Game 6: Akron vs. Mercer 11/26/16

[skip-zip]

I already entered a post about this in the Air Force thread, and thought I should start it here. 

 

The one luxury of the format of this tournament is that Mercer and Akron just played two common opponents.  

Mercer beat Georgia Southern by 13, and Radford by 11.

Akron beat Georgia Southern by 11, but blew Radford out of the gym.

 

No TV or Video again tonight.  

[The Hip Zip]

This will be a decent test. Mercer's defensive numbers are very, very good so I expect a grind it out type of contest. This is the kind of game that we will need to play when we get into the conference schedule. I'm confident that we will be victorious but by no means do I expect a cakewalk.

[ZachTheZip]

With this game, the difference between a win and a loss is about a 15-point swing in the RPI thanks to the tournament format and facing multiple common opponents.

 

Win and we're in pretty good shape. Lose and we're on the outside of the NIT based on projections I have done here.

[Z.I.P.]

Hey, Hilltopper!  Can you get me Darryl Strawberry's autograph?

 

For the uninitiated in the OC HS basketball wars:  http://www.ocvarsity.com/articles/strawberry-36576-one-game.html  (He was only a 2-star -- teammate of Elijah Brown, etc. at Mater Dei)

Edited November 27, 2016 by Z.I.P.

[Hilltopper]

Darryl is in the house, but you should have come to Savannah if you wanted his autograph.

[ZachTheZip]

Zips up 35-27 at halftime.

[Blue & Gold]

My 1350 internet feed keeps cutting out.  Anyone else having this problem?  1350 online is usually pretty smooth for me.

[ZachTheZip]

Mercer was picked to finish 4th in the Socon. We have to pull this one out.

[ZachTheZip]

Only eight assists from Akron today. For a team that relies so heavily on three-point shooting, that is abysmally low.

[kreed5120]

I'm more concerned that we've been outrebounded 35-22.

[ZachTheZip]

Too close for comfort, but the Zips come up with the win 65-63.

[zipsrule]

Good defense at the end to seal it.

[Z.I.P.]

Alright, we won!  . Bring on Adrian!  Aaaaaa-Drian!

[Hilltopper]

The refs totally blew it at the end of the game when they allowed the Mercer bench to call a time out during a scramble for the ball with 1.9 seconds left on the clock. Only a player can call a timeout during play. Needless to say KD was not pleased. 

[infofan]

On the radio feed it sounded like there was no postgame handshake between players or staff. In fact Joe Dunn said we better just get out of here.both games in Savannah appeared to have very raw inexperienced officials.But glad we came out with 2 wins and a championship!

[Hilltopper]

The correct ruling after the inadvertant whistle should have been a jump ball. The possession arow would have given Akron the ball. Instead the refs gave Mercer the timeout and on the inbounds play Noah stole the ball. The Mercer contingent thought a foul should have been called and stormed off the court in a huff.

[1981 grad]

4 minutes ago, Hilltopper said:

The correct ruling after the inadvertant whistle should have been a jump ball. The possession arow would have given Akron the ball. Instead the refs gave Mercer the timeout and on the inbounds play Noah stole the ball. The Mercer contingent thought a foul should have been called and stormed off the court in a huff.

 

It sounds like you made the trip to Savannah.  How many people do you estimate were in the stands for the final?  Over the radio it was hard to tell the attendance.   I remember last year there was a video feed in Las Vegas the place was empty.  Not sure how these tournaments make money if nobody attends the games.

[Hilltopper]

The purpose of the tournaments is to bring people to the area to spend money as tourists during a slow time for tourism. Iwould estimate there were several  hundred Zips fans in attendance tonight. Probably 1500 or so Mercer fans. The early games probably had similar numbers.

[Blue & Gold]

AP article

 

Zips shot 50% from 3 (10-of-20) & 15-of-19 from the free throw line.

[skip-zip]

I'm wondering if anyone else listened to Keith's postgame.  He had a lot of interesting things to say, including comments on the blown referee call at the end of the game.  

 

As Kreed pointed out earlier, we got killed on the boards last night.  This team might simply struggle to rebound this year.  Yes, I'm sure the 3-guard lineups aren't helping, as we've pointed out before.  But having Big Dog on the bench with fouls will complicate that too, as we saw last night.  What we need him to do this year might really make it hard for him not to run into foul trouble.  And Kwan is really the only other size we have that can start, and he will be taxed also.  Hughes could help, but we can't lay that burden on him with so much to learn at both ends of the floor, so his minutes are still limited.  Over the last two games, I've even noticed that we've slid Aaron into that 4 spot a couple of time, and even Poke was playing some post minutes.  

 

Keith talked about finding the right combinations on the floor last night.  I just don't know if we have the right bodies to correct that problem this year.  But, we've gotten around having teams that struggle to rebound in the past.  

 

Here's a real bright spot from last night:

Antino was scoring driving to the basket.  I think we're really going to need that.  Most years, we've never had a ballhandler who can do that.  I want to see it more often.  

[Blue & Gold]

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

Alright, we won!  . Bring on Adrian!  Aaaaaa-Drian!