Ohio Game

[Captain Kangaroo]

Random thoughts:

Hope Wood is ok. It looked bad. My wife talked to Wood's mom for a second as the ambulance arrived. She said it was just a "twisted leg" and was somewhat confident he'd be ok. X-rays may prove otherwise.

The 4th year of the Tim O'Shea's tenure looks bad. $300k/year for him? Larry Hunter looks like John Wooden compared to O'Shea.

Futch played very well in Wood's absense. Lots of energy and great D.

Nick Meyers is bad...rusty...or both bad and rusty. Looks like Futch will get the lion's share of Wood's minutes, should Wood be out for an extended period.

Joyce played another solid game. Best overall Zips PG since Eric McLauglin? I like him better than Ball.

Travis is again solid, as it Peterson. In general, the whole team plays hard every night. Dambrot coaches hard too...mixing things up with regularity. It seems like the Zips try to win every possession every game. This group is an easy team to love.

Bubba out of his slump? Hope so.

What the hell was that line up befor the half? Milum, Middleton, Meyers, Collins and Bubba? Couldn't figure that one for the life of me.

Great offensive game by McFadden, but some of his passes were flat out scary. He's not missing his calling as a PG.

See where Oakland waxed BG by 20?

Can't loses to Ball State

To beat OU by double digits without Wood is really impressive. Kudos to the guys for focusing on the job at hand.

Toledo up next.

[GoZips]

CAP'N, good post. I concur with your observations.

I did hear toward the end of the game the dreaded "ACL" term. I pray not. That remark came from some one who has access to the locker room.

The odd line up at the end of the first half was a chance to rest the starters and prevent any unnecessary fouls by Travis and company. That mix certainly befuddled the Bobcats.

Dru is giving the Zips something Jammal Ball never gave, i.e. more than one great season.

My thoughts. OU was a lot tougher than I thought they would be. Their defense had the Zips tangled in the first half. Looks like minor adjustments and more pressure by the Zips on D turned the tide early in the second half.

The kids are learning that its more fun to win.

OU HC was whining that OU is young. Er, 'cuse me, can't see any gray hairs on the Zips.

Sore point with me was the terrrible officiating (they were officiating weren't they?). The lopsided obvious OU bias contributed to Wood's injury. The OU player crashed Jerimah plenty hard. No foul called. Things did not improve in the second half with the officials. The Zips did the right thing. They just played through it.

The next two games can make or break the season. A split would be great. I'm greedy.

Let's go win them both.

I'm still pissed at the Worst Athletic Conference officials for homering Michigan State.

[Big Zip]

This morning on WNIR Steve French said his guess was Wood was done for the season. Not sure what he's made his opinion on, but we all know he is close to the situation.

I find it funny that the ABJ points out Akron took advantage of the young Bobcats on the boards. Has anyone looked at Akron's lineup?

OU

2 Freshman

4 Sophomore

3 Junior

4 Senior

Akron

5 Freshman

4 Sophomore

3 Junior

3 Senior

[Zip Watcher]

My view:

I concur with many comments above, re: Joyce & Peterson .. won't repeat. I agree.

- This was an encouraging game to watch. The team responded to adversity (more on JW below) well and defended the whole game. I agree with KD that this is going to take time, but one of the things the Zips HAVE to do to contend in the MAC, this year or any year is defend the home court. Especially in a divisional game against a team riding a 16game road losing streak, this was a game they shouldn't lose, and they didnt. The defensive intensity has to be the biggest single change from 03-04 and it won the game last night. The Zips were by no means burning up the nylon, but when you can hold a team without a field goal for 10 minutes to open a half, you can get by on an average shooting night. If they don't defend everynight, they'll risk looking like OU or Oakland when the shots aren't falling.

- Regarding the Cricket. Can someone explain to me why he isn't honored in some fashion at the JAR. As one of the rocks of the late 80's run of 20 win seasons, he has to have won more games as a Zip than most other players that have played here. Certainly in the D1 era. I hear all the time how the Cadavaliers should retire World B. Free's number, but the Cricket not being recoginzed confuses me more.

- At times last night, the half court sets were a bit painful to watch. Often times, teams that like to run are hard pressed to execute when forced into a half court offense. I like the run and gun, and the half court has looked ok .. but last night there were possessions where confusion reigned if DP didn't get the ball early in the shot clock.

- Winning a rebound battle by more than 10 will never hurt a team.

