ewbrooman1 Posted March 7, 2023 Report Share Posted March 7, 2023 6 hours ago, Let'sGoZips94 said: Good for him - heck of an entrance into the WAC. The key piece we're missing is on our bench recovering from an injury - Mikal Dawson being his name. Aziz would've been a nice piece, but this exact team - minus Mikal - went on a massive run to finish the season last year. During the time of that run, Aziz's playing time dwindled to almost nothing. I wish we had both Aziz and Mikal, but if I had to choose, I'd take Mikal. Cannot understate how big of a loss he is. 6 hours ago, Let'sGoZips94 said: Good for him - heck of an entrance into the WAC. The key piece we're missing is on our bench recovering from an injury - Mikal Dawson being his name. Aziz would've been a nice piece, but this exact team - minus Mikal - went on a massive run to finish the season last year. During the time of that run, Aziz's playing time dwindled to almost nothing. I wish we had both Aziz and Mikal, but if I had to choose, I'd take Mikal. Cannot understate how big of a loss he is. Not exactly. Ali was on this team and a key piece last year. He certainly would have helped this year assuming he wouldn't have the same injuries here. Hopefully Hunter can keep stepping up. Hankerson has been disappointing. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoyalZIP Posted March 7, 2023 Report Share Posted March 7, 2023 1 hour ago, ewbrooman1 said: Not exactly. Ali was on this team and a key piece last year. He certainly would have helped this year assuming he wouldn't have the same injuries here. Hopefully Hunter can keep stepping up. Hankerson has been disappointing. I wouldn’t go so far as to call Hankerson disappointing. I don’t think the staff ever saw him as the 3rd scoring option, nor should they have. That role was to be taken up by Hunter, but a dreadful start to the year and fairly forgettable MAC play left us relying on Freeman and Castaneda a little too much. He’s had 3 dynamite MAC games, a few “okay” MAC games, and way too many “what the hell?” MAC games. Hankerson was brought in specifically to be a role player, 3&D. He’s had his fair share of poor performances too, but he contributes a lot more than you see on the box score. Sammy’s defense has stuck out at times, but Hankerson’s defense has been really good all year. I would have hoped that both would be more consistent contributors, but for the entire sample size of a 31 game regular season, I still feel great when Hank shoots the ball but get nervous when Sammy does. At NIU, Hankerson was the best or second best scoring option on a bad team. When he’s the 3rd or 4th option behind X, Freeman, and a hot-shooting Hunter, you’ve got a championship contender. Couple different bounces Friday and we’d be feeling a lot better right now. How many wide open 3s has X missed from the wing this year? Not many. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RowdyZip Posted March 7, 2023 Report Share Posted March 7, 2023 Bryan Trimble left Missouri State in late January for "personal reasons" and has not played since. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Let'sGoZips94 Posted March 7, 2023 Report Share Posted March 7, 2023 13 hours ago, ewbrooman1 said: Not exactly. Ali was on this team and a key piece last year. He certainly would have helped this year assuming he wouldn't have the same injuries here. Hopefully Hunter can keep stepping up. Hankerson has been disappointing. I said it last year and I still stand by it. Ali was at best a bare minimum net positive. The number of possessions he killed nearly cancelled out his positive impact on the offensive end. It was X and Freeman that took that team to the next level to nearly knocked off. Ali's bad possessions actually were a major contributing factor in that loss. To diminish Mikal's absence and also say Hankerson has been a disappointment is contradictory. Is Hankerson disappointing if he isn't expected to be the 3rd best player on the team? He is this team's Channel Banks, who was the 4th best player on his respective team behind LCJ, X1.0, and Cheese. Banks' offensive struggles at times would've been a bigger problem if he was expected to be the 3rd option on that team. Insert Dawson on this year's squad, and Hankerson slots in as the #4 option. We'd be talking more about his defensive impact than focusing on his offensive woes. Dawson would be giving us 10-12 per game probably and playing outstanding D while providing huge energy. This team was constructed to have X2.0 and Freeman as the 1-2 punch at the top, Dawson as the versatile #3 scoring option + defense/rebounding, Hankerson as the #4 + defense, with Tribble to be the gadget defender. Hunter, Johnson, Mitchell, Tavari, and Clarke were intended to be the bonus guys. Instead, they've all been asked to do more than what was originally expected, and we've seen some of the growing pains that have come with that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkwgriswold Posted March 7, 2023 Report Share Posted March 7, 2023 15 hours ago, ewbrooman1 said: Not exactly. Ali was on this team and a key piece last year. He certainly would have helped this year assuming he wouldn't have the same injuries here. Hopefully Hunter can keep stepping up. Hankerson has been disappointing. A player's ability to be successful within the concepts of a Groce squad require that player to buy in completely. I'm not sure Ali was the guy to do that. Exhibit A- his departure. I think an uninjured Dawson and a returning Bandaogo would have gone a long way. What I wouldn't give for another quality big. