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Ball State- 1/11/22


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Wow. What a performance on offense in the second half. The first half was brutal to watch, just awful. But the Zips were really sharp in the second half with very few mistakes. Groce managed the bigs well with foul trouble which was huge. X and Trim absolutely phenomenal in the mid range, that’s great to see and very important. That changes all the dynamic. The three headed monster of Ali, X, Trimble has a lot of potential, I like it. 
 

Ball State came out playing great D and they played harder and made more plays the first 30 minutes. Sparks and Cochran are a pain. I thought Cochran looked familiar and then I realized he was from NIU and he gave us a ton of trouble in the game here with them last year. Overall, nice win. This team has a long way to go until it’s a well oiled machine. 
 

Friday win would be massive. Kent will come ready to play. In Groce we trust! Go Zips!

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I loved watching Trimble tonight.  Who knew that he had such a great game taking the ball to the hoop, taking jump shots and he even made a floater.  X really had a great game and was flawless from the foul line at the end of the game.  I have seen Ali play like this before, he starts to the basket, hesitates and then takes a fade away jump shot.  He was out of sync offensively all night.  He only had one point tonight.  That has to be Tribble's first 3 of the season.    I also thought Clark had a bad game.  When he plays the point he dribbles too much and runs down the shot clock.  Akron had 10 turnovers in the first half and shot poorly from the 3 line and were only down 2 points.   Great 2nd half and great finish.  

 

Also, these refs sucked and blew the whistle way too much.  There was a new ref I never saw before and he was pretty bad.  However, it helped Akron at the end of the game since they called some weak fouls against Ball State that sent us to the foul line.

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We all noticed the same stuff. I think Ali was coming off protocol and maybe Aziz.  Groce mentioned that u could look at stats and see who has been out.

 

4 headed monster in X, Dawson, Ali, and Trimble.   Dawson is the perfect 6 man.

 

I thought the crowd was pretty good tonight.  Saw some of the new football staff and some big, brawny football players...maybe the transfers. 

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1 hour ago, 1981 grad said:

I loved watching Trimble tonight.  Who knew that he had such a great game taking the ball to the hoop, taking jump shots and he even made a floater.  X really had a great game and was flawless from the foul line at the end of the game.  I have seen Ali play like this before, he starts to the basket, hesitates and then takes a fade away jump shot.  He was out of sync offensively all night.  He only had one point tonight.  That has to be Tribble's first 3 of the season.    I also thought Clark had a bad game.  When he plays the point he dribbles too much and runs down the shot clock.  Akron had 10 turnovers in the first half and shot poorly from the 3 line and were only down 2 points.   Great 2nd half and great finish.  

 

Also, these refs sucked and blew the whistle way too much.  There was a new ref I never saw before and he was pretty bad.  However, it helped Akron at the end of the game since they called some weak fouls against Ball State that sent us to the foul line.

Its actually Tribble's second three of the season. As a matter of fact, he has made 2 out of his last 3 attempts. All in the corner, he might have found a little something, who knows!

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Some more thoughts from this one. I'm really bummed with Wynn. With Aziz and Freeman in such bad foul trouble, he really had an opportunity to make an impact as a force inside with a small lineup. But in his few minutes, he played poorly and committed more dumb fouls. You can tell he is a project for Groce, he doesn't seem nearly as invested as a lot of the guys on the team, hopefully that changes. Having him as the 9th/10th guy is huge as I feel he has more ability than anyone else in the league at that depth on the bench, but there's just something that's been keeping him from taking advantage of his opportunities. I think he will be gone after this year.

 

Also thinking Ali may have been in protocol and missed some practice. Yes, he does take some step backs and mid range fadeaways as that is a shot that has always been in his arsenal. But last night he was forcing them badly. Trimble forces quite a few shots, but rarely are they quite as contested as the ones Ali was taking. Perhaps he was frustrated and trying to force the issue by putting the ball in the basket. Look for that to change back to normal going forward. 

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1 minute ago, MDZip said:

That was actually Cedric Middleton. Roberts would have made them 😉

Well damn you're right. That posted still trigger the memory so I stand by my statement haha. That being said I loved watching Roberts play and the Castaneda comps are spot on. Just need a bit more consistent guard play out of this team and they can be dangerous. 

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A tale of two halves...again.  Watching from home, nearly turned it off with frustration.  No movement on offense, no activity on defense, lazy passes, forced shots, missed open shots, silly fouls.

 

Then the second half happened.  Glad I kept the game on.  I think it's a good sign that this team can beat an above-average MAC team when a key contributor like Ali only manages a single foul shot.

 

Interesting notes about the crowd for those that were at the game.  Via television, the entire lower bowl looked pretty much empty.  You could hear the student section chants/cheers the whole game thought (kudos there).  Let's hope we're through the worst of it with the COVID outbreaks on the team.

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2 minutes ago, RowdyZip said:

A tale of two halves...again.  Watching from home, nearly turned it off with frustration.  No movement on offense, no activity on defense, lazy passes, forced shots, missed open shots, silly fouls.

 

Then the second half happened.  Glad I kept the game on.  I think it's a good sign that this team can beat an above-average MAC team when a key contributor like Ali only manages a single foul shot.

 

Interesting notes about the crowd for those that were at the game.  Via television, the entire lower bowl looked pretty much empty.  You could hear the student section chants/cheers the whole game thought (kudos there).  Let's hope we're through the worst of it with the COVID outbreaks on the team.

Ali may have been coming off COVID.  When I watched the replay, the lower bowl looked emptier than it did in person.  But I would say significantly more people there last night than at the Ohio game.  I shouldn't hate Whitford so much.  Because of him, Zips keep beating them.  Same with Pinky.  I thought the flow of the first half eventually helped the Zips because Ball State, who was playing better, couldn't get any runs or rhythm even though they were benefiting from all the fouls and turnovers.  As for some of the fouls, the only one that I thought was bad was the call on Dawson for his 4th foul.  Aziz needs to know he will always get called for a foul when he goes over the back trying to rebound a free throw.  And BSU, got some cheap away from the ball fouls near end of game.

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