Zips Quiz Akron at WMU

[1981 grad]

1 hour ago, Blue & Gold said:

I'm not sure I could disagree with that any more than I do.  We were walking through the park last night.  Did any of our players even actually break a sweat?

That was no walk in the park.  In the second half we did not shoot as well or defend as well.  When the lead shrunk KD went and stayed with his starters the last 10 minutes.  Dunn Martin only played 3 minutes because KD went with the guys he trust in a game that he did not want to give away.  I believe the lead got down to 8 with them having possession in the last 3 minutes.  It would have been nice to keep that 20 point lead but it did not happen.  We are not that good when we start missing the 3 ball.

[kreed5120]

I never really thought the game was in doubt. We didn't look as good offensively in the 2nd half because we were waiting ~15 seconds before settling into our offense. We quit moving the ball around and we stopped pushing the ball in transition. We were pretty much playing against the clock instead of WMU that 2nd half. This led to a lot of contested forced shots late in the shot clock. Shots we wouldn't have been stuck with had we just kept the offense flowing.

Edited January 25, 2017 by kreed5120

[Blue & Gold]

5 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

I never really thought the game was in doubt. We didn't look as good offensively in the 2nd half because we were waiting ~15 seconds before settling into our offense. We quit moving the ball around and we stopped pushing the ball in transition. We were pretty much playing against the clock instead of WMU that 2nd half. This led to a lot of contested forced shots late in the shot clock. Shots we wouldn't have been stuck with had we just kept the offense flowing.

This is how I felt while I was watching the game.  I felt like we were just ho-humming it through the 2nd half.

 

Why do we do that?  Why don't we try to beat them by 40?

[zippy5]

12 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said:

This is how I felt while I was watching the game.  I felt like we were just ho-humming it through the 2nd half.

 

Why do we do that?  Why don't we try to beat them by 40?

Because then you run the risk of missing some shots earlier in the shot clock and actually letting them back in the game. KD played to make sure he came out with the win when we went up 20, I have no problem with that.

[kreed5120]

20 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said:

This is how I felt while I was watching the game.  I felt like we were just ho-humming it through the 2nd half.

 

Why do we do that?  Why don't we try to beat them by 40?

 

I'm going to guess it's that Dambrot likes to play the conservative method as the fewer possessions, the less opportunities an opponent has to overcome a lead. I'm not going to criticize him for that approach as he is extremely accomplished and is way more knowledgeable about the the game than I'll ever be. That still doesn't mean the inner fan in me doesn't want to see Akron curb stomp a team like WMU.

Edited January 25, 2017 by kreed5120

[NWAkron]

I don't know the man but from what i've witnessed running up the score has never been a Dambrot objective.   What I saw last night is that at the end of the game is that obviously a couple threes and put backs coupled with a defensive stop or two can take an 18 point lead down to ten in about 50 seconds.  Coach relied on his players to make their free throws and in clutch time at end of game we've been pretty good at that.  (not sure any of what i wrote made sense).

[skip-zip]

I don't think any of what you saw late in the 2nd half last night had anything to do with our coach wanting to "take our foot off the gas".  Ivey was playing sick.  Big Dog got long periods of rest.  That will all help us in the long run.  But, we didn't even get down the rotation far enough for Tavian or Aaron to get more that a few minutes.  We were playing a 40 minute game with the majority of our key guys.  

 

I think some people underestimate what can happen late in a comfortable-margin game when one team is trying to score at full-throttle, and the other doesn't want to commit a foul.  Other than a few moments when WMU cut that lead down to about 8 or so, we had things well under control.   But sure, I wanted a 20 point win as much as anyone else.    

[MDZip]

12 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

With Portage County Community College knocking off NIU if Ball State 8 point half-time lead holds over EMU, we'll be 3 full games up in the MAC 7 games into the conference season.

And it happened. Zips 7-0 next closest MAC teams are 4-3. Wow.

[wadszip]

Don't ask me why, but I've been watching this WMU-Ball State game. WMU is the most dreadful offensive basketball team I've seen all year long (and I've actually seen them four times ... Akron x2, Buffalo, Ball State.

 

It's an embarrassment that Akron gave up 80 to them on Tuesday. They missed something like 17 shots in a row in the second half against Buffalo. Today, they made one field goal in the final 7:30 in the first half. In that stretch, they had nearly as many turnovers (4) as points (5). Yet, that same team carved up the Zips defense for 30 minutes.

[LZIp]

7-0.

[NWAkron]

In a matrer of minutes, Kittens just blew a 21 point lead in Kalamazoo as Western went on 15-0 run to end the half.