Game 25- Northern Illinois

[Reslife4Life]

Free throws geez

[clarkwgriswold]

1 starter in for this run.

[UAZipster0305]

It's great to hear Enrique cheering the team on during his on-air radio interview.

Edited Wednesday at 01:39 AM by UAZipster0305

[1981 grad]

Young with a couple of nice plays to get the team going.  Need to build this lead back to double digits.

[Reslife4Life]

Enrique was on the radio around the beginning of the second half. You should be able to watch it on the zips Facebook page behind the mic stream 

[Let'sGoZips94]

Our offense has gotten stagnant recently when Nate runs it. Need to play through Scott & Tavari. 

[UAZipster0305]

The Sweaters lost to EMU on the road. Should we win tonight, we would have a three game lead for the #1 seed with five games to play, two of which are against cupcakes (Testicle Tech and Canada). Groce is gonna have a hard time keeping this team focused and motivated down the stretch.

[clarkwgriswold]

Lots of good with Shammah on the floor tonight.

[LZIp]

13 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

Lots of good with Shammah on the floor tonight.

He’s steady!

[1981 grad]

Shammah Scott hit the shot of the game.  We shot 23% from 3.  Our outside shooting has gone south.  A lot of the long distance shots were not even close.  

[zipsrule]

 

Here are the standings as listed on ESPN.com.  We've locked up a top 5 seed and hold a three game lead over Miami (plus the tie-breaker).  That being said, there is more work to be done.

Edited Wednesday at 02:36 AM by zipsrule

[1981 grad]

Do you think the Zips are feeling the pressure of the winning streak or is it just a bunch of guys who are not used to playing a whole season wearing down at the end of the season?  This was the worst game we have played all season.  

[Let'sGoZips94]

5 minutes ago, 1981 grad said:

Do you think the Zips are feeling the pressure of the winning streak or is it just a bunch of guys who are not used to playing a whole season wearing down at the end of the season?  This was the worst game we have played all season.  

 

I think they've played the boat anchors in the MAC for multiple games in a row. This team is good enough to sleepwalk through those games and win. The test will be Saturday - can they flip the switch against better competition?

[Illini Zip]

I also think they need to adjust to teams running them off the three point line. Their offensive flow appears to be out of whack. And thus they are not stepping into their shots naturally. They still have time to figure it out before Cleveland. 

[NWAkron]

2 minutes ago, Illini Zip said:

I also think they need to adjust to teams running them off the three point line. Their offensive flow appears to be out of whack. And thus they are not stepping into their shots naturally. They still have time to figure it out before Cleveland. 

Constructive critique.  Thank you.  

[clarkwgriswold]

24 minutes ago, 1981 grad said:

Do you think the Zips are feeling the pressure of the winning streak or is it just a bunch of guys who are not used to playing a whole season wearing down at the end of the season?  This was the worst game we have played all season.  

I think there's enough tape out there now too to enable the competition to craft a game plan.  They also now aren't sneaking up on anybody and they're getting every team's best efforts.

 

I'll give the NIU coach credit for getting his kids to play hard despite their tough stretch.

[clarkwgriswold]

Another player deserving some praise tonight is Amani.  The Zips switched a lot on screens tonight putting him on smaller faster guards and he did a great job.

[Illini Zip]

That’s funny. You just beat me to the Amani subject @clarkwgriswold, but with a different take. 
 

Hat tip to Amani, he’s turned into a real good shot blocker. 

[zippy5]

I think it's more simple. We missed a lot of open 3s tonight 

[zipsrule]

I think a 14 game winning streak is like a set of rose colored glasses.  They make us think we should win every conference game and win them all by double digits.   During an 18 game conference schedule, teams will have stretches of sub-par play, which has been us the last few games.  In other years, those would have been the head-scratching losses others have mentioned.  Fortunately, we were able win them.

 

This team needs to watch the video, regroup, and be ready for the Kittens on Saturday.

Edited Wednesday at 03:45 AM by zipsrule

[Reslife4Life]

2 hours ago, zippy5 said:

I think it's more simple. We missed a lot of open 3s tonight 

We won the rebounding battle, (surprisingly) were better at the FT line, committed 2 more turnovers than NIU. We were only 5-21 from three. 
seth 1/6

tavari 1/3

bowen 1/5

sharron 0/2

nate 0 attempts

 

24% is below our average clip for threes. We make just 3 or 4 more it makes a big difference. We didn’t make shots in the first and weren’t completely letting it loose in the second. To me it seemed like we knew we could win by doing what we did, so that’s what happened. It wasn’t pretty but it’s better to “learn from a win” 

 

Gotta work on moving the ball more and getting more of those open looks we are accustomed to. We had some open looks today, but we not as many as we would’ve liked

[1981 grad]

8 hours ago, Reslife4Life said:

We won the rebounding battle, (surprisingly) were better at the FT line, committed 2 more turnovers than NIU. We were only 5-21 from three. 
seth 1/6

tavari 1/3

bowen 1/5

sharron 0/2

nate 0 attempts

 

24% is below our average clip for threes. We make just 3 or 4 more it makes a big difference. We didn’t make shots in the first and weren’t completely letting it loose in the second. To me it seemed like we knew we could win by doing what we did, so that’s what happened. It wasn’t pretty but it’s better to “learn from a win” 

 

Gotta work on moving the ball more and getting more of those open looks we are accustomed to. We had some open looks today, but we not as many as we would’ve liked

When you look at Bowen and Seth's shots, they were not off a pass but often quick shots from distance that seemed hurried.  Nobody cares when they go in but they looked rushed. 

Edited Wednesday at 01:49 PM by 1981 grad

[Reslife4Life]

3 hours ago, 1981 grad said:

When you look at Bowen and Seth's shots, they were not off a pass but often quick shots from distance that seemed hurried.  Nobody cares when they go in but they looked rushed. 

I don't have a problem with either of them really taking those threes on the run. Especially Hardman, he has shown to be almost like Sam Merrill and it seems like he is always moving when he shoots and they go in at a good rate. I don't think the same about Tavari, Young, or Nate as I think of them as more set shooters

[Let'sGoZips94]

3 hours ago, 1981 grad said:

When you look at Bowen and Seth's shots, they were not off a pass but often quick shots from distance that seemed hurried.  Nobody cares when they go in but they looked rushed. 

 

NIU did a great job anticipating our passing lanes to prevent the quick ball movement we normally exhibit. Conversely, Akron did a very poor job going through anything more than just the motions. I would imagine the PSI in the game ball was much lower at the end of last night's game than it normally is. We dribbled the crap out of that thing and, to no surprise with very little success. Gotta get back to the unpredictable off-the-ball movement into the open space behind the defense. 

[Z.I.P.]

1 hour ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

I would imagine the PSI in the game ball was much lower at the end of last night's game than it normally is. 

You're not suggesting that Tom Brady was in any way involved in NIU's strategy, are you?  🤔