Game 7- Marshall

[LZIp]

5 minutes ago, Bigzip1 said:

Good/Great players add to and improve their games I just haven’t seen that from Freeman. He seems like a nice young man but I’m actually watching games not just fanboy’ing. This year he’s struggled elevating over length and with making reads/passing out of doubles. He has no 15 ft shot and no faceup moves whatsoever. He’s been the same player the past 2 seasons you guys have to understand that teams will figure you out I just think the jig is up.

Fair observation. Freeman definitely isn’t playing as good as he was at the end of last year. Hopefully he can get back to form because we need it.

 

I don’t particularly think anyone of the team is carrying the weight of their role right now except #5.

Edited December 1, 2022 by LZIp

[Blue & Gold]

6 minutes ago, 1981 grad said:

It was not hard being the best player tonight but the Zips always start cold and as I stated earlier he should be starting at the one.  Not sure if it would have made any difference tonight when X goes 1 of 12 from the field and 1 of 4 from the free throw line.  This team cannot win if X plays like that.  The Zips missed a lot of open shots.  I thought Nate Johnson had a bad game.  He played a lot of minutes and I think he scored only 2 points.  I know at the end of the game he passed up on a 3 ball and then turned it over.  We could not even make our fouls shots tonight.  If you do not shoot the ball well you are not going to win.  

You and I are on the same page. I say start Tavari at PG, X & Henderson with Sammy & Freeman and cross our fingers that X has his usually solid game, while Hankerson & Sammy find their strokes.
 

Nate, Clarke, and Tribble off the bench.

 

The announcers noted something I’ve thought myself and that is that Sammy’s shot looks good & fluid. It’s just not falling. Idk.

[Let'sGoZips94]

7 minutes ago, Bigzip1 said:

Good/Great players add to and improve their games I just haven’t seen that from Freeman. He seems like a nice young man but I’m actually watching games not just fanboy’ing. This year he’s struggled elevating over length and with making reads/passing out of doubles. He has no 15 ft shot and no faceup moves whatsoever. He’s been the same player the past 2 seasons you guys have to understand that teams will figure you out I just think the jig is up.

 

The games I'm watching are showing a player that was statistically one of the best players in the country last year, having zero help around him, sticking to his bread & butter to try and get any little bucket possible because this team desperately needs that.

 

If this team is shooting 35%+ from 3 and he's still struggling like he did tonight, I'll consider being more critical of Freeman. 

[Blue & Gold]

We’re really missing Dawson’s shooting from the wing. I think Nate Johnson is going to be a future pro, but he’s way to hesitant shooting the ball right now.

[monrowe]

36 minutes ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

FIFY.

There’s eight to eleven shooters on the team but most of them are  undersized except sammy.

[Blue & Gold]

Oh, btw, what the heck was up with Kobe’s full court pass off the backboard? 🧐

[BigGreenTruck]

1 hour ago, kreed5120 said:

I actually like these announcers. I wish they did Akron's games

The announcers are Mark Martin who was WCHS Channel 8 in Charleston sport's anchor for 20+ years, now he does freelance work around the state including Marshall basketball and football games. And Coach Bob Bolen, Bolen spent 19 years at NAIA Mountain State (Closed after the 2012 year) as the AD and basketball coach. He guided the Cougars to the NAIA Championship game in 2003 as runner ups and then won the NAIA Title in 2004. They also made it to the Final 4 in MSUs last year.

 

And it was Bolen that said "He can't shoot when he smells popcorn", I think Im'a have to steal that line.

[kreed5120]

41 minutes ago, LZIp said:

Fair observation. Freeman definitely isn’t playing as good as he was at the end of last year. Hopefully he can get back to form because we need it.

 

I don’t particularly think anyone of the team is carrying the weight of their role right now except #5.

 

I feel the big difference is last years team had better shooters. Dawson and Ali were proven perimeter shooters, which made it harder for teams to send hard double teams at Freeman. When they did Freeman is a proficient enough passer to get them the ball for the open 3. Freeman is still making those passes, but the difference is Hankerson, Hunter, & Tribble aren't making them where as last year Dawson & Ali would make them. If I'm playing Akron I'm sending weak side help to double Freeman any time he touches the ball in the paint. 

Edited December 1, 2022 by kreed5120

[NWAkron]

12 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

 

I feel the big difference is last years team had better shooters. Dawson and Ali were proven perimeter shooters, which made it harder for teams to send hard double teams at Freeman. When they did Freeman is a proficient enough passer to get them the ball for the open 3. Freeman is still making those passes, but the difference is Hankerson, Hunter, & Tribble aren't making them where as last year Dawson & Ali would make them. If I'm playing Akron I'm sending weak side help to double Freeman any time he touches the ball in the paint. 

