You’d think Akron would have had to rebuilt some this year.
The Zips lost five seniors — three of them full-time starters — from a team that that won 23 games and the MAC tournament.
But they’ve got the second best record in the MAC.
Thank Sina King for a lot of that. King, a 6-foot redshirt senior forward, missed last senior with life-threatening blood clots. She’s come back thiis year to average 20.6 points and 8.8 rebounds per game. She has had 10 double-doubles and is the current MAC East player of the week.
Thank also junior Anita Brown, a 5-8 sophomore guard who is averaging 19.3 points per game.
King and Brown make Akron only one of two teams in the nation who have two scorers in the country’s top 40. The other team is Ohiio State (Kelsey Mitchell and Ameryst Alston.)
Akron is 15-4, 5-3 in the MAC. The Zips have trail first-place Ohio by two games in the MAC East and lost to Ohio 72-60 on Wednesday. They won their first 10 games this season. But they’ve beaten only two teams with winning records this season. They’re schedule strength is 202nd in the country (out of 349).
Akron dominates the MAC statistically on offense. The Zips lead the conference in scoring offense (77.7), field-goal percentage (.454), rebounding margin (+3.6), assists (17.2), assist/turnover ratio (1.2) and defensive rebounds (29.0), while ranking second in scoring margin (+12.6) and three-point percentage (.327).
Defensively, KSU is close to last in most of those categories.
The Flashes are coming off of their best games of the season. They lost to MAC West power Central Michigan 65-63 in Mount Pleasant Wednesday, coming within three fouls shots and a last-second three-point attempt.
The game is starts at 2 p.m. at the James A. Rhodes Arena. Audio starts at 1:50 on Golden Flash iHeart Radio. You can get video and live statistics through the Akron website.
The Flashes head to Akron this weekend to face a team with a better record than the one that one the MAC tournament last year.
The Zips lost their top three scorers from that team — forward Rebecca Tecca, who was MAC player of the year as a junior;