Zips Men's Basketball Weekly Update: February 2

Roadkill X2 for the Zips this week

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Tuesday, January 28: Akron 80, Northern Illinois 70

For the first few minutes, it looked like the Zips may easily cruise to another MAC road win. However, Rashon Burno’s NIU Huskies had other plans. Beaten up by injuries, Northern Illinois resorted to a zone defense in their win against Ball State last Saturday. They kept with that strategy, and really made things difficult for Akron. The Zips quickly went up 17-5 with threes from Seth Wilson, Isaiah Gray, and Nate Johnson. After that, easy buckets were few and far between for Akron. The Zips' turnover bug bit them once again, as they gave it away many times in the first half that allowed NIU all the way back and even fell behind for a bit. NIU’s run would be 15-0 and Akron went a full six minutes without scoring a single point. Akron was rather fortunate to take a 37-33 break to the locker room.

Out of halftime, NIU came out on fire again and tied it back up at 40 before Akron would eventually take the lead back and not give it up. It was far from easy, though. NIU’s leading scorer Quentin Jones was massive in keeping this game tight. He and James Dent scored a majority of NIU’s points, combining for 47. The Zips struggled again to guard without fouling, and they were fortunate that NIU is a bad free throw shooting team (19-29). With about four minutes to go, solid defensive possessions and finally finishing at the rim took the Akron lead up to 14 and they slugged it out to the end. Props to the Huskies for fighting through lots of adversity.

Akron ended up shooting just 30% from three on the night, and only 17-30 on two point shots. Nate Johnson and Tavari Johnson, the two Akron vets, carried the scoring load combining for 40. Tavari had a nice homecoming to Chicago and Nate came through with big plays at both ends. Isaiah Gray is the unsung hero, scoring 12 points and grabbing 11 boards. As well as those three played, they did combine for 12 turnovers. Shammah Scott also came in off the bench and provided a steady presence when needed. Road wins in college basketball are hard to come by no matter who they come against. Something I have noticed, though, thanks to Akron’s 10-man rotation, they can run teams down late in games. That sort of happened tonight. NIU had a couple of guys play 38+ minutes, but Akron’s revolving door keeps their legs fresh and helps them at the end of games—usually.

Friday, January 31: Akron 85, Kent State 71

Seth Wilson scored Akron’s first five points on the night to give Akron a 5-0 lead in this season’s first edition of this great rivalry. Akron would never trail en route to a dominant win at Kent State’s MAC Center on Friday night. The win marks the third win in five trips to Kent, and second in a row, winning back-to-back games there for the first time since 2012 and 2013. Nate Johnson played on another level than anyone else all night long, scoring 20 points while dishing out 3 assists, grabbing 5 boards, and recording 2 steals. He also didn’t turn the ball over at all. Isaiah Gray, despite fouling out, made the most of his 22 minutes. He scored 10 points and got 7 boards from the guard position. Perhaps the biggest impact on the game was made by James Okonkwo. He played his best game as a Zip, dominating on the glass as well as holding Kent’s bigs to 13 points combined. He grabbed 13 boards and finished at the rim and the foul line to score 11. Once again, six Zips scored in double figures. The aforementioned Seth Wilson hit big threes all night, Tavari was efficient and took care of the ball, and Shammah Scott furthered his case at 6th man of the year, coming in early and heating up from three when needed. True Freshman Sharron Young filled in a quick 10 points of his own, too.

My keys to the game were pace and defense, and the Zips delivered. While the offense wasn’t blazing fast early, Tavari Johnson and Nate Johnson did a tremendous job of getting the offense going. Guys made great, smart passes early on and hit shots to build the lead, which was important to do against a great defensive team who plays slowly. Defensively, Akron was terrific early. Kent was held under 10 points until the 9:21 mark of the first half, when the Zips had 27 of their own points already. It really was a perfect storm for this Akron team, and it was awesome to see. Also, a special shoutout goes to Seth Wilson’s defense. Sure, he was great on offense, but holding Voncameron Davis in check was crucial. He had maybe one or two easy looks and nothing more.

The Zips weathered the storm of Anthony Morales hitting some threes and getting a steal on a bad pass for a breakaway dunk in the first half. They would stretch their lead to as much as 18, but Kent got it down to 9 with just under three minutes to go in the first half. But, a big push by the Zips got that lead back to 17 going into the break—that was massive. Akron came out of the locker room firing and pushed their lead to 53-31 less than a minute into the second half. Their widest margin of 23 points came after an Isaiah Gray three pointer with 16:47 to go in the game. It was a bit of a grind the rest of the way, with Jalen Sullinger heating up from the field and Marquis Barnett hitting a three, but the Zips never let Kent get closer than 14 points. In fact, each time Kent got it about that close, Akron would answer, usually in the form of a Nate Johnson mid-ranger or layup.

Perhaps the highlight of all highlights—Evan Wilson checked into the game! It was the first time in his career that he got to play at Kent, and he will end his Akron career having the joy of winning at the MAC Center twice in his career.

