Akron vs. Wyoming

[ZachTheZip]

Tonight Akron plays Wyoming at 7:00 at the JAR. I think we're 9 point favorites. I see improvement every game from the Zips in terms of players discovering their roles and in knowing what to do on the court. Free throws are quickly becoming the bane of this team. KD says they're practicing them, but I have yet to see an improvement especially when the game is on the line.Other games in the MAC today and my predictions:Miami @ #10 Louisville (That's a loss)Toledo @ #11 Pitt (Another loss)NIU vs. Lamar (NIU is bad, but so is Lamar)Bowling Green @ Oakland (BG could win, and a loss would be bad)CMU @ Detroit (This should be interesting because of all the CMU fans in Detroit for the MACC football game)EMU @ Notre Dame (Another loss)Buffalo vs. Evansville (should be a win)K.S.U.C.K.S @ NC Greenburough (A loss looks bad for either team)Ball State @ Valparaiso (another loss)WMU @ SanDiego State (another loss)I'm predicting another bad day for the MAC, and any hopes of an at-large bid for the conference finally being destroyed.

[ziptrumpet87]

MAC west has lots of losses, but I didn't check who they played... east looks better (again, haven't looked at who they played), and based on past performance and what games I have seen, the east looks to be the better of the twain.I wish the ABJ would have written the story about tonight's game with a focus on who Wyoming is, and not on the free-throws. It would have generated more of a positive look at the program, rather than a headline that implies "look... they suck @ FT's... don't bother watching".Here's to a W for the Zips tonight!

[RowdyZip]

Tonight Akron plays Wyoming at 7:00 at the JAR. I think we're 9 point favorites. I see improvement every game from the Zips in terms of players discovering their roles and in knowing what to do on the court. Free throws are quickly becoming the bane of this team. KD says they're practicing them, but I have yet to see an improvement especially when the game is on the line.Other games in the MAC today and my predictions:Miami @ #10 Louisville (That's a loss)Toledo @ #11 Pitt (Another loss)NIU vs. Lamar (NIU is bad, but so is Lamar)Bowling Green @ Oakland (BG could win, and a loss would be bad)CMU @ Detroit (This should be interesting because of all the CMU fans in Detroit for the MACC football game)EMU @ Notre Dame (Another loss)Buffalo vs. Evansville (should be a win)K.S.U.C.K.S @ NC Greenburough (A loss looks bad for either team)Ball State @ Valparaiso (another loss)WMU @ SanDiego State (another loss)I'm predicting another bad day for the MAC, and any hopes of an at-large bid for the conference finally being destroyed.

Yeepppp....this is gonna be closer than the line indicates. Wyoming has considerable size and talent both inside and out. The key will be shutting down the Cowboys' back court combo of Ewing (17.8/3.8/5.0) and Jones (15.6/6.4/4.6). IF the middleton/dials/mcnees can handle these two, the zips win handily. Wyoming has size down low but lacks skill with the exception of 6'8" 205lb Junior forward Ryan Dermody (10.2/6.2 in 30mpg) and 6'8" 210lb glass-cleaner Joseph Taylor (7.4/6.8/1.6). Look for the Zips to put these two on the line when they get down low. Dermody and Taylor are 56% and 52% respectively for their careers in FT shooting (my, they'd fit in with this zips lineup )Zips 81 <---first prediction of free 6 wings from scorchers.Wyoming 74 OK, off to BW3 on campus to watch miami/louisville with some other zips fans. Feel free to join us, we'll likely be there till tip-off.

[ZachTheZip]

Some halftime scores in the MAC:Miami 22, #10 Louisville 21Toledo 28, #11 Pitt 34Lamar 38, NIU 30

[lovezips]

go zips beat wyoming

[maggiemoo]

Am I the only one that can't get live stats?Do I have to sign up for the gamewatcher or something? What am I missing?

[maggiemoo]

I'm trying the link off the Akron site (on the schedules page).http://www.gozips.com/liveStats/liveStats....ID=M_BASKETBALLIt says that the live stats will be available after the game start time, but I think this is the second game that I have had to try to find them from another site.If anyone finds some live stats on another site, please post them here.Thx.

