Preliminarily, you need to know who you are reading. I was once upon a time a college basketball assistant, most recently spending a year on Dan Dakich’s staff at Bowling Green. Later, I spent four years as a radio analyst (and Hoopville writer) in Boston, the last two for Northeastern’s Bill Coen. Most of the rest as a litigator, most of those years representing insurance interests. I developed the view that most civil lawsuits are frivolous, that we have too many lawyers in America (by a factor of 10), and that nothing I can think of is more disgusting than middle class Americans with a lawyer’s phone number on speed-dial (don’t much like the concept of speed-dial, but really hate individuals’ rights of recent-vintage to sue). The reader should know I have worked Title IX lawsuits (in fact, on the plaintiffs’ side), so I know from whence I speak.

When I last wrote for Hoopville, former USC star and current NBA player O.J. Mayo was being unfairly criticized in the media, as if any of us would have turned down many thousands of dollars in our early 20s (or even now), and not for the first time in print I called the major problem in college sport the fact that the NCAA truly stands for the “National Collegiate Allocation Association.” Never a fan of “employee rights,” and very much a fan of the world back when employment was truly “employment at will,” I articulated before the current round of NCAA-bashing that when we turn on our televisions to watch games on ESPN and CBS, while the astute among us are interested in coaching moves (and behavior), we are primarily watching the players. Also that while coaches make millions, ADs, university presidents and lots of professors make nearly that much, libraries are built and women’s – and lesser men’s – teams funded, the kids we turn on the television to watch make nothing.

In short, what we’ve done is take minor league football and basketball (men’s), and instead of playing the games in small town America in front of 2,000 (like baseball does), we’ve tied minor league football and basketball to America’s institutions of higher learning, and put those games in Michigan Stadium in front of 100,000 (and in front of millions on television). And oh yeah, don’t tell me the $57,000 tuition at Miami is “compensation”; we all know that none of these kids would even think of paying $57,000 a year for college (heck, my parents said back in the day: “Harvard, Yale or the state university at 25% of the private school price”). And since economists will tell you that the true value is the value to the specific consumer in question, I must conclude that “athletic scholarships” should be valued at about $0; in truth, they should be valued as negatives, as every one of these athletes would rather JUST play minor league football or basketball without going to school, and attending class at the University of Miami is a “have to” rather than an economic benefit.

All right, this article is about Title IX. First, a nickel’s worth of law. No lawyer would dispute that sixty years ago, “Title IX” would have failed to pass constitutional muster. Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended by Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, provides that “[n]o person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” As applied, Title IX has come to mean equal rights in funding, and equal numbers of scholarships. That nickel’s worth: all lawyers know that under the Fourteenth Amendment, “[n]o state shall…; nor shall any state… deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”; also that statutes addressing gender are subject to “intermediate scrutiny” under the Fourteenth Amendment, meaning that in a constitutional challenge the government bears the burden of proving that gender-based classification is “substantially related to an important government interest.” Two thoughts on this: first, no lawyer in America, even today, can argue with a straight face a constitutional application of Title IX to require equivalent budgets, scholarships, etc. at private universities; private universities are simply not subject to government control under the Fourteenth Amendment (“nor shall any state… deny…”).

Second, even for state universities, there has always been an “important government interest” that would be served by a statute – state or federal – permitting unequal spending for men’s and women’s sports: people watch men’s sports (at least football and basketball) and those teams can – sometimes even do – earn a profit, while no one watches women’s sports – and few watch other men’s sports – and there is no way those sports will ever earn a profit for any university.

That said, few if any have addressed the biggest issue facing college athletic departments today: that is, while it may be reasonable – economically as well as intellectually – to pay football and men’s basketball players, there is neither intellectual justification nor any source of funds from which to pay athletes in lesser men’s sports or those in any women’s sport. So now is the time to correct a wrong, and the interest in paying players is a good excuse to do what we should have done thirty or more years ago.

No more on the law, I promise. But indulge me on what Title IX is really all about (both “then” and now). First, in the early 80s, when the NCAA didn’t even include women’s teams, and fledgling women’s programs were regulated by a governing body known as the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), most schools added to an administrative position the designation of “Primary Administrator for Women’s Athletics,” most of those positions were given to women, and most issues pertinent to women’s sports went to (or through) those administrators. However, with my law degree, title of Assistant to the AD for Academic Affairs, and role of interpreting and applying NCAA rules to our men’s teams, our Athletic Director quite sensibly assigned to me a similar role for our women’s teams. In that context he approached me one year in early August, and suggested I attend a conference on AIAW rules to be held in Cherry Hill, N.J. Well, I jumped at the chance for an all-expense paid summer weekend down on the shore, and there I was at the Hyatt on Friday morning for the first session of a two and a half day conference.

Well, among over five hundred university administrators charged with learning (and applying) the AIAW rules, I was among less than a half-dozen males (generally not a bad ratio). However, when the conference began, it was clearly not a conference about the details of athletic rules (GPAs needed to enroll and to remain eligible, minimum SATs, “normal progress,” etc.); in fact, at one point, I remember someone saying from the podium, “if you want to know the rules, read the book.” Okay, some law school classes weren’t all that different. But then, the conference quickly morphed into a diatribe against men, how they’re “keeping us down,” and how horrible it is for all of us to report to “male Athletic Directors,” and how we should all call the human resource officers and attorneys that we know, and stand up for our rights. By 11 a.m. that first morning, that was the only subject that had yet been discussed (well, that and who was going to sleep with whom that night at the hotel), so I left, finding the discourse more to my liking at Garden State Racetrack and in a casino a few miles to the south.

At around that same time, I remember my first head coach (I had that old fashioned “dual role”) teaching me his preference that our recruiting and similar letters be signed, respectively, as Head Coach or Assistant Coach of Basketball, which I agreed was classier than Head or Assistant Basketball Coach. However, one day I found a pile of the head coach’s letters that I’d drafted returned to me for “correction,” our AD more than “suggesting” that I now complete the signature block by designating my boss as “Head Coach of men‘s Basketball.” I never quite liked the ring to that.

Then there’s the business of equal pay. Everyone knows the success of women’s basketball at the University of Connecticut (politically, and in terms of wins). That said, while I got to know UConn Men’s Basketball Coach Jim Calhoun while broadcasting, I confess that I have never met women’s coach Gino Auriemma. But, I find it odd that he makes almost as much money as Calhoun, given that he only took the job all those years ago because he couldn’t get a job (even a volunteer job) in the men’s game. And oh yes, being pretty sure that Bob Knight became the winningest coach in the sport before retiring a couple of years ago, can anyone even suggest with a straight face that his record has been placed in jeopardy by Pat Summitt at Tennessee? (All the while, I join many others in wishing her well in her battle with early onset dementia after being diagnosed with it earlier this week.)

