Men's basketball

With 13 minutes to play, Akron is tied with Temple.

Nick Dials just hit a four-point play.

Men's basketball

Akron finally is playing in a postseason game. But you won't see it on television. I commend ONN for continuing on its path of worthlessness.

• Tom Gaffney's ABJ preview talks about Temple's size and match-up zone defense, which creates havoc for some teams.
• Mike Hixenbaugh's Buchtelite preview talks about the Zips' clear advantage: bench play.
• VanDelaySports.com's preview says Akron will need to play an up-tempo game and protect the post to win.
• Danny Sheridan says Temple will win by 6.5. He also says Miami, the MAC's other NIT team, will lose at Butler by 4.
• The Buchtelite's Kiel Fleming sounded off about the quiet fans in Rhodes Arena's lower bowl. He has some good points, but they probably aren't feasible with the arena's design.
• The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote a brief on the game.
• GoZips.com gives some good all-time stats: Akron is 0-3 all-time in the postseason. Akron has 22 wins. That is tied for the most in the university's Division I history.
• Pointspread.com's oddsmakers say the Zips will lose by 7.
• Having not seen Temple play this year, I don't want to make a solid prediction. I know Temple is awful at foul shooting (59.7 percent) and rebounding (-3.4 margin). However, they force a ton of turnovers with a margin of 7.6 per game.
• With the Owls' size, it's safe to say the Zips don't match up well. However, two intangibles should be considered. First, will the Owls play well for retiring coach John Chaney, who won't be on the sidelines anyhow? Second, will it show that an NIT berth means more to Akron than to Temple?

Football

Hixenbaugh spoke yesterday with Domenik Hixon about Pro Day.

Track

John Russell was the Buchtelite's Zips Athlete of the Week. Read Hixenbaugh's interview with him.

Men's basketball

John Chaney will not coach the Akron/Temple game tomorrow. It has nothing to do with his retirement. His wife is scheduled to undergo a medical procedure. I will preview the game tomorrow afternoon.

Here is the Rasor's Edge for Tuesday. You get it 12 hours before the general public…

It happened again. Akron got the shaft.

The Zips will play at Temple in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament today.

The key word is “at.” Akron’s Ratings Percentage Index is 69, according to ESPN.com. Temple’s is 74.

Another key phrase is “first round.” Twenty-four of the 40 NIT teams get a first-round bye. Not Akron, despite the Zips’ 69 RPI, which is higher than 21 of the 40 teams.

According to the genius behind NCAA Bracketology Joe Lunardi, Akron should have received a bye.

When filling its bracket, the NIT Web site says the selection committee considers a team’s computer rankings, chronology, non-conference games, Division I results, home and away outcomes, last 10 games and head-to-head match-ups. In short, they rely on the same statistics that go into the RPI’s formula.

But the NIT committee also considers its members’ personal rankings. If you go based on RPI, Akron deserved either a four or five seed. For the Zips to fall to an eight seed, the six-member committee, solely comprised of former Division I coaches, must have disregarded the RPI, since the Zips have a higher RPI than the 13 teams that are above them.

This is just the latest of setbacks that Akron has faced while trying to advance its athletics programs from mediocrity to respectability.

• In 2004, Akron football was the only bowl-eligible team not to receive a bowl bid.

• In 2005, Akron basketball had one of the highest RPIs of teams that did not make the NCAA Tournament. Yet, the Zips did not even receive an invitation to play in the NIT.

• Last season, Akron men’s soccer was ranked No. 1 in the nation for much of the year. The only game the Zips lost was on the road to the defending national champion, Indiana. The NCAA Tournament selection committee still ranked the Zips as the No. 9 seed.

That forced the Zips to play on the road in the Round of 16 and Elite Eight. The Zips lost to the eventual national champion Maryland in double overtime in the Elite Eight.

An insider with the athletic department told me the seeding may also have caused coach Ken Lolla to resign and take a job at a bigger school because he wanted to compete for a national championship. Lolla likely believes that if he takes Louisville to the same height as he did with the Zips, a selection committee may be more generous.

As Zips fans, we must face it that Akron will continue to lack national respect. The reason is that Akron lacks tradition in most sports. Selection committees find it a much safer pick to give a better seeding to a team like Wake Forest, who is 17-16 and has the No. 85 RPI, but is an annual participant in the NCAA Tournament.

Will it change? I think so.

Several people in the know have told me that Akron’s football team has a good chance to receive a bowl bid next season if the Zips have a winning record, even if the Zips aren’t the Mid-American Conference Champions. That is mostly because of Akron’s fan support at the Motor City Bowl. The soccer team is sure to get more respect next season as well.

Until then, the Zips and their fans will have to be patient.

Men's basketball

John Chaney retired this morning from Temple after 24 seasons.

That might increase media coverage for tomorrow's game, assuming Chaney stays on for the NIT.

