1-19-16 vs. Eastern Michigan

[skip-zip]

At halftime, down 8, I couldn't help but to think about how close we were to a 3-game slide from which we may not recover. That's how dangerous negative momentum can be to a basketball team. We had tremendous effort in the first half, and still trailed by a decent margin.

Luckily, effort eventually paid off, and we got the job done. I felt that we showed plenty of the "Old Akron" tonight, and really wanted to win.

I'm still amazed at how much teams are scoring against us. Keith touched on the fact that teams are driving more because of the shorter shot clock this year, and that is exposing something defensively that's clearly not our strength. If that is truly what's impacting us, it's not going away unless the rules change again. So, we need to get the personnel in there that can help us adjust, because we are not equipped yet to win 80-90 point games.

[tolbob]

What happened to the Zips no. 1 3 point defense? EM shot over 50%

[zipnetter51]

Very enjoyable game-plenty of good seats available 20-30 minutes before the game just outside the JAR. Here are my observations from watching in person

1. Our guards are smallish and can't seem to prevent the dribble drive. Antino could not stop his man from driving and was consistently beaten and our bigs had to pick up the driver,leading to easy baskets by their inside players.

2. I have been posting all year that Kwan is a liability-he shoots a terrible % on 3s,doesn't drive to the hoop,does not rebound nearly enough for his size, and is VERY turnover prone, Gheck tonite's box score (minutes played vs points, rebounds and turnovers) We won in the second half partly because KD took him out and left him on the bench. IT'S TIME-he either plays inside and fights on the boards or he sits.

3. Very few MAC teams can stop BigDog-keep feeding him the ball and let him go to the hoop-he is very skilled inside

4. I have been harping for 2 years that Reggie is underused-he needs more plays designed to free him up-he is much more than a stationery 3 pt shooter.

5.KD wisely started Jake and put him on Raven Lee and he did a great job holding their top scorer down

6.Our best line-up and the one needed at crunch time is Reggie,Jake,BigDog,Robo and Pat-why not play one guard? Antino can sub for Robo or play them together against teams whose guards are not good penetrators. I would give Aaron some of Kwan's minutes-he can't do any worse and he is quicker and hustles and neither one can make free throws,so what's to lose? Also would like to see a few more minutes for Ivey-if our other guards can't stop the drivers,give him a shot.

[K92]

Very enjoyable game-plenty of good seats available 20-30 minutes before the game just outside the JAR. Here are my observations from watching in person

1. Our guards are smallish and can't seem to prevent the dribble drive. Antino could not stop his man from driving and was consistently beaten and our bigs had to pick up the driver,leading to easy baskets by their inside players.

2. I have been posting all year that Kwan is a liability-he shoots a terrible % on 3s,doesn't drive to the hoop,does not rebound nearly enough for his size, and is VERY turnover prone, Gheck tonite's box score (minutes played vs points, rebounds and turnovers) We won in the second half partly because KD took him out and left him on the bench. IT'S TIME-he either plays inside and fights on the boards or he sits.

3. Very few MAC teams can stop BigDog-keep feeding him the ball and let him go to the hoop-he is very skilled inside

4. I have been harping for 2 years that Reggie is underused-he needs more plays designed to free him up-he is much more than a stationery 3 pt shooter.

5.KD wisely started Jake and put him on Raven Lee and he did a great job holding their top scorer down

6.Our best line-up and the one needed at crunch time is Reggie,Jake,BigDog,Robo and Pat-why not play one guard? Antino can sub for Robo or play them together against teams whose guards are not good penetrators. I would give Aaron some of Kwan's minutes-he can't do any worse and he is quicker and hustles and neither one can make free throws,so what's to lose? Also would like to see a few more minutes for Ivey-if our other guards can't stop the drivers,give him a shot.

Your thoughts echo what was being talked about in my section of the JAR last night. Point 2 especially.

[LoyalZIP]

What happened to the Zips no. 1 3 point defense? EM shot over 50%

It isn't like they gave up tons of open looks. EMU hit a lot of thought shots with hands in their face. You can't do anything about those.

