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Game 30- Eastern Michigan


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Well, that sucked. A few thoughts:

 

- This team has 9 days to figure out how to beat a zone, and that might mean more of the personnel we saw tonight. Thornton and Scott don't have the skill sets to beat one, which is why I think we saw more of Tavari and Prather tonight. They're going to have to grow up fast. We also need Nate to get back to plating how he was pre-injury.

 

- This group has played down to competition all year long. Aside from EMU the first time, almost every game has been a grind. When you play that way, you risk getting burned by bad teams like they did tonight.

 

- The road to Cleveland just got harder. Right now the path would likely be Kent, Ohio, and Toledo.

 

- Still very much believe we can cut the nets down in Cleveland. We have a good team in a bad league. I think that's their ceiling but I still want it for the seniors.

 

Regroup and rebound next game.

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15 minutes ago, 1981 grad said:

Remember in the Kent game when I pointed out how Dawson was ball watching at the 17:00 minute mark and did not box out his man and Groce did not pull him and Tavari got pulled when he did not fight through a screen.  I got a bunch of negative comments.   Well, here you go again.  Dawson did not box out his man again.  And this time it cost us the game.    

He just has to chip him/bump him.  They had 7 more offensive rebounds than the Zips.  That's an across the board failure to block out when on defense, when you should have the advantage.

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37 minutes ago, gozips19 said:

Hard to adjust when you don't have the personnel to fix things. 

Teams triple Freeman and play off of Ali and Tribble. The rest of the team fires up bricks and takes dumb, early shots. 

The underclassmen don't talk on D and run through the motions during their offensive sets. 

I need way less Dawson and more Prather. He's at least active on offense.  

100% agree.  These seniors have to be losing the fire in their bellies when the bricklayer union is firing on all cylinders.  They all lose their confidence.   Benefit for fans and later game on Thursday and no expectations.  A win wouldn't cover up the stink.  its been this way all season.  These teams that play with nothing to lose take it to the Zips.

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Unpopular opinion.  I was looking for game winning shot stats per player.  I couldn’t find.  
I think Groce needs to look who is 5 best players are at closing out wins.  I don’t think it’s Tribble and I’m on the fence about Ali.  
 

this is a conference where only 1 team gets to March Madness.   Starting Friday.  You have to play that way until the season is over.    
 

im tired of the wake up call mentality.  Find your best 5 in the closing minutes of the 2nd half and ride that horse.  If it’s 2 Sr’s, a JR and 2 SOPH.  Then that’s what you go with.  
 

I thought Tavari & RPJ played good.  Ironically those are the 2 I’m most worried about transferring out.    
it’s a balancing act for sure but you can’t play favorites now.  You gotta win.  

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By and large this team has lacked attention to detail since they headed out to James Madison and overall their play has been pretty mediocre.  While they look good on paper they've repeatedly had issues with the "little stuff" like boxing out, losing guys on defense, lazy passes...   They've also all too often not been physical enough.  Here's hoping last night was the wakeup call they need.

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12 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said:

Gotta shake things up. Our Starting 5 going forward...

PG - Tavari

G - Tribble

W - Prather

W - Ali

P - Freeman

 

1st 2 off the bench...

Dawson

Sammy

 

Table scraps...

Thornton

Shammah

Amani

 

I agree that they could use a shakeup but I don't see it happening in game 31.

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Quote
11 hours ago, dre22era said:

Dumbest bet I ever made 

 

Screenshot_20240305_214507_FanDuel Sportsbook.jpg

 

I never thought Akron would lose this game, but I was positive they would not cover.   I took Eastern Michigan and the 21 points as well as the under for a 2 leg parlay that was a winner.  I assumed the Zips would look at the point spread and figure they could just show up and win.  The Zips are backing into the MAC tournament unfortunately.

Edited by Zipgrad1990
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As of right now, this is probably Groce's worst coaching effort during his Akron tenure. There was obviously some top end talent missing at the pg position, but on paper coming into this season this looked to be his deepest team. Also, it was spearheaded by 2 players that were projected to be 1st team All-MAC. Given how bad the MAC is this season, this team should have went 16-2 or 17-1 and ran away with the conference title. Instead, players have regressed and disappeared.