Dawson was another one who could make 3s all day in practice but couldn't get it going until...the end of last year's season.   At this mid major level, it's up to the coach to motivate and coach these kids into wins because the top players and that "illusive" big with serious talent is somewhere else.  What's Groce supposed to do when Castaneda goes cold?  Gotta keep playing him until he snaps out of it.  Trimble had an attitude problem.  Hopefully, Hunter and Hankerson do not.  

[clarkwgriswold]

As I have mentioned before, I think Enrique and X are struggling at times in part because all of their opponents are now well aware that they are the two primary scoring options and best offensive players on the Zips.   Until some others step up they will continue to see pressure and double teams.

[NWAkron]

Now what?

[Let'sGoZips94]

5 minutes ago, NWAkron said:

Now what?

 

We work on figuring it out by March when it matters, just like we did last year. We have been a few shots away from being 5-1, meaning this team has what it takes in every facet of the game minus scoring. 

[NWAkron]

16 minutes ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

We work on figuring it out by March when it matters, just like we did last year. We have been a few shots away from being 5-1, meaning this team has what it takes in every facet of the game minus scoring. 

scoring is a big one!  I agree.  They had a much different schedule from last year with the early games.  Gotta work out these kinks and line ups now.  Hell, it took a brutal 3 game losing streak in February to finally right the ship.

[LoyalZIP]

I always like to compare teams and compare situations. When we look at the past couple editions of Akron men's basketball, we can see quite a few similarities. Going into last year, many people on here in the preseason thought we would be heavy favorites given the development of guys like Freeman and Ali and the addition of KJ Walton and this guy from South Florida. All of this despite the loss of LCJ. A close game where you outplay Ohio State and deserved to win, followed by a couple cupcakes and then a disastrous trip to Florida that resulted in a 3-3 record and a starter leaving the team. Next game? A home game against Marshall that took next to a miracle to win. 4-3

 

The 2022-2023 Akron Zips retooled and reloaded again, losing Ali to the portal and now Mike Dawson to injury. They open the year with an impressive (albeit they have struggled too) win over a good South Dakota State team, followed by a bit of a puzzling loss to Mississippi State. Then the ship was righted with a beautiful win over WKU, followed by a somewhat acceptable LSU loss and a Coulda-woulda-shoulda painful loss to Nevada. Then a trip to Marshall where they dug themselves in a hole too early and just couldn't quite claw out. 3-4

 

I would be very upset and panicking had the 21-22 team not beaten the Kent State Golden Flashes 75-55 in the MAC Championship game, but I'm not there yet. I have indeed seen some things that are troubling to me. Sammy Hunter is giving me the biggest Maishe Dailey vibes and that scares the s*** out of me. Thankfully he's got a great attitude and has shown he can add to the game in other ways, but man, it's been a month and it's time to get the head out of the gutter. He is the difference between being an average mid-major and being a great mid-major. Also, Hankerson shot the lights out in his entire career at NIU, and played an excellent game to open the year. While he's also a great defender and teammate, he's ice cold. And last night in particular and in a few games this season, X has had some unprecedented cold spells. 

 

There are more new faces  being forced to contribute than I was hoping. The back court potential of X along with Tavari is extremely intriguing, especially with Tavari's performances against some really good opponents. Nate Johnson has shown some awesome flashes, but has greatly regressed since the WKU game. Kobe Mitchell and Amani Lyles still look like freshman. I guess in the transfer portal era, it's a bit too much to expect Groce teams to have it rolling in November. But losing a guy like Ali as far as ability and usage kind of killed any hopes of that. I don't even care about an at-large bid, I just want to put a whole season together, beat a few Q1 teams, maybe get ranked. Every goal is still on the table, though, and it's much easier to be bullish about this group than last year.

[Captain Kangaroo]

45 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

As I have mentioned before, I think Enrique and X are struggling at times in part because all of their opponents are now well aware that they are the two primary scoring options and best offensive players on the Zips.   Until some others step up they will continue to see pressure and double teams.

Freeman and X are missing free throws, in addition to wide open looks.

 

Freeman is much easier to double when no one has to respect the perimeter. 

 

X needs to snap out of the funk. If he's legitimately good, he should be able to score against the defenses he's faced thus far. He hasn't been smothered.

[clarkwgriswold]

40 minutes ago, NWAkron said:

Now what?

 

Groce figures it out.

