Game 3- Morgan State

[clarkwgriswold]

The Bears of Morgan State come into the JAR Tuesday night to face the Zips.

 

The Bears were predicted to finish 4th in Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Preseason Poll.  6-4 senior guard Malik Miller was named to All-MEAC second team.  Last year, Miller led  led Morgan State in scoring and rebounding (12.8 ppg, 8.8 rpg).  6-6 grad student David McCullough has been their second leading scorer thus far, averaging 17 ppg.  The Bears also added transfer Khalil Turner, a 6-8 junior who averaged 14.2 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.9 blocks at Miami Dade College in Florida last season.

 

The Bears are 1-1 going into today’s game against VCU, having lost to Xavier 96-73 and beaten Penn State Greater Allegheny 130-49.

[Let'sGoZips94]

1 hour ago, clarkwgriswold said:

The Bears of Morgan State come into the JAR Tuesday night to face the Zips.

 

The Bears were predicted to finish 4th in Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Preseason Poll.  6-4 senior guard Malik Miller was named to All-MEAC second team.  Last year, Miller led  led Morgan State in scoring and rebounding (12.8 ppg, 8.8 rpg).  6-6 grad student David McCullough has been their second leading scorer thus far, averaging 17 ppg.  The Bears also added transfer Khalil Turner, a 6-8 junior who averaged 14.2 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.9 blocks at Miami Dade College in Florida last season.

 

The Bears are 1-1 going into today’s game against VCU, having lost to Xavier 96-73 and beaten Penn State Greater Allegheny 130-49.

 

Do you think they market this to their fans as "Men's Basketball program beat PENN STATE Greater Allegheny 130-49" ?

[mrelegazna]

2 hours ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

Do you think they market this to their fans as "Men's Basketball program beat PENN STATE Greater Allegheny 130-49" ?

Related: Penn State Greater Allegheny is one of 14 PSU braches that plays in the PSU Athletic Conference.  

ALL of the schools are named "Lions" or "Nittany Lions." They all seem to use one of the two common Penn State logos.

Your own identities, who needs 'em? And who needs games that don't look like practice scrimmages?

[clarkwgriswold]

Penn State Greater Allegheny is one of the best basketball teams in White Oak, Pennsylvania.

[GoZips88]

13 hours ago, clarkwgriswold said:

Penn State Greater Allegheny is one of the best basketball teams in White Oak, Pennsylvania.

 

Thinking ahead to future scheduling, PSGA would be a GREAT 'get' ... TFOH. 

 

                               

[NWAkron]

Really excited about this game!!

[LZIp]

Morgan State played somewhat reasonable vs VCU, only losing by 15. I've noticed a trend thus far in CBB following Jon Rothstein on twitter, the typical cupcakes are pulling off upsets. We better be ready, and a closer win wouldn't mean the sky is falling.

[clarkwgriswold]

3 hours ago, LZIp said:

Morgan State played somewhat reasonable vs VCU, only losing by 15. I've noticed a trend thus far in CBB following Jon Rothstein on twitter, the typical cupcakes are pulling off upsets. We better be ready, and a closer win wouldn't mean the sky is falling.

 

I try to reserve my "sky is falling" until about 1/3 into the MAC schedule!

[GoZips86]

I haven't been able to watch a Zips bball game yet, and I know he's played only a small amount of minutes, but any thoughts on Tavari Johnson, yet? I was excited when he committed. This is probably a very early question, but oh well lol

[LZIp]

22 minutes ago, GoZips86 said:

I haven't been able to watch a Zips bball game yet, and I know he's played only a small amount of minutes, but any thoughts on Tavari Johnson, yet? I was excited when he committed. This is probably a very early question, but oh well lol

He played a few minutes at the end of Miss St. Didn't do much, but didn't have much opportunity either. His build kind of reminded me of Garvin Clarke offhand, not that that means much. He may get more opportunity if we continue to struggle to score. Hasn't been in rotation the first 2 games.

