Temple at Akron - Running game notes
Posted November 26th, 2007 by mrasor
Men's basketball
I will be adding to this post as the game goes on, so keep refreshing to maximize your experience.
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Notes…
Jeremiah Wood has his afro split into two pigtails and a ponytail. Every night it's something with this guy.
The band is back. They're playing "American Band" by Grand Funk Railroad. I'm in heaven.
As the ABJ's Michael Beaven pointed out to me, the teams are in the locker rooms during the national anthem. Weird. Tonight's singer actually sung the song normally, rather than going all Rosanne with it.
Starting lineup: Cedrick Middleton, Nick Dials, Jimmy Conyers, Quade Milum and Wood.
The Owls' 7-footer Sergio Olmos was not the player who took the tip.
Attendance is fair. AK-Rowdies are at about 50 percent capacity.
Temple has scored on its first five possessions.
Steve McNees threw a great baseball-style bounce pass on a fast break through traffic to Chris McKnight.
Akron still isn't boxing out on defense.
Foul shooting continues to be horrendous. Milum might as well have been blindfolded on his pair of misses.
McNees dished a nice no-look pass to Middleton for a 3. The Zips' offense is definitely at its best when they're pressuring the ball and running the break.
Play of the game so far: Dials drained a 3 from the corner while being shoved into the Temple bench.
The guards are playing a very complete game. Middleton has hit four 3s. Dials is making important shots. McNees is running the offense smoothly, despite subpar stats. They're all playing good D (even McNees).
Middleton just blew the game open with a 3 from the corner. It's his fifth. The crowd isn't very large, but it knows how to get loud.
Thanks to some solid Dials defense, the ball just bumped into my laptop. No damage.
Conyers nearly dunked home a rebound from the weakside. It wasn't one of those lousy one-handed semi-dunks. Conyers leaped from outside the paint and almost threw it back in with two hands. I've never seen him get up like that.
Of all the players on the Zips, I would least want Nate Linhart on my pickup team. He plays decent defense but makes terrible mistakes on offense.
The Zips are getting sloppy. This game could slip away.
Mike Bardo and McNees might have shot their first career foul shots. The result? One for four. Bardo did, however, come up with a big rebound off McNees' second miss.
This game is going to come down to foul shots. That's bad news for Akron.
Middleton is on the line with 6.3 seconds left. Akron has a small lead. Remind you of any recent horror films/Zips losses? He blew both of them. Wow.
Final score — Akron 67, Temple 65
November 26th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
There's no doubt that Middleton had some seriously scary flashbacks out there on his final two freethrows. He's a trooper, but that's the kind of thing that can destroy your confidence. At least we won this time.
November 26th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
I think this is the worst foul shooting team in Akron history. What are we shooting on the season as a team? Maybe 60%?
November 26th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
I like this team. Going to get better.
One thing I don't like……… pathetic attendance! We have an A-10 school coming into our place and we get 2300????
Our marketing efforts S.U.C.K
Mike whats your take on our marketing, you are closer to the situation.
November 27th, 2007 at 10:19 am
I love what Dambrot has done with this program, but until he is able to bring a legitimate center onto this team, all of his great coaching and ability to obtain maximum effort from his players will never result in anything better than a first round win in the NIT tournament. I wonder how this team would be he they had a 6' 9" center that could contribute 12 points and 10 rebounds a game and guard the opponent's pivot man instead of leaving this task to a 6' 6" small forward (Wood)? I guess we will not know this for a few more years, based on the list of 5 recruits that Akron just announced which consists of more 5'10" guards and 6' 7 forwards.
November 27th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Kep,
Good point about the center. Problem is, Dambrot won't take a big man unless he can play defense. A big man who can play O and D usually never considers Akron.
November 27th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
FINALLY! Two valid points that deserve answers!
1) Fewer than 2,500 fans have attended the Zip games vs. Binghamton and now Temple. And people are whining about getting a "bigger and better" gym? Yeah, right!!! UA fans are a pathetic joke.
2) Dambrot, is it really THAT hard to entice a TRUE CENTER to this program that won 26 games last year? Kep is right, 6'6" pivots ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH for this league or for D-1. This MUST become your priority, man! Year after year after year, no quality big man… What gives??
3) A team filled with guards and small forwards can't even shoot foul shots? Unforgiveable. And it will cost them games this year, you can count on it. Our performance at the line, esp. at the end of games, is an utter DISGRACE.