2022-2023 Zips Women's Basketball

[Basketballfan1]

I think if you look at the last two seasons of Jodi they were 2-16 and 3-15. Coach Jackson inherited those recruits. Even though she was part of that process, she wasn’t the final say. Regardless, she’s building a dominant program. She’s well respected and the fans love her. She’s had 2 winning seasons in the mac. One ok season and the COVID year. I’ve noticed people bringing up Dawson a lot. She brought her here and built a winning team around her talents. As soon as she leaves she builds another team around the talents of the players she’s brought in and they’re off to the races. 
I understand wanting to have winning programs in the big 4. You’ve got great talent in Groce and Jackson. Both have proved it. Give this poor woman a contract and figure what to do with the empty stadium and failing football program. 

[LZIp]

Who gives out contract extensions in the first half of a season? No one. Complaining about extensions/Guthrie is premature.

Edited January 16, 2023 by LZIp

[Basketballfan1]

20 hours ago, LoyalZIP said:

I’m a huge fan of Melissa Jackson, she’s been a part of nearly all of the major success this program has ever had. That cannot be argued. And I think it was pretty unfair to not give her a bit of an extension after last season.

 

With that said, she is indeed a great recruiter as was previously stated. But there are a lot of red flags with this program. 
 

1. I think player development leaves a ton to be desired. Jodi Kest’s final recruiting class wasn’t great. Melissa was on that staff, of course. I don’t think any one of those players was notably better the day they left the program than the day they entered. In the classes since, Layne Ferrell has emerged, as has Molly Neitzel. But I don’t see much development behind them. As for Neitzel, she’s had a foot out the door for a lot of her Akron career, I’m glad she stuck around for this final year. Coach figured out how to use her at the end of the 20-21 season, and it has worked out well. 
 

2. The aforementioned in-game coaching issues. 
 

3. Not sure who to place the blame on, but a lot of the players aren’t in great physical shape. They get gassed much quicker than a lot of teams in this league, and the lack of depth makes it much more evident, especially when BG is running press and has fresh legs late in the 4th quarter. This isn’t a 2023 issue. It dates back to 18-19. 
 

Yesterday’s game was not the end of the world and will not be what does her in. But it certainly brought a spotlight to some of the issues. However, if it had been a close game the entire way, or even if BG had led by 7-10 points all day, I wouldn’t be as concerned as I am right now. The Zips had them dead to rights multiple times throughout the entire game. They led 28-15 middle of the 2Q and missed 4 consecutive shots. They wound up going into the break with a 9 point lead. Akron’s starting guards had 3x more TOs in the ball game than BG. Very troublesome stuff, IMO. But it’s a long season, and I believe in this group. They can learn from this and make some noise in the MAC once again. 

Curious if people are picking apart Coach Vanderveer like this today. Held to 46 points by an unranked team. Wonder what their message board looks like

[ewbrooman1]

2 hours ago, Basketballfan1 said:

Curious if people are picking apart Coach Vanderveer like this today. Held to 46 points by an unranked team. Wonder what their message board looks like

Considering Coach Vanderveer has over 1,000 more wins in her career I'm guessing she's getting a bit more leeway, but there's probably somebody questioning her. 

[zippy-claws]

23 hours ago, LoyalZIP said:

3. Not sure who to place the blame on, but a lot of the players aren’t in great physical shape. They get gassed much quicker than a lot of teams in this league, and the lack of depth makes it much more evident, especially when BG is running press and has fresh legs late in the 4th quarter. This isn’t a 2023 issue. It dates back to 18-19. 

 

I agree that's an issue.  But one of the factors here is the up-temp game that MJ runs.  This team is up and down the court a lot, and rarely walks the ball up or runs a more patented offense.  Part of that is the 30-second clock, but it's a run-and-gun offense, get the ball to the bigs before the D gets set.  Like others have mentioned, the bench is not deep and so this lends to the fatigue level at the end of the games.  The way this game was lost is the issue, because if you watched on TV or in person, you'd have to admit the Zips dominated right out of the gate, and looked so much more aggressive than Wednesday night at EMU.  Fatigue and doubt crept in and BGSU took advantage of it. 