[LoyalZIP]

I’d like to see a healthy amount of Kobe Mitchell, Tavari Johnson, Nate Johnson, and Amani Lyles in this game. A 30-point lead with 10 to go would be great, or throw them out there early and see if they can win it for you. This group has a lot of work to do before a tough trip to the Caymans. 
 

I don’t expect that to happen, but I wouldn’t be mad if I did. The top 7-8 have a lot of work to do themselves.  

[Let'sGoZips94]

1 hour ago, clarkwgriswold said:

 

I try to reserve my "sky is falling" until about 1/3 into the MAC schedule!

 

After last year, I think the "sky is falling" card needs to be reserved until we're down by more than 1 possession with 1 second to go in a MAC tournament game.

 

 

Anybody who has seen the team in practice - thoughts on Ryan Prather getting time as a freshman? He was pretty highly touted with offers from schools like Wichita State.

[The Hip Zip]

-13'

[zipsrowdy88]

13 hours ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

Anybody who has seen the team in practice - thoughts on Ryan Prather getting time as a freshman? He was pretty highly touted with offers from schools like Wichita State.

I doubt Prather will see the floor this year. Him and Prince appear to be getting the John Groce freshman treatment.

[zipsrowdy88]

I really would love to see a nice bounce back game. Morgan State is not a bad team at all. They pushed a fantastic VCU team to the point where they were leading at half. But in all honesty, we clearly are not an at large team. So, I just want to see that the offense is working a little smoother. Specifically Greg, who was HIGHLY touted out of HS. I saw some comments about his commitment and he was very heavily recruited out of HS. Only came here due to the Asst. Coach being his old head coach at Huntington Prep. He has extreme athleticism and I would imagine that Groce will find ways to free him up. The problem is that we cannot hit water from a boat right now. Why would they guard Sammy, Garv, Greg, from 3? They can smush enrique out of the paint and then we are in trouble. Need to see progress tonight.

[Blue & Gold]

37 minutes ago, zipsrowdy88 said:

I really would love to see a nice bounce back game. Morgan State is not a bad team at all. They pushed a fantastic VCU team to the point where they were leading at half. But in all honesty, we clearly are not an at large team. So, I just want to see that the offense is working a little smoother. Specifically Greg, who was HIGHLY touted out of HS. I saw some comments about his commitment and he was very heavily recruited out of HS. Only came here due to the Asst. Coach being his old head coach at Huntington Prep. He has extreme athleticism and I would imagine that Groce will find ways to free him up. The problem is that we cannot hit water from a boat right now. Why would they guard Sammy, Garv, Greg, from 3? They can smush enrique out of the paint and then we are in trouble. Need to see progress tonight.

Precisely. Miss. St. wasn't even guarding Tribble for some possessions Friday night.  If I were a Zips opponent I'd also let Garvin shoot all day from 3. If Garvin kills you with the 3-ball then the basketball gods were simply against you. Greg & Garvin may not have the typical D-1 guard basketball skillset, but they do have D-1 athleticism (Tribble possessing elite athleticism) so can make up for it with hustle & intense defense (which is priority #1 in Groce Ball).

 

As soon as I heard about Dawson's injury my stomach sank & my high hopes for this season were tempered. He's our junkyard dog who can also stroke it from distance.  Nate Johnson is supremely athletic but is another guard seemingly hesitant to hoist the 3.  As the season goes on I hope the game slows down for the redshirt freshman & he can just let it all hang out & let it fly.

 

On the bright side, I really do think Sammy's jump shot looks good - just a little off right now.  Hopefully he doesn't get into his own head and keeps shooting; shooters shoot. He also looks pretty good down low. I like his game & hopefully he'll come along as the team figures out their chemistry and respective roles.  I also have faith Hankerson will be a decent one. Numbers don't lie, so he'll be shooting his average here sooner rather than later.

