Northern Illinois- 2/8/22

[clarkwgriswold]

The Zips head into lovely DeKalb, Illinois Tuesday to face 6-14 Northern Illinois on what may be the MAC’s ugliest basketball court.  NIU is 3-7 in the MAC with wins over PCCC, Eastern Michigan and WMU.  They are 1-6 in their last 7 MAC games.

 

The MAC coaches projected NIU to be the worst team in the MAC in the preseason poll.  They stand currently in 10th, ahead of EMU and WMU.  6’3” sophomore guard Keshawn Williams leads the Huskies at 15.9 ppg.  6’8” senior guard Anthony Crump (Helen Crump’s nephew) leads rebounding at 5.2 ppg.  NIU is last in the conference in scoring offense at 63.5 ppg.

[kreed5120]

Throw out the records. We always seem to struggle at Dekalb

[Hilltopper]

15 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

Throw out the records. We always seem to struggle at Dekalb

If you've ever been there you would know why. Big barn with bad lighting. The worst game day experience in the MAC. I remember being there and watching KD throw the eraser for the whiteboard during a timeout about 10 rows deep after a ridiculous call by the refs.

Edited February 6, 2022 by Hilltopper

[LoyalZIP]

3 hours ago, Hilltopper said:

If you've ever been there you would know why. Big barn with bad lighting. The worst game day experience in the MAC. I remember being there and watching KD throw the eraser for the whiteboard during a timeout about 10 rows deep after a ridiculous call by the refs.

If I remember correctly, that was a game in maybe 2015 when he ran the officials off the floor after the game. Could be wrong.

 

Either way, the Zips lost here last year and have lost here numerous times before. The exception was a blowout win by the championship team a couple of years ago. They flew straight there from Miami this evening, I hope they settle in and get the job done again. 

[RowdyZip]

14 hours ago, Hilltopper said:

If you've ever been there you would know why. Big barn with bad lighting. The worst game day experience in the MAC. I remember being there and watching KD throw the eraser for the whiteboard during a timeout about 10 rows deep after a ridiculous call by the refs.

Interesting.  NIU and Ball State are the last two remaining for me on my MAC Arena tour.  For me, so far, Millet is the worst in the conference.  If the lighting is worse that Millet...I'm at a loss.

 

Hoping for the best in this one, but NIU is always a struggle.  Would be nice to head into the home game vs Kent on a 3 game winning streak.

 

Take the under.

[Blue & Gold]

11 hours ago, LoyalZIP said:

They flew straight there from Miami this evening, I hope they settle in and get the job done again. 

Glad to hear this.  This likely means they flew to Miami as well.

I was having a nightmare about them bussing to Miami then bussing home.  Then bussing to Dekalb and then bussing home.  And then having to muster energy/legs for KSUcks on Friday.

[Blue & Gold]

 

[AkronAlumnus]

I'm excited for this one. They're a different team when Wynn is in the lineup. 

[LoyalZIP]

Trap game? We'll see. NIU gave the Zips a lot of trouble last year, and after a big win @ Washington to open the year, the only other significant win on their schedule is a win at Kent the game before Akron went there and lost. At the end of the day, this is simply a tough place to play and a tough place to win, between the awful floor and the emptiness. I'd like to see Trimble make more strides and for the bench mob to play more meaningful minutes to help keep everyone's legs fresh. Trendon Hankerson has been there for a long time and can heat up quickly, that's the guy I am most worried about. I'd hate to see the Zips drop one like this. Go Zips!

[Reslife4Life]

Just now, AkronAlumnus said:

I'm excited for this one. They're a different team when Wynn is in the lineup. 

Having 4 bench players that can play meaningful minutes does a lot. When at least one of them has a good game, it is huge

[RowdyZip]

With NIU showing up at 300 in the NET rankings, no excuses for losing this one.

 

Zips are 8 point favorites with an o/u of 128.5.  68-60 is what Vegas is looking for...but I think the Zips score in the 70s.

[zippy5]

@ NIU always seems to be in a trap game spot. With that stupid arena and court and KSU on Friday, this one worries me. Just get a win, anyway anyhow

[1981 grad]

It is always difficult to win on the road and Akron has lost only 2 MAC road games.  I will be impressed if they can win tonight since we always have a tough time in Northern Illinois.  It is great that we have players that play hard every night.  Trimble is the only wild card with his streaky shooting.  To me the keys to the game will be rebounding, not falling in love with the 3 point shot early, bench play, and getting the ball into the hands of X and Freeman, our most reliable players.  