[72 Roo]

 Most posters on this site are MJ fans. We want her to succeed. If you are reading otherwise that's your problem. Since the end of last season the coach has had all that time to decide on her offense and how she was going to execute it. She has had nearly 9 months to develop or find the bodies to give us depth to support an up tempo style of play. Stinson looks fine when out on the court. In fact I see nice growth from her. She is moving her feet and learning what D1 conditioning demands. Thorpe and Stewart look to be lost and they play like it. No other significant PT is handed out. Coach has an issue and we hope she has a plan to solve it. If so we will be awesome for four quarters, not three. 

[LoyalZIP]

11 hours ago, zippy-claws said:

 

I agree that's an issue.  But one of the factors here is the up-temp game that MJ runs.  This team is up and down the court a lot, and rarely walks the ball up or runs a more patented offense.  Part of that is the 30-second clock, but it's a run-and-gun offense, get the ball to the bigs before the D gets set.  Like others have mentioned, the bench is not deep and so this lends to the fatigue level at the end of the games.  The way this game was lost is the issue, because if you watched on TV or in person, you'd have to admit the Zips dominated right out of the gate, and looked so much more aggressive than Wednesday night at EMU.  Fatigue and doubt crept in and BGSU took advantage of it. 

 

Bingo. I think the overall style they play is what concerns me about how they will do once it comes down to Cleveland. Camp, while a huge addition, is way out of control at times. And when they get into situations like Saturday, decision making goes south and the passing is just abysmal. The Zips were dominating that game, the play-by-play tells the story. They went 4 straight empty possessions with a big lead in the 2nd quarter that could have given them a massive halftime lead. Without that one player to rely on for a bucket, this team looks real volatile to me at times. And that was just the case Saturday, in the blink of an eye, 30 minutes of stellar play was gone. 

[Z.I.P.]

Zips face 3-12 Central Michigan at the JAR tonight. It seems if there were EVER a time to give more players an opportunity to see the floor, tonight is the time.

 

Also, Toledo travels down to face the Bowling Green Falcons in a duel with post-season positioning built in.

[LoyalZIP]

Indeed a great opportunity to bounce back tonight. CMU has fallen out of  basketball relevance under Heather Osterle. She has not been able to build or maintain on what Sue Guevara built there, and it’s opened the door for programs like Akron to take a spot at the top of the league. I’d love to see the Zips dominate this one tonight, getting a lot of minutes from the likes of Thorpe, Stewart, Stinson, Miller, and Rasheed. 

[zipsrule]

After a slow start, the Zips get an 80-65 win.

[LoyalZIP]

Much better tonight. They weathered the storm of their worst start of the year to rally and dominate. CMU is pretty bad, but the Zips deserve a ton of credit. They were tough and took a lot of punches early. CMU was physical but Akron didn’t back down. Camp was superb running the show. Keep it rolling, Go Zips!

[Blue & Gold]

CMU has a couple tough freshman.

 

Faith Stinson played great D on CMU’s gargantuan center.

[NWAkron]

22 minutes ago, LoyalZIP said:

Much better tonight. They weathered the storm of their worst start of the year to rally and dominate. CMU is pretty bad, but the Zips deserve a ton of credit. They were tough and took a lot of punches early. CMU was physical but Akron didn’t back down. Camp was superb running the show. Keep it rolling, Go Zips!

So Zips are about #4 after Code Red, Toledo, and BG?  The manner they lost to BG was bad but understandable loss I guess.

[LoyalZIP]

46 minutes ago, NWAkron said:

So Zips are about #4 after Code Red, Toledo, and BG?  The manner they lost to BG was bad but understandable loss I guess.

I would agree with that. Akron and Kent are pretty similar in terms of “power rankings.”  I want the Zips to get the 3 seed if they don’t win the regular season so they play the last game on quarterfinal day and I’d be more likely to be able to go. 

