RE: Men's Hoops Scores
Akron beat Bluffton (a D3 school) 95-40 tonight.
It's obviously hard to take much out of a game like this, but the "Big 3" of Treadwell, Harney and Diggs all were impressive.
Harney had 21 points in 16 minutes on 9-of-10 shooting. He also looked good putting the ball on the floor (something you can still get a gauge at, despite the talent difference). He's going to be the X-factor for the Zips. If he can provide a consistent 25 minutes, he'll be the difference between the Zips being in the 70-80 range, to potentially a top 40 team.
Treadwell was Treadwell. 12 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks in 22 minutes.
Diggs doesn't look like he missed a year of basketball. His stroke looked smooth (again, something you can judge despite the talent differential). I didn't see all of the game but I think he played minutes at the 1-2 and 3 positions. He had 13 points and 4 assists in 18 minutes (hit 3 of his 4 3-pointers).
The other notable thing I took away from the game was how well JUCO PG Nyles Evans played. He scored 13 points in 17 minutes on 5 of 9 shooting (3-of-7 from 3). I called him "Mini-Cooper" in another thread. And I still think he can be that for the Zips. While he doesn't have the overall play-making ability Cooper had, he's similar in that when his shot is going, he can really heat up (though I'm sure, he'll also have his share of Cooper-esque shooting games, were he goes puts up a 1 for 6 from 3. Still, considering that PG is the weakest position, the fact he showed shooting potential (in an actual college game, I saw him go nuts at times against better competition in the Akron-Canton Pro-Am) and Carmelo Betancourt (the starting PG) had 6 assists and 0 turnovers in 15 minutes, was encouraging.
Just a couple of more quick thoughts. The athleticism the Zips have was on full display. They had 17 steals, forced 27 turnovers and probably had 8-10 dunks. This is easily Dambrot's most athletic team.
The freshmen also all looked very good. All four would see significant minutes on any other team in the MAC, but they will be hard to come by since this team is so deep. Actually, the freshman who played the worst game (Isiah Johnson) is the only who isn't in danger of redshirting, since they need his size (6-10, 305 to help offset the loss of Zeke Marshall).
The one huge negative that I took out of this game, was how little the Zips got out of the 5 spot (despite Bluffton's centers being 6-3). Pat Forsythe looked lost and while Johnson looked like a true freshman playing his first "real" college game. But both still have talent.
Overall, the opener against Coastal Carolina (which is at least on par to a mid-to-lower level MAC school) will give a little bit better clues to how good this Akron team is. Still, they did nothing tonight that makes me think they still aren't the overwhelming favorite to win the MAC again ... and overall, be a better team than they were a year ago, despite four pretty significant losses (Marshall, Walsh, Abreu and Gilliam).
BTW, for the attendance junkies, the Zips had 3,200 tonight for a exhibition against a DIII team, which is pretty good, especially on a Friday night going head-to-head with all the Week 10 HS football games (rivalry week for most schools).
(This post was last modified: 11-02-2013 04:23 AM by Wadszip.)
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