Johnson & Johnson

Coming into this year with plenty of uncertainty from a fan point of view, we were excited and hopeful for what the newcomers would contribute, but needed the remaining guys on the roster from the past few years to really step up and be the leaders. As we’re now halfway through MAC play, that is exactly what has happened. Nate and Tavari Johnson (no relation) have become everything Zips fans could have hoped for. They are leaders at both ends of the floor and keep the machine rolling, even when things aren’t going quite right.

Nate missed a significant portion of MAC play last year while nursing a broken bone in his arm. Even when he came back, it was clear he wasn’t exactly 100%. In the later parts of the NCAA Tournament game against Creighton last year, he showed some of the promising parts of his game once again, hitting a few off-balance mid-range jumpers. He’s now scored in double figures in eight straight games, but above all, he’s been a reliable and calm presence on the floor when things aren’t going so well. He (and Tavari, more on him in a second) really had to step up on Tuesday when shots weren’t falling at Northern Illinois. He wound up scoring 19 points on just 12 field goal attempts, with a ton of success attacking the basket. This week, he totaled 39 points, 11 boards, 6 assists, 5 steals, 2 blocks, and just 2 turnovers.

Tavari has had an interesting career at Akron. He had some moments of greatness in his first two seasons as a Zip, but never seemed to really crack through as a regular contributor. This season, he has stepped up and shown some incredible growth. In the past, the game seemed to move a bit too fast for him and he would have lapses on defense pretty often. But, as most Groce recruits do, Tavari has come miles and miles in his third year at Akron. His efficiency on offense during MAC play has been off the charts. He hasn’t played more than 26 minutes in a single MAC game, yet he’s scored in double figures in seven of the nine games. This offense is powerful, largely because of his ability to get the ball where it needs to be. He’s second in the MAC in assist rate! After watching last year’s offense struggle for many stretches, Tavari has taken the reigns of this season’s team and has them whipping it around at an insane pace. He makes everyone else on the floor better. While he did have seven turnovers at NIU, he’s done a great job at limiting turnovers in every other game, which can be hard to do when there are so many possessions and so much ball movement. And none of that even touches on how well he’s been scoring. In MAC play, he’s 13-13 at the foul line, 59% on twos, and 40.5% on threes. Through the first half of MAC play, Tavari has been an elite true point guard, and is has been awesome to watch.

Up Next for the Zips

Tuesday, February 4: vs. Ball State (7:00pm EST) ESPN+

The Zips return for a little home stand to open the month of February. First up, the Ball State Cardinals. A little bit of a mini rivalry developed here when Akron lost in Muncie in January of 2023. Later that season, it looked like the Cards may sweep the Zips but Sammy Hunter came to the rescue and went off. It’s been an uphill battle for head coach Mike Lewis for much of this season. Even the return of Payton Sparks hasn’t made too much of a difference, as they’ve still been roughly a .500 ball club most of the year. Jermahri Hill has been a great addition at guard, though. His long 6’5 frame helps him finish at the rim and shoot it a bit, as he was huge in their win at Kent to open MAC play. It’s been tough as of late, with losses to NIU and WMU. However, behind dominant performances by Sparks and Hill, the Cards won at Buffalo Saturday to stay very much alive in the tournament race.

KenPom predicts an 85-71 Akron win.

Saturday, February 8: vs. South Alabama (2:00pm EST) ESPN+

It’s time for the second round of the MAC-Sun Belt Challenge! The Zips drew a very talented South Alabama Jaguars team. The Jags opened the season with a 74-70 home loss to Central Michigan, but beat Arkansas State a few weeks ago by a 76-62 final, of course Akron fell to the Red Wolves on opening night in overtime. South Alabama plays an interesting style. They’re one of the slowest teams in the country at 63 possessions per game (348th nationally). USA’s strength comes on the defensive end, where they rank 94th in the country in overall efficiency, holding teams to just 45% on twos and 32% on threes. However, they surrender the most three-point attempts per game of any team in the country, with a whopping 60% of their opponents’ field goal attempts coming from distance. Offensively, they like to shoot it too, with 50% of their own possessions ending in a three-point attempt. Considering how Akron plays, I’d expect lots and lots of threes to be taken at the JAR. Much like Akron, South Alabama goes pretty deep into the bench. They also have similar size to Akron across the board, with no players over 6’8.

Three different Jags average in double figures with Myles Corey leading the way at 14.8. John Broom and Judah Brown both take and make lots of threes themselves.

USA has struggled a bit lately, with three straight losses heading into this week, including a pair to ULM (334 in KenPom).

KenPom predicts a 75-68 Akron win.

Around the MAC

Tuesday, January 28

Western Michigan 74, Ball State 71 (H)

Toledo 86, Ohio 83 (H)

Miami 89 (H), Eastern Michigan 80

Buffalo 75 (H), Central Michigan 69

Kent State 75 (H), Bowling Green 57

Saturday, February 1

Western Michigan 61 (H), Eastern Michigan 54

Toledo 89 (H), Northern Illinois 85

Miami 73 (H), Ohio 69

Ball State 89, Buffalo 76 (H)

Central Michigan 90 (H), Bowling Green 71

Standings courtesy of ESPN.com