Penultimately, New Yorkers and others among us will remember within the last five or six years the event that caused radio “shock-jock” morning host Don Imus to be fired by CBS (and lose his morning drive-time gig on WFAN and syndicated around the country). Some of you will remember him “pushing the envelope” of humor with a rather disparaging comment I won’t repeat here about members of Rutgers’ women’s basketball team. That said, many commentators who haven’t coached or litigated mistook the human outcry at Imus’ remark: this ex-coach/lawyer is certain that he wasn’t fired for a disparaging comment about African-Americans; nor was he fired for a disparaging comment about women. What Don Imus was fired for was a disparaging comment against the most defensive group in world history, the group with the largest chip on its collective shoulder, women’s athletes. And check with your local attorney, such comments truly are unforgivable.

Lastly, without revealing names allow me to relate the story of a recent Title IX claim. A young African-American woman came into our office, not particularly feminine but not altogether butch, claiming she’d been discriminated against by the assistant women’s basketball coach at her junior college. She had apparently played girls’ basketball in high school, not been recruited to play in college, and then showed up as a student at the local community college. Recognizing that the college recruits all or virtually all of its players, offering scholarships while they are still in high school, and also recognizing that the young lady was legally blind, she nonetheless asked a coach if she could try out and potentially walk on, and the coach suggested that she might be able to. Thereafter, the first date of practice was adjusted, and while the scholarship players were all informed, this young lady wasn’t, and the beginning of practice – and opportunity to try out – came and went without her attendance. She came to us with an interest in suing the coach individually and also the institution, for violating her rights under, among other legal theories, Title IX. What rights could those possibly have been? And what damages could she possibly have incurred?? And how could she have possibly played college basketball legally blind??? And worst of all, we took the case!

So allow me to make clear, while it is time we stopped using football and basketball players to sell beer and soft drinks, pay coaches, and build libraries, and it is time we began paying them, and while it is true that we can’t legally pay just football and men’s basketball players under Title IX, and while in this economy there is surely no ready source of funds to pay college volleyball players (of either gender), more than a means toward the goal of paying a fair wage to players currently working as slaves, this call to pay players is really an excuse to right a wrong long understood by everyone involved in college sport, on either side of the issue. Title IX is wrong, both financially and intellectually, Title IX would never have passed constitutional muster in the past, and Title IX is encouraging young women to look and act more like men. What’s more, Title IX is silly, always has been, and everybody knows it.

Yes, a great excuse to abolish!

(The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views of Hoopville Media Services, LLC or Hoopville.com.)

And for the last three months, sophomore guard Norris Cole has been the most improved player in the Horizon League, increasing his scoring (he finished eighth in the league in scoring) and consistently locking up the opposition’s best guard defensively.

But for those of us who’ve watched this roller coaster season, the success and failure of Cleveland State has been inexorably linked to the play of one man: as Cedric Jackson has gone, so have gone the Vikings.  And for the first 80 percent or more of the year, other than hitting a miracle 65-foot shot at the buzzer to beat Syracuse in the Carrier Dome, Jackson just wasn’t quite good enough.  Not good enough to beat Washington, or Kansas State, or West Virginia in non-conference play.  Not good enough to beat Butler in conference play.  In fact, for the first half of the conference season, not good enough to beat any Horizon team on the road except Detroit.

For much of the year, Jackson looked lost out on the floor, couldn’t come close from the perimeter, then embarrassed, stopped shooting altogether.  And defensively, while this wonderfully athletic player still made steals in passing lanes, his constant reaching and digging while defending the ball made him incapable of guarding anyone straight up.

But perhaps as much as any player I’ve ever seen, Jackson is a rhythm player, and yes, an emotional player, a player whose game is based on confidence and whose psyche is incredibly fragile.  At another conference’s tournament I heard another coach say about another player, “he has to feel good about himself to perform well, and he picked a darned good time to feel good about himself.”  The same can be said of Jackson.

Following a loss at Youngstown State on January 23^rd, and more than anything due to a favorable home schedule the second half of the conference season, gently and gradually the Vikings turned around their season, winning seven straight conference games en route to a third place regular season finish, at first almost despite Jackson’s inconsistent play.  Trey Harmon stepped up and won a game for the Vikes, George Tandy did likewise, and freshman Jeremy Montgomery scored 21 to steal a road win at Illinois-Chicago.  Bullock was good every night, and Cole better and better, but where was Jackson?

Then on the final day of the regular season, a 58-56 loss at Butler, Jackson began showing signs of finding himself, of that smile evidencing his elusive confidence.  Jackson scored 11 that day, shot a bit better (4-11), and made two crucial treys in four tries.  And down the stretch of that tough game, Waters positioned Jackson on the wing, using baseline screens to get open to shoot or penetrate.  The Jackson Waters thought he was getting when the New Jersey native transferred from St. John’s was almost back.

Then a terrific Horizon Tournament, culminating in a superb performance in the tournament final, winning the rematch with Butler at Hinkle Fieldhouse.  Tournament MVP, a second-team all-league selection, and conference Defender of the Year (even though his teammates know the lock-down defenders on the Vikings are Cole and injured D’Aundray Brown).  Jackson’s confidence was soaring, and his play was all the way back, heading into the NCAA’s Tournament as the 13^th seed in the Midwest Region.

Friday night’s game against No. 4 Wake Forest in Miami was over almost before it started.  Jackson hit an open trey 15 seconds into the contest, then Norris Cole hit one a minute and 15 seconds later, then Jackson hit another at the two minute mark, and CSU had Wake 9-0.  The Vikings led wire-to-wire, by as many as 17 twice in the first half, and only 15 first half points including a late barrage from the arc by Wake’s James Johnson kept the game from being a first-half blowout.  As it was, the Vikings led 39-30 at the break, turning the ball over just twice in the first half, scored the first two baskets of the second half, and were off to the races, winning easily 84-69.

In the end, Cole had 22 points on 8-18 shooting and four assists, and held ACC second-leading scorer Jeff Teague to just half his average.  Bullock had 21 points on 8-16 shooting and six rebounds.  But it was all Jackson this night, who finished with a line of 19 points on 8-14 shooting, including 3-4 from the arc, seven rebounds, three steals, eight assists and just two turnovers.

Now it’s on to the round of 32 for the Vikings, who play No. 12 Arizona tomorrow, who defeated fifth-seeded Utah.  Now, as good as his body is, Jackson still isn’t the perfect player, or the most consistent player, especially when shooting from the perimeter.  But if Jackson’s confidence continues for two more days, you just might see another stellar performance from the senior guard on Sunday.  And as Jackson goes, so go the Vikings, with one more win right into the Sweet Sixteen.

From the underdog’s point of view, for twenty-five minutes the game was a thing of beauty.  When “Humpty” Hitchens made a trey just over five minutes into the second half, giving the Zips that 49-43 lead, Coach Mark Few, his Zags and their fans had every reason to be worried.  At that point in the game, Akron was just a make short of shooting 50 percent at 18-38, and led by virtue of their monstrous 8-13 from the arc (including a banked trey from a forty-five degree angle by Chris McKnight that suggested that destiny was on the side of the Zips).  On the strength of going 3-4 from behind the arc, senior Nate Linhart led all scorers with 13 points, and on the strength of 2-3 from the arc, junior second guard Darryl Roberts had 11, along with 3 assists (Roberts would finish as Akron’s high scorer with 19). Coach Keith Dambrot’s team keeping the pace a moderate one, at that point in the game the Zips had committed just four turnovers.