Edited November 15, 2022 by Blue & Gold

[Blue & Gold]

44 minutes ago, zipsrowdy88 said:

I doubt Prather will see the floor this year. Him and Prince appear to be getting the John Groce freshman treatment.

It does. Not surprising but a little disappointing. They were both 3-star recruits so I thought they'd at least make the 8-9 rotation.  They're obviously not playing with the defensive intensity Groce demands.

 

Do you think that's the problem with Kobe Mitchell not earning any more PT than he is? This team desperately needs another 3-point threat so I thought PT would be falling directly into Kobe's lap. But not thus far.

[kreed5120]

Not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but we got a 3 games in 3 days tournament coming up. I don't know how we can survive that with a 7-man rotation, especially when our M.O. is maximum effort for 40 minutes. I'd love to see us able to put this game away early that way we can get some other guys some much needed experience.

[clarkwgriswold]

23 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said:

As soon as I heard about Dawson's injury my stomach sank & my high hopes for this season were tempered. He's our junkyard dog who can also stroke it from distance.  Nate Johnson is supremely athletic but is another guard seemingly hesitant to hoist the 3.  As the season goes on I hope the game slows down for the redshirt freshman & he can just let it all hang out & let it fly.

 

 

Johnson is also being called upon to be the 3rd big man, so his outside shooting is going to be limited.

 

I suspect we'll see an effort made by the coaching staff to get Hunter more involved tonight and get him in a rhythm.   More pick and pop type scenarios.

[Let'sGoZips94]

This is the perfect game at this point in our schedule. It's not too easy where we'll be complacent (at least I hope not), and it's not overly difficult where we won't be able to fine tune the lineup & rotations. 

 

Things I would like to see...

 

- Amani Lyles have a nice game down low. With Hunter being somewhat of a threat from beyond the arc, we need another bruiser down low to help Freeman in the paint. 

 

- Double digits from at least one of Nate Johnson and/or Hankerson. 

 

- Aggressive drives with more control from Tribble. I don't need him to be a shooter, but I need him to have better control when he takes it to the basket. These "living on a prayer" shots after he gets into the paint are momentum killers. 

 

- Find at least one more person to enter the rotation to help keep legs fresh. The margin of defeat on Friday was due to fatigue. 

[Blue & Gold]

11 minutes ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

- Double digits from at least one of Nate Johnson and/or Hankerson. 

 

I'll be thrilled if Johnson hits double-digits tonight, and disappointed if Hankerson does not.

[Blue & Gold]

12 minutes ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

- Amani Lyles have a nice game down low. With Hunter being somewhat of a threat from beyond the arc, we need another bruiser down low to help Freeman in the paint. 

Tonight may be a good measuring stick of the potential of Amani Lyles as during the first two games the true freshman was thrown into the fire going up against some top-shelf D-1 bigs.

[GoZips86]

Excited to watch tonight! First game I'll be able to catch this season, lets goooo!!!

[clarkwgriswold]

My first thought was that they might try to get Hunter involved by feeding him in the post against a smaller team, but after looking at the roster they are not the smaller squad we usually play at the is juncture.  As such, I could see them running some pick and rolls to him until they adjust then go to pick and pops to the three point line as they back away suspecting another pick and roll.  We'll see.

[Z.I.P.]

4 hours ago, Blue & Gold said:

Precisely. Miss. St. wasn't even guarding Tribble for some possessions Friday night.  If I were a Zips opponent I'd also let Garvin shoot all day from 3. If Garvin kills you with the 3-ball then the basketball gods were simply against you. Greg & Garvin may not have the typical D-1 guard basketball skillset, but they do have D-1 athleticism (Tribble possessing elite athleticism) so can make up for it with hustle & intense defense (which is Nate Johnson is supremely athletic but is another guard seemingly hesitant to hoist the 3.  As the season goes on I hope the game slows down for the redshirt freshman & he can just let it all hang out & let it fly.

FYI, Nate Johnson and Kobe Mitchell are still listed on the roster at GoZips.com as sophomores.  FWIW.