MAC Men’s Basketball - Catch-all Thread

[kreed5120]

Below are the updated NET rankings as of this morning.

 

51 - Akron

85 - Kent

132 -  Ball St.

134 - Toledo

175 - Buffalo

178 - BGSU

197 - NIU

200 - CMU

214 - EMU

217 - Ohio

227 - Miami

239 - WMU

 

[akronzips71]

When we win another game in the MAC it will all become real and they will start to choke on that 5th place prediction.

[NWAkron]

2 minutes ago, akronzips71 said:

When we win another game in the MAC it will all become real and they will start to choke on that 5th place prediction.

Can't look past Broncos, but Friday with Ball State is going to be ugly.  My most hated team n the West

[kreed5120]

The schedule makers were nice to Akron this year. The two MAC West teams we play twice are EMU & WMU. We play the 2 best MAC West teams (Toledo & Ball State) at home. I do hate having to travel to DeKalb because we always seem to struggle winning there, but that is the only downside this year.

[Z.I.P.]

On 1/4/2020 at 3:08 PM, clarkwgriswold said:

 

...and with any luck it will get picked up by some obscure sports network so that it can tip off at 9 PM!

I put in this request with the #MACtion basketball Gods.  Do you know how many times I've had to rise up at 6 bloody A.M. to watch Zippy and her Krew?  They owe the entire state of Hawai'i a televised #AfterWork game vs the PCCC Basket Weavers.  

[Let'sGoZips94]

Week 2 MAC Schedule

 

TUESDAY

Inebriated Horses @ Akron 84-69

Toledo @ PCCC 84-77

EMU @ Bobkittens 74-68

Canada @ Balls 88-68

NIU @ CMU 68-67

Sweaters (OH) @ BUGS 78-76

 

FRIDAY

Balls @ Akron 75-60

Canada @ Sweaters (OH) 83-78

 

SATURDAY

BUGS @ Bobkittens 83-74

CMU @ PCCC 79-73

EMU @ NIU 71-68

Inebriated Horses @ Toledo 67-59

Edited January 14, 2020 by Let'sGoZips94

[MDZip]

And congrats to LCJ for being named the MAC East Player of the Week. ?

[The Hip Zip]

As promised, a brief scouting report from the MAC Center.....

 

Kent is a much, much better team than they were last season when Walker was hoisting 25 shots a game from all over the floor..  Lots of balanced scoring now and Whittington was nearly impossible to stop when he got the ball down low.  They seem to have decent depth and are going to be a tough out for anybody in this conference. We picked up a pair of tix for the big one with us on Jan 31 which is setting up to be a can't miss battle.

 

Toledo will go as far as the  two Jacksons will carry them.  Willie Jackson, in particular, is a complete player and impressed me a lot. Marreon Jackson has unlimited range and kept them in it until late. Other than that the Rockets seemed to be a bit soft inside and didn't get much from anybody else.  Todd has a short bench and the Rockets will need a lot more from their big guy, Knapke, if they expect to contend with Ball State in the west. They have now dropped 5 straight.

 

Really looking forward to our game with the Cards on Friday. Obviously, this will be our first stiff test in the MAC. Teague is a real handful and they have enough around him to be dangerous.

[NWAkron]

38 minutes ago, The Hip Zip said:

As promised, a brief scouting report from the MAC Center.....

 

Kent is a much, much better team than they were last season when Walker was hoisting 25 shots a game from all over the floor..  Lots of balanced scoring now and Whittington was nearly impossible to stop when he got the ball down low.  They seem to have decent depth and are going to be a tough out for anybody in this conference. We picked up a pair of tix for the big one with us on Jan 31 which is setting up to be a can't miss battle.

 

Toledo will go as far as the  two Jacksons will carry them.  Willie Jackson, in particular, is a complete player and impressed me a lot. Marreon Jackson has unlimited range and kept them in it until late. Other than that the Rockets seemed to be a bit soft inside and didn't get much from anybody else.  Todd has a short bench and the Rockets will need a lot more from their big guy, Knapke, if they expect to contend with Ball State in the west. They have now dropped 5 straight.

 

Really looking forward to our game with the Cards on Friday. Obviously, this will be our first stiff test in the MAC. Teague is a real handful and they have enough around him to be dangerous.

Not sure why anyone would voluntarily go to the MAC Center when the Zips are playing at home??

My heart doesn't desire an epic PCCC/Zips battle.   It would much prefer a 3-12 PCCC squad v a 12-3 Zips squad.

