GAME 36

(4) Gonzaga (26-5, 14-0 WCC) vs. (13) Akron (23-12, 10-6 MAC)

Thursday, March 19
7:25 p.m. EDT/4:25 p.m. PDT
Rose Garden • Portland, Ore.
NCAA Tournament - First Round

Television: CBS – Kevin Harlan (play-by-play) and Dan Bonner (analyst).

Radio: Akron-ISP Sports Network – SportsRadio 1350 AM (WARF) and ROCK 106.9 FM (WRQK) in Akron. Steve French (play-by-play) and Joe Dunn (analyst) (7 p.m. EDT airtime). Westwood One Radio via Sirius Satellite Radio channel 121.

The Series: First Meeting

Akron Coach Keith Dambrot (Akron '82):
    • Is in his fifth season with the Zips, maintaining a 115-50 (.697) mark in that time. His win percentage and win total both rank fourth in program history.
    • He is 223-120 (.650) in his 11th season as a collegiate head coach. This is Dambrot's first time facing Gonzaga and his first appearance as a head coach in the NCAA Tournament.
    • Dambrot's father, Sid, played basketball at Duquesne during the 1952, '53 and '54 seasons. The Dukes competed in the NIT and the NCAA Tournament during the '52 season, and the NIT in the '53 and '54 campaigns. In addition, his uncle, Irwin Dambrot, played for the 1950 CCNY squad which won the NIT with a 69-61 defeat of Bradley.
    • Under Dambrot (fifth season), UA's 115 wins is the most by a MAC team during that span.    
    • Dambrot's high level of success led to the University giving him a new seven-year contract in April 2007 – keeping him with the program through the 2014 season.
    • Dambrot participated in the NCAA Tournament as an assistant coach. In 1988, while working alongside Ben Braun at Eastern Michigan, the Hurons won a MAC championship and made their first-ever appearance in the tourney.    

Akron's Postseason History:
    • This is Akron's second appearance in the NCAA Tournament in its Division I era (dating to the 1980-81 season). The first came in 1986 under coach Bob Huggins, when the 15th-seeded Zips fell 70-64 to fifth-seeded Michigan in Minneapolis (March 14, 1986).
    • This is the sixth time (third in four seasons) that Akron has advanced itself to postseason play (twice in the NCAA Tournament and four times in the NIT). The program is 2-5 in those games (0-1 NCAA, 2-4 NIT).
    • Under coach Keith Dambrot, UA is 2-2 in NIT play. In 2007, the Zips won 65-60 in overtime at Florida State (March 18) (program's first win over an ACC school) and lost 68-63 at eventual event runner-up Massachusetts (March 22). In 2006, UA notched an 80-73 overtime win at Temple (March 14) and lost 71-60 at Creighton (March 16).
    • The Zips also competed in the NIT twice under coach Bob Huggins (79-72 loss at Illinois State in 1987 and an 81-70 loss at Ohio State in 1989).

Akron’s NCAA Tournament History (0-1):
Year  Site                Opponent/Result/UA Seed
1986  Minneapolis, Minn.  vs. (2) Michigan/L, 64-70/15th
2009  Portland, Ore.      vs. (4) Gonzaga/???/13th

Akron’s Postseason NIT History (2-4):
Year  Site  Opponent/Result
1987  A     at Illinois State/L, 72-79
1989  A     at Ohio State/L, 70-81
2006  A     at Temple/W, 80-73 ot
      A     at Creighton/L, 71-60
2008  A     at Florida State/W, 65-60 ot
      A     at Massachusetts/L, 63-68

