Game 14- Miami

[Let'sGoZips94]

21 hours ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

This game will be won or lost based on Akron's scoring abilities and turnovers. 

 

15 TO each

 

25% 3P Akron vs 31% 3P Miami.

 

Lost by 3. 

[kreed5120]

1 minute ago, MDZip said:

Disappointing loss I'm pretty tough with all the things that were going against them. At Miami, huge foul and foul shot disparity, uncharacteristic poor three-point shooting, to lose by three sucks but it doesn't make me that concerned for the future. See you at the MAC tournament. As out friends in Athens say Muck Fiami. 

 

I'm not necessarily concerned about the loss either. We were never going to go 18-0 in MAC play and this was the most likely game we'd drop. 

 

Shots aren't going to always fall so you have to find ways of winning on those nights. Outside of a few breakdowns I felt we played much better perimeter defense. I think we even blocked 2, maybe 3 of their 3 pointers. Had we played defense like we did against Yale or Murray State we would have lost this game by 15-20. We had a chance at the end, which is encouraging given how badly we shot.

[clarkwgriswold]

2 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

 

I'm not necessarily concerned about the loss either. We were never going to go 18-0 in MAC play and this was the most likely game we'd drop. 

 

Shots aren't going to always fall so you have to find ways of winning on those nights. Outside of a few breakdowns I felt we played much better perimeter defense. I think we even blocked 2, maybe 3 of their 3 pointers. Had we played defense like we did against Yale or Murray State we would have lost this game by 15-20. We had a chance at the end, which is encouraging given how badly we shot.

 

Shammah's 3-pointer that didn't fall was really good look too.

 

They made the plays down the stretch.  The Zips didn't.  On to CMU.

[Illini Zip]

No shame in this loss. I pray the MAC doesn’t do that to us in March. They don’t like teams going undefeated and they don’t want the same team dominating the MAC Tournament every year either. I almost think it would be easier to play against 6 players than getting bumped and hacked all game long.

 

 

Edited Saturday at 11:01 PM by Illini Zip

[kreed5120]

8 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

 

Shammah's 3-pointer that didn't fall was really good look too.

 

They made the plays down the stretch.  The Zips didn't.  On to CMU.

 

I agree. I will say Miami ratcheted up the defense in the final 5 minutes or so. The first 35 minutes of the game of the game I don't feel the looks we were getting were all that much worse than we've witnessed most of the year. They just weren't finding the net. Miami did do a good job of not turning it over in the open court so we did have fewer run outs than typical.

Edited Saturday at 10:59 PM by kreed5120

[Zippy87]

We will be fine, I am just more annoyed than anything else because that's a good team, but nobody we shouldn't have handled, and we don't get another shot at them at The JAR. They are probably a few easy MAC wins away from Top 25 discussion now. 

 

 

[HoopsFan03]

Let's go back to the original starting lineup. We had 3 starters combine for 8 points today. 

[clarkwgriswold]

48 minutes ago, HoopsFan03 said:

Let's go back to the original starting lineup. We had 3 starters combine for 8 points today. 

They were on the floor together a lot today, especially in crunch time.

[Illini Zip]

2 hours ago, HoopsFan03 said:

Let's go back to the original starting lineup. We had 3 starters combine for 8 points today. 

I have some mixed feelings about that, but I’m going to respectfully disagree. On one hand, Shammah seems to have taken a step back. I wonder how he is with the whole coming off the bench again decision. I think Groce would say it’s less about the starters production (8 pts) and all about the team production (73 pts). It’s true we are still adjusting to the rotation shake up offensively, but we have been a whole lot better on defense lately. I’m so proud of how our guys started the game especially. They defended the perimeter hard and brought a physical edge to them and they appeared to be playing under control to me. At least at the start. I didn’t see much of Halligan (a starter) down the stretch. The intense/physical nature of the game seemed to be too much for him at this point in his development. Yeah, 73 points is 20 points off of our average, but I have to go back to what I said earlier. Getting beat up wears you down and the fatigue affects everything from shots to passes to decision making. Notice Miami was well below their point average also and they benefited from all of those extra free throws. The last game we played that was this physical and slanted was the James Madison road game. I just wonder how coaches keep their players from snapping under those conditions. I remember Nate Johnson would just openly laugh during those games because it can be so ridiculous. And you won’t convince me it’s incompetence.

 

Edited yesterday at 02:59 AM by Illini Zip

[kreed5120]

1 hour ago, clarkwgriswold said:

They were on the floor together a lot today, especially in crunch time.

Halligan played all of 10 minutes. That's pretty much just the first media timeout in each half. Eric and Scott both eclipsed 30 minutes so played the same amount of minutes they would had they started.

 

Some seem caught up too much on starting lineup. What actually matters is the amount of minutes played and who is in during crunch time.