But over the final 15 minutes, the game was taken over by Zags’ guard Matt Bouldin and forward Josh Heytvelt, Gonzaga pressed and pushed tempo, and dominated the game.  With much of his scoring from the perimeter, Heytvelt finished with 22 points on 7-12 shooting, 14 of those points in the second half.  Bouldin finished with 12 on 3-8 shooting and five assists, with eight of those points and four of those assists in the second half.  And while still not awful, Akron had as many turnovers in the final 15 minutes (four) as it had in the first 25 minutes.

It was like two different games, one for the first 25 minutes and one for the last 15.  In the earlier portion of the game, Akron competed harder, guarded better and perhaps most important, hit its treys.  And while Few had said before the game that “we’re going to have to match the intensity Akron plays with,” Gonzaga simply didn’t.  The Zags looked slow and lethargic, poor defensively and more than a bit passive on the boards; they also committed a number of unforced turnovers.  CBS analyst Dan Bonner saw it early and clearly, pointing out that the Zags were attempting to catch passes with just one hand, when they should have used two.

And when it turned around, there was nothing Keith Dambrot could do to stop it.  To this writer, the game turned around for four reasons.  First, as has been a fairly common occurrence all winter long, fouls began mounting on the Zips in the second half, taking away some of their aggressiveness defensively.  Second, more than fouls, it appeared that fatigue began to set in, both physically and mentally; forty minutes against a bigger, stronger and more athletic team can do that to an outmanned and undersized group, particularly in the rarified atmosphere of tournament play.  Third, the Zips reverted to form, both from the perimeter and on the boards.  No offense intended, but Nate Linhart and Co. simply are not 60 percent shooters from the arc.  And finally, all at once the Zags realized the perilous position they’d placed themselves in, and began competing much harder than they had earlier in the game.

For competing those last 15 minutes, No. 4 Gonzaga moves on in the South Region, facing No. 12 Western Kentucky on Saturday in Portland, who defeated No. 5 Illinois.

For Akron, respectfully with among the smallest and least heralded personnel in the tournament, I think Dambrot got about as much as humanly possible out of his team, and out of each member of the roster.  They gave this edition of the Zags the scare of their collective lives, and perhaps a wakeup call they desperately needed.  The Akron fans returning home from Portland this morning, and those waiting for them back in Akron, should be incredibly proud of this group, and Linhart and his teammates should be holding their heads high, proud of their huge and unexpected accomplishments.

They came back from the dead, in the form of a 12-point deficit in the last five minutes against No. 12 Toledo on Tuesday night and down one-point inbounding with 1.5 second on the clock in overtime.  And now they’ve garnered the MAC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, Akron’s first since a young Bob Huggins patrolled the sideline in 1986.

The Akron kids did it with terrific shooting (55 percent for the game, 57 percent from the arc).  They did it with injured point guard Anthony Hitchens coming off the bench to contribute 10 points in 14 minutes.  They did it with superb rebounding against the MAC’s best rebounding team, competing on the boards to be within a rebound of Buffalo at the half, within seven for the game.  They did it with tenacious man-to-man defense Saturday night and throughout the tournament, on this night particularly by Darryl Roberts on Buffalo’s all-league second guard Rodney Pierce.

Most of all they did it with tremendous heart, courage and mental toughness, in the words of Coach Keith Dambrot, they were “resilient; they had the ability to take punch after punch, and keep coming back.”

And they did it with balance, up and down the roster.  I’ve never been at a tournament final before at which there was so little consensus, so much and broad disagreement, about MVP and all-tournament selections.  And that’s a good thing, one I suspect the Akron players – those selected and those not – are smiling about today.  In addition to players from other teams in the conference, I had second guard Roberts and back-up second guard/substitute point guard Steve McNees on my ballot, and listed McNees as MVP for controlling the ball the last three games, as well as for his clutch three-point shooting.  Others had Roberts as MVP; others had leading scorer Brett McKnight as MVP; still others had his brother and leading rebounder Chris McKnight as MVP.  Some had “Humpty” Hitchens as MVP for his game-saving shots that first night against Toledo, coupled with his effective play in the final on an injured leg.

And wouldn’t you know it, none of those voters got it “right,” as the final vote named senior and team-leader Nate Linhart MVP, with six points and a game-high nine rebounds this night, and every single winning “little play” throughout the tournament.  Linhart was joined on the all-tournament team by teammates McNees and Brett McKnight, Buffalo forward Max Boudreau, and Bowling Green forward Nate Miller.

Given the team balance, given Akron’s inconsistent play the last few weeks of the regular season, given the 5^th seed and the task of winning four game in five days, perhaps the true MVP was Dambrot; at least that’s what the white-clad Akron student section seemed to think as they chanted Dambrot’s name over and over in the final minute.  And he would surely share the honor with the sports psychologist that Linhart mentioned had visited the team earlier this season, and rejoined them for the conference tournament.

Now fifty years old, once released as the coach of Central Michigan, back to high school and then an Akron assistant to Dan Hipsher for a year, Dambrot was characteristically humble.  “I’m fortunate just to be coaching, in some ways I have no right to be coaching.  I’m 50, still love to compete, love to coach, just have my family and coaching, no other hobbies.  And I’ve gotten to coach at my alma mater, in my hometown, at a school where my mom was a professor.”  I’ve gotten to know Dambrot pretty well, all within the last 6 or 7 weeks.  He really is humble, even gentle, and there wasn’t a sound in the room as he spoke.

“In this tournament, there was no clear-cut favorite,” Dambrot said, adding, “I’ve thought all year that all the teams in the MAC were about the same, from best to worst, that there wasn’t much of a difference.  We had a rough year shooting the ball, I thought all year we underachieved shooting the ball.  We’ve taken a bunch of shots in the mouth.  Heck, we were 9-8 early.  Then, after winning seven in a row, we faltered late at Valpo, at Northern Illinois, against BG and at Kent State.  It took our kids a while to get used to me.”

When I asked Dambrot about “point-guard Steve McNees,” Dambrot said that “he was really good in the tournament.  He’s had a tough season.  He needs to feel good about himself to play his best, and he picked just the right time to feel good about himself.  Some players have to be coached differently than others, and I probably did a poor job earlier with McNees.  But you know, there’s not a better guy than McNees, and I’m really happy for him.  I feel good for all our guys.  I have come to realize that it’s not about the coach, it’s about the players.”

