Recordpub.com - Tonight's the night Golden Flashes, Zips set to battle for MAC East Division championship

By David Carducci

Record-Courier staff writer

Hollywood is coming to Kent State for one night only.

The names alone on the marquee outside the M.A.C. Center conjure the same feel of a hit show about to pull in its biggest ratings on closing night of a long run.

It's Akron vs. Kent State tonight in the final game of the 2006-07 regular season, and the championship of the Mid-American Conference East Division is on the line.

Just as it would in Hollywood, that promising script is sure to bring out the celebrities. It's the kind of night that could entice LeBron James into town to see his old Akron buddies play for a title. Who wouldn't be surprised to see one-time rivals Josh Cribbs and Charlie Frye bring a few of their Cleveland Browns teammates to watch their alma maters battle for a division championship?

They'll all be coming out of the woodwork to see this one. An expected standing-room-only crowd in excess of 6,327 will bring back the aura of some great old games from the M.A.C. Center's past. The question is, are this year's young Golden Flashes ready to deal with both Akron and the high expectations of the raucous sellout crowd?

"They are saying it's going to be really crazy," said KSU true freshman Rodriquez Sherman. "It's the kind of atmosphere I've never been in. We haven't had a sold-out game all year, so I've never seen that place like it's going to be. I've seen it on TV, though."

Watching a sea of gold T-shirts jumping up and down in unison, cheering the Flashes on during an ESPN game with Creighton two years ago, was one of the reasons Sherman ended up choosing to play his college basketball in Kent.

"I wanted to play in that kind of atmosphere," said Sherman.

The first-year guard from Indianapolis is so eager to see the return of those big crowds that he spent Friday morning delivering a persuasive speech on fan support at KSU games, trying to convince students in his communications class to find their way to tonight's game.

"They used to talk about it, (teammates) Mike Scott and Armon Gates, about how we used to have this kind of crowd or that kind of crowd," said Sherman. "I haven't seen it, but I'm looking forward to it."

For Gates, who along with fellow senior Omni Smith is set to say goodbye to the M.A.C. Center tonight, there could be no better setting for his final home game.

"It is the perfect script. The perfect ending, right here," said Gates. "Kent State and Akron. The division championship is right there. Now we just have to take advantage of our situation."

Both teams come in with matching 12-3 conference records. A Toledo loss to Central Michigan today, combined with a Kent State win, would yield more than just a division title for the Flashes. Owning the head-to-head tiebreaker over Toledo, that scenario would give KSU both the overall MAC regular-season title and the No. 1 seed in next week's league tournament at Quicken Loans Arena.

On a team that starts two true freshmen and two sophomores, Gates and Smith are two of a small handful of KSU players who come into tonight's game with any real understanding of what it's like to play in such a raucous atmosphere with so much on the line.

Sherman, who played in high-profile high school games in Indianapolis against the likes of Ohio State freshman star Greg Oden, is about to get his first taste of playing for a college championship. It's the same for his true-freshman running mate, Chris Singletary, and even for a college basketball veteran like junior Haminn Quaintance, who transferred to Kent State from Jacksonville just to have an opportunity to play in this type of game.

"It's going to be my job to make sure guys stay calm," said Gates. "I know how important this game is, how hyped up you can get, how your blood starts to flow and your heart beats faster. We'll find a way to handle it."

KSU didn't do a good job of handling similar pressure during a mid-January preview of tonight's division-deciding game. After leading for most of the night Jan. 17 at Akron's James A. Rhodes Arena, the young Flashes wilted in the closing minutes of a close game. The Zips, meanwhile, relied on experienced veterans down the stretch, as junior Cedrick Middleton (25 points) and seniors Dru Joyce (18 points) and Romeo Travis (16 points) led a 78-68 win.

According to Gates, KSU is a different team from the one that collapsed in Akron a month and a half ago.

"We may have a young team, but our guys have learned to stick together now," said Gates. "That's the one thing we do. We stick together through thick and thin. And now our guys understand that another team may make a run at us, but we can make a run back.

"I like what this team has become. If people haven't noticed yet, we win games by flying around and doing all the little things. We won't win this game by trying to look cute out there for that big crowd. If we are going to win, we'll have to look tough."