[lovezips]

Zips leading 33-23 with 6:15 left in first half.Cedric with 11 points and j.wood with 10 points

[lovezips]

Zips leading 40-27. 3:40 to go...mcness playing tough...just hit a big 3 off of a steal before timeout

[lovezips]

Zips leading 40-27. 3:40 to go...mcness playing tough...just hit a big 3 off of a steal before timeout

[lovezips]

Halftime......zips leading 48-34....zips shooting 18-30 from fielf....4-11 from 3point range....zips leading assists 13-6. Outrebounded 15-8

[lovezips]

2nd hald underway. Dials for 3 and huge dunk by QM.....55-38 with 17 minutes to go

[lovezips]

Zips getting sloppy. Still with comfortable lead. 64-48 with 13:00

[ZachTheZip]

Just got back from the game. Akron only misses 1 FT to shoot over 95% on the night. Quade goes 9-9 and hits a three, had many gigantic earth-rocking dunks, and some major swats on defense. Wood is a monster that cannot be stopped inside. Cedrick is back. McNeese is growing and maturing. This entire team just gets better and better.Dambrot mentioned that the team did not practice a single FT on thursday or friday. He called it reverse psychology. I don't care what he calls it as long as it works.

[Akronite]

Who were these masked men disguised as free throw shooters tonight? What a display!

[skip-zip]

I was there...here's my observations....Ak-Rowdies.....about 40 on one side, 5 on the other. I still can't understand why 200+ students aren't coming to games, with the incentive of getting to sit courtside.Overall crowd...too many no-shows in the lower bowl.Quade...was not only getting dunk opportunities, but was getting his left-handed hook shot to fall.Jeremiah...a beast as always. And a great one-handed dunk. Just hope he doesn't tire out carrying the load inside by the end of the season.Nate...came back and played hard in the second half, even though he looked sort of dissinterested early in the game when Conyers got the start. But he did hustle, and we need him.Nick and Cedrick...showed why senior leadership at the guard positions often makes the difference in the MAC.Nick...improves our FT percentage when he takes the majority of our FTs.McNees....might be showing that he can give us a true PG for the future.Bardo....can give Jeremiah a rest, but I hope he can give us more than that as the season progresses. Would like to see more from McKnight...that could be a big plus for us if that happens. Our depth won this game tonight. No question about it. We wore then down with a 10+ man rotation, which they could not match. That was the story of the ball game.

[zipfan 81]

Nate did not look happy the whole night, talk about sulking... and did you see when he went in, walked slowly... very disinterested...What did you think about when Dials got hurt and then Coach put him in LIMPING with 4 minutes to go..... does that even make sense? Quade was unbelievable last night as was Woods....

[Captain Kangaroo]

Awesome domination by the Zips last night. Best game I think Wood has ever played. He was unstoppable.Milum Asylum! Quade was off-the-hook with his hook shot last night. When he plays with confidence...look out. Bardo yet again with some nice minutes.Ced is playing awesome.When McNees runs the fast break, the other four Zips on the court play at a heightened level. They all seem to relish the fact that if they work to get open, they know he'll find them for the shot.I wish Conyers had Dials shooting confidence...and sometimes I wish Dials had Conyers confidence. 5 of 17 from the field. Yeowch. But Dials made some clutch shots and played solid defense...and hit his FT's.The technical foul call was critical. And bogus. In general, the refs seemed to think we were all there to listen to their whistles rather than to watch a basketball game. Way too many ticky-tack fouls called.Not much more to say. The Zips thoroughly dominated a decent team. Our inside game was devastating, even though the opponent, statistically, had the bodies to match up with us. Who needs The Cavalry? McNeed/Dials/Ced rule. If either Roberts or McKnight can make any impact this year...we can run a lot of teams off the court. And if Steward gets healthy? :blink:

[ziptrumpet87]

Nice game last night. I hope that one of the PG's can become eligible to give Ced some rest for his knees. I think McNees will fill his spot nicely.Loved seeing the banners in the bleachers!Rowdies on one end were good... but we need them to fill BOTH ends!