 

This post isn't really me trying to criticize anyone in particular. It's just me voicing my disappointment and coming to the realization that we had a player of Freeman's caliber and couldn't turn it into an NCAA tournament win.

Edited by kreed5120
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42 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

As of right now, this is probably Groce's worst coaching effort during his Akron tenure. There was obviously some top end talent missing at the pg position, but on paper coming into this season this looked to be his deepest team. Also, it was spearheaded by 2 players that were projected to be 1st team All-MAC. Given how bad the MAC is this season, they team should have went 16-2 or 17-1 and ran away with the conference title. Instead, players have regressed and disappeared.

 

This post isn't really me trying to criticize anyone in particular. It's just me voicing my disappointment and coming to the realization that we had a player of Freeman's caliber and couldn't turn it into an NCAA tournament win.

I've been loathe to criticize Groce because, god knows, I could never do what he does.  Geez, that was one of the worst losses at the JAR, by a decent Akron team, that I can remember.  Losing to that awful coach and that awful team in that way with everything else going on is rock bottom for Groce.   Down to the last game of the regular season, and he can't decide whom he trusts on the court?  Thornton and Scott were down and out on the bench.   I don't care so much about an NCAA tournament win.  But this team should have been the favorite going into next week.  They've certainly lowered expectations.

Edited by NWAkron
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7 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

Could it be that maybe they're just not as good as we thought/hoped they were?

That was obvious from the beginning.  And I get a sense that everyone but Freeman has lost the fire in his belly.  Freeman's turnovers etc (my dime store psychology) may be out of frustration from getting NO help from his teammates.

 

"John's Next Endeavor"

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So Thornton is the MAN against NIU (apart from missed FTs), but against another directional school he's basically benched?  Prather gets these great minutes and then doesn't play in crunch time.  this is some high level dysfunction.  There's two teams:  Freeman, Tribble, Ali and then the rest.

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19 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

Could it be that maybe they're just not as good as we thought/hoped they were?

 

If this season doesn't end with a MAC Championship, it'll be because we missed on adding an impact guard in the portal. I don't think anyone was expecting to find another X or LCJ, but Thornton and Scott have been pretty disappointing. Add in our lack of depth in the frontcourt and we're a pretty flawed team.

 

All of our good wins have come when someone other than Freeman/Ali have had a good game.  Dawson scored 14 against Toledo at the JAR. Scott scored 10 off the bench at home against OU. Tavari chipped in 10 at Kent. Hunter had 16 and Dawson had 19 vs SDSU. 

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14 minutes ago, Zippy87 said:

 

If this season doesn't end with a MAC Championship, it'll be because we missed on adding an impact guard in the portal. I don't think anyone was expecting to find another X or LCJ, but Thornton and Scott have been pretty disappointing. Add in our lack of depth in the frontcourt and we're a pretty flawed team.

 

All of our good wins have come when someone other than Freeman/Ali have had a good game.  Dawson scored 14 against Toledo at the JAR. Scott scored 10 off the bench at home against OU. Tavari chipped in 10 at Kent. Hunter had 16 and Dawson had 19 vs SDSU. 

 

They could have also used another big.  Too much of the post defense and rebounding was put on Enrique's shoulders.

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20 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

 

They could have also used another big.  Too much of the post defense and rebounding was put on Enrique's shoulders.

 

Careful - I was called "clueless" for pointing this out after the loss at Miami. 😉😂

 

Agree completely, and think it was an issue last season too.

 

I've said it before, but I wonder if they originally planned on having Baker on the active roster this year. I can't imagine they couldn't find a bench big better than Lyles in the portal.

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46 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

 

They could have also used another big.  Too much of the post defense and rebounding was put on Enrique's shoulders.

The issue is quality bigs that can give good minutes are in short supply. I'm sure nearly every team in America wishes they had another 1-2 bigs. 

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