Miscellaneous

I have heard that a senior administrator may be following Mike Thomas to Cincinnati. I will attempt to confirm this in the morning.

Men's basketball

Here is the Rasor's Edge where I talk about a new offensive look from Keith Dambrot's Zips…

Three weeks ago, I was worried. The men's basketball team was in serious trouble.

Forget that the team was 15-5. The Zips offense looked like five guys who had never played together. The team lacked an offensive leader, so the Zips would make a few passes around the perimeter, then brick a 3-point shot.

And once the Zips gained a lead through its stingy defense, a lousy offense would disintegrate the margin quickly. Leads of 21, 20, 19 and nine disappeared in just minutes. The Zips still won two of those games after blowing the big leads. So the media attention continued to be positive.

The team was getting hype that it hadn't since the late '80s. It was the formula that I believed would disappoint the Akron community when the Zips performed poorly in the Mid-American Conference Tournament.

That was before the Zips' 76-61 win against Ohio on Saturday. If you tuned in to ESPN2 or went to the game Saturday, you would have noticed a totally different team during Akron's win.

All of a sudden, the Zips played like the San Antonio Spurs. Sometimes they increased the tempo to catch the Bobcats off guard. When they went to a half-court offense, coach Keith Dambrot designed sharp plays that put players in position for a short jump shot or a layup. Through their offensive creativity, the Zips confidently built on their lead in the second half against Ohio.

Earlier in the season, that lead might have disappeared.

On Saturday, Romeo Travis and Rob Preston played as solid as any big-man combination in the MAC. Nick Dials, Dru Joyce, Nate Linhart and Cedrick Middleton played with poise and selflessness. Thanks to smart passes and good ball distribution, five Zips scored in double figures.

And they continued to play the same strong defense that won games the first half of the season.

The Ohio game proved that the Zips have learned to keep a lead the right way - with crisp screens, cuts and passes.

Actually, Akron started playing smarter in its loss at Miami Wednesday, despite a three-point loss. In that game, the Zips couldn't keep up with the RedHawks' red-hot shooting. Miami made 53.3 percent of its 3-point attempts. When a team shoots that well in its own building, the result is usually a blowout.

Dambrot seems to strive to minimize a game's variables, which will lead to consistency. For example, Dambrot wants the Zips to excel mainly on defense because he knows the offense will be stagnant on some nights. A defensive-minded team will stay competitive even if the shots are errant.

Also, by getting players to play in a more fluid offense, Dambrot is minimizing the effect of a poor shooting night. This planning should make Dambrot a lock to win the MAC Coach of the Year Award.

Thanks to him, the Zips are ready for the MAC Tournament. Akron still has two difficult games before playing at Quicken Loans Arena - at Buffalo tomorrow and at home against Kent State Saturday.

In all likelihood, the Zips will be the MAC's No. 3 seed. The probable seeding would give the Zips minimal competition until the tournament championship against Kent State.

If Akron can continue to run a fluid offense and confidently control leads against Buffalo and Kent State this week, the Zips should be everyone's favorite to be the MAC's representative in the NCAA Tournament.

They are already mine.

• Here is Elton Alexander's MAC Insider. He talks about how cocky Ohio is. They keep saying it's OK to lose as long as we're still in the MAC Tournament. Nice winning attitude. I expected better from Tim O'Shea.
• In that article, Alexander also presents the possible MAC Player of the Year candidates. They are Akron's Romeo Travis and Dru Joyce, Kent State's Jay Youngblood and DeAndre Haynes and William Hatcher from Miami. At this point, my gut tells me Haynes is leading that race.
• Also, here is a feature by Michael Beaven about Middleton.
• And here is Beaven's story about the Zips' 20th win. As you can see, Kiel Fleming did a cool collage with photos by Paul Ferrer inside the number 20 for the design.

Swimming and diving

Danielle Beland is the Buchtelite's Zips Athlete of the Week for winning the MAC Championship in the 100 and 200 butterfly. These Athlete of the Week interviews are usually pretty interesting. Mike Hixenbaugh does them well. If only he would update his blog…

Miscellaneous

Tom Gaffney wrote a great feature on Mack Rhoades. It really gives you a grip on how big of a rising superstar Rhoades is said to be.

