The University of Akron Athletics
Men's Hoops Draws Record-Setting Banquet Crowd
April 17 | Men's Basketball
AKRON, Ohio - Close to 300 people packed the grand ballroom at Tangier Restaurant on Monday for the University of Akron men's basketball post-season banquet. The record crowd for the event celebrated the many awards and accomplishments the Zips collected during their 2007 Mid-American Conference East Division championship campaign.
University vice president Candace Campbell Jackson, director of athletics Mack Rhoades and head coach Keith Dambrot each took a turn at the podium to share their remarks, and to discuss the direction the program is headed in terms of scheduling and facility upgrades. UA radio play-by-play man Steve French served as master of ceremony, and the season highlight video was played.
This season, Akron won its first
MAC division title since 1998 and compiled a 26-7 record (13-3 MAC)
en rout to falling to Miami (Ohio) 53-52 on a 3-point buzzer-beater
in the league tournament championship game. That was the Zips'
first appearance in the MAC tourney title contest.
UA's 26 wins tied the school record for victories in a season, as the 1971-72 team posted an identical number. Further, Akron achieved its second consecutive 20-win season (23-10 in 2005-06).
The Zips also compiled a long list of individual accolades.
Senior forward Romeo Travis (Akron, Ohio/St. Vincent-St. Mary HS) capped off his career by being selected as an honorable mention All-American by the Associated Press - the first Zips cager to do so since Eric McLaughlin earned similar recognition in 1989. Travis was also honored as the MAC Player of the Year and was named to the all-league first team, MAC All-Tournament Team and National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC)All-District 10 Second Team.
Senior guard Dru Joyce (Akron, Ohio/St. Vincent-St. Mary HS) earned a spot on the conference's second team. Junior guard Cedrick Middleton (Chicago Heights, Ill./Marian Catholic HS/Brewster Academy [N.H.]) was awarded the MAC's Sixth Man-of-the-Year accolade and redshirt-junior forward Jeremiah Wood (Akron, Ohio/Central-Hower HS) was named to the MAC All-Tournament Team.
Joyce and Travis closed the banquet with a heartfelt thank-you
to the community and Zips faithful, and presented Dambrot with a
framed team photo. Travis
ended his UA career ranked seventh on the school scoring chart,
with 1,491 points (122 games). He is also the program's all-time
blocked shots leader (165). Joyce owns the program record for
career assists (503) and games played (123), and finished with
1,046 career points.
Also during the banquet, Dambrot handed out the program's annual
alumni- and fan-of-the-year awards. This year's alumni award was
given to Kevin Thompson, while fan of the year was Doug
Behrens.