[ewbrooman1]

Women lose at Toledo 76-63. Key was a 12-2 run by the Rockettes in the last 4 minutes or so of the 2Q to finish a 23-11 quarter. Camp struggled mightily from the field going 4 for 17. Bass led team with 24 points, but all of our bigs struggled defensively against Toledo's wide bodied bigs. Little from Zips bench other than decent minutes from Stinson.  Frustrating to watch Zips force so many passes down low when there is nothing there. Former Zip Lonasia Brewer contributed 4 points and 5 rebounds for Toledo.

 

On to Muncie for another tough one.

 

 

Edited January 21, 2023 by ewbrooman1

[LoyalZIP]

From what I watched, the Zips looked really good for a lot of the game. Just too many big spurts for Toledo. It’ll be a fun tournament this year, this thing is wide open. 

[LoyalZIP]

Blowout night in the MAC. Zips getting throttled at Ball State, Kent running away at NIU, Toledo curb-stomping Miami, EMU hammering WMU. BG picks up a big win at Buffalo. 

[ewbrooman1]

Zips are trending toward falling back to the middle of the pack. Their 4 wins are against lower third teams and 3 losses are against the top three. Just didn't come out ready to play tonight and Ball State took it to them. Need to regroup and maybe get some revenge against Toledo and Ball State when they come to the JAR and at least hold serve against Kent State. Continue to beat the teams you're supposed to and sneak a couple other wins in.

Edited January 26, 2023 by ewbrooman1

[zippy-claws]

The women never seem ready to play from tip-off.  I'm not the stat geek, and don't want to take the time, but how many times have we been waaay down at the start and have to fight out way back.  Eastern Michigan for sure, Central Michigan as well.  Both games in Florida vs. Stetson and Bethune Cookman.  Miami too.  Last night they got completely away from their game plan (or what I thought it was) right from the start when BSU was draining 3s.  In the Zips defense (or lack of it!) they've ran across some unbelievable 3-point shooting opponents, but it doesn't seem like the shots are really contested.  Oh well, we'll see how Saturday goes.  Hoped more men's games fans would stick around after the last double-header, I know after these last 2 results they won't, sadly.  But...Go Zips!

[ewbrooman1]

9 hours ago, zippy-claws said:

 Oh well, we'll see how Saturday goes.  Hoped more men's games fans would stick around after the last double-header, I know after these last 2 results they won't, sadly.  But...Go Zips!

I've done the doubleheader thing numerous times and it is a long day, especially when there is more than a half hour between games as is likely Saturday with 2pm and 5pm scheduled tips. I think there is a better chance of exposure/attendance for the women's game if it is first. That way fans may get there a little early before the men's game to see the excitement of the women's second half.

Edited January 27, 2023 by ewbrooman1

[Blue & Gold]

33 minutes ago, ewbrooman1 said:

I've done the doubleheader thing numerous times and it is a long day, especially when there is more than a half hour between games as is likely Saturday with 2pm and 5pm scheduled tips. I think there is a better chance of exposure/attendance for the women's game if it is first. That way fans may get there a little early before the men's game to see the excitement of the women's second half.

That’s a good idea.

[LoyalZIP]

I feel really bad when the women are the second game, especially if the men’s game is a wild and loud game. Then as the women are warming up, the atmosphere leaves as the people leave. It’s too bad, it’s Akron athletics and if you’ve got time to kill it’s a fun time. 

[ewbrooman1]

Just as a point of reference, NIU also has a home doubleheader tomorrow. Women play BGSU at 1 CST and tip off for men against Ball State is scheduled for 3:30. 🤔

[LoyalZIP]

1 hour ago, ewbrooman1 said:

Just as a point of reference, NIU also has a home doubleheader tomorrow. Women play BGSU at 1 CST and tip off for men against Ball State is scheduled for 3:30. 🤔

I believe the next double-header is flipped so the women are first. 

[zippy-claws]

On 1/26/2023 at 8:23 PM, ewbrooman1 said:

I think there is a better chance of exposure/attendance for the women's game if it is first.

Exactly!  This is the way to go...