MAC Tournament Game 2: Buffalo

[Spin]

The problem?

FG's 14-59 (23.7%)

3PT 4-23 (17.4%)

AST 4. FOUR. Four freakin' assists.

 

Blame the refs? Akron was called for 20 fouls. Buffalo? 18

 

"Where I come from we call that an ass kickin'".

[ZIPS96]

Buffalo today is what Akron should have been 5 years ago.  We never made the jump from good to great, they have.

[dre22era]

9 minutes ago, monrowe said:

Akron should leave the MAC today 

That would be a Dream come true for me

Conference didn't do crap for us when we were winning 25+ games 

[akronzips71]

Well, goodbye until next year.

Once again, thanks to KD for destroying his legacy.

GROCE

Find a BIG or go away.

[zippyfan34]

2 minutes ago, dre22era said:

That would be a Dream come true for me

Conference didn't do crap for us when we were winning 25+ games 

25 wins against Our ladies of the Blind and Northwestern South Carolina Upstate?

[dre22era]

1 minute ago, zippyfan34 said:

25 wins against Our ladies of the Blind and Northwestern South Carolina Upstate?

The most celebrated team in our history was the 26–7 2006 team. 
So be my guest in trying to water down that team that consist of players yall want their jerseys retired. 

[kreed5120]

6 minutes ago, Spin said:

The problem?

FG's 14-59 (23.7%)

3PT 4-23 (17.4%)

AST 4. FOUR. Four freakin' assists.

 

Blame the refs? Akron was called for 20 fouls. Buffalo? 18

 

"Where I come from we call that an ass kickin'".

There were 38 combined fouls called, 29 of which were in the 1st half. We didn't lose because of the refs. Buffalo was clearly the better team. That being said, the refs made this game unwatchable. If refs consistently called this many fouls per game, many of which were phantom calls that hurt both teams, I wouldn't watch another game of basketball in my life.

[GoZips88]

Found this thread to be a real head-scratcher and quite frankly disappointing. Not what we're used to in CLE for sure but only our second dud this year from a team that is really still an assembly of a little of this and a little of that. We're also not a fan base used to 1st-round wins in The Dance and disappointed when we don't advance beyond that. We are 0-fer and never really looked very good doing that.

 

Withholding judgement on Groce until he has a chance to truly fill his pipeline. LOVE the emphasis on 'D' he has established and who knows what would have happened this year if we had shot the ball better at times. I'm good with Year 2 - to each his/her own.

Edited March 14, 2019 by GoZips88

[clarkwgriswold]

18 minutes ago, GoZips88 said:

Found this thread to be a real head-scratcher and quite frankly disappointing. Not what we're used to in CLE for sure but only our second dud this year from a team that is really still an assembly of a little of this and a little of that. We're also not a fan base used to 1st-round wins in The Dance and disappointed when we don't advance beyond that. We are 0-fer and never really looked very good doing that.

 

Withholding judgement on Groce until he has a chance to truly fill his pipeline. LOVE the emphasis on 'D' he has established and who knows what would have happened this year if we had shot the ball better at times. I'm good with Year 2 - to each his/her own.

 

Exactly.  There are certainly shortcomings but it's too early to play Chicken Little.  If we're having this conversation the second week of March in 2020, then I'll have a far different attitude. 

[kreed5120]

9 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

 

Exactly.  There are certainly shortcomings but it's too early to play Chicken Little.  If we're having this conversation the second week of March in 2020, then I'll have a far different attitude. 

I saw multiple people tossing around the idea of the Zips needing to move on from Dambrot before he decided to leave for Duquesne. The same Dambrot who made it to 9 MAC finals. It's unreasonable to expect fans on an online sports forum to be reasonable.

[zipfan84]

39 minutes ago, GoZips88 said:

Withholding judgement on Groce until he has a chance to truly fill his pipeline. LOVE the emphasis on 'D' he has established and who knows what would have happened this year if we had shot the ball better at times. I'm good with Year 2 - to each his/her own.

 

Difficult to 'fill the pipeline' with 2-year transfers. My hope is that he starts focusing more on HS recruits. I will be watching for that before renewing my season tix.

 

Time to start building from the bottom up.

[GoZips88]

11 minutes ago, zipfan84 said:

 

Difficult to 'fill the pipeline' with 2-year transfers. My hope is that he starts focusing more on HS recruits. I will be watching for that before renewing my season tix.

 

Time to start building from the bottom up.

