This one should be a battle. The Zips had their best half in a couple weeks to put away Ball State. Hopefully that woke them up a bit. Ohio is going to put up much more of a fight than they did in December, that one is ancient history.
Though it was so long ago, the defensive approach on Preston is something I would love to see again. LCJ was right up in his grill for almost that entire game and that forced the supporting cast to beat the Zips. We saw how that went. Of course, those guys are all playing better than that now and Akron's been struggling defensively, so that will be interesting to watch.
As I do some research after watching the late game before I call it a night, this 12-3 MAC record for Akron is their best 15-game start in league play since 2017. And that 2017 team started out 12-1 before falling to 12-3 in MAC play which then led to the biggest collapse to end a season in the history of the program. The Zips have won 9 of 10 but it really doesn't feel like it to me. I don't know if I should be worried or not. But as I alluded to earlier, the second half today made me much more optimistic moving forward.
Tuesday will not be easy. Hell, not many are easy. But I'd like a nice relaxing celebratory Tuesday evening after burying the Kittens in the back yard, that's for sure.