Akron was able to ease into the MAC with games against the two worst directional schools.  Toledo had a rough draw.  PCCC had what were supposed to be "tough" opponents but BG struggled mightily at home against Miami tonight  and Toledo is slumping.  The best of the East and the best of West clash this weekend with both CMU and BSU coming to NE Ohio.  If Zips and Flushes come out of this weekend both 13-3 and 3-0, fasten your seatbelts.

[akronzips71]

Our biggest positive right now is that we are playing so many freshmen.

As the season goes forward we can only get better with experience.

Dawson made a really nice shot, they need to get him up to speed.

[NWAkron]

Around cyber space (not having much to do) I found the following:  

 

On the PCCC blog a member wrote this brilliant post:  "Post: #4RE: Toledo @ Kent State 0-1 MAC teams always concern me."  

 

From Canada's Bull Run AKA Stages of Grief:  

Since the championship years UB started getting the best game against every team. Well UB is a big target and can’t handle the best game even from bad teams. Going to be a tough year unless they ever put it together. AND

I get a feeling that our guys have bought into the hype from the past couple years and just don’t think they need to be on every game.

This is just pathetic play and other teams are shooting the lights out on us every game

 

From Kitten Attack where hope always springs eternal:   Serious note: This team is going to continue to get better and better. Only question I have for them is when the size issue begin to show through after enough games in-league. Otherwise, guard play wins tournaments, and I think we got the legs in Cleveland to raise some havoc

 

 In Sweaterville the focus is naturally on football with some waxing nostalgically for Coles:  Just checked and found that Charlie Coles had 11 straight seasons at .500 or better in conference play (2000-2011). Since then, we've had 8 straight losing seasons in conference play (1- Coles, 5- Cooper, 2- Owens), and we are well on our way towards our 9th. Ouch.

Edited January 8, 2020 by NWAkron

[zippy5]

This is always interesting to track when we're in the mix. Thought this might be the best spot to drop it

 

http://bracketmatrix.com/

[kreed5120]

The two 13 seeds listed above us both lost to pretty bad teams since that was last updated. We'd be a borderline 12 seed as of today IMO.

[MDZip]

Completely meaningless of course but the Zips are currently listed as a 12 seed in Bracketology. 

[NWAkron]

6 minutes ago, MDZip said:

Completely meaningless of course but the Zips are currently listed as a 12 seed in Bracketology. 

Saving all my "Reactions" for later.  But, unless Akronzips71 tells me differently, I really like our chances for an at large bid!!

[MDZip]

20 minutes ago, NWAkron said:

Saving all my "Reactions" for later.  But, unless Akronzips71 tells me differently, I really like our chances for an at large bid!!

Then you might like this even better, Zips are all the way up to #42 in the NET rankings which is one of the tools the NCAA selection committee uses. If they can beat a good Ball State team tonight they should inch into the thirties. For comparison purposes BSU is the third ranked MAC team at  119. This is the first year I can remember in a long time where the Zips haven't had a least one disappointing loss to a low level team. Their losses are to teams ranked 11th, 17th and 27th. One of the reasons they are still up pretty high. Go Zips!

Edited January 10, 2020 by MDZip

[Blue & Gold]

14 minutes ago, MDZip said:

This is the first year I can remember in a long time where the Zips haven't had a least one disappointing loss to a low level team. Their losses are to teams ranked 11th, 17th and 27th. One of the reasons they are still up pretty high. Go Zips!

?

[kreed5120]

I see Cleveland is hosting an 11 vs. 6 game. It would be fun to play a tournament game there. I doubt Akron climbs that high as that would be above the bubble line, which would probably require Akron going something like 17-1 in MAC play. Odds are even if we were awarded an 11 seed, the committee would probably send us to one of the other sites as I doubt they'd allow a 6 seed to play what would amount to being a road game.

 

[kreed5120]

We do seem much more athletic, which should help our chances in Cleveland. It's tough to win 3 games in 3 days when your best player is pushing 300 lbs. I still feel the one weakness this team does have is we don't have a good back to the basket post scorer. It's not that we need it to be a focal part of the offense, but when we're going through a shooting slump and the other team is going on a run, it would be nice to be able to dip the ball down low and get an easy 2 every now and then.

