Game 21—@Miami

[Spin]

I wish the stream had stayed off. 

 

Back home for a day off and time to get ready for Toledo.

Edited January 31, 2018 by Spin

[NWAkron]

Way to lay an egg Canada!!  There go your at-large dreams.  Been there.   Done that.

 

I keep going back to seeing Sayles lying on the floor and thinking what if...

 

Rough 4 days for the guys.  Looking forward to Saturday.  This is the end of January.  To new beginnings in February.

[RowdyZip]

How about Ball State winning handily at Toledo? Crazy MAC this year.

[NWAkron]

https://www.ubbullrun.com/2018/1/30/16950206/gamethread-for-buffalo-bulls-at-kent-state-golden-flashes

 

And apparently there was also awful officiating in Ravenna tonight.  Gotta love the MAC.  We are all stuck with it. 

 

 

[skip-zip]

3 hours ago, NWAkron said:

Disappointing that Miami who seemed to have lost more is doing better than we are. 

 

I hear that.  Their leading scorer tonight was a Freshman.  Their leading scorer on the season is another Freshman.  

 

Meanwhile, I see post after post on this forum expressing hope that some of our young guys might "develop", and be productive a few years from now.  

 

Big difference.  

 

 

[skip-zip]

2 hours ago, LZIp said:

Utomi is playing the 5. I find it hard to believe playing out of position on defense isn't effecting him negatively on the offensive end.

 

Absolutely.  I've been posting about this for quite some time.  Obviously, our coaches think that we have to use him in other capacities.  But, I share in your observation that it could be hurting his scoring numbers.  

[1981 grad]

Listened to Groce on postgame.  He thought loss was because lack of toughness and lack of defense.  I see a trend to settle for the 3 and lack of penetration.  We rarely get the ball to Klac for any type of post up opportunities.  Cotten did not penetrate tonight.  Very few steals after the first 5 minutes.  Very few penetrations and dishes.  We also did not get to the foul line.  This team will struggle on the road until we get that first road win.  

[Zip44]

10 minutes ago, skip-zip said:

 

I hear that.  Their leading scorer tonight was a Freshman.  Their leading scorer on the season is another Freshman.  

 

Meanwhile, I see post after post on this forum expressing hope that some of our young guys might "develop", and be productive a few years from now.  

 

Big difference.  

 

 

 

[Zip44]

Just now, Zip44 said:

Don’t hold your breath. Just because a Freshman is forced to play because no upper class man available, does not mean he will develop into a Star player. Other than Cotton really  I don’t see much development 

 

[akronzips71]

14 minutes ago, 1981 grad said:

Listened to Groce on postgame.  He thought loss was because lack of toughness and lack of defense.  I see a trend to settle for the 3 and lack of penetration.  We rarely get the ball to Klac for any type of post up opportunities.  Cotten did not penetrate tonight.  Very few steals after the first 5 minutes.  Very few penetrations and dishes.  We also did not get to the foul line.  This team will struggle on the road until we get that first road win.  

Klac seems to know what to do with the ball when he gets it down low. Has some nice moves to the basket. Maybe they should try to play it that way.

[Let'sGoZips94]

8 hours ago, akronzips71 said:

Klac seems to know what to do with the ball when he gets it down low. Has some nice moves to the basket. Maybe they should try to play it that way.

 

His moves are impressive after he gets the ball. His biggest problem is getting position and being aware enough to expect the pass and catch the ball. His vision is also pretty impressive. He had at least one nice pass out for a 3 (odds are we missed it). 

[LZIp]

9 hours ago, skip-zip said:

 

I hear that.  Their leading scorer tonight was a Freshman.  Their leading scorer on the season is another Freshman.  

 

Meanwhile, I see post after post on this forum expressing hope that some of our young guys might "develop", and be productive a few years from now.  

 

Big difference.  

 

 

Big difference? Sure. Unreasonable thoughts? Far from it. Surely I don't have to remind this board the quality of player last year's MAC POY was as a true freshman.

Edited January 31, 2018 by LZIp

[NWAkron]

12 minutes ago, LZIp said:

Big difference? Sure. Unreasonable thoughts? Far from it. Surely I don't have to remind this board the quality of player last year's MAC POY was as a true freshman.

Go ahead remind us.   I don't even recall his freshman year.  I do remember that his class never got to an NCAA tournament 

[LZIp]

7 minutes ago, NWAkron said:

Go ahead remind us.   I don't even recall his freshman year.  I do remember that his class never got to an NCAA tournament 

3.8ppg and 2.8 rpg. Shooting % under 50%, which isn't good considering they were only lay ups. Mark, Sayles, and Poke are all shooting better this season. And its not like he didn't get considerable playing time. He averaged 4 minutes less per game than the starter (Forsythe) and started 11 games.