Streaks, Storylines, Sidebars...
    • The University of Akron men's basketball team (23-12) is playing in the NCAA Tournament for the second time in program history. UA's first appearance in the "Big Dance" came in 1986 when Bob Huggins was coach.
    • UA is one of five schools from the state of Ohio in this year's tournament field – most of any state in the union (Akron, Cleveland State, Dayton, Ohio State, Xavier).
    • Fifth-seeded Akron won its first-ever Mid-American Conference tournament championship on Saturday, by defeating third-seeded Buffalo 65-53 in the title game held at Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland. The Zips have competed in the tournament championship each of the last three years. UA was the first No. 5 seed to win the league title game.
    • In the MAC tournament, the Zips won four games in five days. In opening round play, UA topped 12th-seeded Toledo 93-92 in overtime, then went on to defeat fourth-seeded Miami (Ohio) 73-63 in the quarterfinal and top-seeded Bowling Green 63-55 in the semifinal.
    • Akron rallied back from 12-point deficits in its first two MAC tournament games. Against Toledo in the opening round, the Zips trailed by a dozen with five minutes remaining in regulation, but battled back to force the extra session. Versus Miami (Ohio) in the quarterfinals, UA found itself down by 12 in the early portion of the first half, but pulled to with one, 32-31, at the break.
    • UA is enjoying its fourth-straight 20-win season (23-10 in 2005-06, 26-7 in '06-07, 24-11 in '07-08). It is the first time the program has done so since the 1985-86 (22-8), '86-87 (21-9), '87-88 (21-7) and '88-89 (21-8) teams  achieved the feat under coach Bob Huggins. UA's 26 wins in 2006-07 was the most in the program's Division I era (1980-81) and tied the school record (1971-72 team went 26-5). In 2004-05, the first season of coach Keith Dambrot's tenure, UA went 19-10.
    • The Zips have won 14 of their last 18 games (four straight and five of last six), to take their record from 9-8 and 1-3 in the MAC on Jan. 20 to 23-12 entering tournament play (finished 10-6 in the MAC standings). That stretch included a season-long seven-game win streak that ran from Jan. 24 to Feb. 11.
    • UA is 64-8 (11-3 this season) at Rhodes Arena under fifth-year coach Keith Dambrot. The Zips have won 32 of their last 36 Mid-American Conference home games and 55 of the last 62 overall outings on their home floor.
    • UA is a MAC-best 12-9 in away/neutral games this season (MAC-best 8-8 in true road games, 4-4 against MAC foes on the road).
    • UA's scoring offense (66.8 ppg) ranks second in the MAC, while its scoring defense (59.8 ppg) ranks third in the league and 19th nationally. The squad's +7.0 scoring margin is first in the MAC and 53rd in the nation. In the MAC Tournament, the Zips have allowed 65.8 ppg and average 73.5 ppg.
    • Akron's 3-point field goal percentage defense (28.9 percent/167-of-577) ranks first in the MAC and fifth nationally, while its field goal percentage defense (40.0 percent/695-of-1739) is ranked second in the league (36th nationally). UA has held its MAC Tournament foes to a combined 22-of-78 (28.2 percent) behind the arc.
    • UA has forced 625 turnovers (17.9 tpg), while committing 482 (13.8 tpg). The Zips +4.1 turnover margin ranks first in the MAC and ninth nationally, while their 7.7 steals per game rank fourth in the conference and 69th in the NCAA.
    • UA's 70.9 percent (487-of-687) free throw shooting ranks first in the MAC. Darryl Roberts leads the MAC at the line (93.5 percent/72-of-77).
    • The Zips are averaging a MAC-best 7.1 3-pointers made per game (went 39-of-93/41.9 percent from behind the arc in their MAC tourney games) and have made a trey in 270-straight contests.
    • UA is 17-0 when outrebounding its opponent (158-134 margin in MAC Tournament, topped Bowling Green 43-26 and Miami 40-28).
    • The Zips use a 10-player rotation that includes three freshmen and three sophomores, and have two rookies in their starting five (Anthony "Humpty" Hitchens [30 starts] and Nikola Cvetinovic [20 starts]).
    • Twelve members of Akron's 17-man roster are underclassmen and nine of those are in their first season of collegiate competition (six true freshmen and three redshirt-freshmen). Additionally, UA will only graduate one senior (Nate Linhart) this season as Jimmy Conyers (listed as a senior along with Linhart) is on track to gain back his freshman season of eligibility that he sat out due to academics.
    • MAC Sixth Man of the Year and All-MAC Second Team choice Brett McKnight comes off the bench to lead UA in scoring (11.4 ppg). He is averaged 12.5 points and 20.5 minutes off the bench in the MAC Tournament.
    • Nate Linhart, the league's defensive player of the year and an honorable mention all-league pick, leads UA in rebounding (6.2 rpg), steals (62/1.8 spg) and minutes (29.9 mpg), and is second in blocked shots (18/0.5 bpg).
    • Linhart joined UA's 1,000-point scorer's list in Friday's MAC tournament semifinal win over Bowling Green. His 1,008 career points (355 this season) and 624 boards (218 this season) rank him among the MAC's active career leaders. His 133 games played are the most ever by an Akron player. Linhart is the sixth UA player to hit the 1,000-point mark in the last three years.
    • Linhart's 186 career steals (62 this season/fourth most in a single season in school history) rank him third all-time in the school record book (189 is second) and his 53 blocked shots (18 this season) place him eighth in school history (65 is seventh).
    • Nate Linhart, Brett McKnight and Steve McNees were each named to the MAC All-Tournament Team and Linhart was the event's MVP.
   
Tale of the Tape...
Category (Record)     Akron (23-12)  Gonzaga (26-5)
Scoring               2339           2447
 PPG                  66.8           78.9
 Scoring Margin       +7.0           +17.6
Field Goals-Attempts  802-1912       887-1820
 Field Goal Pct.      .419           .487
3PT FG-Attempts       248-753        230-584
 3PT FG Pct.          .329           .394
 3PT FG MPG           7.1            7.4
FT-Attempts           487-687        443-623
 Free Throw Pct.      .709           .711
Rebounds/RPG          1173/33.5      1180/38.1
 Rebound Margin       -0.9           +3.6
Assists/APG           431/12.3       469/15.1
Turnovers/TPG         482/13.8       355/11.5
 TO Margin            +4.1           +3.8
 Assist/TO ratio      0.9            1.3
Steals/SPG            270/7.7        231/7.5
Blocks/BPG            79/2.3         160/5.2

On The Line Versus Gonzaga...
    • An Akron victory would be the Zips' first-ever NCAA Tournament win and would make them 1-1 all-time in the event.
    • An Akron victory would be its fifth-straight and sixth in seven games.
    • An Akron victory would make the Zips 13-9 in away/neutral games this season (8-8 in true road games and 5-1 on a neutral floor).
    • An Akron victory would mark the first time a MAC school has won a NCAA Tournament game since Central Michigan did so in 2003 (topped Creighton 79-73 in Salt Lake City).