About the unexpected (and terrific) play of Humpty Hitchens, he said that “I didn’t know before the game that he’d play.  He hadn’t come to me and told me he was ready.  But he had gone to [Assistant] Coach [Jeff] Boals, and told him he could go.  So we rolled the dice, gave him a few minutes, he played well, so we gave him a few more minutes.  Humpty is really tough; the best thing about him is that he’s not afraid to fail.”

Finally, about the team as a whole: “Somehow, these guys don’t let stuff bother them.  Then, when we shot well coming back against Toledo, I knew we could win the tournament, could beat anybody; also that we could lose to anybody.  We defend well enough to beat anyone, except that first night against Toledo.  If we straightened ourselves out offensively…  Are we as good as previous Akron teams, previous MAC Tournament winners?  Well, before I didn’t think so, but now I don’t know.”

Tonight the Zips will learn their seed and destination, and wherever they’re assigned, they’ll be happy to go.  And if we can believe Brett McKnight, “we’re ready to compete.”  They’ll get to compete on the biggest stage Thursday or Friday.

On the other hand, in its quarterfinal, playing without injured point guard Humpty Hitchens from the 3:30 mark forward, somewhat miraculously Akron had clawed back from an 11-1 deficit, gotten ball-handling from two second guards, and stunned Miami.  The only good news for Akron – at least to this writer – is that during its recent successful run Louis Orr’s BG team had become primarily a 2-3 zone team defensively, and while Akron was awful against that zone in a home loss two weeks ago, at least that was the kind of defense they might be able to play without a true point guard.

In the first half, Akron had its way with Bowling Green, neutralizing Miller with Chris McKnight, Brett McKnight and Jimmy Conyers, in sequence (this writer thought Brett McKnight did the best job), moving the ball and scoring against BG’s zone, and dominating the boards.  So while BG did control the pace in the first half by playing slowly, Akron build a 13-point lead, and took an 11-point advantage into the locker room, 28-17.

In the half, Akron outrebounded BG 25-12 (Chris McKnight’s 10 board almost equaling BG’s total), and outshot the Falcons 42 percent to 20 percent.  Steve McNees handled the ball for 16 minutes with just two turnovers, and Darryl Roberts played 4 of his 18 minutes at point, accumulating five points, four rebounds, three assists and just one turnover.  Brett McKnight led all scorers with seven points, on 2-4 shooting, including 1-1 from the arc.  BG’s Miller had just two points in the half on 1-7 shooting, and no rebounds.

But just when it appeared safe to be an Akron Zip fan (perhaps steal a thought and a smile about tonight’s final), everything changed in the second half – and I do mean everything.  Perhaps not totally unexpected, Miller came out of the locker room like a one-man wrecking crew.  With the first possession of the half, just 11 seconds in, Miller set a screen on the perimeter for Darryl Clements, and for a moment Chris McKnight must have forgotten who he was guarding, as he hedged hard onto Clements and allowed Miller to roll to the goal uncontested.  The rest of Akron team was late helping, and Miller was off.  He hit a trey on BG’s next possession, cutting the Akron lead to 6, and it was a game again.  Then, after Keith Dambrot had called time to stop the bleeding, BG came out of the timeout playing man-to-man defense, which they did for the final 18:30 of the game.

BG’s man-to-man was surprising at that juncture, both to the Akron team and to this reporter.  BG hadn’t played man-to-man in weeks, probably hadn’t practiced it much, and in truth didn’t seem very good at it. That said, it was a way for Orr to get his kids to play more aggressively, and it tested Akron’s ability to play without a point guard.

The Akron players adjusted, and at first were able to stop BG’s run playing against their man defense, with McNees and Roberts handling the ball, and drawing lots of fouls (Roberts in particular). Over the next eight and a half minutes of play the teams battled evenly, 12-12, Miller scoring eight of BG’s 12 on two threes and a two, and Roberts and McNees each scoring five of Akron’s 12.  It was 40-34 Akron, with just over 10 minutes on the clock.

Then BG went on a run that earlier in the season would have won the game, 9-0 over 2 minutes, a run taking the Falcons from down six to up three, at 43-40.  From the 9:48 mark through 11:43, Akron committed three fouls and a turnover, Roberts missing their only shot, from the arc.  For BG, Brian Moten hit a trey, center Otis Polk had an old fashioned three-point play, and Clements hit a trey.

Then, just ten seconds apart the Zips had two timeouts in which to regroup, one that they called followed by a media timeout.  And regroup they did.  Brett McKnight drew a foul from Miller, hit one of two, and followed that up with the biggest shot of the game, a trey at 12:44, giving Akron back a one-point lead at 44-43;  they never relinquished the lead again, finishing the game on their own 23-12 run over the final 7:57.

Perhaps the biggest single play in the game took place 4:12 left in the game.  Miller had just scored at the rim to pull BG to within 47-45, and as Brett McKnight received an entry pass at the foul line, Miller ran up from 6 or 8 feet away to basically grab and foul McKnight, as obvious and unnecessary a foul as you will ever see.  And after grabbing McKnight, Miller continued walking right on over to the BG bench, taking himself out of the game.  Later, Miller told us that he was spent, needed the seconds remaining and then the under-four media timeout to rest, but that the foul was not intentional, but it looked to all the world as if it was.

In the 63 seconds Miller was on the bench (Orr had to call a timeout to stop play with 3:19 left, as he could no longer wait for a whistle and a media timeout), Akron went on a 6-0 mini-run, extending from up 47-45 to up 53-45.  Even when Miller got back in, he could not overcome an eight point lead in the final 3:19.  Miller would finish the game with 27 points, 25 coming in the second half and just three late rebounds.  But somehow, that decision to remove himself with 4:22 on the clock was his undoing.

Without a point guard, it was a monumental show of character, of mental toughness, for Akron to withstand Nate Miller’s onslaught, punch back, and win the game.  Brett McKnight led Akron in scoring with 14 points (on 3-8 and 2-4), Darryl Roberts had 12 (on 4-6), five rebounds and four assists, and Nate Linhart had 11 (on 3-7), 11 rebounds, one great slap at a rebound on the foul lane to a teammate, and just seemed to make every “little play” needed to win.  Nikola Cvetinovic had nine points (on 3-6 shooting), Chris McKnight had five, 14 big rebounds, and spent most of his time guarding Miller, and McNees finished with nine (on 3-4 including two huge treys in three tries) and a superb all-around floor game.

Dambrot spoke with great pride about his team’s toughness, that “no one can question whether or not we can take a punch.”  He complimented Miller at length, bemoaning the fact that he “tried recruiting him twice and missed both times” (once when Miller first attended UNC Wilmington, and then again when he transferred to Bowling Green).  He added that he suspected that if Orr had known in advance that Miller would hit 5 of 8 treys in the game, Orr would have expected to have won the game.

Nate Linhart downplayed the fact that he’s scored the 1,000^th point of his career late in the game, and was obviously sincere when he said that “I just wanna win this tournament.”  When Nate was asked about Akron’s 43-26 margin on the boards, he complimented Akron assistant coach Jeff Boals, saying his “main focus in life is to get us to crash the boards.”