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue & Gold Posted March 7, 2023 Report Share Posted March 7, 2023 We have better ball movement w/o Ali. I'm sure that is a big part of X's development this season. I certainly do not miss the Ali Ali Dribble-Dribble-Dribble-Dribble-Turnover/Forced Shot offense. Once in a while Ali could get hot. Those were fun games to watch, but were too few and far between and were at the detriment of team-ism. And sometimes Ali couldn't throw it into the ocean. But Ali was a very versatile defender & having a 6-8 ball handler was pretty great. As has already been mentioned, I believe losing Dawson was the biggest gut punch. He's our junkyard dog, someone you simply can't punk, a tenacious defender who's pretty capable of hitting from 3. Hope he comes back next season fully recovered from his achilles injury 🤞🙏 Speaking of Tenacious D 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkwgriswold Posted March 7, 2023 Report Share Posted March 7, 2023 The transfers remind me of a story I recently heard. An area college baseball coach had one of his kids come to him and tell him "coach, I'm thinking about entering the transfer portal" in hopes the coach would beg him to stay. The coach's response- "I recruited you once, I'm not doing it a second time." He then promptly showed him the door. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NWAkron Posted March 7, 2023 Report Share Posted March 7, 2023 21 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said: The transfers remind me of a story I recently heard. An area college baseball coach had one of his kids come to him and tell him "coach, I'm thinking about entering the transfer portal" in hopes the coach would beg him to stay. The coach's response- "I recruited you once, I'm not doing it a second time." He then promptly showed him the door. Lamont Paris has his hands full with a 5* recruit at South Carolina who complained a month ago on social media that he didn't get the final shot: "Can you help me answer that question, Chris bro?" Jackson responded as someone chiming in about the game. "Why don't I have the ball in my hands when it's crunch time, bro? Ain't I supposed to be this 'oh my God it's GG Jackson!' I don't see myself as that but ain't I supposed to be quote-unquote 'that'? Just give me that motherf*****. S*** is crazy bro, for real." Down by just one point with less than ten seconds remaining, South Carolina went to senior transfer Hayden Brown on a backdoor cut which got him a good look at the rim. But Brown missed the go-ahead shot leading to an Arkansas rebound. And add this: The South Carolina men's basketball team lost their seventh straight home game of the season Tuesday night to Vanderbilt, but the biggest news to come out of the Gamecocks' latest setback was five-star freshman GG Jackson being largely checked out for the third consecutive contest. South Carolina's top scorer this season has played sparingly over the past week, contributing seven points in 28 total minutes in two games. Earlier this month, Jackson voiced his displeasure on social media with how he's being utilized. The Gamecocks signed Jackson before the season after his widely-publicized flip from UNC as one of the top players of the recruiting cycle. "I'm sure he's frustrated," South Carolina first-year coach Lamont Paris said. "I'm committed to and will always play the guys who give us the best chance to win." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJGood Posted March 8, 2023 Report Share Posted March 8, 2023 On 3/6/2023 at 4:33 PM, Let'sGoZips94 said: Good for him - heck of an entrance into the WAC. The key piece we're missing is on our bench recovering from an injury - Mikal Dawson being his name. Aziz would've been a nice piece, but this exact team - minus Mikal - went on a massive run to finish the season last year. During the time of that run, Aziz's playing time dwindled to almost nothing. I wish we had both Aziz and Mikal, but if I had to choose, I'd take Mikal. Cannot understate how big of a loss he is. Don’t get me wrong. I am not discounting Dawson in any way. I just feel like we have other guys who can at least partially fill that role but while I love watching Enrique play he doesn’t have that alter every shot ability of a Zeke/Aziz type and the Zips don’t have anybody else like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LZIp Posted March 8, 2023 Report Share Posted March 8, 2023 10 minutes ago, GJGood said: Don’t get me wrong. I am not discounting Dawson in any way. I just feel like we have other guys who can at least partially fill that role but while I love watching Enrique play he doesn’t have that alter every shot ability of a Zeke/Aziz type and the Zips don’t have anybody else like that. While I don't necessarily disagree that Enrique isn't the type of shot blocker that Zeke or Aziz were/are, he did win conference DPOY last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJGood Posted March 9, 2023 Report Share Posted March 9, 2023 11 hours ago, LZIp said: While I don't necessarily disagree that Enrique isn't the type of shot blocker that Zeke or Aziz were/are, he did win conference DPOY last year. Oh I know and by no means is he a liability in any way I am only saying he doesn’t intimidate the same way as a true big rim protector. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Kangaroo Posted March 9, 2023 Report Share Posted March 9, 2023 Ali pours in 5 in a losing effort tonight. Butler’s season comes to a merciful end. The good news is - Ali will have an open schedule to cheer on his former coach & team at Rocket Mortgage starting tomorrow! #alwaysazip 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zip JD Posted March 10, 2023 Report Share Posted March 10, 2023 21 hours ago, Captain Kangaroo said: Ali pours in 5 in a losing effort tonight. Butler’s season comes to a merciful end. The good news is - Ali will have an open schedule to cheer on his former coach & team at Rocket Mortgage starting tomorrow! #alwaysazip #ShouldHaveStayedAZip or #AlwaysStayAZip The choice is his. