The Chips lost to their arch-rival WMU Saturday. It was their third straight loss. CMU mounted a rally, coming from 11 down with 4 minutes left. They had a shot to tie the game with a 3FG in the last seconds, but had a player slip getting the inbound pass and Zeigler missed a desperation 3.
In the game prior to that, they were smoked by Ball State...note Ziegler's analysis...
Ernie said that he saw his team panic once the Cardinals opened a large lead, and then players tried to do it themselves instead of moving the ball and finding an open look at the hoop.
“We weren’t sharing the ball,” he said. “We have numerous guys who have the capabilities to make plays for each other and we just weren’t sharing the ball.”
Note as well that Freshman G Jorddan Myrick has a hip injury and has missed the last four games. He was used sparingly when healthy.
Finally, here's a column from the CMU student paper. It addresses what is the central question about the CMU program. You get the top recruit in the MAC in recent memory (Trey Zeigler), a guy who was recruited to the top programs in the US. And yet, the team has struggled and really not improved and they play in the West, where a little skill would go a long way.
Zeigler has been good, though he is far from dominating the MAC. I know he's only a sophomore, but for a player with those credentials, you'd expect an immediate impact, and his impact as a freshman was less than DJ Cooper or Javon McCrea, as examples.
He’s fifth in the Mid-American Conference in scoring, averaging 15.8 points per game. Zeigler is seventh in the conference in rebounds, averaging 6.8.
To be fair, he's getting their the hard way. Zeigler is using 30% of his team's possessions, which is second in the MAC behind Abdel Nader of NIU, who, frankly, I never heard of. Zeigler is 52nd in the MAC in offensive efficiency.
The columnist, John Manko, proposes that Zeigler is getting wrongful blame for the team's struggles:
Nobody can win a championship alone. The pieces around Zeigler are slowly coming. Sophomore guard Derek Jackson is a high-riser with speed and athleticism. Freshman point guard Austin McBroom is a floor general and gives added stability to a position that was in shambles because of the Amir Rashid-Antonio Weary project.
That might well be true. My own thought is the same one that I had when Trey signed at CMU...which is that I think they were ready to unload his Dad as Coach, and kept him to get Trey. I have yet to see anything from Zeigler the Elder in terms of building a winning program.
Maybe that will not turn out to be not true. He's certainly gotten the gift of a little extra time....
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