Dambrot thought Roberts was absolutely great at every aspect of the game (scoring, handling, rebounding and defending Darryl Clements), but most of his praise (privately) was for Steve McNees.  “This was the best he’s ever played,” Dambrot said.  “He did everything, controlled the game, wasn’t afraid of anything.”  He concluded, “This team surprised me.  They’re so resilient.  Sometimes they surprise me and play badly, but they have the ability to come back.”

Now heading to the NIT (guaranteed by virtue of his team winning the regular season), Orr was disappointed, particularly at his team’s lack of toughness, that they were so “out-physicaled” on the boards.  “A tournament like this is an endurance challenge, and with Chris Knight not at 100 percent, we didn’t seem to have the toughness that the Akron kids had,” Orr said.

I asked Orr about his change to man-to-man early in the second half, specifically if he’d considered going back to his signature zone when BG got the lead.  He responded, “No, the man-to-man got us the lead, got us to be aggressive.  We weren’t rebounding well in the zone, so I thought, ‘let’s go with it [the man-to-man]‘.”  Perhaps that decision hurt BG, we’ll never know.

So now, these 5^th-seeded point guard-less Akron Zips have one more mountain to climb, and the steepest of all: the big, strong, athletic and tough Buffalo Bulls in the conference Final, tonight at 8.  Without Hitchens on the floor for Dambrot (perhaps even if Humpty were able to play) the Bulls appear the physically more imposing team in this match-up.  But one thing is for sure: Akron will be just as tough as Buffalo mentally, take a punch or two, and keep coming back for more.

To Ball State’s credit, despite being pounded on the boards they managed to stay in the game into the second half, mostly on the strength of 52 percent first-half shooting, led by senior Rob Giles’ 10 first half points on 4-6 and 2-3 from the arc.  But on top of the one-sided rebounding numbers, the shooting reversed in the second half, allowing the Bulls to pull away.  And while Ball State did manage to cut Buffalo’s 14-point lead in half in the final six minutes of the game, before falling back and losing by 12, that “run” wasn’t real, wasn’t the kind of run that ever had a chance of catching the opponent.

It was a workmanlike effort for Buffalo, led throughout by all-league junior second guard Rodney Pierce, with 18 points on 8-14 shooting, and led in the second half by reserve junior power forward Max Boudreau, who scored 15 of his career high 21 after the intermission (he was 8-10 in the game, all from within five feet of the rim).  Calvin Betts, who scored 11 and grabbed 18 rebounds the previous night in the Bulls’ win over Kent State, was quieter this night, scoring just two and pulling down five boards.

For Ball State, senior guard Laron Frazier led the team in scoring for the second night in a row, this night with 15 points, but it took him 14 shots from the field to score them (going 6-14), and most of Frazier’s points were scored long after the issue was decided.  Giles finished with 13 points (on 5-10), and Freshman of the Year big man Jarrod Jones had eight (on 3-8), but his five rebounds weren’t nearly enough.

Coach Reggie Witherspoon talked about his team having played anxiously in Muncie during the regular season, losing both the rebounding battle and the game that night.  “Tonight the guys were up to the challenge,” said Witherspoon.  He enjoyed talking about Boudreau’s improvement this season, even in this tournament, pointing out that before coming to Buffalo, the Montreal native had played much more hockey than basketball.

Witherspoon also talked about how hard it is to get to a conference championship game, with his and his team’s last having come in 2005.  Responding to our question about the powerful and balanced rebounding his team showed, he commented that “we also have perimeter guys capable of rebounding, and that helps us.  But even with that, we have to work at our rebounding.”  He then added what could be his mantra: “you have to work at the things you’re good at.”

Finally, when a reporter pointed out that Buffalo had been picked last in the MAC Eastern Division by many in the media, Witherspoon smiled, pointing out that “no one early gave our kids a chance.”  Well, tomorrow they’ll have a chance to win the MAC tournament against Akron and go onto the NCAA Tournament.  And you can bet they’ll bring that hard-working rebounding into the game with them, and pound and pound and pound.

First, it took a miracle for the Zips to even to get to last night, playing poorly and finding themselves down a dozen to lowly Toledo with five minutes left two nights earlier.  They miraculously forced overtime, and then inbounded with a second and a half left in overtime and Brett McKnight catching and scoring.  And while such miracles can give rise to strange results in following games (mostly bad, in this writer’s experience), in this miracle win Akron saw its only point guard, Anthony “Humpty” Hitchens go down with an ankle injury.

As we’ve chronicled, early in the year redshirt freshman Ronnie Steward earned the point guard spot, but he went down mid-way through the non-conference schedule.  He came back and practiced a bit in early February, but was so out of shape that that was aborted, in favor of applying for a medical redshirt.  That left true freshmen Hitchens the only remaining point guard, something not affected when the team lifted a redshirt off of freshman shooting guard Brent McClanahan halfway through the season.  Having become “the man,” Hitchens averaged 9 points, 2.5 assists, 1.5 rebounds and close to three turnovers per game this season.  Diminutive at 5-10, and hardly a pure shooter, Hitchens gave the team an innate toughness, a total fearlessness, the inconsistency of a freshman, the heart of a lion, and an ability to create shots and get to the goal, both in transition and in half court.

Now, while Hitchens is (well, was) the only legitimate point guard dressed, Dambrot had to use someone else at that spot, and that someone was sophomore backup second guard Steve McNees.  A good shooter with range, McNees possesses neither the speed and quickness to defend most teams’ point guards (second guard Darryl Roberts performed that task when Humpty was out) nor the ball-handling ability to face pressuring defenders.  Overwhelmingly you’d see him backing his way up the court, or positioned side-saddle toward his defender.  But for 10 or 12 minutes a game, Dambrot used McNees to spell Humpty.

At Akron’s short practice on Tuesday at Cleveland State, while the assistant coaches said Humpty would be ready for the Miami game and Dambrot said “we’ll see,” it was obvious from his walk (and the fact that he was just shooting at a side basket) that Humpty was far from ready for tournament action.  Then last night Humpty started against Miami, and gutted out three and a half limping and ineffective minutes before Dambrot mercifully took him out.

At the time of Hitchens’ departure the score was 7-1 in favor of Miami, and McNees would have to play point for the remaining 36+ minutes.  It got even worse, as little pressure on Miami’s guards allowed them to smoothly get into their offense, and barely 5:19 into the contest, two Michael Bramos free throws gave the RedHawks an 11-1 lead (MAC Player of the Year Bramos had 5 of the 11).

Then innocently enough, at the 5:34 mark, freshman Brett McClanahan made Akron’s first field goal of the game, a trey that brought them to within 11-4.  Then a Brett McKnight jumper a minute later made it 11-6, and suddenly, a “headless” team being blown out was sort of in the game.  A few minutes later, after Bramos and Co. had extended Miami’s lead to 17-6, Roberts (more on him later) hit a trey, to pull Akron to within 17-9.  It’s not a score to write home about, but Akron was – just barely – clinging to life in the game.