- What ever happened to the 50-50 raffle?

- From our seats we can sometimes can hear the play call from the court in the second half. And I'm pretty sure the Zips have a play called "Tarver" .. they ran it last night in the second half a few times. Someone near me mused that it must be an isolation play followed by an off balanced jumper.

- I think Middleton could be a big part of this team down the stretch. At times, he's shown the ability to create good open shots for himself off the dribble. Rashon Brown and Johnny H (v. 1.0) were both able to do that at will and it really helps free things up at times.

- Anyone else think that it's nice that we didn't show up for the past 2 games and see 2 guys AWOL for grades reasons? Refreshing, since these are student athletes.

- I'm truly enjoying the postgame shows from KD. Direct insight and comments .. you can learn from his comments and I think he's pretty pragmatic.

Re: Wood:

From where I sat it looked pretty bad when he came down. It looked to be a clean play, just bad luck. He came down hard, and he was just WAYY up in the air and got himself a little off balance coming down. There may have been incidental contact, but it just was one of those things. I'm not into speculating on the seriousness of the injury. I've seen guys roll around on the floor in far worse agony than Wood did and it ended up being an MCL sprain. On the other hand, what sometimes appear to be minor injuries end up being total ACL tears.

Here's hoping it's not serious and that he recovers completely. Utlimately this team isn't about just this season, it's building for the future. Wood will be back in any event and be a cornerstone of the team again. In his absence, however long, these other guys will get experience, and we'll learn what they can contribute. Shaking the rust off of Myers / Futch and Preston should help the team in the stretch run.

[Z-P]

Johnny H (v. 1.0)

[Captain Kangaroo]

Great offensive game by McFadden, but some of his passes were flat out scary. He's not missing his calling as a PG.

Looks like McFadden's scary passing continued @ Toledo? 0 points, 21 minutes, 5 fouls, 5 turnovers. That's bad stuff.

I didn't get the chance to listen to the games, but it appears only Peterson and Travis decided to show up?

[axeme]

This morning on WNIR Steve French said his guess was Wood was done for the season. Not sure what he's made his opinion on, but we all know he is close to the situation.

I find it funny that the ABJ points out Akron took advantage of the young Bobcats on the boards. Has anyone looked at Akron's lineup?

OU

2 Freshman

4 Sophomore

3 Junior

4 Senior

Akron

5 Freshman

4 Sophomore

3 Junior

3 Senior

I'll add in our young team. OU and others use young as an excuse for being not very good. It is possible to be young and have the talent to compete.

Can't State

4 freshmen

5 sophomore

5 junior

1 senior

If you average out the players (freshmen=1, soph=2, etc.) OU actually turns out to be the OLDEST of the three teams and the flushes are the youngest.

OU--2.69

UA--2.20

Can't State--2.20

In the 4th year of your tenure, a coach should not still be "rebuilding." But they can keep O'Shea for as long as they want.

[Z-Pouch]

If you average out the players (freshmen=1, soph=2, etc.) OU actually turns out to be the OLDEST of the three teams and the flushes are the youngest.

OU--2.69

UA--2.20

Can't State--2.20

In the 4th year of your tenure, a coach should not still be "rebuilding." But they can keep O'Shea for as long as they want.

Hello McFly,

I think the point isn't who's on the team -- it is who is starting and contributing valuable minutes. Both Akron and Ohio starting lineups and contributors are young. Obviuosly, everyone in the league has freshmen/incoming recruiting classes -- but do they play meaningful minutes. Can't State is living on a Jc, a transfer and upperclassmen (Jr/Sr).

[axeme]

Cutley--true soph., been starting all year. 27.5 minutes per game.

Gates--sophomore 15.7 min. per game.

Crenshaw-true freshman--15.2 min. per game (and on the rise).

Our one senior is avg. 28 mpg. and that number is starting to slightly decrease.

Your two main seniors-McFadden and Colins avg. a combined 36 mpg. Let's not count Meyers.

My point is not that your team is not a young one, but that ours is a young team also. We returned one starter who is now a junior.

We return everyone next year but one guy and are giving quality minutes to freshmen and sophomores.

I'll say it again--I think some teams use youth as an excuse because they have nothing else to explain their poor records. OU is a good example. When they had experienced players they crashed and burned; now they have other players who are doing no better. Don't want to blame the coach? Fine. Players must be "a year or two away."

Hey, if teams are always wanting to "wait until next year," fine with me.