[clarkwgriswold]

I did not listen to the post-game, but early on I wondered if something was up with X health-wise as he seemed to come out much earlier than normal in the first half.  I wonder if maybe he was under the weather.

[kreed5120]

11 hours ago, NWAkron said:

Dawson was another one who could make 3s all day in practice but couldn't get it going until...the end of last year's season.   At this mid major level, it's up to the coach to motivate and coach these kids into wins because the top players and that "illusive" big with serious talent is somewhere else.  What's Groce supposed to do when Castaneda goes cold?  Gotta keep playing him until he snaps out of it.  Trimble had an attitude problem.  Hopefully, Hunter and Hankerson do not.  

Yes, and when Dawson started making them that's when the offense took off. If we don't get better perimeter shooting from guys like Hankerson or Hunter this teams ceiling is making the MAC tournament semifinals. That's not to say those guys won't improve as the season progresses, but if come March they're shooting like they are now, we're going to be in a world of hurt.

[NWAkron]

58 minutes ago, LoyalZIP said:

I always like to compare teams and compare situations. When we look at the past couple editions of Akron men's basketball, we can see quite a few similarities. Going into last year, many people on here in the preseason thought we would be heavy favorites given the development of guys like Freeman and Ali and the addition of KJ Walton and this guy from South Florida. All of this despite the loss of LCJ. A close game where you outplay Ohio State and deserved to win, followed by a couple cupcakes and then a disastrous trip to Florida that resulted in a 3-3 record and a starter leaving the team. Next game? A home game against Marshall that took next to a miracle to win. 4-3

 

The 2022-2023 Akron Zips retooled and reloaded again, losing Ali to the portal and now Mike Dawson to injury. They open the year with an impressive (albeit they have struggled too) win over a good South Dakota State team, followed by a bit of a puzzling loss to Mississippi State. Then the ship was righted with a beautiful win over WKU, followed by a somewhat acceptable LSU loss and a Coulda-woulda-shoulda painful loss to Nevada. Then a trip to Marshall where they dug themselves in a hole too early and just couldn't quite claw out. 3-4

 

I would be very upset and panicking had the 21-22 team not beaten the Kent State Golden Flashes 75-55 in the MAC Championship game, but I'm not there yet. I have indeed seen some things that are troubling to me. Sammy Hunter is giving me the biggest Maishe Dailey vibes and that scares the s*** out of me. Thankfully he's got a great attitude and has shown he can add to the game in other ways, but man, it's been a month and it's time to get the head out of the gutter. He is the difference between being an average mid-major and being a great mid-major. Also, Hankerson shot the lights out in his entire career at NIU, and played an excellent game to open the year. While he's also a great defender and teammate, he's ice cold. And last night in particular and in a few games this season, X has had some unprecedented cold spells. 

 

There are more new faces  being forced to contribute than I was hoping. The back court potential of X along with Tavari is extremely intriguing, especially with Tavari's performances against some really good opponents. Nate Johnson has shown some awesome flashes, but has greatly regressed since the WKU game. Kobe Mitchell and Amani Lyles still look like freshman. I guess in the transfer portal era, it's a bit too much to expect Groce teams to have it rolling in November. But losing a guy like Ali as far as ability and usage kind of killed any hopes of that. I don't even care about an at-large bid, I just want to put a whole season together, beat a few Q1 teams, maybe get ranked. Every goal is still on the table, though, and it's much easier to be bullish about this group than last year.

There is certainly a 2020-21 vibe going on here.

[BigGreenTruck]

1 hour ago, clarkwgriswold said:

As I have mentioned before, I think Enrique and X are struggling at times in part because all of their opponents are now well aware that they are the two primary scoring options and best offensive players on the Zips.   Until some others step up they will continue to see pressure and double teams.

Dan in his press conference said while in man there was an effort to bring help side defense on the weak side to double Castaneda. Having Handlogten, 7'1 in the paint and rotating either Curfman or Anachili-Killen over really disrupted Castaneda. He was held to 4 points and 5 rebounds. 

 

Hankerson had 11 points but he had to work for each of them. I could be wrong but I only counted 3 break downs in defense where Marshall didn't rotate that gave Akron a wide open shot. If you are constantly having to shoot contested shots then your shooting % is going to go down.

[zippy-claws]

18 hours ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

Benevolent announcers made this drubbing as watchable as was possible.

Thanks Captain, I agree.  We were watching and I kept suggesting turning to another game, but the announcers were very fair, and as you said, benevolent.  The "color" kept talking about the Zips in glowing terms.  He obviously did his homework on the Zips prior to the game, and was very knowledgeable, and seemed to have empathy for what the Zips were going through.