But if we’ve learned anything as a group in watching sports, lots of things are contagious:  good things as well as bad things.  Fear, tentative play, poor shooting, fouling and the like are contagious for sure; so are enthusiasm, confidence, and even that nothing-to-lose reckless abandon we see all too rarely in college and professional sport.  And suddenly – maybe Dambrot and his staff saw this all year long, but it was sudden to this writer – in place of apprehensions, concerns and a fear of losing, grew this wonderful devil-make-care I-can-do-this attitude, and at least to me, it grew from nothing.

Before he scored a single point you could see it clearly in show-footed McNees as he battled the ball up the floor and into offensive position.  And thus emboldened, at 9:16 Akron’s newly anointed point guard launched a trey, and it went in to bring the Zips to within 17-12.  The bench stood up, the coaches smiled – for just an instant – and the Akron contingent in Quicken Arena roared with approval.  The Zips weren’t dead, and they were fighting.  This game could be something special.

Before the first half was over, McNees had wowed the crowd with a total of 4 threes in 5 attempts, plus a goal in close after smartly penetrating to the rim with less than 30 seconds remaining, those 14 first-half points already exceeding his previous high for the season.  In the process, McNees led an unfathomable 30-21 run from 11-1 down to the end of the half, leaving the Zips down just one at intermission, 32-31.

Four glaring questions presented themselves at halftime (I suspect in Akron’s locker room as well as at courtside).  First, was McNees’ incredible first half play simply an aberration, or could he sustain it?  Second, having played the last 16 and a half minutes of the first half, could McNees – averaging 20 minutes a game for the season – possibly play the entire second half at point?  Third, if not, could Humpty give them even a minute in the second half?  Fourth, again if not, who would fill in at the point and rest McNees during the second half?  They were great questions for a great game.

The first of those questions was anwered immediately as a Chris McKnight jumper 18 seconds into the second half made clear that the magical run wasn’t over, and gave Akron its first lead of the game at 33-32.  And while Miami’s Tyler Dierkers (who we later heard spent the day on IV fluids with the flu) hit a jumper 13 seconds later to restore Miami’s one-point lead, that lead would be short-lived, and would turn out to be Miami’s last of the evening.  On the ensuing possession, Akron senior and leader Nate Linhart launched and hit a trey, and the magic continued from there.

The remaining questions were answered moments later: with Humpty clearly immobile on Akron’s bench (aside from later when he came out onto the court to cheer and greet his teammates), at the 5:34 mark, with the score tied at 39, starting second guard Roberts returned from a brief rest, replacing McNees, making Roberts the point guard de jure.  Seamlessly assuming his new duties, Roberts twice penetrated Miami’s man-to-man defense, drawing big-man help, and deftly passing to teammates Nikola Cvetinovic and Chris McKnight for easy baskets.  By the time McNees returned at the 7:56 mark, Akron was up 47-41, and the margin would never slip below three the rest of the night.  Miami’s fate was sealed when Linhart hit another trey at with 5:33 left, widening Akron’s lead to 63-50.  In the end, with Bramos and his Miami team utterly demoralized, the Zips coasted to a 73-63 win.

For the game, McNees scored 17 on 6-9 shooting, including 5-7 from the arc, with three assists and most importantly, no turnovers.  His alter ego, Darryl Roberts, finished with 15, on 3-10 shooting, including 3-5 from the arc, adding six rebounds, and also with three assists and no turnovers as well.  Cvetinovic scored 12 on 5-10 shooting, grabbing eight rebounds, and Linhart scored 10 including two crucial treys (shooting 3-10 and 2-5), and also grabbed eight rebounds.

For the losers, Bramos managed 24 points (just 10 after halftime), making only 5-13 from the floor and adding 10-11 form the line.  Point guard Carl Richburg (himself a fill-in for earlier injured Eric Pollitz) finished with 12 points on 2-3 from the arc and 6-7 from the line, and five assists, but Coach Charlie Coles found his play wanting and sat him for long stretches of the second half.

Dambrot told us after the game that “they punched us early, disrespected us, beat the crap out of us.  This team showed the ability to take those blows, to shrug off disappointment, to rally.  Steve [McNees] did the same, as he didn’t have the year he’d have liked to have, but rallied himself tonight.  We have character guys.”

As to using Roberts at the point, he added, “Well, I had no choice.  Plus, Darryl has been in big games for us, conference championship games, NIT games.”  As to holding Bramos down in the second half, he told us that “we’ve done well against him.  Tonight he had his way in the first half.  Conyers and Linhart made him work in the second.”

As to the style of play, Dambrot mused that “we had to play faster, score more, because early on we couldn’t guard them.  Then, we scored off our good rebounding, particularly our 19 offensive boards.”  For the game Akron out-rebounded Miami 40-28.

Coles was gracious, telling the media that “we were beaten by a superior team tonight, coaching too.  Their bigs inside and their smalls outside, then sometimes switching.  We didn’t rebound, gave up 19 offensive boards, five or six in one sequence, which must be some kind of record.  As for us, teams have figured out that we’re not particularly good off the dribble, so they’ve crowded us.  And when they take away our perimeter game and we can’t create off the dribble, we’re not very good offensively.”

On Akron, Coles added, “they were good defensively, switching to zone and back to man defense.  They’re mentally tough, tough enough to win this tournament.”

We’ll see how tough this point guard-less team is Friday night against Bowling Green.  The Falcons used a tight 2-3 zone to beat Akron 50-46 last week at Rhodes Arena, and used that same defense to manhandle Ohio University 74-61 in last night’s earlier semi-final.  Perhaps it’s not a bad match-up to face a zone team now that Akron is without a true point-guard, as McNees, Roberts and McClanahan could be on the floor together for stretches as zone-breakers.

Regardless, someone or some combination is going to have to defend BG star forward Nate Miller.  Miller manhandled Ohio’s Jerome Tillman last night for 22 points (on 9-11) and 10 rebounds, mostly scoring powerfully near the goal.  That job will fall partly on Defender of the Year Linhart, partly on Jimmy Conyers, and partly on both McKnight brothers.  That will leave it to McNees, and his alter ego Roberts, to handle the ball for the Zips.  Should be fun!

Mincy, the trigger man, saw Al Fisher in the corner to his right, and tossed a short pass in Fisher’s direction.  The ball never got there, as Buffalo senior Andy Robinson deflected the pass, then as the ball bounced toward the end-line, Robinson alertly lunged for it, and in a “flash” slammed it off of Fisher’s lower body and out-of-bounds.  Buffalo ball with five seconds to go; game over.

All night long Kent had played from behind, trying to win despite a subpar performance from former Player of the Year Fisher.  Al finished with just nine points, on 2-14 shooting, including just 1-3 from the arc.  Credit Buffalo’s perimeter and interior defense, but in truth Fisher had a ton of looks near the basket, and this night the league’s best finisher couldn’t close the deal.

