Things have changed at University of Akron basketball practices in recent weeks.
At the start of the season, it wasn’t uncommon to hear coach Keith Dambrot raise his voice to grab a player’s attention or get a point across.
These days, he doesn’t do that very often. It’s amazing what turning around a 3-5 start with a 15-2 stretch will do for a coach and his team.
But it’s not that the practices lack intensity. It’s a far cry from that. A team that began the season young and immature is showing signs of growing up.
In a recent practice, it was one player chastising a teammate for making a mistake as the team ran drills. Winning, apparently, works and this change in attitude is coming at the right time — with six games left in the regular season and prime positioning for the Mid-American Conference Tournament on the line.
“What we try to stress to them is get through the next two weeks, then the MAC Tournament, that’s all fun,” Dambrot said. “This is the grind part. We have to win these games, but grind through so at every game there’s 5,000 or more people then pretty soon you’re playing on all emotion.”
But the Zips (18-7, 10-1 MAC) haven’t really had to rely on emotion in recent weeks. For the most part — sans the occasional bumpy start — they’ve been winning because of their collective skills and attitude.
“There are guys who matured a little bit more. There are guys who grasp the idea of the system now and everything,” senior forward Nikola Cvetinovic said. “I think we as a group finally started blending in with each other, learning each other’s tendencies. It’s just coming together and realizing what we’ve done since that 3-5 start.”
The reason they’ve been able to do so is simple Cvetinovic said — talent. He said on past teams the Zips had reserves who excelled at either defense or offense. On this team, the Zips have a deep bench with well-rounded players.
Junior center Zeke Marshall agreed with that assessment and offered his own. Marshall said those past teams won because they possessed discipline and didn’t make many mental errors. They knew when to run and when to get into a set play, something this squad continues to develop.
“This team has the talent and we’re slowly building the discipline,” Marshall aid. “When we have the discipline of other teams, we’re going to be very, very dangerous. It’s just trying to get there with the talent that we have and play the right way.”
In the next six games, they’re going to need that discipline.
The stretch begins with a home game against Miami and a BracketBuster game at Oral Roberts before the final four MAC games at home against Bowling Green, at Ohio, at home against Buffalo and at Kent State. Winning all six games could put the Zips on a path that Dambrot wants.
“We’re trying to do something with the MAC that hasn’t been done in years — get an at-large (NCAA Tournament bid). I feel like we have a great chance at it,” Cvetinovic said. “So if we approach every single game [right] these six games will be like one big game.”
A victory over Oral Roberts would look especially good in that pursuit, but Dambrot’s concentration remains on the conference.
“Every one of those MAC games is a tough game,” he said. “People think Miami isn’t a tough game, but if you analyze their scores, they could easily be at the top of the league.”
Marshall is confident that the Zips are ready to tackle the challenge.
“As that [MAC] title is getting closer and closer, everyone is picking up their game like they’re supposed to do,” he said. “I can’t speak for everyone else, but I can feel the tension rising because we’ve come so far we can’t fail now.”
George M. Thomas can be reached at gmthomas@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Zips blog at http://zips.ohio.com. Follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/GeorgeThomasABJ and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sports.abj.