Edited January 11, 2020 by kreed5120

[clarkwgriswold]

17 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

We do seem much more athletic, which should help our chances in Cleveland. It's tough to win 3 games in 3 days when your best player is pushing 300 lbs. I still feel the one weakness this team does have is we don't have a good back to the basket post scorer. It's not that we need it to be a focal part of the offense, but when we're going through a shooting slump and the other team is going on a run, it would be nice to be able to dip the ball down low and get an easy 2 every now and then.

 

That's my biggest fear.  I cringe every time someone passes the ball to Riak.  Reece is more competent offensively but is undersized against some bigs.  I will give Reece credit for knowing his offensive limitations as well as always going up strong.  After those two, there's no depth.  On a night when the 3 ball's not dropping, they could run into some trouble.

 

On a related note, Mark Kostelac has played in 5 of 15 games at Walsh, averaging 7 minutes and 1.6 points a game.

[1981 grad]

20 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

 

That's my biggest fear.  I cringe every time someone passes the ball to Riak.  Reece is more competent offensively but is undersized against some bigs.  I will give Reece credit for knowing his offensive limitations as well as always going up strong.  After those two, there's no depth.  On a night when the 3 ball's not dropping, they could run into some trouble.

 

On a related note, Mark Kostelac has played in 5 of 15 games at Walsh, averaging 7 minutes and 1.6 points a game.

In yesterdays game the team got the ball to Riak on 4 of the first 6 possessions on pick and rolls and he either missed the shot or fumbled the ball.  I keep hoping that he will develop into a better offensive player.  But he is a great defender and has been making his foul shots.  However, we do have inside scoring with our players driving to the hoop and scorig or dishing off to a big man.  Not having a post up player clogging the lane works to our advantage with this team in that it keeps the lane open to make it easier to drive to the basket.  Watch LCJ drive to the basket and you will see how the lane is open when he starts to the basket and then the defense collapses to the lane leaving somebody open on the wing.

 

I wish Klac the best of luck but most people on this board recognized that he did not have division one speed.  He always seemed a step slow to the basket.

[clarkwgriswold]

16 minutes ago, 1981 grad said:

In yesterdays game the team got the ball to Riak on 4 of the first 6 possessions on pick and rolls and he either missed the shot or fumbled the ball.  I keep hoping that he will develop into a better offensive player.  But he is a great defender and has been making his foul shots.  However, we do have inside scoring with our players driving to the hoop and scorig or dishing off to a big man.  Not having a post up player clogging the lane works to our advantage with this team in that it keeps the lane open to make it easier to drive to the basket.  Watch LCJ drive to the basket and you will see how the lane is open when he starts to the basket and then the defense collapses to the lane leaving somebody open on the wing.

 

I wish Klac the best of luck but most people on this board recognized that he did not have division one speed.  He always seemed a step slow to the basket.

 

True.  I think some of that's Groce's design by necessity, driven by the lack of quality offensive bigs.

[NWAkron]

Tempted to drive to Ravenna to cheer on that directional Michigan school as they take on Pinky and the Golden Flushes of Portage County Community College.  Pinky is 8 point favorite.  Hmm.

[Z.I.P.]

Let me ask a question that is simply peripheral to the contest that took place last night:  What was everyone's reaction to the game officiating?  I feIt it was decent overall, and generally evenhanded.  However, the one general change that I detect in college officiating this season is the increase in charging calls!  There were four or five charges called in the first half, and I thought maybe two were legit and one or two would have been called blocks in the past, while one call against Akron -- I think Cheese -- should have been a "no-foul".  The PBP announcer made the obligatory statement that "it's a point of attention this year", but I don't remember the charge call ever being as common or frequent in CBB as it is this season.  Has anyone seen any stats for the call so far in '19-'20?  It just tends to slow down the flow of the game to call unnecessary fouls.

[NWAkron]

2 minutes ago, Z.I.P. said:

Let me ask a question that is simply peripheral to the contest that took place last night:  What was everyone's reaction to the game officiating?  I feIt it was decent overall, and generally evenhanded.  However, the one general change that I detect in college officiating this season is the increase in charging calls!  There were four or five charges called in the first half, and I thought maybe two were legit and one or two would have been called blocks in the past, while one call against Akron -- I think Cheese -- should have been a "no-foul".  The PBP announcer made the obligatory statement that "it's a point of attention this year", but I don't remember the charge call ever being as common or frequent in CBB as it is this season.  Has anyone seen any stats for the call so far in '19-'20?  It just tends to slow down the flow of the game to call unnecessary fouls.

I noticed the leading with/pushing off with the forearm arm getting called both ways.