Men's basketball

According to OwlSports.com, the tipoff in tomorrow's NIT first-round game between Akron and Temple will be at 7 p.m.

I will preview the game either tonight or tomorrow morning.

Men's basketball

Akron will play at Temple Tuesday in the NIT's first round.

Not only did the Zips not get a bye, but they also didn't get a home game in the play-in round. Click here for the bracket.

The Owls (17-14) were just average in the Atlantic 10 this season. However, they beat No. 8 George Washington on Thursday. They also beat Maryland, Alabama and played Duke close.

Temple has plenty of size. Each starter is above 6-foot-5. Center Wayne Marshall is 6-11. As Buchtelite editor in chief Dan Kadar suggested to me, maybe the Zips should run with a lineup of Dru Joyce, Darryl Peterson, Romeo Travis, Rob Preston and Matt Futch.

Track

Tomasz Smialek just missed winning his second All-American honors, finishing 11th at the NCAA Championships in Fayetteville, Ark.

He cleared 7-01.50, which was short of USC's Jesse Williams, who won the national championship at 7-06.

Baseball

Akron lost to the seventh-best team in the nation on Saturday. Tennessee scored six runs late to win, 7-3. Akron is playing a double header today at Murray State.

Tennis

Akron went 2-1 this weekend at the Prarie View A&M Invitational. Jenna Larson won each of her singles matches.

Men's basketball

Tonight at 9 we will learn if Akron is going to the NIT. The seeding will be announced live on ESPNU - The Ocho and ESPNNews. Forty teams make the tournament. Sixteen have to play in the first round to narrow the field to 32. The games are played on campuses until the semifinals, when the action moves to Madison Square Garden in New York City. The semifinals and finals are played on ESPN2 and ESPN, respectively. The final is set for March 30.

ESPN's college basketball genius, Joe Lunardi, says Akron will be in the second group of NIT teams. For an explanation of the "groups" system, check out this link. Basically, the Zips would get a first-round bye, but then play on the road against one of the group one teams.

• I received an e-mail from an alumnist today. He said I was too hard on Nick Dials, saying he "played like garbage." I agree with the alumnist. Dials' hustled and played good defense, even though his shots were off.

Track

So far, the Zips don't have any national champions. At the NCAA Championships, John Russell took third and Natalie Sako took ninth. That was enough to earn them All-American honors.

The real surprises, however, came the night before the championships. Coach Dennis Mitchell was named USTFCCCA Great Lakes Women's Coach of the Year. His competition was Joe Piane of Notre Dame and James Henry of Michigan. Piane and Henry won their conference championships, so that really says something about the respect Akron has nationally, Mitchell told me.

Russell also was named Great Lakes Region Indoor Field Events Athlete of the Year. That award encompasses schools from Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin.

The Zips aren't done. This afternoon, Tomasz Smialek will compete in the high jump for a shot to become a national champion.

Swimming and diving

Akron's two NCAA Zone C diving qualifiers failed to advance yesterday in the 1-meter event. Katie Carter placed 21st and Melissa Holbach came in 35th. A top-18 ranking was necessary to move on.

They will get another shot today in the 3-meter competition.

Men's basketball

If you've read any of the comments from readers on this blog, or anything on ZipsNation.org, you'll see that people are giving Nick Dials a tough time.

He has been a horrible shooter the past few weeks. However, no one gives an effort that is comparable to Dials. I have never seen a guy get as many floor burns as Dials.

In my opinion, he came back too early from knee surgery. But the Zips needed him to, especially once Bubba Walther transferred. And let's not forget that Dials is just a sophomore.

That said, Dials will have to win his starting job back next season. Cedrick Middleton and Jimmy Conyers will push him for playing time.

Let's look at the bright side. The Zips probably will find a berth in the postseason for the first time in 18 years. Is it what we all wanted? No. But it is a step that the program needed to take.

I also don't want to hear anything else about Keith Dambrot being a choke artist or bad coach. Coach, if you are reading this, disregard any idiot who implies that you aren't doing a good job.

Football

Akron's Pro Day was a raging success for wide receiver Domenik Hixon, who ran a 4.36 in the 40.

With his size, strength, hands and toughness, I will be shocked if he goes undrafted.

Men's basketball

The Zips missed foul shots down the stretch. That cost them the game.

Akron lost 77-69, despite leading by 12 with less than 10 minutes remaining in the game.

Romeo Travis, Dru Joyce, Darryl Peterson, Rob Preston and Cedrick Middleton played well. However, a five-minute spurt of terrible basketball killed Akron. Nick Dials played like garbage.

The worst part, to me, was the two inbounds passes that were stolen for Toledo slam dunks. Strike that. The worst part was walking back to my apartment, seeing frat boys partying like we just won the Super Bowl.

I could go for cheap shots against them. Instead, I'll just say their contributions to campus life are negligent, unless you adore a plethora of beer bottles lying on the devil's strip.