Five things you should know about UNC-Greensboro

Men's basketball
Akron will play a game on New Year's Eve.
Hopefully, the players don't have aspirations of having any fun. Keith Dambrot told the media he doesn't drink, smoke or chase women, so it might be a dry ringing in of 2009. The Zips do, however, get a cupcake.

Five things you should know about Akron's opponent on Wednesday at 2 p.m. ...
Next season, the Spartans are moving their home games to the Greensboro Coliseum, which formerly hosted the ACC Tournament and the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes. The stadium has a capacity of 23,500. It's a giant step for that basketball program. It would be similar to Akron playing at Quicken Loans Arena.
That's the good news. The bad news is that UNCG can't fill a high school gym at this point. They average 1,311 fans at home. Considering that the Spartans and Zips will duel on Dec. 31, don't expect the attendance to break 1,000.
Heck, even if this was an ACC crowd, it wouldn't matter. UNC-Greensboro is 1-8. It's one win came at home against Webber International. Don't bother Googling it. I already did the legwork. Webber is a small business school in Florida. It plays in the NAIA level. The worst part about this Webber game is that the Spartans gave up 78 points and only won by 12. (As I'm typing this, I'm realizing that Akron was a spin of the basketball away from losing to an NAIA team. At least I preempted a lot of your comments that would have pointed that out.)
Of course, it is possible to have quality losses, and Greensboro has one -- at Kent State. The Spartans led at halftime. Only through a fantastic debut from KSU's Tyree Evans did the Flashes win 73-62 at the M.A.C. Center.
The Spartans generally use a nine-man rotation. They aren't particularly tall. Much like Akron, there is no dominant scorer to beware of. No one strokes the 3. No incessant rebounders. It is a very, very young team that averages 17.8 turnovers and only 9.8 assists per game. The team is shooting 36 percent from the field and 29 percent on 3s.