 

Agreed 

[zippy5]

8 minutes ago, zipfan84 said:

 

Difficult to 'fill the pipeline' with 2-year transfers. My hope is that he starts focusing more on HS recruits. I will be watching for that before renewing my season tix.

 

Time to start building from the bottom up.

These 2 years were an aberration imo from the last 10 and the next ten. I hope at least.

 

With so many transfers out, we couldn't bring in all HS recruits the last two years. For a few reasons. One, as ugly as these 2 years were, they'd have been bloodbaths with all freshmen and sophomores this year. Two, to balance the class numbers out. And lastly, when KD left and kids transferred out, there frankly wasn't time or enough decent HS recruits to do that in year one. I think/hope w'll get back to that eventually, but there was just too much volatility with KD leaving.. I give Groce an incomplete grade so far, I'm not thrilled but I didn't exactly expect much.. he didn't quite inherit the situation that Oates did.

[clarkwgriswold]

15 minutes ago, zipfan84 said:

 

Difficult to 'fill the pipeline' with 2-year transfers. My hope is that he starts focusing more on HS recruits. I will be watching for that before renewing my season tix.

 

Time to start building from the bottom up.

Agreed, but people also want quick results and that generally doesn't happen with the traditional freshman recruiting, especially when you get a late jump.

 

In the final analysis, nobody is generally happy short of a MAC title.  One need only review the old KD posts to see that phenomenon.

 

Also, before we all give up, we need to step back and realize that this is a historically good MAC team in Buffalo that some are measuring the Zips against.

[kreed5120]

23 minutes ago, zipfan84 said:

 

Difficult to 'fill the pipeline' with 2-year transfers. My hope is that he starts focusing more on HS recruits. I will be watching for that before renewing my season tix.

 

Time to start building from the bottom up.

We already have 2 incoming freshman who signed their LOI. We also have at least 1 outstanding offer for another freshman. The team needed players that could play big minutes immediately, which is why you saw so many JUCOs in Groce's 1st two years. He seems to be transitioning to a more conventional recruiting routine now. 

[1981 grad]

I just got back from the Q.  All I wanted was a competitive game.  The closest we came in the second half was 14 points.  I walked out when we were down by 30.  This was an embarrassment.   The first half is what we have seen all season, a team that cannot put the ball in the basket.  Riak and E man are fading away from 3 feet.  Take the ball strong to the hoop and stop acting like little boys.  Nobody could make a 3 point shot.  Buffalo was not that good in the first half.  They were missing their 3 point shots and their foul shots.  This game should have been close in the first half but we played like crap!   Didn't someone indicate that Groce had his team play their best ball come tournament time.  So much for that.  This team looked terrible.

 

On the way up to the Q all I heard on pregame was how Akron has dominated at the tournament.  That was all KD.    That era is gone.  I agree that the refs sucked the first half.  They called 2 illegal screens that were phantom calls.  The second half they let the teams play and it was much easier game to watch.  

[MDZip]

2 hours ago, RowdyZip said:

Remember that time we lost by 40 in the MAC quarterfinals? Pepperidge Farms remembers.

 

 

[clarkwgriswold]

32 minutes ago, zippy5 said:

These 2 years were an aberration imo from the last 10 and the next ten. I hope at least.

 

With so many transfers out, we couldn't bring in all HS recruits the last two years. For a few reasons. One, as ugly as these 2 years were, they'd have been bloodbaths with all freshmen and sophomores this year. Two, to balance the class numbers out. And lastly, when KD left and kids transferred out, there frankly wasn't time or enough decent HS recruits to do that in year one. I think/hope w'll get back to that eventually, but there was just too much volatility with KD leaving.. I give Groce an incomplete grade so far, I'm not thrilled but I didn't exactly expect much.. he didn't quite inherit the situation that Oates did.

 

...or the situation that Dambrot did.

[zipfan84]

22 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

We already have 2 incoming freshman who signed their LOI. We also have at least 1 outstanding offer for another freshman. The team needed players that could play big minutes immediately, which is why you saw so many JUCOs in Groce's 1st two years. He seems to be transitioning to a more conventional recruiting routine now. 

 

Good to hear. Sounds like I should check in on the recruiting forum periodically.

 

Thanks for that feedback.

[NWAkron]

It's 4:35pm on March 14 and...

[ubxcretired]

1 hour ago, zippy5 said:

I give Groce an incomplete grade so far, I'm not thrilled but I didn't exactly expect much.. he didn't quite inherit the situation that Oates did.

