Gameday news and notes

Men's basketball

Jim Christian paid the Zips and Rhodes Arena quite a compliment in today's ABJ when he said he hopes playing at Duke, Ohio State and Butler have prepared him for the home-court advantage Akron enjoys.

Tom Gaffney also reiterated my point that Akron needs to keep Kent State shooting jump shots, not driving through the lane.

• The Zips are a 7.5-point favorite tonight. The over-under is 136.5. Danny Sheridan agrees.


• Only a few KSU players have experienced the Akron-Kent rivalry, the Record-Courier mentions.


• The Zips are excited finally to see a big crowd at Rhodes Arena. Kent leads the all-time series 62-57, the Daily Kent Stater reports.

You can tell me all day about how this rivalry game is rarely a blowout (although I'm not necessarily predicting one). Kent State does two things fairly well: forcing turnovers and slashing to the basket.

Now consider Akron is exceptionally good at stopping penetration and Dru Joyce has held one of the nation's best assist-to-turnover ratios the past couple years.

In short, I really don't see a scenario where this game is that close. Obviously Christian is a good enough coach and his team has enough talent to make it close for awhile, but I see the Zips eventually pulling away.

Prediction: Akron 69, Kent State 57