Hello, Commish here. One of our Committee’s Patreon members, Jonathan Markle, is a Kent State graduate and a die-hard Golden Flashes fan. They attended the Kent State vs. Akron basketball game this past weekend and were inspired to write a blog. So enjoy!

The recent tribulations of Kent State football are well-publicized. 1-11 in 2023-24, with the only win against an FCS team—and they didn’t even get the FCS win in an imperfect 0-12 2024-25 campaign, which included a Fetty Wapping at the hands of rival Akron. A head coach with publicity for all the wrong reasons—tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt and being sued by Kent’s own credit union. An annual non-conference slate known as the Ride to Hell Tour, highlighted in 2024 by a 71-0 away loss in Knoxville, almost always guarantees starting the conference schedule winless in FBS play. Rodger Sherman (coiner of the Fetty Wapping term) recently argued that Kent’s 2024-25 season has a legitimate case as being the worst FBS season ever, and Split Zone Duo did a wonderful deep dive looking at the series of mistakes and misfortunes of the likely-worst FBS program has undergone. All of this to say is that Kent football has not covered itself in national glory in recent years.  

Akron has not covered itself in glory recently, either. The 2023-24 rivalry game featured a battle of 1-10 Akron and Kent teams fighting for their only FBS win of the year (and me performing the Surrender Cobra in ESPN2 HD glory). Since 2000, Akron’s all-time win percentage has dropped from above 52% to below 45%. For both cash-strapped athletic departments, conversation surrounding moving to FCS swirls, although the financial benefits of such a move may be questionable. 

And speaking of money, all of this occurs in a backdrop of institutional decay for both schools. Akron’s enrollment has dropped by nearly half from 2010 to 2024, and its credit rating vacillates between negative and stable. While Kent has avoided the enrollment cliff that Akron has fallen off of, it is facing a budget deficit for the first time in two decades and has enacted an unpopular hiring freeze.

Neither school owns an academic medical center, thousands of rental properties, or has a billionaire alumnus. But the paradox of poverty is that shared struggle often deepens mutual hate. Don’t expect an emergent class consciousness from these schools, 11 miles apart as the crow flies, in the heart of the Rust Belt. And for both Kent and Akron, this hate most often manifests in their biannual college basketball games. 

Let’s talk about the Rivalry on the Hardwood

Historically, both programs have had much more success in the indoor game. Most famously, Kent made the 2001-02 Elite 8, led by NFL Hall of Famer Antonio Gates, who (in the most annoying piece of trivia ever for Kent fans) never played a down for Kent football. The Golden Flashes have made 7 NCAA Tournaments and have posted seasons of .500 or better continuously since 1998-99. While the Zips have posted an 0-6 record in their 6 D1 NCAA Tournament appearances, their D2 record is highlighted by two runner-up finishes.

The all-time series record going into the 2024-25 season was 83-82 in favor of Akron, with the tiebreaker coming at the hands of an all-time Sickos blunder in the 2023-24 MAC Championship.

The teams will taunt each other’s student sections after a win. All of this is to say that there is no shortage of hate fuel in this rivalry, known as the Wagon Wheel.  

_{There is a less savory side to the rivalry, stemming from the name of Akron’s basketball facilities. JAR is the nickname for James A. Rhodes Arena, where Akron plays its home games. If you’re not well-versed in Ohio historical figures, James Rhodes was the Governor who ordered the National Guard to Kent’s campus, resulting in tragedy on May 4th, 1970, when the Guardsmen opened fire on students protesting the Vietnam War, killing four and injuring nine others. This atrocity and the fallout have been exhaustively covered by others, but an often-overlooked part of the aftermath is that Rhodes himself never paid a dollar to the victims or families. The arena, which opened in late 1983, immediately after Rhodes’ fourth term as Governor, did not have its name announced in advance because of anticipated controversy surrounding its name.} 

An important note—Akron’s basketball players obviously hold no responsibility whatsoever in the naming of their arena. But as someone who loves college basketball and lived 100 yards from Solar Totem #1 his freshman year, this background gave me permission to hate Akron basketball. 

