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Akron Zips v Ball State Cardinals: MAC Semi Finals


NWAkron

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Zips after gritty win face the Ball State Cardinals who took out WMU after two of their starters had a mid-court collision.  Only meeting at the JAR had Big Dog winning the game in closing seconds followed by Cardinal coach Whitford running to mid court screaming claiming the Zips goal-tended their final desperation shot.   Dambrot is not going to lose to Whitford.  Period.

Edited by NWAkron
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I'll take the win this time without the drama.  But that was surely the most exciting ending to a game at home this year.  

 

That was the typical "can't put them away" game.  We had a 7 point lead in the first half, and as much as a 9 point lead in the 2nd half.  And also led by 8 with 5 min. to go.  I hope we can repeat what we did to EMU today that we were not really able to do to them in the regular season.......get those key baskets and stops that turn single-digit leads into more commanding double-digit leads.  

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Zips played good enough defense today, that it exempted the team from a poor shooting performance.  Same type of effort tomorrow sill probably signal a win --- but we have to get some more shooters involved -- especially Antino55 and Chop.  Hope that final '3' gets Kwan going for two big games!

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Let's take care of the ball and our emotions. Playing smart, unselfish basketball will result in a nice win and a date with one of our 'favorites' on Saturday. 

Edited by zipfan84
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12 hours ago, Z.I.P. said:

Zips played good enough defense today, that it exempted the team from a poor shooting performance.  Same type of effort tomorrow sill probably signal a win --- but we have to get some more shooters involved -- especially Antino55 and Chop.  Hope that final '3' gets Kwan going for two big games!

 

Shooting is always the problem in the big arenas. Take it inside and draw fouls for 40 minutes...guaranteed W.

 

Edited by ZippyRulz
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I'm looking at Player Minutes this morning:

 

Maybe it was a blessing that Kwan got the 2 early fouls in a game that we won.  He only had to play 20 min., and we got 20 min. out of both Utomi and Josh off the bench.  

 

However, I'm a little concerned that Big Dog played 37 min. last night.  We were in a tough situation.  EMU has some beef up front, so Poke wasn't going to be able to help us much.  And Kwan's foul trouble prevented us from going to a Kwan/Utomi front line at any time to get Big Dog more rest.    Luckily, we were able to "shut it down" a little bit over those last few minutes.   I think it's a shame that the coaches couldn't find a way to get a couple of minutes out of Michael at some point.  I think that's a real indication of where he stands on the totem pole right now.  

Edited by skip-zip
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With Ball's PG going down yesterday I believe we are in good shape here. I would be very surprised if he could pass the concussion tests after a brutal collision like that.  We shot the ball horribly from 3 pt territory in the last match up, I believe it was around 20% No way we shoot it like that tonight.

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15 minutes ago, Dr Z said:

I thought Trey Moses played well yesterday (11 points / 14 rebounds). 

I had to go back and look if he had any success against us in early February, not much in the box, 4 points, 3 rebounds. 

 

I run across this article accidentally. Now I have a hard time rooting against him. Darn it. 

What an asshole. Making it hard on me to root for him to fail.

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56 minutes ago, The Hip Zip said:

With Ball's PG going down yesterday I believe we are in good shape here. I would be very surprised if he could pass the concussion tests after a brutal collision like that.  We shot the ball horribly from 3 pt territory in the last match up, I believe it was around 20% No way we shoot it like that tonight.

Didn't he also have 9 stitches to close up his head wound? Not that he can't play with a wound, but if the wound opens up Trevor-Bauer-style, he'll have to exit the game. And as you said, this is IF he passes concussion protocol within a day. 

 

24 minutes ago, Dr Z said:

I thought Trey Moses played well yesterday (11 points / 14 rebounds). 

I had to go back and look if he had any success against us in early February, not much in the box, 4 points, 3 rebounds. 

 

I run across this article accidentally. Now I have a hard time rooting against him. Darn it. 

I wish him success in the CBI or CIT. 

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Really looking forward to the game today.  I have been so impressed with Noah's play the last few games.  He has been taking the ball to the hoop, not forcing up the three point shots, and running the offense.  Josh was also impressive yesterday.  If we get good guard play we are a difficult team to beat. 

 

One of the keys to the game is getting off to a good start.  We started slow yesterday missing easy shots.  We need to start well and not fall behind again.  Run the offense through Big Dog and not take quick threes in transition.  Josh hit a great three after a steal but it seems like when we rush a three and miss we lose our balance with our offense.  Would love to see KD use his bench.  Do not want to see Big Dog play another 37 minutes.  Give Poke a chance.  He played only 3 minutes yesterday and had 2 blocks.  Need Antino to have a better shooting game and drive to the basket.  I think he had a poor offensive game because of the zone.  Expect him in double figures today.  Go Zips!!

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45 minutes ago, 1981 grad said:

Josh hit a great three after a steal but it seems like when we rush a three and miss we lose our balance with our offense.

Question from yesterday's post game press conference:  "How do you view the 19 second sequence, the free throws, the two steals?"

 

KD: "Well, if you know a lot about this game, right, it usually comes down to the teams that get the most spurts and the biggest spurt, and we were hanging around, they were hanging around and we couldn't quite shake them. We had chances we missed. If you notice we missed some open shots that could have busted it open early, and we didn't make, which now becomes a dangerous situation, right, because they're still hanging around. But then we went, boom, boom, boom, and that's the game. And that's really what happens in sports. You have to make sure that you get more spurts than the others."

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