First off - I was surprised by how one sided this one was.  After the regular season, Akron was the team I really didn't want to play early in the tourny.  For you guys, if the 3s start falling and the slow down defense puts UB on their heels, its a worrisome match up.

 

And - I fully expect Akron (especially with Groce's history and recruiting abilities) to reload over the next couple of years and rise back towards the top of the MAC.  I detested Dambrot, probably because of how much he beat us but will admit that a close game with Akron makes for a fun afternoon.

 

That said - the UB coach is Nate Oats.  No E

.

And - to suggest that he inherited a great situation at Buffalo is revisionist history.  After Hurley was hired away - Shannon Evans immediately announces he's going with him to Arizona State, JUCO recruits Maurice O'Field and Torian Graham de-commit to do the same.  Nate Navigato de-commits to head off and join the rockets.  To top it all off, reigning MAC POTY Justin Moss gets busted during the summer stealing from some football players and is booted out of school.

 

So - Oats started with a blown up roster, recruits Nick Perkins and CJ Massinburg, hits on a couple of JUCOs, and rolls on from there.  I'm sure for an Akron fan - this was a bummer of a season.  But I fully expect Groce will follow a similar path back to the upper portion of the conference.

Edited March 14, 2019 by ubxcretired

[ZipsVoice]

3 hours ago, monrowe said:

Akron doesn’t have the personal to be good in any sport except soccer.

Then you know nothing about U of A sports....

[ZipsVoice]

I too just walked in from my excursion to the Q.  Stuck around to watch first half of second game.  What a huge difference inintensity levels between these two games.  Kent and CMU played hard nosed and up tempo, and it was so obvious after watching the Zips play so timidly in game 1.  How many freakin’ lay ups did we flat out miss?  The only time we really challenged the middle it was by our smallest player.  How many second and third chance baskets did Buffalo get, many times due to poor rebounding or lack of hustle for loose balls on our part.  How many one and out trips did we make down the floor.  At one point in the first half our 3 point % was better than our overall %, and both were in the teens.  The refs had nothing to do with this, we just flat out sucked.  Fun to be there though, and see friends and other fans from other teams having fun.  Great to have the tourney here, IMHO.

[kreed5120]

6 minutes ago, ZipsVoice said:

I too just walked in from my excursion to the Q.  Stuck around to watch first half of second game.  What a huge difference inintensity levels between these two games.  Kent and CMU played hard nosed and up tempo, and it was so obvious after watching the Zips play so timidly in game 1.  How many freakin’ lay ups did we flat out miss?  The only time we really challenged the middle it was by our smallest player.  How many second and third chance baskets did Buffalo get, many times due to poor rebounding or lack of hustle for loose balls on our part.  How many one and out trips did we make down the floor.  At one point in the first half our 3 point % was better than our overall %, and both were in the teens.  The refs had nothing to do with this, we just flat out sucked.  Fun to be there though, and see friends and other fans from other teams having fun.  Great to have the tourney here, IMHO.

Hard to play with fire and aggression when the officials are calling ticky tack fouls and making up fouls as they go. It's much easier to dive for a loose ball, attack the basket, fight for a rebound, etc. when you aren't on the verge of fouling out.

[NWAkron]

13 minutes ago, ZipsVoice said:

I too just walked in from my excursion to the Q.  Stuck around to watch first half of second game.  What a huge difference inintensity levels between these two games.  Kent and CMU played hard nosed and up tempo, and it was so obvious after watching the Zips play so timidly in game 1.  How many freakin’ lay ups did we flat out miss?  The only time we really challenged the middle it was by our smallest player.  How many second and third chance baskets did Buffalo get, many times due to poor rebounding or lack of hustle for loose balls on our part.  How many one and out trips did we make down the floor.  At one point in the first half our 3 point % was better than our overall %, and both were in the teens.  The refs had nothing to do with this, we just flat out sucked.  Fun to be there though, and see friends and other fans from other teams having fun.  Great to have the tourney here, IMHO.

I watched the CMU game at home and noticed that the Chipps could throw a pass to their center in the paint and he wouldn't drop the ball.   FWIW Riak is battling a couple bad injuries.  Remember he screwed up his shoulder in Cayman.  Groce has some tough decisions to make with Sayles, Riak, and Eman.  Having 3 physically compromised centers on the team isn't going to get the Zips too far.