OU Recap

[Zips Win!]

After a long day in Athens and a long drive back, here are my thoughts on the game.I had some time to visit the campus on Saturday and boy was I impressed. The uptown atmosphere was great. Numerous bars, restaurants, shops and many students hanging around. Too bad far to many OU students out and about don't know that their school colors are green and white, not red and silver....On to the game. It was a very nice atmosphere at the game. It seemed like well over 5,000 attended the game and the student turnout was great. They were loud and their cheers were great. Too bad we don't have over 500 students show up at the JAR.The game itself was a very physical game. Both sides played hard and physical inside. Unfortunately they got the better end of well, everything, especially the officiating. To begin, in an evenly matched game, how they shot 21 more FT's is embarrassing to the league. In each half, we were the first team to be in the penalty and while the majority of physical play was allowed-by both sides- when the whistles did began, we seemed to be getting called, not them. Rome seemed especially frustrated as their defense collapsed on him about every possesion and he could not get free. I must admit, it would be pretty tough when your getting hammered all the time. Give KD some credit, every time he got frustrated, he would rest him a minute. The last few minutes, OU was not covering him the same way and then he got and made his shots. We seem to play better when we get the ball inside, unfortunately we had way to many passes tipped before we could get it inside.Middleton was awesome all night long. His speed on D and in a few of the transition plays was great. The offensive foul in the middle of OU's run out in the second half was bullsh$t. Couple that with OU clearly charging on us (yet a block was called)a few plays before exemplified how the game went. Dials was pretty solid all night long. He hussles on every play at both ends. Liked his effort.Quade started strong and then fadded...He was jumping all over the gym on D, however. Boy has be come a long way!McKnight and Conyers seem to continue in their development. Neither seemed intimidated at all with the crowd. Dru and Wood seemed to struggle Saturday night. Didn't see the stat sheet, but it seemed like Dru had more turnovers than usual.Linhart too gave great effort....hit a few shots and played pretty well. He did foul out.Bubba on the other hand is a punk and a poor sportsman, although he definitely did improve his FT shooting. His initial 3 points were at the line on a phantom foul on Dials. The official waited and when the ball missed, then blew his whistle. Not sure how Frenchy called it, but when he hit his last three, he ran by our bench pumping his fist in an obvious taunt. How he wasn't teed up goes to show the lack of control the zebras had.Overall, I thought we hustled all night long. Nobody, even Rome, did not take the night off. While I wish the outcome was different, I've been around long enough to realize how tough it is to win on the road in the MAC....and when you are a -21 in FT differential, it's virtually impossible. If we continue to give this effort, we should be fine as the season plays out.

[Captain Kangaroo]

You drove down to Athens? For hoops AND football? We lost both games.The ZipsWin! jinx is alive and well! Thanks for the insight. You're always pretty objective about things. If you left the game feeling decent about our play, we must be doing ok.Miami beat K.e.n.t today, so Thursday's game will be interesting.

[GP1]

http://www.gozips.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPI...0&ATCLID=742888Game statistics.

[Zip N' Dots]

The game itself was a very physical game.  Both sides played hard and physical inside.  Unfortunately they got the better end of well, everything, especially the officiating.  To begin, in an evenly matched game, how they shot 21 more FT's is embarrassing to the league.  In each half, we were the first team to be in the penalty and while the majority of physical play was allowed-by both sides- when the whistles did began, we seemed to be getting called, not them.

This isn't the first time Ohio has had the calls this season in there favor. I was at the OU vs. UC game and the refs favored OU there as well. everytime Cincy started making a run the whistles started going. I believe UC had double the fouls in that game. Check the stats it is real close to a 2-1 ratio or more. This being said, apparently the MAC is backing OU this year!

[GP1]

Zips Win! posted this topic at approximately 10:00 PM last evening. After 177 views there are only three comments and only one of them is about the game itself.Perhaps it is because it was a road game or perhaps it is because the Zips seem to be a little sluggish, but does anyone sense a little apathy about the BB team? I would have thought that a loss to a divisional team and a good analysis of the game by Zips Win! would have generated more discussion.The BB needs to get some consecutive wins under their belt against good teams........and soon. When the bandwagon comes around the corner, there actually has to be something to hold on to for someone to jump on. Is there much to hold on to right now?Dambrot said in his post game interview that Akron did not get the ball inside enough to generate fouls and he felt that the lopsidedness of the fouls was because of strategy. Any thoughts?

