Camryn Justice is a reporter at News 5 Cleveland.
AKRON, Ohio — At the beginning of the season, the Akron Zips men’s basketball team set out on a mission—win the Mid-American Conference Championship, earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament and advance as deep as they could.Senior forward Enrique Freeman told News 5 back in January how he and his senior teammates banded together and returned for one more season and one last shot at their goals.
Freeman, Greg Tribble, Sammy Hunter, Mikal Dawson, and Ali Ali—all seniors preparing to leave it all on the court during this year’s NCAA Tournament. This may be their last dance as Zips, but for four of them, it's not their first. Another lesson, one echoed through practice Tuesday before the team departed for their tournament matchup with Creighton on Thursday, was one reiterated on Saturday against Kent State.
"We really had the target on our back. Everybody in the MAC wants to beat Akron and now for once we're the underdogs. So I feel like it's going to be a different elevation of intensity," Tribble said."I think it’s in the nature of Akron basketball. I think Akron basketball has always been underdogs so I think we’re just playing into our fate in a sense," he said.
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