[gozips19]

Very enjoyable game-plenty of good seats available 20-30 minutes before the game just outside the JAR. Here are my observations from watching in person

1. Our guards are smallish and can't seem to prevent the dribble drive. Antino could not stop his man from driving and was consistently beaten and our bigs had to pick up the driver,leading to easy baskets by their inside players.

2. I have been posting all year that Kwan is a liability-he shoots a terrible % on 3s,doesn't drive to the hoop,does not rebound nearly enough for his size, and is VERY turnover prone, Gheck tonite's box score (minutes played vs points, rebounds and turnovers) We won in the second half partly because KD took him out and left him on the bench. IT'S TIME-he either plays inside and fights on the boards or he sits.

3. Very few MAC teams can stop BigDog-keep feeding him the ball and let him go to the hoop-he is very skilled inside

4. I have been harping for 2 years that Reggie is underused-he needs more plays designed to free him up-he is much more than a stationery 3 pt shooter.

5.KD wisely started Jake and put him on Raven Lee and he did a great job holding their top scorer down

6.Our best line-up and the one needed at crunch time is Reggie,Jake,BigDog,Robo and Pat-why not play one guard? Antino can sub for Robo or play them together against teams whose guards are not good penetrators. I would give Aaron some of Kwan's minutes-he can't do any worse and he is quicker and hustles and neither one can make free throws,so what's to lose? Also would like to see a few more minutes for Ivey-if our other guards can't stop the drivers,give him a shot.

I agree with just about everything you posted. I don't care if Aaron Jackson gives you nothing on O. He provides quickness on D and has enough size to play 10-12 min at the 4 in MAC play. Maybe that sparks Kwan but Im not sure.

I was also happy to see Robo and Antino playing separately for most of the game. Antino showed more effort on D today but takes poor angles. Robo just isn't healthy. Right now he is getting beat by any one he gaurds. I haven't paid much attention to his brace in the past but it appeared to me that he's now wearing the larger, restricting brace on his knee. Hope he gets healthier as the year goes by as he's still less than 12 mths removed from his injury.

Edited January 20, 2016 by gozips19

[tolbob]

The vast majority of 3 point shots are wide open or they would not be taken. The defense generally can affect only the number of 3 point shots taken, and hope for misses on the open shots.

[LoyalZIP]

The vast majority of 3 point shots are wide open or they would not be taken. The defense generally can affect only the number of 3 point shots taken, and hope for misses on the open shots.

EMU hit a ton of tightly contested threes. I don't care about threes in general, I'm talking about last night.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Our 3-point defense was off last night, but our free throw defense was much improved.

[skip-zip]

Keith pointed out in the postgame that EMU is a poor 3-point shooting team, and that the shots were well contested. Sometimes that happens. That's basketball. You can do everything possible, and the balls still drop in the hoop far too often for the effort you make to stop them. EMU might never have a night like that again this season from the 3 line, and it just happened to be last night on our floor.

I want to point something else out too....

The effort really was there last night to stay with the dribble drives. And we did get help from the big guys. Where we failed at times was cutting off the passes in the interior after steps #1 and #2 were sometimes executed successfully. It pained me to see some of those dunks that resulted.

[GoZips]

Our 3-point defense was off last night, but our free throw defense was much improved.

I agree. I was quite impressed by the referees refusing to call arm-bar fouls on Eastern.

EMU also employed the reach-in and unfoul tactic to great success. This does not happen if

officials call a fair game.

Made me think of my old much missed friend Phil McKnight Sr. God rest his blessed soul.

[zippy5]

Didn't we shoot like 35 free throws?

[The Hip Zip]

I agree. I was quite impressed by the referees refusing to call arm-bar fouls on Eastern.

EMU also employed the reach-in and unfoul tactic to great success. This does not happen if

officials call a fair game.

Made me think of my old much missed friend Phil McKnight Sr. God rest his blessed soul.

"Integrity of the game". I'll never forget when Phil engaged in a cross court exchange with the entire BG crowd at old Anderson Arena. We laughed about it all the way home and still talk about it occasionally. He was a character for sure. Good times......