 “F*** Kent State” was the theme of the night. It’s the chant my wife and I were immediately greeted to when we entered the JAR in our Homefield Kent gear.  And to be fair, Akron has earned the trash talk rights so far this season. Akron came into the game 22-6 overall and 14-1 in the MAC, a full two games clear of second-place Real Miami. The Zips had already beat Kent this season on the Flashes’ hardwood in an 85-71 victory, building an early lead that was never seriously challenged. This increased the rivalry streak to four games, with Kent’s last win coming in the 2022-23 MAC Championship. 

We took our seats 30 minutes before tipoff and realized our seats were immediately next to Akron’s courtside student section. Most were wearing Enrique Freeman jerseys, a player currently on a two-way with the Pacers who terrorized the Flashes for years. His jersey had just been retired in an emotional homecoming game. When the Flashes took the court for pregame warmups, the already-full student section greeted them with a deafening chorus of “F*** Kent State” that would be continued throughout the night and picked up on the ESPN2 broadcast.  

After quickly going down 12-5, the Flashes went on a 23-8 run powered by three-point shooting from Jalen Sullinger (a nephew of Jared Sullinger) and an unexpectedly strong paint game, repeatedly getting penetration despite Akron’s superior team size. They looked to enter the half up 39-32, but a Sullinger turnover allowed a buzzer-beating Akron layup that got the sellout crowd of 4,967 on their feet and energized before the second half. Still, Kent managed to hand in a similarly-sized lead through much of the second half, entering the final 8 minutes of the game up 63-54. During that time, the Flashes continued to hit critical shots every time the Zips seemed to have a comeback mounting. Even the Akron students seemed infected by a lack of clutch shooting, with a 94-foot putt for $10,000 missing so badly that the announcer felt compelled to console the student, and another student going 2-10 in the 30-second free throw challenge. 

But Akron didn’t stay cold forever. During the next five minutes of game time, the Zips narrowed the deficit and tied the game at 68-68 with three minutes to go, powered mainly by clutch shooting from juniors Tavari Johnson and Nate Johnson. More untimely mistakes did not help Kent during this stretch, which included a foul on a three-point attempt and another with 2:27 to go that gave Akron a 71-68 lead. Finally, the roof blew off the JAR and gave me and my wife tinnitus when junior forward Amani Lyles dunked with authority at the 1:31 mark. Akron largely closed the game out from there with free throw shooting, save for a Sullinger steal that ended in a missed three. The Zips won 78-73.  

As my wife and I made our way back to our car after the game, we passed by Akron’s Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity house. This house is notable for having a victory bell in the front, which several of the brothers were ringing as we walked by. Spotting us in our Kent gear across the state, they shouted after with one last, “F*** Kent State!” Points for consistency, I guess. 

Akron’s streak in the rivalry is now at five, which is tied for the longest streak of futility from the Flashes’ side. However, both teams are assured to make the MAC Tournament and are more than 40 spots ahead of their nearest KenPom conference competitor. Chances are high they will meet again in the postseason, and you won’t need caffeine if they do. To quote Akron coach John Groce after the game, “Obviously, it's Akron-Kent. Anytime it's Akron-Kent, it's a war.” 

Commish here again; I hope you enjoyed the guest post! Also, Akron fans, Jonathan did say he enjoyed an Akron Key Lime Pie beer. So he did say something nice after all.

Photo captions, in order: 

1. Oh, no! Disaster! What a bad idea! 

2. Panoramic pregame view. 

3. A man who terrorized Kent for years. 

4. Some really good Akron beer! 

5. The Akron student section greeting Kent’s players. 

6. Zips football makes an appearance with the Wagon Wheel 

7. The Akron Zoo doesn’t even have kangaroos! 

8. The few but mighty Kent fans. Also where we should probably have sat. 

9. The Akron TKE fraternity house with victory bell.