Akron Falls Back to the Pack
by Jay Pearlman
AKRON, Ohio – Two years ago the Zips won the Eastern Division of the Mid-American Conference, and came within a point of the NCAA Tournament, losing the conference tourney final to Miami 53-52. Weakened a bit by graduation (specifically that of scoring and rebounding leader Romeo Travis), last year’s team returned to the conference final, losing there to Kent State 74-55. But a berth in the NIT, an overtime win at Florida State and a five-point loss at Massachusetts made season’s end much more palatable (though 22 years have now gone by since Bob Huggins’ 1985-86 team played in the NCAA Tournament). That said, few coaches in America – Jim Larranaga of George Mason comes to mind – deserve a pass to rebuild as much as Keith Dambrot does, and undoubtedly that’s just what he is going to get this year.
The section of Akron’s media guide headed “Season Preview” begins with the word “Reload” in large block diagonal capital letters across the top of a page, but typesetting it and doing it are two vastly different things. Gone from last year’s NIT team are point guard Nick Dials, along with his 5 assists and 12 points, Jeremiah Wood, with his 14 points and 8 rebounds, and 10-point scorer Cedrick Middleton. Remaining from that team are 6-8 lefty outside shooter Nate Linhart (8.5 points and 5 rebounds) and 6-6 junior forward Chris McKnight (6 points and 3 rebounds). And while McKnight looked improved in last night’s exhitibion, either a redshirt freshman (Ronnie Steward from Columbus) or a true freshman (Anthony Hitchens from Chillicothe) will man the point, backed up by sophomore starting second guard Steve McNees, and none of the three looks ready on either offense or defense.
In last night’s exhibition, Akron held on to sneak out of its own gym with an 83-81 win over NAIA Division II Walsh College. Akron had more players that Walsh, the advantage of playing at home, NCAA (in fact MAC) officials, and a tradition of beating Walsh every year going for them, and it took a tie-breaking shot from the left post by Chris McKnight’s younger brother Brett in the final half-minute to win the game. And while these games are designated “exhibitions,” a look at Coach Dambrot’s face during the final minute showed that while exhibition wins don’t “count,” losses surely do.
Chris McKnight scored 20 for Akron (7-14 shooting) and grabbed 7 boards, and Linhart scored 19 (7-10, 4-6 in treys) and grabbed 4 rebounds (just one before halftime). In the win Akron was out-rebounded by Walsh 37-29.
Clearly not an exhibition game to the kids and coaches from Walsh (who play Ohio State next Thursday), the best player in the gym this night was their diminutive sophomore point guard Lamar Skeeter from Dayton (25 points, 8-12, 2-4 in treys, 5 rebounds and 4 assists), and I for one wonder why that young man isn’t playing Division I basketball in the MAC or Horizon League. And Walsh had the ball to end the game, junior guard Brandon Speck rimming a three at the buzzer that would have won for the visitors.
Focusing on Akron, while saying all the right things about guarding and not using his own absence this week for an in-law’s funeral as an excuse, Dambrot appeared resigned to a subpar season at Rhodes Arena this year, one in which he searches for and trains a point guard in his own arena, and searches for more competitive MAC talent out on the recruiting trail.
