Ohio earns its dancing shoes with OT triumph, 81-75, over Akron in MAC men’s final
The Bobcats (21-14) will find out Sunday evening who they will play in next week's NCAA tournament.
UPDATED: 10:24 p.m.
Marvin Fong / The Plain DealerDeVaughn Washington dunks against Akron in the first half Saturday. But it was Armon Bassett's short jumper in overtime that gave the Bobcats the lead for good in the MAC title game victory at The Q.
• Bowling Green wins women's title
FOUR THINGS I THINK
1. Three one-time flagship programs have paid on the court for their coaching missteps, all involving men who once played at Ohio University, Ball State and Toledo.
In 2000 Ball State was the MAC’s elite program with Ray McCallum coaching his alma mater. Internal administrative conflicts nudged McCallum out the door following a 22-9 season and MAC tournament title. In 2001, OU thought it could do better and fired hometown hero Larry Hunter after a 19-win season. Toledo, a consistent contender under Stan Joplin, fired him one season after winning the 2007 title and earning Coach of the Year honors. A gambling investigation — still ongoing — within the football and basketball programs helped lead to Joplin's ouster.
All three programs have struggled since. BSU and UT still fail to climb above .500 while Ohio has had sporadic success. Three iconic MAC hoops programs made rash coaching decisions and the whole league has suffered since.
2. The tournament is stuck one more year with the women also at The Q before MAC presidents decide to move to a site potentially more cost-effective (Toledo/Fort Wayne, Ind). That hopefully brings all the men's teams back to Cleveland for the entire event in 2012, instead of holding first-round games on campus sites.
3. If, as Keith Dambrot and Akron have proven, regular-season titles mean little, perhaps dramatic changes should be considered by the MAC. Play just one round of conference games and the rest non-conference. Then roll the dice for three or four games at the MAC Tournament. Playing four tourney games, with three days rest between the first and second, is no hardship. Teams that want to play for 20 wins can do so while teams that want to schedule aggressively for NCAA at-large chances can do so as well. Then seed the tournament based on RPI.
4. Ohio is the fifth straight champion from the East Division (OU in 2005, followed by Kent, Miami, Kent, Akron and the Bobcats). Only once in those five seasons (2006, Toledo) did a West team make the finals.
— Elton Alexander
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- For the second time in six seasons, Ohio University went into overtime and pulled out a Mid-American Conference Tournament men's basketball title.
This time, the Bobcats grabbed an 81-75 victory over the Akron Zips on Saturday night at The Q. With that, Ohio earned a dance ticket to the 2010 NCAA Tournament. The Bobcats (21-14) will find out Sunday night whom they will play. The NCAA selection show is on WOIO Ch. 19 at 6 p.m.
In 2005, the Bobcats went into overtime before defeating Buffalo for a MAC title on a Leon Williams tip-in. This time, it was some clutch free-throw shooting and a big 3-pointer from MAC Freshman of the Year D.J. Cooper that lifted Ohio over Akron, after a 3-pointer from the Zips' Steve McNees sent the game into overtime.
A Cooper 3 dropped through the net with 3:44 to go in the extra session, giving OU a 73-70 lead. Moments later, McNees would hit another 3-pointer to tie it, 75-75, but Armon Bassett, who obliterated the old tournament scoring record (89) with 116 points, knocked in 25 on the night, including a driving pull-up just off the baseline to give OU the lead for good.
Akron's hopes began to unravel when Brett McKnight's 3-pointer was off the mark and the Bobcats rebounded. Cooper's two free throws with 24.9 seconds left made it a two-possession game, with the following Akron miss effectively ending the Zips' season at 24-10.
For OU, the tournament road was a long and rough one as the No. 9 Bobcats began with a first-round overtime road win at eighth-seeded Ball State, then a quarterfinal upset over top-seeded Kent State, a knockout of fourth-seeded Miami of Ohio in the semifinals then the win over third-seeded and defending MAC Tournament champion Akron.
"I knew it would take a bazooka to knock them out," OU coach John Groce said.
"We earned the right to be [in the NCAA Tournament]," said Bassett, a transfer from UAB by way of Indiana who has played in two previous NCAA Tournaments with the Hoosiers.
"I couldn't ask for nothing better than this," the 6-0 guard said. "This one might be more special for everything we've been through, for everything I've been through."
The game was close from the outset, played inside and out early on before 9,533 fans in a comfortably packed lower bowl in the arena. But if there was a sign the Zips might not have all their magic for this one, it showed at the end of the opening half.
The Bobcats' last four points came pretty easily as forward Ivo Baltic got a backside rebound and layup. Then after a pair of Chris McKnight free throws with 5.1 seconds left, Cooper drove down the sidelines against Akron's 6-8 Nik Cvetinovic, then turned to the hoop toward 7-0 Zeke Marshall, who made no effort to block the freshman guard's shot at the buzzer for a 36-34 OU lead.
That gave Cooper his 14th of 23 points on the night. He offset Bassett, who came into the game averaging 30 points in three previous MAC Tournament games but only had five at the break.
Cooper kept his hand warm early into the second half with a floater off the baseline and a pair of free throws for a quick 44-41 OU lead. But the Bobcats cost themselves a few possessions after that with a bit too much fruitless one-on-one. Yet that was only momentary.
Suddenly both teams started to freelance, and the pace picked up. Akron would hold a one-possession lead for several minutes, but an 8-2 run gave the lead back to OU, 46-43, and it was a nail-biter from then on.
The margin stayed close with the Bobcats still holding a slim advantage, 63-59, at the last media timeout with 3:59 to play. Then the game became downright sloppy leading to a tension-filled final 90 seconds with no less than a combined five turnovers and culminating with a 3-pointer from McNees (12 points) with 6.8 seconds to go to tie it, 68-68, sending it into overtime.
"I woke up last night and said if we're up three late, we're going to foul," OU coach John Groce said. "And I didn't do it."
It didn't matter.
"We dodged some bullets the whole tournament," Akron coach Keith Dambrot said. "But not this one."
Akron survived 42 points from Eastern Michigan's Carlos Medlock in the quarterfinals, then 39 points from Western Michigan's David Kool in the semifinals. But the combined 48 points from Cooper and Bassett were too much for the Zips to overcome.