Kent battled and battled.  Its only two post-players, undersized Jullian Sullinger and Chris Singletary, were saddled all night with fouls, both playing just 14 minutes before fouling out.  It should be here noted that while Singletary was ejected just 90 seconds into Sunday’s rivalry game against Akron for throwing a punch at Akron’s Nate Linhart, and suspended for the opening round tournament game against Toledo, he also brings the toughness and fearlessness to the floor that coaches need to coach and win.  Tonight in just those 14 minutes, in what may be the final game of his career, Singletary contributed 13 big points on 5-7 shooting, mostly on post-ups and driving to the rim.

Back to the game, with Buffalo out-rebounding the Flashes, when Buffalo’s Titus Robinson (no relation to Andy) hit a trey at 13:30 of the first half, the Bulls had a ten-point lead at 25-15.  Andy Robinson’s jumper at 15:19 restored that margin at 29-19.  But over the final 4:21 of the half, Kent went on a run that temporarily saved the game, closing out the first half 11-2 to trail by just 1 at intermission, 31-30.

The game see-sawed up and down early in the second half, with Singletary keeping Kent State in the game early in the half.  Five times in the second stanza Kent State led by three, and on three of those five occasions the Flashes had the ball with an opportunity to extend their lead.  They would never do so.

Then, with Sullinger and Singletary mostly on the bench, and the Flashes often playing four guards with either Brandon Parks or Anthony Simpson, the Bulls reasserted themselves defensively and on the boards, extending to a five-point lead at 17:48.  The Flashes didn’t quit, pressing full-court with that four-guard alignment, and committing four fouls to extend the game in the final two minutes.  But try as they might, the Flashes couldn’t get that one big steal that they needed to catch up.  And with Buffalo hitting 6 of its 8 free throws in the last two minutes, they were able to hold on against gritty Kent State.

Statistically, reserve forward Max Boudreau led a balanced Buffalo attack with 13 points on 4-7 shooting, including the finish of a gorgeous pick and roll with Gamble that gave Buffalo that five point lead with just over two minutes to play.  Betts, who was held scoreless when Kent State beat Buffalo at Kent last week, added 11 on 3-8 shooting, and those monstrous 18 boards.  (Pound for pound – or inch for inch – Betts could be the best rebounder I’ve seen this year.)

Singletary’s 13 led Kent State, Evans had 11 (on 4-11 and 2-6 shooting) and Mincy had 10.  Playing off the bench, junior forward Anthony Simpson stemmed the tide on the boards for Kent State, pulling down 12 rebounds – six at the offensive end – and contributing eight points.

Buffalo Coach Reggie Witherspoon talked about Betts’ play, suggesting that hitting his first couple of shots gave the young man confidence, which helped his defense and rebounding as well as his offense.  He also said that as good as Al Fisher is for Kent State, he and his staff had decided to pressure him all over the court, particularly with the ball, hoping he’d get tired before they did.  At least this night, that strategy worked.  Witherspoon then told us that he’d scrimmaged against Fisher when he was a freshman at Siena, and “[after coming to this league,] I’d have been happy if he stated at Siena.”  He then complimented his own freshmen, Mitchell Watt and Titus Robinson, “it’s unusual to be competing for first place in a conference with freshmen on the floor.”

Ford was complimentary of Buffalo, saying that “they’re bigger, stronger, more athletic, and went after every ball.”  He bemoaned the fact that a number of times his team had the ball up three, and thought both Fisher and Anthony Simpson had point-blank looks they couldn’t put that would have extended the Flashes’ lead to five.

Ford agreed that Buffalo made Fisher work hard, that he himself had put the ball in Fisher’s hands an inordinate amount in the second half of Sunday’s win against Akron and in the first round win against Northern Illinois.  Still, he was surprised at Fisher’s inability to finish plays this night, calling his 5-11 guard “the best finisher around the rim in this history of this conference.”  He also talked about the toughness of Chris Singletary, saying that “few kids really want the ball at crunch time, Chris does.  And he wants to guard the opposition’s best player, box out their best rebounder on the weak side.”

Finally, addressing strength of schedule in connection with a question about a possible NIT bid, Ford commented about his difficult non-conference schedule, emulating that traditionally played by Miami.  “In this day and age, if you play 33 games, you can schedule yourself 20 wins.  We made a schedule designed to get us an at-large bid, but weren’t able to win those tough games.”  Kent is 19-14, hoping for a bid somewhere.

Buffalo on the other hand is already preparing for Ball State, which it lost to in Muncie the only time the teams met during the regular season.  That game will be Friday night at 7:30.

This was a game pitting a more athletic guard-oriented team (Ball State) against a more powerful – though slower and less flexible – forward-oriented team (Central). And Central did everything they needed to do to win – almost. Now, they didn’t do it right away, as led by the early scoring of senior guard Laron Frazier (22 points for the game on 8-15 shooting), Ball State went up early, and led twice in the first half by as many as eight, 17-9 after two free throws by Freshman of the Year Jarrod Jones at the 9:00 mark, and then again 23-15 after a trey by senior Rob Giles at 14:40.

While Frazier was handling the scoring load, fellow senior guard Brandon Lampley was putting the defensive clamps on Central’s Robbie Harmon, who’d scored 13 against Eastern, holding him without a field goal for the first 39 minutes of the game. And shockingly, early on Ball State was winning the boards against powerful Central, ahead 13-10 in rebounds at the under-12 media timeout.

But Central hung tough, got to a pace more to their liking (slow, slower, slowest). Ultimately Central got control of the boards too (pace and boards are the formula for Central), leading 18-15 in rebounds at the half (and 39-27 for the game). And Central got off two shots to Ball State’s one in the last minute of the half, and a mini-5-0 run in that last minute pulled the Chippewas within one at the intermission, 29-28.

They got slower still in the second half, with the offense coming from second guard Jordan Bitzer (13 of his 18 after halftime, shooting 6-14 for the game). And they kept pounding the boards with center Marcus Van (8 boards) and power forward Jacolby Hardiman (7) leading the way. But behind Frazier, Jones and Giles, Ball State rebuilt the lead in the second half, going up by six at 48-42 at the 14:48 mark when Frazier hit a jumper, and again at 50-44 when Jones hit from in close on an assist by Lampley at 15:26.

Each time Central fought back, scoring eight of the last 10 points of regulation over the final three and a half minutes. First a jumper by Bitzer, set up by Harmon, at 16:39. Then came Harmon’s only field goal of the game at 17:44, followed by another jumper by Bitzer at 18:23. And after Jarrod Jones gave Ball State a two-point lead with a jumper at 18:48, Hardiman tied the score at 52 and was fouled at 19:21, but missed the ensuing free throw. But Central managed to rebound the miss with :39 left (Bitzer, who else, who ended up with 6 rebounds, in addition to his 18 points), and then their worst possession of the game ended terribly. A basket by Van at the buzzer would be disallowed, as the buzzer was obviously for ticks beyond the expiration of the shot clock. Central had a foul to give, and then Giles missed a desperation trey at the buzzer, forcing overtime.

