Akron basketball coach Keith Dambrot knows he cannot count on his Zips winning the MAC Tournament Championship every season. He also knows the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee rarely awards mid-major conferences with at-large bids, so the only surefire route to the Big Dance is to win the tourney.

Unless you go another route.

This season Dambrot drastically improved the level of competition his Zips will face during their non-conference schedule. It all started Nov. 9 with a trip to Starkville, Mississippi where the Zips squared off with Mississippi State out of the Southeastern Conference. Also in the Zips near future are road games with Valparaiso (Horizon League), West Virginia (Big East) and Middle Tennessee (Sun Belt) along with home contests with Duquesne (Atlantic 10) and Detroit Mercy (Horizon League).

The line of thought being if Dambrot's Zips can pull off an upset or two against a few of these perennial NCAA Tournament participants, maybe Akron can get an at-large invite if they have an off-night during the MAC Tournament.

The plan is moving along nicely.

The Zips steamrolled Mississippi State last night, dominating both ends of the floor and looking very much like a team that deserves national recognition in their 68-58 win over the Bulldogs. Quincy Diggs scored a game-high 19 points and Zeke Marshall, Akron's seven-foot center, blocked five shots and altered numerous others as the Zips took a 12-point lead midway through the second half and answered everything the Bulldogs threw at them the rest of the way.

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The University of Akron (23-13 overall, 9-7 in MAC last season, 3rd in MAC East, First Energy MAC Tournament Champions)

Akron coach Keith Dambrot has to be thrilled with how this off-season has shaped up. With all the adulation and attention rival Kent State has received, it seems like no one is talking about the team that knocked the Golden Flashes off in the MAC Tournament championship game last season...Dambrot's Akron Zips.

Though Akron lost its starting backcourt of Steve McNess and Darryl Roberts to graduation, Dambrot has plenty of horses back in the fold, as well as point guard Alex Abreau who showed a great deal of promise running the point during the Zips' MAC Tournament run.

The backcourt will have to work itself out, but the frontcourt for Akron could be the best in the conference.

Zeke Marshall came to Akron as one of the most highly-touted recruits in MAC history. The seven-footer came into his own last season, capping a strong sophomore year by blocking nine shots in the MAC Tournament championship game against Kent. Marshall is a wiry 218 pounds and needs to add some bulk to play at the next level, but he is physical enough to deal with most centers in the conference. He led the conference in blocks at 2.56 per game while shooting over 50 percent from the floor (50.4).

Marshall will be joined up front by Brett McClanahan, a 6-4 combo guard/forward that connected on 81 3-pointers last season and Nikola Cvetinovic, a second-team All-MAC performer last season who scored 11.7 points and grabbed 6.9 rebounds per game last season.

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If you enjoyed the 2010-11 MAC Basketball season, get ready for the sequel. Many of the main characters will be the same and, like Godfather II, the second installment has a great chance to be better than the original.

Perhaps no conference in the country has as much returning talent as the Mid-American Conference. Seven of the top 10 scorers from last season are back, eight of the top 10 rebounders, nine of the top 10 assist men, seven of the top 10 3-point shooters and eight of the top 10 shot blockers from the 2010-11 season are back this season.

The reigning MAC Player of the Year, Justin Greene, and the MAC Defensive Player of the Year, Michael Porrini, return to the defending regular season champion Kent State Golden Flashes. Four of the five players named to the All-MAC First Team are returning to action this season, two of the second-teamers and an astounding nine of 10 All-MAC Honorable Mention honorees.

"You look around the conference and there are a lot of really good players coming back," Buffalo coach Reggie Witherspoon, who received a contract extension during the off-season, said of the MAC. "I think all up and down, one through 12, it's kind of scary to see guys that had really good seasons are back, yet I think it's really, really good for our conference."

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Ohio University (19-16 overall, 9-7 in MAC last season, 4th in the MAC East)

While returning talent is a theme in the Mid-American Conference this season, no other coach has as much back as Ohio University's Jim Groce. Groce welcomes back 11 of his 14 lettermen from last season, including all-conference point guard D.J. Cooper, a 5-11 speedster that has shown the ability to take over games during his two seasons in Athens.

Cooper finished last season fifth in the conference in scoring at 15.8 points per game, first in assists at 7.51 per contest, second in steals (2.31 per game), second in assist/turnover ratio (2.14) and second in minutes per game (35.66).

Cooper's running mate and go-to guy the last two seasons, sharpshooting 6-5 forward Tommy Freeman (99 3-pointers made last season) was lost to graduation, however, meaning Groce will be looking for someone to step in to fill that scoring void this year. He has a number of talented shooters to choose from, including Ohio State transfer Walter Offutt and St. Louis transfer Jon Smith.

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