Mid-American Conference Championship Recap
by Bill Kintner
CLEVELAND – As the game ended, Miami coach Charlie Coles jumped into the air as his RedHawks had just won on a last-second shot to beat Akron 53-52.
As the team, cheerleaders and fans ran onto the court to celebrate the win, the referees gathered around the monitor to check the last shot.
As the time dragged on it became apparent that the officials found something that was not kosher so maybe the RedHawks did not win.
A no-longer celebrating Coles started asking whoever might listen, “Did we win?”
Akron Coach Keith Dambrot wandered over by the monitors and embraced Coles as they watched the officials try to figure out what happened.
The miracle play that caused this Texas-sized stink went as follows: Miami’s Doug Penno faked to his right and went left, then released a shot with Akron’s Nick Dials’ hand in his face as he said a quick prayer. The ball banked off the backboard and into the basket as time ran out for a three-pointer to erase a two-point deficit and win the game.
“I said a prayer while it was up in the air and God answered that prayer. I don’t think I will ever forget that shot. I just put it up and had faith,” explained a drained Penno.
For almost 10 minutes the officials reviewed the monitor using a stop watch, as MAC Commissioner Rick Chryst joined the huddle.
On one end of the court were the Miami (18-14) players hugging each other, and on the other end of the court were the Akron players standing around anxiously hoping for one more shot to win this game.
Dambrot argued that the clock didn’t start on time giving Miami and Penno some extra time to get the shot off.
“I never got a good explanation. I hope they got it right, I’ll be man enough to admit it if they are right,” said Dambrot. “But if they are wrong, it is inexcusable.”
Finally the officials issued a bizarre ruling that the basket was good, .6 seconds should be put on the clock, and Akron would get the ball under the Miami basket.
When Akron (26-7) tried to inbound the ball to Nick Goddard, it went out of bounds and the officials declared the game over. The RedHawk players and fans again celebrated the win.
For the second straight night Miami’s Tim Pollitz had a big night as he scored 19 points to lead his team. He was named tournament MVP. Penno and Bramos both put in 11 points.
Jeremiah Wood led the Zips with 17 points and 12 rebounds. Romeo Travis added 14 points to the effort.
Penno’s shot was made possible when Akron’s Cedrick Middleton missed a foul shot that Bramos came up with and passed it to Penno.
Akron led 28-21 at the half, and in fact the Zips led for most of the game.
With this heart-breaking loss, Akron’s fine season will almost certainly continue in the NIT, although that didn’t stop both Coles and Dambrot from doing a little lobbying for a Zip NCAA at-larger birth.
“How can you win 26 games and not be hearing things for an at-large? Something’s got to be wrong with the system,” pleaded Coles. “My heart goes out to Akron. They have been a phenomenal team a year long.”
MAC Happenings
- The MAC Tournament draws real well, yet the conference averages just 2,921 game. I can’t figure how they get people to go to Cleveland to watch a tournament while most schools can’t get people to come to campus to watch games. Last night for the semi-finals there were 13,000 people in the house and tonight there were 10,045.
- The Miami Sports Network has the largest staff of any team in the MAC. They have four guys in Cleveland at the MAC Tournament. There is Steve Baker (play-by-play), Joe Barry (color), Tim Bray (lead-ins/stats) and Tommy Luegers (production engineer). When they have their matching red shirts they look like a bowling team. The quality of the production is second to none.
- Miami leads the all-time series between the schools by a 22-14 margin after Saturday’s win.
- Charlie Coles is 23-15 all-time in the MAC Tournament.
- Miami is the only team in Division I to hold every opponent under 70 points this season.
- Akron’s 26 wins this year ties the most in school history.
Tournament MVP
Tim Pollitz (Miami)
All-Tournament Team
Romeo Travis (Akron)
Jeremiah Wood (Akron)
Giordan Watson (CMU)
Tim Pollitz (Miami)
Michael Bramos (Miami)