In overtime, Central got an early lead on the strength of Bitzer’s shooting, and was up 59-56 at the 2:02 mark. But the rest of the game belonged to Ball State, who outscored Central over the final 2:44 by the same margin Central had benefited by in regulation, 8-2. Laron Frazier had four of those final eight points. Finally, when Frazier hit two free throws with just 11 ticks left for a 64-59 lead, there were no more comebacks left for Central, and a meaningless basket by Hardiman in the final seconds made the final score 64-61.

Ball State Coach Billy Taylor was humble in victory, pointing to having to overcome Central’s strength on the boards all night long. He was proudest of his senior guards, Frazier and Lampley, who won the game for him at the offensive and defensive ends, respectively. When a reporter asked Lampley if he could overlook his 2-9 shooting in light of having held Harman to three points, Taylor interjected that “the coach can overlook Lampley’s 2-9.”

Central Michigan Coach Ernie Ziegler acknowledged our question about clock management in the last minute of the first half, taking advantage of a “two for one” and scoring the last five points of the half. “But I wish we’d have been cognizant of time and score in the last minute of the second half, when we ended the most important possession of the game with a shot-clock violation.” Ziegler added that “the Ball State kids are tough-minded, and used that to beat us tonight.”

As to his own team, he was glad we asked about the fine second half play of Jordan Blitzer. “In our league, Bitzer is underappreciated, he’s a really good player, and a really tough player,” Ziegler said.

We’ll have to wait for next season to see more of Bitzer, but we’ll see the Ball State group tomorrow night in a conference semifinal against Buffalo

And when a senior, Cedric Jackson, who underperformed all year, lost his confidence and looked like he just wanted his career to end quietly, comes back to find the best parts of his game, and uses those to lead his team to victory, then it is that much sweeter.

Behind Jackson’s MVP performance, 19 points on 7-12 and 4-8 from the arc, eight assists and seven rebounds, Cleveland State defeated Butler tonight at Hinkle Fieldhouse, by a score of 57-54.  In doing so, the Vikings won the Horizon League’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.  With Butler likely to win an at-large bid, that makes the Horizon a two-bid league this year.

It was a nail-biter throughout, two teams playing hard, defending fiercely, just as they did twice before during the regular season.  Somewhat surprisingly, given all of the talent on both sides, the game came down to a shootout between Butler freshman guard Shelvin Mack and Jackson, with Jackson getting the better of Mack by the slimmest of margins.  Mack finished with one fewer point than Jackson, 18, on 5-10 and 2-7 from the arc.  He also pulled down nine rebounds.  Matt Howard added 14 for Butler, on 4-7 shooting.  But it wasn’t quite enough.

Three times in the game Butler led by as many as eight points, 25-17 at 13:23 of the first half, after a Mack trey; 27-19 two minutes later on a Mack free throw, and 39-31, 1:40 into the second half after a Howard dunk.  But each time Cleveland State dug in deeper on defense, at all five positions on the floor, and held the line, then inched back.

Behind the good all-around play of Jackson and the shooting of reserve freshman guard Jeremy Montgomery, who finished with 11 points on 4-6 and 3-4 behind the arc, over the next 11:30 the Vikes outscored Butler 23-9 to go up 54-48 at the 13:10 mark.  In the end, only five points were scored collectively by the two teams in the final 4:55, four by Butler and just one by CSU. All five were on free throws.

With Cleveland State up by two at 56-54 with under 20 seconds remaining, Cole guarding Haywood and Jackson on Mack, Haywood gave to Mack, who penetrated the left baseline under terrific pressure from Jackson.  Largely due to that pressure (and of course the clock ticking down), Mack thought he had a return pass available to Hayward to the right of the key, but threw the pass right to Cole for a turnover.

After the Bulldogs fouled Cole, who made one of two from the line to extend Cleveland State’s lead to 57-54, Butler had the ball with 14 seconds on the clock, down three. Again under severe defensive pressure, the Bulldogs managed to get two treys off, one by Mack and one by Gordon Hayward, neither close.

A comparison I’ve used once before, the way this game ended made it feel like the 2008 Super Bowl, with Clevealnd State playing the role of the Giants, having lost to these “Pats” during the regular year, but having played them tough both times.

An incredibly emotional player, Jackson finally found his rhythm in this tournament, and after he made a shot or two, it seemed like months of self-imposed pressure melted away.

We talked to Coach Gary Waters after the game about Jackson, and the return of his confidence.  Waters corrected me a bit on that, telling us that “Cedric always had confidence, but was too concerned about his own play, rather than about the team.  Earlier in the year he’d look at his stats each night and see only his poor shooting, and not all those other good stats, and he’d feel awful.  I would tell him that ‘you’re my point guard, be my point guard, and your scoring will come.’

“And do you want to know who helped Cedric?  Quincy Douby of the Sacramento Kings, who played for me at Rutgers, came to practice when the Kings were in town, and sat down with Cedric.  He told Cedric, ‘You’re worried about the wrong things.  As a point guard you need to defend, to distribute, and yes, to make your free throws at the end.  Now, if you want to be a good shooter, you need to put the time into that.  Come to the gym to shoot every morning at 7:30.’  Since then, Cedric’s been to the gym to shoot lots of mornings at 7:30.”

Butler coach Brad Stevens, along with Matt Howard and Shelvin Mack, were gracious in defeat.  Stevens said, “Cedric was just fabulous tonight.  In fact Jackson was great the whole tournament.  We were beaten by a really good team tonight.  But I just told my team that the last time a Butler team lost the conference championship, we ended up going all the way to the Sweet Sixteen.”  Stevens also added in response to our question that looking ahead to the NCAA Tournament, he is “really encouraged” about the improved play tonight from Mack [whose shooting has been off for almost a month].

At the end of the night, Waters raised one of his arms and pointed to a ring on one of his fingers.  A Kent ring, he acknowledged.  “I’ve been wearing this ring too long, it’s time to get a Cleveland State ring.”  Well, the Vikings have won an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, and Waters will now get a new tournament ring, one that says Cleveland State on it.

News and Notes

• This game was so intense, so all-consuming, that the assembled media appeared to forget there were eight other teams in the tournament besides Butler and Cleveland State.  The all-tournament team came exclusively from these two, consisting of Howard and Mack from Butler, and Norris Cole and J’Nathan Bullock for CSU, along with MVP Jackson.  While I had a couple of others on my ballot (Ryan Tillema of Wisconsin-Green Bay and Cory Cooperwood of Wright State in lieu of Bullock and Mack), the final was so good that can appreciate why the voters focused exclusively on players from these two teams.
• This marks the first time since the conference instituted a double-bye for the top two seeds that a team that did not get the double-bye won the conference tournament.
• Enjoy the Selection Shows on Sunday, and with any luck, the next time you read this space we’ll be reporting from one the NCAA sub-regional sites (hopefully one not too far from home).