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By Patrick McManamon
Beacon Journal sports columnist
POSTED: 10:06 p.m. EDT, Mar 18, 2009
Russ Holmes understood the feelings when the University of Akron basketball team earned its bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Heck, he felt the feelings.
''I felt the exuberation all over again, as if I was going back,'' Holmes said Wednesday from his office at Key Bank.
''Now I can get that hat off my head that we were the only team in the history of the school to go to the NCAAs. Now we have another team for company, and I like company.''
Holmes will be watching when the Zips face Gonzaga at 7:25 tonight in a game that is the Zips' most important since . . . well . . . 23 years ago, when Holmes and his teammates nearly upset Michigan in the NCAAs.
What does it mean?
Akron belongs.
When brackets are filled out nationwide, Akron is included.
The Zips will be on television. They are part of the national obsession with a tournament that prompts sick days and office pools.
''People have already talked to me and said thank goodness the game is at night,'' Holmes said. ''They were reminding me that when we played it was during the day and they had to sneak out of work, or sneak TVs in.''
To teams that regularly make appearances — like Gonzaga — it's another tournament appearance. But Gonzaga once was UA, the school that came from nowhere, earned a bid and won some games.
''It didn't really hit me until Sunday at the restaurant,'' UA coach Keith Dambrot said. ''When you saw all those people there, some you wouldn't expect. People are excited. The mayor is excited.
''We had old people there, young people. Little kids . . . ''
Dambrot's voice trailed off as he thought of the healthy crowd that had jammed the Ohio Brewing Company downtown just to watch the Zips react to their bid.
The players reveled in the moment — no matter that they are playing a Final Four-caliber team. The underdog role is never more relished or appreciated than in the NCAAs, and UA fits it perfectly.
Holmes said the UA-Michigan game in 1986 was the same way.
''It was coined Goliath and Herb,'' Holmes said.
Herb was a skinny, scrawny kid with glasses from a Burger King ad. Goliath was self-evident.
''They had big 7-foot Roy Tarpley and they were the No. 1 seed, but we gave them a run for their money,'' Holmes said.
Holmes recalled that Tarpley took the Zips so lightly he missed curfew the night before the game and didn't start.
''But he was in there pretty quick,'' Holmes said with a laugh.
Not much has changed.
The selection and seeding process is weighted toward the larger conferences and larger schools. Those who run the tournament deny it, but when a 19-win Arizona team gets in over a 25-win St. Mary's, something is askew.
UA learned that hard reality two years ago, when it won 26 games and lost the MAC final to a 3-point bank shot and a slow clock.
Holmes attended that game, wearing his NCAA watch and his Ohio Valley Conference championship ring, he said.
''I had all those things ready for the tournament, and we got beat by a bank shot from the parking lot,'' Holmes said.
While last week's MAC final was being played, Holmes was at an event at his church. He didn't want to admit it, but he received some texts updating him on the game's progress during the event.
When the game ended, people congratulated him.
''Like I was playing,'' he said. ''They were congratulating me like I won the game.''
''I've always said this is a sleeping giant,'' said Dambrot, whose teams have won 19, 23, 26, 24 and (this season) 23 games at UA. ''It's been asleep for so long. A lot of people don't come out. With the economy the way it is, especially in Northeast Ohio and Ohio in general, this is a good rallying point.''
As Dambrot talked, the words of another well-known coach came to mind. Dean Smith always said his basketball program at North Carolina was comparable to the front porch of a house — it was more visible, but what went on inside the house was just as important.
So it seemed with UA athletics last week.
In the same time the Zips earned their bid, freshman Jenna Compton joined Christi Smith as the only UA athletes to win individual national titles.
Compton won the air rifle championship and said: ''There are no words to describe how I feel.''
Which is sort of what the basketball players said when they won the MAC.
In College Station, Texas, Stevi Large continued her incredible collegiate track career when she broke her school record and finished second in the weight throw in the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships.
Large would have won the national title, but Louisville's Dana McCarthy beat her on the last throw.
''What they did was no less important and equally as significant,'' UA Athletic Director Mack Rhoades said.
Tonight, it's the basketball team's turn. And Holmes is not among the naysayers. He believes this year's team is much like his, and he expects the Zips to do well.
''If we can somehow win a game, and win again,'' Dambrot said, ''you might see that bear get up from that long nap.''
Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/mcmanamon/
Russ Holmes understood the feelings when the University of Akron basketball team earned its bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Heck, he felt the feelings.