[ScrewTheRoo]

While I wish the outcome was different, I've been around long enough to realize how tough it is to win on the road in the MAC....and when you are a -21 in FT differential, it's virtually impossible. If we continue to give this effort, we should be fine as the season plays out.

AS a couple others have mentioned, this is nothing new for the Bobcats. On the season, Ohio has attempted 375 ft's compared to their opponents 233 ft attempts. We really try to get the ball inside to Williams and Tillman, and Troutman and Davis are both very good at taking the ball to the hoop. The style of offense that we play just seems to generate a lot of foul calls. The only two games all year that we've shot fewer free throws than our opponents were (not surprisinly) the game @ Samford which we lost by 14, and the game @ Marshall which we lost by 10. I would expect Ohio to continue to get to the line more than their opponents becuase of their style of d.

[FearTheRoo]

Is it really unfathomable that a team could play cleaner defense than the other? This could also explain any uneven amount of fouls called in any competitive sport don't ya think? 99% of us "watched" this games through the eyes of Steve French. Mr. French is good at many things, but officiating has never been one of them.Folks, focus on something "we" can actually control: free throws. As I have said before, there is no excuse for something that can be practiced in your driveway. A good coach doesn't dedicate practice time to free throw shooting. That should come on the individual's time. I doubt KD spends practice time at the line.

[Bleacher Bum]

Dambrot said in his post game interview that Akron did not get the ball inside enough to generate fouls and he felt that the lopsidedness of the fouls was because of strategy. Any thoughts?

I was at the game and it seemed to me that when the guards would try to pass the ball into the paint to the big men, the pass was picked off. We turned the ball over 14 times, including 3 by Ced, 2 by Dials, and 2 by Joyce. I'm willing to bet that the majority of these seven TOs came trying to move the ball from the perimeter to the paint. Whether the result came from lazy passes or good defense is for you to decide. I'm not gonna rip apart the officiating too much. Whoever that bald guy was is the same guy that called the Can't game last year and gave them a lot of calls. Sure OU got to the line a lot more than we did. There were some bad calls, especially the two on Walther behind the arc (the whistles came after the shot had already missed the bucket), but the refs seemed to call a lot of violations on the Bobcats, including what I believe was three traveling calls in a matter of about two minutes. It was just a shame that after we would get a good call on a turnover, we seemed to get a bad call on a foul. I'm all for make-up calls if you make a mistake, but it did seem that most of OU's make-up calls put them at the line while ours just got us the ball.

[Captain Kangaroo]

I would have thought that a loss to a divisional team and a good analysis of the game by Zips Win! would have generated more discussion.

Puzzling...but it happens often. Hats off to ZipsWin and Bleacher Bum for the reports. While not many responses were listed, a ton of people read them.Interesting note (to me, at least): At lunch when I logged on there were 19 readers browsing, and only 5 of them were "registered." Many of those who enjoy this board elect not to post. To each his own.

[gozips19]

i agree with the post that akron is having trouble with the match up zone. there seems to be no flow to the game. i have yet to attend a game (plan to soon) so i'll ask is rome and wood not giving enough effort into getting open against the zone or are the guards really to blame? the only game i saw on tv was against uic and wood didnt' play. rome looked like he was asleep for half of the game. its up to these two to take akron to the next level. lets hope they understand what's expected of them

[Bleacher Bum]

Rome played his best noticeable ball in the last 10 minutes of the game. For the first 30, it seemed like he was afraid to attack the rim. We need to see the Rome of old pretty damn soon!

[Valpo Zip]

It is obvious that we should have taken the ball in the paint especially in a night when the threes were not falling. The reasons why that didn't happen are 2:1 - what bleacher bum mentionned about the many steals... it was soo bad to the extent that Bubba (who has doesn't play defense) got two steals.2 - Even when Rome and J-wood got the ball inside, they got canned quite few times. I believe that leon williams and tillman got 2-3 blockshots each on our big guys (no fouls called). After that, they seemed to give up on going inside.