Baseball

Sophomore slugger Kurt Davidson won MAC Player of the Week for the second-straight week. Last week, he was 5-for-12 with three homeruns and eight RBIs. Pat Bangston's Zips are 4-1.

Football

As reported a couple days ago, the Zips defensive line coach Terrell Williams is leaving Akron to do the same job at Purdue. Coach J.D. Brookhart credits Williams for helping to resurrect the defense the past two seasons.

Men's basketball

Akron fell to 15th, while Kent State jumped to seventh in the Mid-Major Top 25. Miami, the only other MAC team to get votes, was 27th.

Rifle

The Zips won the Western Intercollegiate Rifle Championship for the second-straight year. Five of the 10 all-conference first-team shooters were Zips. They are Megan Reinking, Julie DeBrita, Melissa Lussier (x2) and Michael Tokarz. The season will conclude Saturday in Connecticut for the Mid-Atlantic Rifle Conference championships.

Miscellaneous

Today, the Buchtelite will celebrate one of the best mid-card wrestlers of all time. His name is Terry Taylor. You may know him as the Red Rooster, Terrible Terry Taylor, Terrific Terry Taylor, The Taylor Made Man or Terrance Taylor.

Regardless, Taylor is a wrestling icon of mediocrity.

If you have any memories of Taylor, please post them below. This so-so ring veteran will not be forgotten.

As promised, here (Download Terry_Taylor.pdf) is the flier from Terry Taylor Day in PDF format. He has a special message for Zips fans.

Swimming and diving

Katie Carter joined Danielle Beland as a MAC Champion this weekend. Carter won the 3-meter dive. Megan Walters, along with Beland and Carter, was named to the All-MAC First Team. Sixteen athletes were given that honor. Melissa Young was Akron's only Second Teamer.

Miscellaneous

I was a little surprised not to see the Zips or Flashes games on the front page of the Beacon's sports page today. Both were important games, important enough that one was nationally televised and the other went out to the whole region. In my humble opinion, that is a bad choice.

Still, I think fans have little to complain about. Tom Gaffney has been the best Zips beat reporter I can remember. Also, the games have been featured more prominently than ever before this season.

Men's basketball

Akron beat Ohio today, 76-61. With the win, the Zips grabbed their 20th game and clinched a first-round bye in the MAC Tournament. The contest was a little closer than the final score, but the game never really was in doubt.

Romeo Travis, Nick Dials, Dru Joyce, Rob Preston and Cedrick Middleton each scored more than 10. However, Nate Linhart's dunk in transition late in the second half was the play of the game.

Travis' 12 rebounds make him my player of the game. For the first time this year, it appeared Akron had a go-to player in the post. Middleton also played at a level I haven't seen from him this season.

Leon Williams (14 points, seven rebounds) and Mychal Green (18 points, three steals) played solid for the Bobcats.

Tom Gaffney's game story includes quotes about what the first-round bye means to the team.

I sat in the AK-Rowdies. I must say I was impressed. It definitely is the best place to watch a game if you are a student.

As anyone at the game will tell you, OU's fans are awful. At halftime, a bunch of female students leaned over the student section to let us know Akron sucks. Mind you, the Zips led by nine at this point. It doesn't matter to OU fans. They act like Ohio State fans, but they are missing the victories.

Swimming and diving

Danielle Beland won the 100 butterfly event yesterday. As a team, Akron finished seventh out of eight teams. The finals are tonight.

Track

As announced during the basketball game, the women's team won another MAC Championship today. Beata Rudzinska was the Zips only individual champion, winning the 800 meter event.

The men placed fourth out of six teams. A.J. Oyer, Tomasz Smialek and John Russell each won their individual events.

Coach Dennis Mitchell won Coach of the Year honors for the second-straight year. Mitchell is one of the university's best coaches, and I'm not just saying that because he reads this blog.

In fact, here are my coaching power rankings…

1. J.D. Brookhart - Football
2. Keith Dambrot - Men's basketball
3. Dennis Mitchell - Track
4. Newt Engle - Rifle
5. Scott Jones - Cross country

In case that dirty 50-year-old Ohio fan is paying attention, Ohio's women and men each placed last at the MAC Tournament. Nice work, Bobcats.

Miscellaneous

I'd appreciate it if you guys could keep your comments clean. I love seeing your input. But please use "f—" if you absolutely must drop an f-bomb.

