Game 1: Zips @ Youngstown State - 11/12

[ogzips]

4 hours ago, LZIp said:

My thoughts echo a lot that has already been stated...

 

Now I see why some are so adamant against playing YSU. This is embasrassing. Thankfully I won't have to hear about at-large bids or RPI this season.  The play by play guy was super annoying. Seemed clearly in favor of YSU for whatever reason.

 

Thought Hughes and obviously Dunn-Martin came in and looked the part. Antino needs to play better. Kwan seems to be back in love with the 3. Not really what the team needs considering everyone else on the floor. My biggest concern is lack of size. I think some combination of Eubanks/Aa Jackson/Utomi need to log serious minutes at the 3. We don't need much scoring out of them when everyone else is more than capable of scoring. Just hustle plays and defense. No more than 2 of Ivey/Tino/Noah/Dunn/Josh should be on the floor at the same time IMO. Its a super small lineup when 3 of them are out there considering Ivey is the only one I truly believe is at least 6 foot.

 

One final concern...I think Tino and Noah shouldn't be on the court together if at all possible. Not a knock on either of them, but I just don't think they compliment each other well. I'd personally start Noah/Williams I think and use Tino as the 6th man. No shame in that. Just not sure Tino is being used most effectively as an off the ball guard. I'd like to see Noah more aggressive on offense as well rather than more of a facilitator. I remember how much promise he showed his freshman year.

 

You know what I'm going to keep it real,you guys seem to be stuck on Noah and Williams. They are not the answer the line up should be Dunn-Martin, Antino,  Jimond, Utomi and Big Dogg!  If you wanna win put your best players on the floor. and quit making promises to players and showing favoritism. If they playing like crap then sit there ass down point blank. Josh would be a good six man to come in and get points cause he can lite it up when he is on. but he is not a starter, he cant rebound he gets beat on defense. wake up fellas I want to win!

.

[Blue & Gold]

1 hour ago, 1981 grad said:

I agree with you 100%.  Antino is a point guard, not a two.  He can drive to the basket and dish but wants to have the ball in his hand.  He played his best basketball as a frosh when Noah got injured.  I would start Antino over Noah.  I see Noah as a distributor, but we just do not have any scorers around him that can create their own shot.  It would be nice to see these 2 compete for the starting job.  Hopefully, that would raise their play.   

 

+1.  Antino is a PG, and our best PG at that.  Okay... Lead Guard; not the pure PG Noah is... but Antino needs the ball in his hands. 

 

Noah had a better start to his freshman season, other than that, Antino's been the clearly superior player.  Make them compete for PT & up both of their games.

 

Ivey & Dunn-Martin need to see the floor more.

[Blue & Gold]

1 hour ago, ogzips said:

You know what I'm going to keep it real,you guys seem to be stuck on Noah and Williams. They are not the answer the line up should be Dunn-Martin, Antino,  Jimond, Utomi and Big Dogg!  If you wanna win put your best players on the floor. and quit making promises to players and showing favoritism. If they playing like crap then sit there ass down point blank. Josh would be a good six man to come in and get points cause he can lite it up when he is on. but he is not a starter, he cant rebound he gets beat on defense. wake up fellas I want to win!

.

I like this.  It'd be a true shake-up... and maybe that's what this team needs.  There seems to be a little sense of entitlement with a few of the players.

 

We need the Kwan who played like he did to get out of KD's doghouse last season - bang down low & focus on defense.

 

I agree Josh has been disappointing.  I saw him play Idk how many times in high school & he was just sublime.  When Josh was only a sophomore he'd be the best player on the court.  His senior year he was the best player & leader of a STVM team that was ranked #3 in the country by USA Today but got upset in the state tourney.  I was more excited about Josh's signing that I've ever been about any Zips basketball signing - except for perhaps when we signed Zeke Marshall.  But... he's been pretty underwhelming to me so far at this level.  Just doesn't move quite quickly enough.  Rarely even tries driving to the basket, can't rebound & is below-average-at-best on defense.  Bringing Josh off the bench for some "instant offense" might be a good move.

 

I'm baffled as to why & troubled that Utomi didn't see the floor last night.  I was under the impression that Utomi was the clear heir apparent for Reggie & Jake's minutes & why we were going to have a more athletic lineup this year.  Like someone else stated, if KD doesn't have confidence in either Eubanks or, especially, Utomi to give either of them a single minute in a close game (& a game in which we were -like many Zips games- getting "out athlete-ed"... I'm quite worried about that.

 

Dunn-Martin is the man & probably the best pure scorer on the team already.  Wow.

Edited November 13, 2016 by Blue & Gold

[Hilltopper]

Eubanks played a few minutes in the first half.

[Blue & Gold]

Tonight Toledo beat YSU 103-98 in OT.  Game was in Toledo.

[skip-zip]

7 hours ago, Blue & Gold said:

Tonight Toledo beat YSU 103-98 in OT.  Game was in Toledo.

 

I'd guess that these last two performances probably blows away the idea that preseason predictions has YSU in the Horizon basement this year.  Makes me feel a little better.  

[Blue & Gold]

34 minutes ago, skip-zip said:

 

I'd guess that these last two performances probably blows away the idea that preseason predictions has YSU in the Horizon basement this year.  Makes me feel a little better.  

I think they were picked next to last in the Horizon.  But they can really shoot the ball.

[skip-zip]

6 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said:

I think they were picked next to last in the Horizon.  But they can really shoot the ball.

 

Of course, it's obviously to our advantage now if they do well.  We don't want this to be a "bad loss".  As mentioned previously, it would potentially kill any NCAA tournament selection, or decent seeding chances.  It probably would be a red flag to any other postseason committee looking to seed us or determine our matchup, for that matter.  