''I felt the exuberation all over again, as if I was going back,'' Holmes said Wednesday from his office at Key Bank.
''Now I can get that hat off my head that we were the only team in the history of the school to go to the NCAAs. Now we have another team for company, and I like company.''
Holmes will be watching when the Zips face Gonzaga at 7:25 tonight in a game that is the Zips' most important since . . . well . . . 23 years ago, when Holmes and his teammates nearly upset Michigan in the NCAAs.
What does it mean?
Akron belongs.
When brackets are filled out nationwide, Akron is included.
The Zips will be on television. They are part of the national obsession with a tournament that prompts sick days and office pools.
''People have already talked to me and said thank goodness the game is at night,'' Holmes said. ''They were reminding me that when we played it was during the day and they had to sneak out of work, or sneak TVs in.''
To teams that regularly make appearances — like Gonzaga — it's another tournament appearance. But Gonzaga once was UA, the school that came from nowhere, earned a bid and won some games.
''It didn't really hit me until Sunday at the restaurant,'' UA coach Keith Dambrot said. ''When you saw all those people there, some you wouldn't expect. People are excited. The mayor is excited.
''We had old people there, young people. Little kids . . . ''
Dambrot's voice trailed off as he thought of the healthy crowd that had jammed the Ohio Brewing Company downtown just to watch the Zips react to their bid.
The players reveled in the moment — no matter that they are playing a Final Four-caliber team. The underdog role is never more relished or appreciated than in the NCAAs, and UA fits it perfectly.
Holmes said the UA-Michigan game in 1986 was the same way.
''It was coined Goliath and Herb,'' Holmes said.
Herb was a skinny, scrawny kid with glasses from a Burger King ad. Goliath was self-evident.
''They had big 7-foot Roy Tarpley and they were the No. 1 seed, but we gave them a run for their money,'' Holmes said.
Holmes recalled that Tarpley took the Zips so lightly he missed curfew the night before the game and didn't start.
''But he was in there pretty quick,'' Holmes said with a laugh.
Not much has changed.
The selection and seeding process is weighted toward the larger conferences and larger schools. Those who run the tournament deny it, but when a 19-win Arizona team gets in over a 25-win St. Mary's, something is askew.
UA learned that hard reality two years ago, when it won 26 games and lost the MAC final to a 3-point bank shot and a slow clock.
Holmes attended that game, wearing his NCAA watch and his Ohio Valley Conference championship ring, he said.
''I had all those things ready for the tournament, and we got beat by a bank shot from the parking lot,'' Holmes said.
While last week's MAC final was being played, Holmes was at an event at his church. He didn't want to admit it, but he received some texts updating him on the game's progress during the event.
When the game ended, people congratulated him.
''Like I was playing,'' he said. ''They were congratulating me like I won the game.''
''I've always said this is a sleeping giant,'' said Dambrot, whose teams have won 19, 23, 26, 24 and (this season) 23 games at UA. ''It's been asleep for so long. A lot of people don't come out. With the economy the way it is, especially in Northeast Ohio and Ohio in general, this is a good rallying point.''
As Dambrot talked, the words of another well-known coach came to mind. Dean Smith always said his basketball program at North Carolina was comparable to the front porch of a house — it was more visible, but what went on inside the house was just as important.
So it seemed with UA athletics last week.
In the same time the Zips earned their bid, freshman Jenna Compton joined Christi Smith as the only UA athletes to win individual national titles.
Compton won the air rifle championship and said: ''There are no words to describe how I feel.''
Which is sort of what the basketball players said when they won the MAC.
In College Station, Texas, Stevi Large continued her incredible collegiate track career when she broke her school record and finished second in the weight throw in the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships.
Large would have won the national title, but Louisville's Dana McCarthy beat her on the last throw.
''What they did was no less important and equally as significant,'' UA Athletic Director Mack Rhoades said.
Tonight, it's the basketball team's turn. And Holmes is not among the naysayers. He believes this year's team is much like his, and he expects the Zips to do well.
''If we can somehow win a game, and win again,'' Dambrot said, ''you might see that bear get up from that long nap.''
Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/mcmanamon/
Comments
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Posted 10:42 AM, 03/19/2009
One of the highlights of my coaching career was seeing the look on Jenna's face when she realized she won the NCAA Air Rifle Championships. What a fitting reward for one of the hardest working athletes in the entire athletic department. Jenna was right when she said, "words can not descirbe..."