Men's basketball

This is the second game in Akron's stretch run. The university expects a sell-out crowd today. ESPN2 will televise the game. I'd say this is the basketball program's most prominent game since the late '80s.

• GoZips.com's preview says a win would clinch a first-round bye for the Zips, effectively forcing the Bobcats to play a first-round game.
• Danny Sheridan has Akron as a 6.5-point favorite.
• Other oddsmakers are guessing between 6.5 and 7 points for the spread.
• Remember when ESPN called Ohio its "it" team? Well, you could make an argument that ESPN forgot a couple consonants. The Bobcats at 16-8 and 9-6 have disappointed all of the national media members who hoped Jeremy Fears could backflip his way to another NCAA Tournament berth. I won't watch the telecast, but hopefully ESPN's anchors correct this horrible error.

Men's basketball

When I go to games, I've always tried to stay away from the Akron student section. This is mostly because I sometimes write my column about the team for the school paper. It's more professional that way.

This Saturday will be different. I am moving to the AK-Rowdies for one day only. I'm doing this for two reasons…

1. I'm writing about the AK-Rowdies for my Tuesday column.
2. I want to watch up close as the crowd intimidates OU's overrated players and player-stealing coaches.

As I've said before, I dislike Ohio more than any MAC team. They have all the annoying cockiness of Ohio State with none of the talent or tradition.

Swimming and diving

The Zips started slowly in the MAC Championship at Ocasek Natatorium today. They are in seventh out of eight teams.

Rifle

Akron will compete in the Western Intercollegiate Rifle Championship this weekend. The Zips will need almost a miraculous showing to boost their average into the nation's top eight. Only eight teams go to the NCAA Championships in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Women's soccer

Coach Catherine Byrne looks to have really improved her team by signing eight players. I'll just link you to the press release. The recruits' credentials show the program is heading in the right direction.

Baseball

Akron (1-1) will play at Morehead State (0-2) for three games this weekend. Honestly, it's hard for me to care that much this early in the season. Check back once MAC season starts.

Men's basketball

Here are a few game stories from last night's loss to Miami…

• Akron Beacon Journal
• The Buchtelite
• Plain Dealer
• Oxford Press
• GoZips.com
• MURedHawks.com
• The Miami Student (MU student paper) publishes Tuesdays and Fridays so the story will be up tomorrow, I imagine.

By the way, I called the Rhodes Arena ticket office to get my seat for the Ohio game on Saturday. It turns out students can't preorder unless they want to pay general admission costs. But they will reserve 2,000 seats for students. I would recommend getting there early.

Men's basketball

Akron lost a close one tonight in Oxford to the RedHawks, 63-60.

Romeo Travis scored 13 and had seven rebounds to lead Akron in both categories.

Miami made eight of its 15 3-point attempts (53 percent) to the Zips' six of 19 (32 percent).

Dru Joyce missed a 3 pointer with six seconds left that would've tied the game. He was 0 for six from 3-point land tonight.

Akron will play Ohio at home on Saturday at 4 p.m. ESPN2 will televise the game.

Men's basketball

Akron (19-6, 12-2) will play Miami (15-8, 11-3) tonight in Oxford. This will be the most difficult of Akron's remaining regular-season games, in my opinion. The RedHawks are red hot, winning six straight games.

• Tom Gaffney's ABJ preview talks about Miami's turn around since losing in Akron on Jan. 26.
• GoZips.com points out that Akron has only lost back-to-back games once in the Keith Dambrot era.
• Akron fell to 14th in the Mid-Major Top 25 after its loss to Nevada. Kent State rose to ninth. Miami (26th) needed eight more votes to break the top 25. Ohio is the only other MAC team that is ranked. The Bobcats are No. 44.
• The Zips lost all their votes in the Coaches and AP polls.
• Danny Sheridan has Miami as a three-point favorite to win tonight.
• Oddsmakers are saying the same thing.
• Elton Alexander's short PD preview rightly states that the Zips need a signature road win.
• As we saw when the RedHawks came to Rhodes Arena, Miami's defense is solid. Still, Akron found a way to win by also playing stiffling defense. The Zips will need help from Darryl Peterson, who played very well the first time the teams matched up.