Game 3- Point Park

[clarkwgriswold]

 A t-shirt toss.  NWAkron just breathed a sigh of relief.

[Blue & Gold]

Great defense!!!

[Bigzip1]

26 minutes ago, NWAkron said:

What a dunk from Tribble!  Looks like he cut his finger on the rim

Any video?

[Blue & Gold]

1 minute ago, Bigzip1 said:

Any video?

No

[NWAkron]

Ugh.  That was an ugly stretch of shooting.  0 -7 on 2 possessions. 

[NWAkron]

Zips up by 52.

[clarkwgriswold]

Freeman with a big game.

 

Time for the end of the bench to come in.

[Blue & Gold]

Still no Wynn.

[Blue & Gold]

6 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said:

Still no Wynn.

That’s probably the answer to @Illini Zip’s question in the recruiting thread.

[NWAkron]

1 hour ago, clarkwgriswold said:

 A t-shirt toss.  NWAkron just breathed a sigh of relief.

No cannon.   Whatever.   I think Groce was giving Aziz as much time as possible 

[Blue & Gold]

Wynn & Kalle sightings!

[NWAkron]

Wynn sighting 

[NWAkron]

The Wilson kid scored the 100th point.  He's all smiles. 

[clarkwgriswold]

Point Park was pretty awful.  Not sure what we can take from that one other than an opportunity to practice against some different faces.  

 

Encouraged by Castaneda's shooting.  Also impressed with MIkhal Dawson's intensity and leadership.

[1981 grad]

I liked the student section being in the lower level.  They were loud during the game.  They also had students behind the basket.  I think the tables behind the basket without any seating does not make much sense.  Who wants to stand to watch the game?

 

Walton and Castanada are going to be good this year.  Bandango is a work in progress.  He just seems a little awkward around the basket.  He also had problems picking up a a pass on a give and go.  However, he is a shot blocker on Defense.  They took a lot of 3 balls this game and shot a decent percentage.  A lot of sloppy play from both teams but that is to be expected.  Difficult to assess the team when the competition is not high quality.

[LoyalZIP]

A lot of good things obviously, which was helped by playing a pretty awful team. But the Zips made the awful team look awful, which is always nice. 
 

I think Castaneda’s shooting is the best thing we can take away from this one. He was pulling up, spotting up, right at the line, a few feet behind the line. Swish swish swish. Reminded me of a good Trimble game. Speaking of, he threw a bunch up there again but I think he took better ones tonight, which is good. Freeman made a 7’ center look stupid all night. Aziz is definitely a work in progress, he needs to bulk up a bit more and play to his size. Agree Dawson’s leadership and attitude and play were awesome. 
 

I love the student section so far. They showed up and we’re LOUD. I missed that feeling in the JAR. That may have been the biggest student crowd I’ve ever seen for a non conference game, especially against a lower division team. Hopefully once this team gets rolling they keep showing up and made life tough for the visitors. Hopefully the general public fans come back out too. 
 

Go Zips!

[NWAkron]

58 minutes ago, 1981 grad said:

I liked the student section being in the lower level.  They were loud during the game.  They also had students behind the basket.  I think the tables behind the basket without any seating does not make much sense.  Who wants to stand to watch the game?

Maybe they don't want people hanging for the whole game or bar stools getting in the way?  There's not much room

[Z.I.P.]

5 hours ago, Blue & Gold said:

Wynn & Kalle sightings!

Kalle went 3 for 3 in 4 minutes of mop-up duty.  Did he look like he belonged?  I wonder if we still have the rule that players can play several games and still redshirt.  Anyone know?

[Let'sGoZips94]

5 hours ago, Z.I.P. said:

Kalle went 3 for 3 in 4 minutes of mop-up duty.  Did he look like he belonged?  I wonder if we still have the rule that players can play several games and still redshirt.  Anyone know?

 

Does this game count towards eligibility since it wasn't a DI team? I can't remember all the nuances of the eligibility rule.

 

Nice to hear the student section was strong. They seemed to support the soccer team well this season, so it's nice to hear that could be carrying over. 

 

The only question I have regarding the game is who did we see play that didn't play vs OSUcks & WVU? I know Kalle and Wynn were mentioned. How did they look? How did any others look? 

 

I can't take anything else away from a game against Point Park. Does Bishop Sycamore have a basketball team? If so, why didn't we schedule them?

[Blue & Gold]

6 hours ago, Z.I.P. said:

Kalle went 3 for 3 in 4 minutes of mop-up duty.  Did he look like he belonged?  I wonder if we still have the rule that players can play several games and still redshirt.  Anyone know?

He definitely looked like he belonged. He wanted the ball down low & looked quite coordinated.  (But as others have pointed out, Point Park was bad -it was hard for me to tell last night if they're the worst team I've ever seen in the JAR, or if we made them look worse than they are. We were playing RELENTLESS D! Though we did work on our zone D a little - but they were swarming with that as well!)  But I'll bet you're right in that he'll redshirt this season.  I don't know about the rule where you can play a few games and still redshirt, but that must be what's going on.  (Both Nate Johnson and Kobe Mitchell are definite redshirts.)

 

It appears we've got a solid 9-man rotation with

X..................Clarke (X was on fire last night, if that's typical X, KSUcks can have Carry.)

KJ................Tribble (who also played some PG last night and about tore the rim off again)

Trimble........Dawson (love Trimble's newfound passion for defense and Dawson's a junkyard dog)

Ali

Freeman.......Aziz

 

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the intensity with which we're playing D.  That's a Top 25 defense!  With the focus and energy required to maintain such defensive intensity for 40-minutes it'd be nice if Wynn buckled down and was able to give Groce a full 10-man rotation backing up Ali.  But 9 will do.  LOVE IT!

Edited November 14, 2021 by Blue & Gold

[Blue & Gold]

Man, that COVID year is still throwing me for a loop.  This team is so young!  KJ Walton is our only senior 🤯

 

Juniors:

X

Trimble 

Wynn

 

Sophomores:

Tribble 🤯

Dawson 🤯

Ali 🤯

Freeman 🤯

 

Freshmen:

Clarke

Bandaogo

 

[Blue & Gold]

 

[clarkwgriswold]

Just a few more observations. 

 

I thought Groce should have gotten the end of the bench in a little sooner.  I'd hate to see a valuable rotation player go down in the last 10 minutes of a 50 point win.  

 

Bandaogo is going to be very good in time and really help this team against bigger lineups.  I like that they're figuring out how to have him and Freeman on the court together at times.  he really needs to learn to go up strong.  He too often throws up weak shots while falling away.

 

I'm pleased to see Castaneda finding his shot.  He was a decent 3 point shooter at USF and the team will need that with a lack of established shooters other than Trimble.  as for Trimble, it was good to see some finally start to fall.

[GoZips88]

3 hours ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

Does this game count towards eligibility since it wasn't a DI team? I can't remember all the nuances of the eligibility rule.

 

Nice to hear the student section was strong. They seemed to support the soccer team well this season, so it's nice to hear that could be carrying over. 

 

The only question I have regarding the game is who did we see play that didn't play vs OSUcks & WVU? I know Kalle and Wynn were mentioned. How did they look? How did any others look? 

 

I can't take anything else away from a game against Point Park. Does Bishop Sycamore have a basketball team? If so, why didn't we schedule them?

 

The scheduling of Point Park appears to have been very strategic as it sets us up beautifully for ... Wheeling.  🤨

[clarkwgriswold]

2 hours ago, GoZips88 said:

 

The scheduling of Point Park appears to have been very strategic as it sets us up beautifully for ... Wheeling.  🤨

 

Yes, we move up from NAIA to D2!