[NWAkron]

20 minutes ago, 1981 grad said:

It is always difficult to win on the road and Akron has lost only 2 MAC road games.  I will be impressed if they can win tonight since we always have a tough time in Northern Illinois.  It is great that we have players that play hard every night.  Trimble is the only wild card with his streaky shooting.  To me the keys to the game will be rebounding, not falling in love with the 3 point shot early, bench play, and getting the ball into the hands of X and Freeman, our most reliable players.  

Agree.  I think all road games are suspect.  Akron's had some head-scratching losses in Ypsilanti over the years, too.  This isn't the Groce team that lost all their road games and this isn't one of the .500ish NIU teams with Eugene German that took out a top 20 Buffalo.  I'm not anxious about this one...for the moment.

[RowdyZip]

On a slightly related note, does anyone know if we'll be playing at UB this season?  I think I recall the Zips' road game being postponed, but then the shoehorned UB @ UA in during early January.  As it stands now, per gozips dot com, we don't have more than 3 off days between any games until the end of the season.

 

Edit:  I think I found my answer, but maybe I just didn't realize that elimination of divisions in basketball would potentially make us only have one matchup in any given year vs the "traditional" MAC East teams.  Looks like we lucked out with EMU/WMU/CMU/NIU double "crossovers."

Edited February 8, 2022 by RowdyZip

[Let'sGoZips94]

Can we play this one with head lamps? Asking for a friend. 

[clarkwgriswold]

I remember one game up there was Marin Maric ran the "dog" out of Big Dog beating him up the floor over and over.  Big Dog had a decent offensive game but Maric had a bunch of easy points in transition.

[Illini Zip]

2 hours ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

Can we play this one with head lamps? Asking for a friend. 

 

Our friends sure ask the darnedest questions, don't they?  😀

[Blue & Gold]

I'm hoping to see good ball movement and off-the-ball movement, i.e., offensive flow.   The fewer Ali Ali dribble-dribble-dribble-dribble specials the better.

 

"There is a direct correlation between the number of ball reversals and defensive breakdowns." -Kevin Eastman

 

The last few games we don't seem to have been as reliant on Trimble's 3-point shooting as we were earlier in the season.  That's a good team adjustment.  Good job, Groce & Co.  It'd be great if we could get to a point where we could just consider Trimble's shooting icing on the cake.  We can beat NIU w/o Trimble catching fire.

 

Hoping for more solid minutes from Wynn & Clarke.  (No sloppy passes from Clarke.)

[clarkwgriswold]

6 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said:

I'm hoping to see good ball movement and off-the-ball movement, i.e., offensive flow.   The fewer Ali Ali dribble-dribble-dribble-dribble specials the better.

 

"There is a direct correlation between the number of ball reversals and defensive breakdowns." -Kevin Eastman

 

The last few games we don't seem to have been as reliant on Trimble's 3-point shooting as we were earlier in the season.  That's a good team adjustment.  Good job, Groce & Co.  It'd be great if we could get to a point where we could just consider Trimble's shooting icing on the cake.  We can beat NIU w/o Trimble catching fire.

 

Hoping for more solid minutes from Wynn & Clarke.  (No sloppy passes from Clarke.)

 

You could certainly tell that Miami had scouted and figured out how Ali pounds the ball and leans in with his shoulder.

[Blue & Gold]

Now that I think about it I'm surprised the game doesn't tip off at 8:00 (EST).  A standard 7:00 tip off for us is going to be a 6:00 tip for NIU (Central).

[clarkwgriswold]

An early start at NIU will cut the crowd by 25%, taking it down to double digits.

[Blue & Gold]

 

[zipsrule]

24 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said:

Now that I think about it I'm surprised the game doesn't tip off at 8:00 (EST).  A standard 7:00 tip off for us is going to be a 6:00 tip for NIU (Central).

ESPN is showing an 8:00 PM start.

Edited February 8, 2022 by zipsrule

[Blue & Gold]

ESPN+ is listing the tip off at 8:00 p.m.