There’s little more to say than this:
MACkron.
Because, you know, Akron owns the MAC.
Or at least they do in our hearts.
We’ve been on the Akron train for a little while now. We learned Loren Cristian Jackson was driving it. We learned Loren Cristian Jackson is 5’8” and a bucket machine. We learned little else about Akron, but we kept watching the train. We watched the train crash against Bowling Green. We watched it get back on the rails against Buffalo. We silently but firmly pumped our fists as Bowling Green’s own train ran out of steam down the stretch. We looked to the horizon (the literal horizon, not the Horizon League) with fervent-but-internalized joy when the train (the Akron train again, now) unfurled a MAC Regular Season Champions banner from its caboose. Now, we ride on.
The story is this: Akron’s electric. But electricity only works if you have a socket. Or something like that. The NIT is the socket. Let’s plug the Akron train into the socket, and let’s see what happens.
It only takes one loss, NIT fans. There are three chances for Akron to do it. If they pull it off, the automatic bid is theirs.
Let’s make sure they come with us.
Not that we have any control over the situation, of course.
Nuts and Bolts: Akron first plays Thursday night, but the first round of the MAC Tournament’s tonight. They’re doing a campus-sites-for-the-first-round thing. You know that kind of thing. They enter the tournament in the quarterfinals, so as I said, three chances to lose. Automatic bid in the NIT if they pull off the loss. Exciting times.