[Hilltopper]

Didn't we shoot like 35 free throws?

And EMU shot 27.

[phil]

Congratulation to Reggie who is now ranked 20th in the nation on 3 point percentage.

We did 3 things well we did not do well during our 2 game skid:

We got to the foul line and shot more foul shots than our opposition.

Shot our foul shots well at 75% (Big Dog went 12 of 13)

Shot our 3 ball well at 50%

I also noticed more intensity on defense. On one play Pat made a layup and then sprinted down the court and intercepted a pass as Eastern tried to score on transition. A pure hustle play. Also, whenever a player attacked the rim, our big guys defended and forced him into a pass or a contested shot. Very few uncontested layups. Although there were some passes for dunks, we defended and forced the extra pass. We did not let a dribble drive score an uncontested layup. This was big difference from the last few games.

[skip-zip]

1981grad...lets just hope we don't have to hit HALF of our 3-point shots to pull out a win at home anymore this year.

[clarkwgriswold]

Kwan looks lost and at his low in the last two years. From the way he's carrying himself, it looks like a confidence thing. He appears to be a hard working conscientious kid and I suspect his shooting and turnover woes have gotten into his head a little. He must be doing OK in practice, however, as KD keeps putting him out there while tinkering with the lineup and altering other players' roles. For the time being, I'd like to see him out of the starting lineup while working with him to find his game in a reserve role.

With respect to something being in a kid's head, poor Ivey might as well close his eyes when he's shooting foul shots. No way can that kid be that bad a free throw shooter. He needs to shoot free throws in practice until his fingers go numb (they already appear to be when he gets to the line in games).

[The Hip Zip]

I may have brought this up before, maybe not, but any time you see Kelly Pfeifer come onto the floor in his black and white striped shirt, get the extra large popcorn. it's going to be a long night when he's involved, I hear that he sleeps with his whistle.

[Hilltopper]

I may have brought this up before, maybe not, but any time you see Kelly Pfeifer come onto the floor in his black and white striped shirt, get the extra large popcorn. it's going to be a long night when he's involved, I hear that he sleeps with his whistle.

So true. He did our game with WMU too.

[clarkwgriswold]

I may have brought this up before, maybe not, but any time you see Kelly Pfeifer come onto the floor in his black and white striped shirt, get the extra large popcorn. it's going to be a long night when he's involved, I hear that he sleeps with his whistle.

Last night, I'd have just been happy with consistency. They'd allow the equivalent to a tackle at one end of the floor then call some ticky tack touch foul at the other end.

[skip-zip]

How about the call late in the game where EMU scored a basket, and they called a foul for a push away from the scorer that resulted in another 2 free throws?

Bizarre. Gave them a 4 point trip at a very critical juncture in the game.

[Z.I.P.]

Congratulation to Reggie who is now ranked 20th in the nation on 3 point percentage.

We did 3 things well we did not do well during our 2 game skid:

We got to the foul line and shot more foul shots than our opposition.

Shot our foul shots well at 75% (Big Dog went 12 of 13)

Isaiah shoots better, the more attempts he gets -- or so it would seem. He made what? -- 14 of 15 in the final OOC game earlier this month. Still is he above 60% for the season? We really need his (positive) consistency, because he shoots more than anyone else.

[AyYo]

Apparently, we are not allowed to view free throws tonight. Just a big Z banner. What the hell is that all about? It's about the most absurd thing I've ever seen

What you see on the video stream is what is shown on the videoboard in the JAR, during games. The Black Z is shown on the board during free throws to prevent flashing lights (distractions). That's why you cant see the FTs on the video stream.

[ZachTheZip]

What you see on the video stream is what is shown on the videoboard in the JAR, during games. The Black Z is shown on the board during free throws to prevent flashing lights (distractions). That's why you cant see the FTs on the video stream.

And that's an amateurish and extraordinarily lazy way to set up the stream.

[zippy5]

What you see on the video stream is what is shown on the videoboard in the JAR, during games. The Black Z is shown on the board during free throws to prevent flashing lights (distractions). That's why you cant see the FTs on the video stream.

We know, that doesn't make it okay