Edited yesterday at 02:41 AM by kreed5120

[Zippy87]

50 minutes ago, Illini Zip said:

I have some mixed feelings about that, but I’m going to respectfully disagree. On one hand, Shammah seems to have taken a step back. I wonder how he is with the whole coming off the bench again decision. I think Groce would say it’s less about the starters production (8 pts) and all about the team production (73 pts). It’s true we are still adjusting to the rotation shack up offensively, but we have been a whole lot better on defense lately. I’m so proud of how our guys started the game especially. They defended the perimeter hard and brought a physical edge to them and they appeared to be playing under control to me. At least at the start. I didn’t see much of Halligan (a starter) down the stretch. The intense/physical nature of the game seemed to be too much for him at this point in his development. Yeah, 73 points is 20 points off of our average, but I have to go back to what I said earlier. Getting beat up wears you down and the fatigue affects everything from shots to passes to decision making. Notice Miami was well below their point average also and they benefited from all of those extra free throws. The last game we played that was this physical and slanted was the James Madison road game. I just wonder how coaches keep their players from snapping under those conditions. I remember Nate Johnson would just openly laugh during those games because it can be so ridiculous. And you won’t convince me it’s incompetence.

 

 

 

Where do you think Scott has regressed? His overall numbers show a slight improvement over last season. Or do you mean recently?

 

17 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

Halligan played all of 10 minutes. That's pretty much just the first media timeout in each half. Eric and Scott both eclipsed 30 minutes so played the same amount of minutes they would had they started.

 

Some seem caught up too much on starting lineup. Why actually matters is the amount of minutes played and who is in during crunch time.

 

I do think starting is important to some players. Maybe it shouldn't be and you're right about the minutes mattering most, but the reality is it can definitely play a role mentally. 

 

I think Young actually fits better off the bench right now, anyhow. I love his energy and he can serve as a bit of a change of pace. I don't think Halligan is long for the starting lineup, nor do I expect him to play more than 8-10 minutes a game once Barre is back. Speaking of Chabi, I would like to see him get a shot at starting once he is ready again. 

 

Lyles

Ev. Mahaffey

Barre

Scott

Johnson

 

That's a pretty good mix of scoring and defense. 

 

 

[1981 grad]

9 hours ago, NWAkron said:

Yes, Tribble was great last year.  

My bad, Tribble was 2 years ago.  Still was a great defender and miss his toughness at the guard position.

[kreed5120]

26 minutes ago, Zippy87 said:

Speaking of Chabi, I would like to see him get a shot at starting once he is ready again. 

 

Lyles

Ev. Mahaffey

Barre

Scott

Johnson

 

That's a pretty good mix of scoring and defense. 

 

 

Personally, I just don't see it happening. Having 2 bigs really isn't what this team is built to play. I'm not even sure if Lyles and Barre have played a minute on the floor together.

 

Maybe we could see it for small stretches situationally against bigger teams, but it makes more sense to utilize our guards and wings more heavily as that's where our talent and depth is more heavily located.

Edited yesterday at 02:49 AM by kreed5120

[Illini Zip]

24 minutes ago, Zippy87 said:

 

Where do you think Scott has regressed? His overall numbers show a slight improvement over last season. Or do you mean recently?

Yes, recently. Compared to earlier this year. He seemed far more engaged and aggressive offensively before. He was almost matching Tavari’s production. Defensively he is still quite active, but increasingly late to his perimeter cover. I don’t know what it is, but it seems to have started with the lineup change. I could be completely wrong. 

[NWAkron]

I see UCLA in Travis' future.  Win big this year and leave his brothers shadow.  No next endeavor for John with lack of big game wins.

[1981 grad]

I thought that the Zips played at a slower pace against Miami.  The game was winnable but we just did not execute at the end of the game.  We missed a foul shot, a wide open three, and had a terrible turnover all in the last minute of play.  We also did not shoot the ball well from the 3 line and we only lost by three.  Closing out games on the road is a tough skill for any team so this road loss is not devastating.  Wish we had a return game against Miami later in the season.

[GP1]

Miami's arena has all the energy of a mausoleum. It's a tough place to win when they are good. This is the kind of outcome that makes potential MAC Tournament rematches interesting.and fun for fans. 

Edited 12 hours ago by GP1

[Reslife4Life]

Can’t dwell on this, have to focus on going 1-0 tuesday

[Illini Zip]

15 minutes ago, Reslife4Life said:

Can’t dwell on this, have to focus on going 1-0 tuesday

 

You’re absolutely correct the Zips can’t dwell on this so I am more than willing to dwell on their behalf. Go Zips!!

[Zips1991]

2 hours ago, Illini Zip said:

 

You’re absolutely correct the Zips can’t dwell on this so I am more than willing to dwell on their behalf. Go Zips!!

Yes, I'll be dwelling on it even after we win on Tuesday 😆 

[NWAkron]

https://open.substack.com/pub/akronzippedup/p/akron-zips-mens-basketball-weekly?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

good summary by ZippedUp, who hypothesized that Travis' technical in first half affected officiating.