 

Lets hope it doesn't end up looking as bad as it seemed at the time.  

[Z.I.P.]

On 11/13/2016 at 6:35 AM, LZIp said:

My thoughts echo a lot that has already been stated...

 

Kwan seems to be back in love with the 3. Not really what the team needs considering everyone else on the floor. My biggest concern is lack of size. I think some combination of Eubanks/Aa Jackson/Utomi need to log serious minutes at the 3. We don't need much scoring out of them when everyone else is more than capable of scoring. Just hustle plays and defense. No more than 2 of Ivey/Tino/Noah/Dunn/Josh should be on the floor at the same time IMO. Its a super small lineup when 3 of them are out there considering Ivey is the only one I truly believe is at least 6 foot.

 

 

 

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to year four of the "When is Kwan Cheatam going to become the power forward we all know he can be?" Show.

 

Folks, Kwan will not become that man this year -- sorry to disappoint!  Kwan was, and is a stretch Wing player, who on rare occasion shows the ability to rebound and perform limited time offensively in the paint.  If he is not shooting well from the outside, especially beyond the 3-point line, he has to have a short leash.  This is not to be overly critical of this fine young man, it is simply to explain his nature.  If Keith starts three guards plus Kwan and Big Dog again, he is trying to blow away the opponent early from the 3-point line.  And Isaiah had better grow horns, since he is the only post player on the floor.

[skip-zip]

10 hours ago, Z.I.P. said:

Isaiah had better grow horns, since he is the only post player on the floor.

 

I think we all saw this coming.  The big man is going to have to carry a heavy load this year.  Although, don't discount the fact that Kwan can still be an asset under the basket on the other end of the floor.  

 

I'm not sure that there's too many ways around it.  Hughes could possibly develop fast and become a presence.  But, it sure looks like our strategy this year will be exactly what you are seeing now....with a heavy reliance on a lot of experienced perimeter players, and Big Dog down low.   It remind me a bit of J. Wood's senior year.     

[kreed5120]

Kwan very well might be our best defensive player. For a team that surrendered a 90 point game, we need his defensive presence on the floor. I would like to see him take more of a backseat on offense. He should never be our lead shot taker like he was against YSU. We have plenty of other guys that can put the ball in the net. We don't have many + defenders.

Edited November 17, 2016 by kreed5120

[Sportsjunkie330]

We're talking about two guys that "could've gone anywhere in the country to play" this season..... they better step up.

[kreed5120]

24 minutes ago, Sportsjunkie330 said:

We're talking about two guys that "could've gone anywhere in the country to play" this season..... they better step up.

 

Big Dog put up a 17 7 5 on 6/10 shooting in 26 minutes of play. Those numbers are better than the 13.6 7.6 1.6 numbers that he put up last season to become 1st team all-MAC. There is a lot of blame to go around for the game 1 loss, but I felt Big Dog was one of the few that actually showed up to play...

[skip-zip]

1 hour ago, kreed5120 said:

There is a lot of blame to go around for the game 1 loss, but I felt Big Dog was one of the few that actually showed up to play...

 

I don't think anyone will disagree with this point.  The big question is whether the burden of everything he'll need to do for this team is too great.  

 

I love your post above about Kwan's defense.  That's why I brought it up in my post.  Whenever someone feels a need to be critical of the way he might venture from his position role on the offensive end, we really need to remember how valuable he will probably be to us helping to defend in the paint this year.   

 

I'd also have to bet that he's probably not taking a lot of shots that the coaching staff doesn't want him to take.  I'm sure they are confident that he can make them, or he'd be getting yanked from the game.  

Edited November 17, 2016 by skip-zip
edit.

[kreed5120]

12 minutes ago, skip-zip said:

 

I don't think anyone will disagree with this point.  The big question is whether the burden of everything he'll need to do for this team is too great.  

 

I love your post above about Kwan's defense.  That's why I brought it up in my post.  Whenever someone feels a need to be critical of the way he might venture from his position role on the offensive end, we really need to remember how valuable he will probably be to us helping to defend in the paint this year.   

 

Kwan is a very streaky shooter. He had some really good shooting nights and some really poor nights last season (against YSU he was somewhere in between shooting 41.6%). If we had perimeter players that could actually stay in front of their man, I could see perhaps giving Kwan a shorter leash on those nights he clearly isn't feeling it. The fact is so often times Kwan is our only line of defense against an easy lay-up/dunk after our perimeter players get beat off the dribble.

[skip-zip]

I think you hit just about everything there, Kreed.  He's actually a really good defensive player, and I see a lot of effort in that area from him.

 

But honestly, rather than classifying him as a "streak shooter", I would probably argue that Kwan is much more "off" than "on".  If his jumper, especially from longer range, gets better this year, then I will concede that he made a liar out of me.   It just appears that the coaches have more confidence in him than most of us do when it comes to his shot selection.  I don't understand why, but hopefully we'll find out that they were right.    

[zippy5]

Losing to YSU really sucks. That said, it's one game

[Captain Kangaroo]

YSU gets blown out by Jacksonville on a neutral court. Ruins the hope that our YSU outcome would  be considered a "good loss" by the NCAA selection committee. Damn...

[HenryMuto]

Too bad you guys lost this game to YSU if you had won you would still have at large hopes.  I don't really start watching college basketball heavy (like watching every single game) until late December when Fantasy Football season is over so I missed this game.  Hard to believe looking at the record you have right now you could lose to such a crappy team in YSU.