 

I'll even throw Kwan in there: 2.3 ppg and 1.4 rpg with a 28% shooting percentage.

 

 

[skip-zip]

6 hours ago, LZIp said:

Big difference? Sure. Unreasonable thoughts? Far from it. Surely I don't have to remind this board the quality of player last year's MAC POY was as a true freshman.

 

I agree with you completely.  It's not unreasonable at all.

 

You might also want to be reminded that Keith and his staff performed some masterpieces in terms of what they were able to mold out of some of the talent we had.  But even more significantly, the freshmen who came through this program over those 12 years had plenty of contributors playing in front of them, and mostly played very secondary roles in terms of who was going to going to take the scoring opportunities.  That situation does not exist now.  The room for someone to step forward is wide open.  And my point was that Miami clearly has some freshmen who are already "there", and have taken advantage of that opportunity to play a big role.   

[UAZippers]

I honestly don't see what you saw from their freshmen that showed that they were so far ahead of ours?

 

Delonte Brown: Had a nice game, scored about 10 points right away and then trailed off and finished with 17.

Nick Sebande: Scored 12 points by shooting 33% from the field.

Jalen Adaway: 6 points

Isaih Colemen-Lands: 6 points

Michael Ritchie: didn't play.

 

I didn't plan on only posting points scored, but when I looked at the box score nothing else jumped out at me either. The only player who truly killed us was Ringo and he is not a freshman.

 

Am I missing something? Miami is a team that is carried by their one very good, Junior guard. Their big, Sophomore center also gave us problems because we had one guy eligible over 6'7". One freshman had a pretty good, not even great, game against us and it proves that our new guys suck? We have had our freshman have multiple just as good if not better games than Brown had. Is it just because they beat us in this one game on their home court? This is an honest question. 

Edited January 31, 2018 by UAZippers

[NWAkron]

5 hours ago, UAZippers said:

I honestly don't see what you saw from their freshmen that showed that they were so far ahead of ours?

 

Delonte Brown: Had a nice game, scored about 10 points right away and then trailed off and finished with 17.

Nick Sebande: Scored 12 points by shooting 33% from the field.

Jalen Adaway: 6 points

Isaih Colemen-Lands: 6 points

Michael Ritchie: didn't play.

 

I didn't plan on only posting points scored, but when I looked at the box score nothing else jumped out at me either. The only player who truly killed us was Ringo and he is not a freshman.

 

Am I missing something? Miami is a team that is carried by their one very good, Junior guard. Their big, Sophomore center also gave us problems because we had one guy eligible over 6'7". One freshman had a pretty good, not even great, game against us and it proves that our new guys suck? We have had our freshman have multiple just as good if not better games than Brown had. Is it just because they beat us in this one game on their home court? This is an honest question. 

UAZippers: the elevating the Miami freshmen  over ours is because: Some on here are always looking for new passive/aggressive ways to diss the coaching staff and the team this season.  In this discussion, its that the current staff just isn't getting enough out of our freshmen unlike Miami apparently is or a former coach did.   The fact is that you can't quantify what even a Dean Smith or John Wooden would be able to do with this team with these injuries.

Edited February 1, 2018 by NWAkron

[clarkwgriswold]

I haven't seen anything negative from this team attributable to the coaching staff thus far.  I'm not ready to anoint them as the end all be all as it is way to early to do that.  Conversely, it is too early to do the opposite and criticize them.  The jury's still out.  If at this time next year, with the transfers on the roster and another year recruiting, the team is still struggling, my criticism will come, but right now it is way too early.

[Blue & Gold]

1 hour ago, NWAkron said:

Some on here are always looking for new passive/aggressive ways to diss the coaching staff and the team this season. 

Thaaaaaaaaaaaank you.

[akronzips71]

We do have guys who can score. The problem I see is we don't have an offensive plan. Guys constantly going in and out. Playing different positions. #4 is a good player but makes a lot of bad decisions. Maybe we need to just start Cotton at the point and work from there. And start playing the low post with Klac. He made TWO great passes, one on the 3, the other on a backdoor that someone just plain missed.

[zippy5]

2 hours ago, Blue & Gold said:

Thaaaaaaaaaaaank you.

+1

[Blue & Gold]

 

[Blue & Gold]

Posted by Jimmond.