Recordpub.com - Hey fans, it's time to fill the M.A.C. Center

What will it take to fill the M.A.C. Center for a big game like tonight's battle between Kent State and Saint Mary's?

These are two of the best mid-major college basketball teams in the country, yet if tradition continues, the Golden Flashes' home arena will only be about two-thirds full at 7 p.m.

Scolding columns by beat writers certainly don't do the trick. I've found that out over the last decade.

Kent State head coach Geno Ford is hoping a personal plea will inspire more students, alumni, community members and anyone else in Northeast Ohio who loves good college basketball to come out tonight and pack his team's 6,327-seat arena.

Ford rates Saint Mary's point guard Patrick Mills as a future NBA lottery pick. He thinks the Gaels' 6-foot-10 center, Omar Samhan, has a pro future. He has seen first-hand what long-armed 6-foot-7 senior Diamon Simpson can do to the Flashes. Simpson scored 24 points on 10-for-18 shooting and grabbed five rebounds in KSU's BracketBuster upset over the then No. 23-ranked Gaels last season in California.

"Fortunately, this a home game, so you just have to gut it out," said Ford. "You have to find a way at home to win games like this."

It's only fortunate for Kent State to get Saint Mary's on its home floor if the Flashes' fans are willing to show up and make life difficult on the Gaels. Unfortunately, the M.A.C. Center usually doesn't fill up unless it's for a nationally televised game or if KSU is playing a Mid-American Conference rival in February or March.

Last December, when George Mason came to town 19 months removed from a trip to the Final Four, only 4,378 fans showed up to see Kent State's 73-55 win.

That was an unusual marquee matchup for a game in Kent. This Saint Mary's game is even better. That is why Kent State has received requests from 10 NBA scouts for passes to tonight's game.

"This is the best non-conference game we've had here in years," said Ford. "It has to be a great atmosphere. We've always had a great home-court advantage, but we need a huge crowd. We need it to be loud. And that has to be a factor in the game. The crowd absolutely has to be a factor in the game."

To the credit of KSU's student body, the student sections at the M.A.C. Center have been close to full for home wins over North Carolina Central and North Carolina Wilmington this season. Ford is asking the students who had a blast at those games to drag a few of their friends out to the arena tonight. He wants them to show up early and start warming up their vocal chords during pregame warmups.

That's what Saint Mary's fans did last year when Kent State visited Moraga, Calif. for the ESPN BracketBuster. The Gaels' tiny little arena only seats 3,500 people, but their fans packed the place to the rafters and created an atmosphere that the Flashes had a difficult time handling.

"It was pretty crazy," KSU guard Mike McKee remembered. "They have this little bitty gym, and they packed it full of rowdy fans. It got loud in there and it was really intense. I think it is magnified because everything is so small. Obviously, they have a great team, but you have to battle both them and the crowd."

McKee and his teammates know that the M.A.C. Center can be just as difficult on a visiting team.

"Every year when we play Akron, it is one of the best home-court advantages in the country, I think," said McKee. "When we do pack it, the M.A.C. Center definitely rocks. It needs to be like that again against Saint Mary's. I'm sure the fans know that when you get a packed house in here and you have 6,500 people standing up, screaming and yelling, we feed off of that.

"You have to play the game and feed off your teammates. But when you get a fastbreak dunk and the crowd goes crazy, you feel that. It makes you want to come down on the defensive end, get another stop and go do it again. I definitely think if we can get a big crowd in here, it is going to help us enormously, especially considering last year. They were ranked and we went into their building and got the upset. They will be coming in here wanting payback."