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoyalZIP Posted March 10, 2023 Report Share Posted March 10, 2023 Perusing the interwebs reading up on the games from today and watching Aziz and Utah Valley in the WAC quarters. He is a BEAST. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoyalZIP Posted March 10, 2023 Report Share Posted March 10, 2023 As I typed that, he stuffed 3 shots at one end, ran the floor and caught a lob the other way 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z.I.P. Posted March 15, 2023 Report Share Posted March 15, 2023 WAC regular season champs UVU starts NIT play at New Mexico tonight. Imagine if Aziz had stayed and we had a rim protector averaging nearly 3 blocks per game! https://www.abqjournal.com/2581868/nit-basketball-new-mexico-men-get-the-home-court-but-face-tall-order-in-utah-valley.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1678898424 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RowdyZip Posted March 17, 2023 Report Share Posted March 17, 2023 Little bit of a throwback here for one of the recruits I was incredibly excited for...that never played a minute for the Zips: https://fmuathletics.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=1986 Eric Hester ended his career last year at NAIA Florida Memorial University averaging 10 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zippy87 Posted March 17, 2023 Report Share Posted March 17, 2023 On 3/7/2023 at 5:55 PM, clarkwgriswold said: The transfers remind me of a story I recently heard. An area college baseball coach had one of his kids come to him and tell him "coach, I'm thinking about entering the transfer portal" in hopes the coach would beg him to stay. The coach's response- "I recruited you once, I'm not doing it a second time." He then promptly showed him the door. The player may have had genuine concerns about fit, development, opportunity. If coach was that quick to assume he wanted him to beg and just dismissed him, Coach is going to struggle with the new reality of college athletics. Re-recruiting your best players is vital now. Some may not like it, but it is what it is. Either adapt or become a dinosaur IMO. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkwgriswold Posted March 17, 2023 Report Share Posted March 17, 2023 Just now, Zippy87 said: The player may have had genuine concerns about fit, development, opportunity. If coach was that quick to assume he wanted him to beg and just dismissed him, Coach is going to struggle with the new reality of college athletics. Re-recruiting your best players is vital now. Some may not like it, but it is what it is. Either adapt or become a dinosaur IMO. Agreed. This was not a curious kid. This was a kid that overvalued his position and was generally a PITA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reslife4Life Posted March 23, 2023 Report Share Posted March 23, 2023 Aziz just missed a dagger dunk against Cincinnati in the NIT quarterfinal, I guess that part of his game stayed with him lol. But he is having a solid game, glad he is succeeding at Utah valley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zip JD Posted March 23, 2023 Report Share Posted March 23, 2023 6 hours ago, Reslife4Life said: Aziz just missed a dagger dunk against Cincinnati in the NIT quarterfinal, I guess that part of his game stayed with him lol. But he is having a solid game, glad he is succeeding at Utah valley His stat line was 15 pts (4/9 field, 7/10 foul line), 12 boards, 4 blocks and 2 assists to only 1 turnover in a 6-point win over Cincy. I knew he would get better, but I had no idea he would be this good, this quick. It's amazing he's still playing two weeks after the entire MAC is done for the season. Good for him but I wish he was still in the blue and gold. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kreed5120 Posted March 23, 2023 Report Share Posted March 23, 2023 2 hours ago, Zip JD said: His stat line was 15 pts (4/9 field, 7/10 foul line), 12 boards, 4 blocks and 2 assists to only 1 turnover in a 6-point win over Cincy. I knew he would get better, but I had no idea he would be this good, this quick. It's amazing he's still playing two weeks after the entire MAC is done for the season. Good for him but I wish he was still in the blue and gold. I don't think he'd turn into this player had he stayed. He's a talent, but he would have always been stuck behind Freeman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue & Gold Posted March 23, 2023 Report Share Posted March 23, 2023 Just now, kreed5120 said: I don't think he'd turn into this player had he stayed. He's a talent, but he would have always been stuck behind Freeman. I almost just posted the same. Selfishly, of course I wish he was still in the blue & gold. But this turned out to be a good move for Aziz. If he were still here he'd still be a reserve next year too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kreed5120 Posted March 23, 2023 Report Share Posted March 23, 2023 39 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said: I almost just posted the same. Selfishly, of course I wish he was still in the blue & gold. But this turned out to be a good move for Aziz. If he were still here he'd still be a reserve next year too. Unfortunately for him his coach bolted to BGSU and who knows what kind of roster fall out that will create. He might get stuck on a gutted team considering he burned his free transfer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoyalZIP Posted March 23, 2023 Report Share Posted March 23, 2023 Just now, kreed5120 said: Unfortunately for him his coach bolted to BGSU and who knows what kind of roster fall out that will create. He might get stuck on a gutted team considering he burned his free transfer. That was Southern Utah, not Utah Valley. UVU’s head coach is former Laker Mark Madsen. NIT Final Four is pretty cool. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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