Zips @ Kent — Feb 19 at 6 pm

[1981 grad]

This game was not an anomaly.  Kent played a great game and exposed our weaknesses to the dribble drive on defense.  KD likes to play tough in your face defense.  However, when you get in the face of your opponent you have to keep the guy in front of you.  Kent continually drove past our defender forcing help from inside exposing Big Dog and Kwan to foul trouble.  Further, Jake and Reggie are not athletic enough to be rim defenders.  Without Pat, it would have been better to lay off Kent and force them to take the outside shot.  They are not a good shooting team from the outside.  We simply must do a better job of preventing Kent from getting past the first defender penetrating to the basket.

 

On the offensive end, Kent did not double team Big Dog and had a big night.  But that meant our outside shooters were rarely getting open looks with passes from Big Dog.  Jake and Reggie only took 9 shots and Jake's shots came at the end of the game when it was almost out of reach.  The Kent defenders played in your face defense and Antino made some great moves to the basket but simply was not able to consistently finish at the basket.  On Kwan's three that tied the game, it was from a Josh penetration.  We rarely penetrated the Kent defense to get open looks off passes to the shooters. 

 

Antinno and Noah shot 3 of 18 from behind the 3 line and every shot was off the dribble, not from a pass.    We only had 9 assists last night.  KD has 2 weeks to figure out how to get his players open looks when there is no double team on Big Dog.       

  

[skip-zip]

1 hour ago, GJGood said:

I thought Jake played well last night and I hope we see more of that Jake (without the fouls) the rest of the season.

 

Jake had to pick up Hall on the defensive end during some stretches in the 2nd half, which wasn't part of the plan, and is a total mismatch on paper.  He did a fantastic job, and provided his overall hustle, and was hitting shots too.   

[ace]

There was a point last night where Jake and Reggie were basically playing the 4 and 5. Without Pat and with Big Dog and Kwan forced to play as passive as possible on defense there was not much we could do. We defended decently in the second half given the circumstances. Do remember that we outscored them in the second even though we were forced to play like that and taking into account about the 5+ free points they got from late-game fouling.

 

The problem was that we were already in such a hole after our inability to rebound or defend the paint in the first half and our hands were tied the rest of the game. It was that run Kent went on about halfway through the first that completely doomed us. If we hit a few shots and have some defensive stand to stop the bleeding and go into the locker room down 4 or 5, the game would've been drastically different.

[zippy5]

Surprised we didn't see a little 2-3 zone with the bigs in foul trouble and our inability to stop the dribble drive playing man

[akronzips71]

There was also something that was not noticed in person but was on ESPN. When we made our run and were about -2, the shot clock and ran down and got reset and they scored. No one noticed it. We could have been in a different position if they had done it right.

[skip-zip]

53 minutes ago, zippy5 said:

Surprised we didn't see a little 2-3 zone with the bigs in foul trouble and our inability to stop the dribble drive playing man

 

Great point.  Like someone else already pointed out, Jake and Reggie were defending the post at one point when both Kwan and Isiah were sitting.  You're thinking that there had to be a better option.  Although, I believe at that point in the game we really needed the pressure defense since we were down late?  I can't remember. 

 

I'm telling you folks, we'll explode on these guys in Akron in a couple of weeks. I sometimes hope that the title will be on the line that game.  It will make it so much sweeter.  The atmosphere will be big-time.   

[ace]

24 minutes ago, akronzips71 said:

There was also something that was not noticed in person but was on ESPN. When we made our run and were about -2, the shot clock and ran down and got reset and they scored. No one noticed it. We could have been in a different position if they had done it right.

Ahh yes i remember that. I can't believe no one on the zips bench saw it. 

[clarkwgriswold]

18 hours ago, 1981 grad said:

5 hours ago, 1981 grad said:

This game was not an anomaly.  Kent played a great game and exposed our weaknesses to the dribble drive on defense.  KD likes to play tough in your face defense.  However, when you get in the face of your opponent you have to keep the guy in front of you.  Kent continually drove past our defender forcing help from inside exposing Big Dog and Kwan to foul trouble.  Further, Jake and Reggie are not athletic enough to be rim defenders.  Without Pat, it would have been better to lay off Kent and force them to take the outside shot.  They are not a good shooting team from the outside.  We simply must do a better job of preventing Kent from getting past the first defender penetrating to the basket.

 

On the offensive end, Kent did not double team Big Dog and had a big night.  But that meant our outside shooters were rarely getting open looks with passes from Big Dog.  Jake and Reggie only took 9 shots and Jake's shots came at the end of the game when it was almost out of reach.  The Kent defenders played in your face defense and Antino made some great moves to the basket but simply was not able to consistently finish at the basket.  On Kwan's three that tied the game, it was from a Josh penetration.  We rarely penetrated the Kent defense to get open looks off passes to the shooters. 

 

Antinno and Noah shot 3 of 18 from behind the 3 line and every shot was off the dribble, not from a pass.    We only had 9 assists last night.  KD has 2 weeks to figure out how to get his players open looks when there is no double team on Big Dog.       

  

 

Kent played outstanding perimeter defense giving Akron very few good looks at 3's.  They came to double Big Dog early in the game, but then went to not doing so and pressuring our guys at the 3 point line.  It is very frustrating that our inability to stop dribble penetration seems to go on from year to year.  My fear is that Kent gave our future opponents a defensive roadmap.  Hopefully KD and staff can make some adjustments, something they failed to do on the fly last night.  

 

[tomzip]

7 hours ago, GJGood said:

The Zips will have trouble. In ANY game where two of the three 'bigs' are in foul trouble and the third is unavailable to play at all. That truly makes us not only a live or die by the three team but a live or die by the contested three team. Kwan picked up foul number 4 last night with the score tied 61-61. I don't think it is a coincidence that from that point on with our big guys having to play tentative that the opponent went on a run to finish the game.

When Reggie and Antino are not hitting and Big Dog is on the bench we need a spark from somebody. I thought at one point last night that Josh Williams was starting to really heat up then he seemed to disappear. For what it's worth I thought Jake played well last night and I hope we see more of that Jake (without the fouls) the rest of the season.

 

Anyone know of recruits next year? We need power forwards/centers

[The Hip Zip]

23 hours ago, akronzips71 said:

There was also something that was not noticed in person but was on ESPN. When we made our run and were about -2, the shot clock and ran down and got reset and they scored. No one noticed it. We could have been in a different position if they had done it right.

 

We were screaming about it here. One of our guys tried to save a loose ball and swatted it back in play but it clearly the ball was not in our possession.  No excuses here though, we were outplayed 

[K92]

On 2/20/2016 at 8:22 PM, NWAkron said:

This movie is all too familiar.  The usual pattern is to now go down to Miami and lose to last place team.   I wouldn't say refs were bad.  Our best free throw shooters missed front ends of one and ones.   We do the same thing over and over again each year and expect different results

Ding ding ding.  Tell him what he's won, Johnny!