Success for college basketball programs is not only judged by winning championships and NCAA tournament games, but also how many times an archrival is defeated.
Although Ohio (11-3, 1-0 Mid-American Conference) holds a 35-34 advantage in the all-time series against Akron (9-5, 1-0 MAC), recently that has not been the case.
The Bobcats did not fare well against the Zips last season as they dropped to 0-3 in the Jim Christian era. Akron’s most recent defeat of the Bobcats still remains fresh on the players’ minds, as it came in the MAC Championship, but Ohio will try and reverse that trend Sunday at 6 p.m. as the Bobcats host the Zips in an early conference matchup.
Ohio, which has finished the non-conference slate of its schedule, defeated Kent State for its first MAC victory of the season on Wednesday. The Bobcats held the Golden Flashes to 28 percent shooting for the contest. The past three games, Ohio has combined to hold the opposition to 31 percent shooting from the floor and 27 percent beyond the arc.
Ohio trailed the Golden Flashes in the second half, but junior guard Stevie Taylor said he was pleased to see the Bobcats respond and open conference play on a positive note.
“We were down late, and we still came back,” Taylor said. “We’ve been doing that all season though so it was ‘man I’m glad to see we did that first game of the MAC,’ so we know we can come back from whatever.”
This will be the Bobcats’ second MAC game without senior guard Ricardo Johnson, who suffered a double leg fracture against UNC-Asheville.
The Bobcats received key contributions in the Kent State game from seniors Travis Wilkins, a guard, and T.J. Hall, a forward, in place of his absence. Wilkins scored eight points and grabbed a career-high seven rebounds, while Hall pulled down nine rebounds and chipped in seven points.
Christian said he was pleased with the team’s mantra ‘pack’ against the Flashes, which called for teammates to step up in adverse circumstances.
“The pack is all about everybody on the team,” Christian said. “So that’s what happens when somebody goes down, other guys have to pull their weight, so that’s what we did in the Kent game.”
Preseason All-MAC player Demetrius Treadwell leads the Zips with 13 points and eight rebounds per contest to pace the squad. Senior forward Quincy Diggs is also dangerous with the basketball in his hands, as he leads the team with 2.9 assists per contest.
Diggs ranks second on the team in scoring, averaging 12 points per game. The Zips are also very stout on the glass, averaging 35 rebounds per game
Senior guard Nick Kellogg said limiting the amount of Akron rebounds is one facet of the game the Bobcats will need to excel in to upend the Zips.
“We’ve just got to block out every time, not lose track of guys,” Kellogg said. “It’s going to be a total team effort so we’ve just got to make sure we’re focused and having a mentality of keeping them off the glass.”
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