personally would love to see a zone every now and then...would really help on stopping driving guards.

By the way, can we all appreciate how good Zeke Marshall was now?

[akronzips71]

The biggest take away is Ivey making a layup and a three.

He needs to get his confidence. I think he is the best athlete on the team and once he gets his D1 legs under him, he is going to be a huge factor.

[LoyalZIP]

The biggest take away is Ivey making a layup and a three.

He needs to get his confidence. I think he is the best athlete on the team and once he gets his D1 legs under him, he is going to be a huge factor.

He did look much better. He's cold at the stripe right now after a nice start to the season, but any production out of him is a huge bonus right now.

[Zipgrad01]

I personally would love to see a zone every now and then...would really help on stopping driving guards.

By the way, can we all appreciate how good Zeke Marshall was now?

Your comment about Zeke was exactly what I was thinking last night watching the game. He made a tremendous difference in blocking or altering almost everything that came into the paint. We have zero rim defense currently.

[zippy5]

We also still play defense like Zeke is waiting underneath to clean everything up

[The Hip Zip]

Oh yeah, what the hell has happened to NIU?

Mark Montgomery happened. Solid guy and a solid coach from the Izzo basketball family tree up at Mich St. He took over a program that was arguably one of the worse D1 programs in the nation and over the last 4-5 years has slowly built a program from pretty much ashes. He's finally got rid of all the garbage that he inherited and now has all his own recruits out there. The results have been dramatic improvement. I look for them to keep on getting better as long as NIU can keep him which may not last much longer if he keeps winning.

[phil]

If Ivey would have made his foul shots he would have gotten more time. The same factors that hurt us last year bit us again last night, poor foul shooting, not getting to the line, and our opponent getting to the line and making their foul shots. How can we win a game when they score 25 from the line, 90% shooting and we score 5 from the line, 45% shooting.

Our guards have problems stopping the penetration and this problem is not new. Robotham is recovering from surgery, Antino is quick but has not kept his man from penetrating, and Josh is a frosh who is still learning the speed of the college game on defense. With all these problems, we were only down by 2 with 5 minutes left and we then turned the ball over. Looking forward to Friday's game to see if KD can fix the situation.

[skip-zip]

I want to comment on the "we've had this problem for years".

Yes, we never HAD "athletic" guards for many of the KD years, who were quick enough to stay in front of guards driving to the basket. But on the surface, it looks like we have those types of players now, but it seems like the problem is worse than it's ever been. Guys with the quickness of an Ivey or a Jackson seem to be getting beaten to the basket more than Dru or Dials ever did. At least it seems that way.

Maybe it's more effort than ability? Are we jumping out to take away the 3-ball too much and causing the problem? Are the MAC Guards better at creating their own offense than they were a few years ago?

We'll see. Coaching a basketball team over a long period of time requires one to adjust their personnel/strategies as the competition changes.

Edited January 14, 2016 by skip-zip

[wadszip]

I think it is scheme more than effort (Robotham and Jackson simply aren't good defenders right now). The 3 point defense has been elite, and that is because like Zippy5 said, this team is still defending like Zeke is in the middle. In theory, the Zips do have two big bodied 6-11 and 6-10 guys on the back end. They should be able to alter shots. Problem is, Big Dog isn't the most fleet of foot and he's not a great shot blocker. Pat has shown flashes of being a solid rim protector, but he hasn't been healthy all year (ribs and now the ankle). Guards don't fear going at either, and most of the times it seems like Big Dog and Pat are late to get in position to alter a shot, or they are the ones being blown by because the Zips do a ton of switching on high screens (because they are taking away the three).

I completely understand the philosophy KD and the staff had coming into the season. We'll take away the three even if means giving up some penetration, because with the two big guys back there, it means teams will either have to pull up for a 10-15 footer or go over a 6-10 or 6-11 guy for a contested layup. But we're 16 games in and it hasn't worked out to plan, other than eliminating the three.

Granted, I'm not breaking down tape, but from what I've seen, it seems like stubborness on the coaches to switch things up. They are adamant about playing man and either fighting over picks or switching in order to protect the three line. That is, IMO, what is opening up the lane.

To be fair, against a team like CMU, its pick your poison. I really don't see a way that the Zips can shut them down because their quick guards are also capable three point shooters. You sag back in a zone or go under picks and they will get some good looks from 3. You fight to take away the three, and they will do what they did on Tuesday. It's a pick your poison with a team like that.

And tonight, as much as I want to see some adjustments on defense, the Zips current philosophy is probably best suited for a team like Toledo, who has some very good 3 point shooters. Their guards, Williams and Mosley, can both shoot it. And while both can get to the rim, I don't think either are on the level of Rayson and Fowler (of CMU). Then, like us, Toledo has a couple guys in Stanford and Navigato who pretty much only shoot threes. They also have a skilled big man in Booth who can make their offense go inside out. So, this game may be tailored to the current philosophy, since we have two guys who should be able to make Booth work in one-on-one situations on the block.

But overall, especially against teams that aren't good from 3, a little diversity would be beneficial.

We'll see, but as stubborn as KD can be, he has made some good adjustments in the past. The Buffalo zone game being one. Moving Harney on DJ Cooper in 2013 was the biggest reason we beat a loaded Ohio team three times in 2013, after he killed us in 2012. I'm sure there are more. Hopefully, he can get something figured out with the personnel he has this year.