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No. 13 seed Akron (28-6) vs. No. 4 seed Arizona (22-12) | NCAA Tournament first-round game | Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle | 4:35 p.m. Friday | TruTv | 1290-AM, 107.5-FM

PROBABLE STARTERS

ARIZONA

G Jaden Bradley (6-3 junior)

G Caleb Love (6-4 senior)

F Anthony Dell’Orso (6-6 junior)

F Trey Townsend (6-8 senior)

C Tobe Awaka (6-8 junior)

AKRON

G Tavari Johnson (5-11 junior)

G Seth Wilson (6-2 senior)

F Nate Johnson(6-3 junior)

F Isaiah Gray (6-3 senior)

G James Okonkwo (6-8 senior)

HOW THEY MATCH UP

How they got here: Akron went 17-1 in the Mid-American Conference to win the league’s regular season title by three games over Miami (Ohio), then edged Miami in the MAC tournament final when Nate Johnson hit a go-ahead shot with 2.3 seconds left. The Zips were assigned a No. 14 NCAA Tournament seed.

Arizona went 14-6 in the Big 12 to finish in a third-place tie, then beat Kansas and Texas Tech to reach the conference tournament final. The Wildcats lost 72-64 to Houston in the final but received a No. 4 seed on Selection Sunday.

Series history: Arizona has never played Akron, though the Wildcats did beat the MAC’s ninth-place finisher, Central Michigan, by 53 points in December.

Akron overview: Bolstered by what Blue Ribbon Yearbook called the MAC’s “best NIL collective,� Akron shrugged off the loss of four starters and eight scholarship players overall by pulling in three guys who started their college careers playing under Bob Huggins at West Virginia and also landing rugged 6-3 Cornell fifth-year transfer Isaiah Gray.

Starting center James Okonkwo played a limited role in two seasons at West Virginia and another at North Carolina but has started 25 of 32 games this season. Wing Seth Wilson has taken the vast majority of his shots from beyond the arc and hit them at a 36.5% rate against Division I teams after transferring from the Mountaineers last summer, while forward Josiah Harris averaged 8.7 points over the first six games of the season upon arriving from West Virginia before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury.

But the Zips’ two top scorers are homegrown: Wing Nate Johnson and point guard Tavari Johnson (no relation). Both are effective at shooting 3s and driving to the basket: Tavari Johnson has hit 40.0% of his 3s and 50.5% of his two-point shots, and when he's fouled, has taken advantage by hitting 90.5% of his free throws. He leads the Zips in assists (3.9) also.

Nate Johnson isn’t as much of a 3-point threat (29.8%) but is dangerous on drives to the basket and also a strong passer who averages 3.5 assists per game. He shoots 50.8% from two-point range and draws 4.5 fouls per 40 minutes, then takes advantage by hitting 79.5% of his free throws.

Overall, the Zips like to run and share the ball, maybe even more so than Arizona. They run the 16th fastest tempo in Division I and rank 52nd in ratio of assists to made field goals (45.4%), while they also rely heavily on the 3. The Zips like to look for the 3-pointer first. They make 36.6% of their 3s (ranking 48th nationally) and get 38.1% of their scoring off 3s — the 40th-highest ratio of 3s to overall field goals made.

Running a small lineup that can sometimes have only one player (Okonkwo) over 6-foot-3, the Zips don’t get to the free-throw line very often, ranking 333rd in ratio of free-throws attempted to field goals made. But they do manage to hit 55.8% of their two-point shots.

He said it: “They run more for the 3-point line, and we run more for the paint, I would say. But they're a really good team. Teams that we've played this year that are similar are BYU and Samford — we're talking about teams that want to get out and run and shoot.

“If they have transition, they're gonna try to shoot a transition 3. If they're in that half-court, they're gonna try and spread you out, drive you and penetrate and kick it out.

“(Nate Johnson) is a three-level scorer. He can score at the rim, mid-range, 3s. He’s a strong, tough guard, physical. Gets in the paint. Really good player. Shammah Scott off the bench might be playing as well as any of them. He can handle it. He can shoot it. Tavari Johnson is almost like the engine of the team point guard.

“They're interchangeable parts. Even (Isaiah) Gray is a creator, scorer, cutter, and you have to be ready for their shooters. Bowen Hardman, Scott and Sharron Young, those dudes can shoot the basketball. They're not afraid to shoot it. They're gonna spread you out, they're gonna play four shooters at all times. — UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, who scouted the Zips.

KEY PLAYERS

AKRON

Nate Johnson

A three-star prospect out of suburban Cincinnati as a high school player, Johnson was a standout as a sophomore early last season before he broke his foot. Then he returned this season to become the MAC’s Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, while hitting the game-winner to get the Zips into the NCAA Tournament field.

ARIZONA

Henri Veesaar

The Wildcats’ Estonian 7-footer can cause matchup problems even for bigger teams, with his ability to pull out post players to the perimeter or use his athleticism to cut around them. But without anybody over 6-8, Akron might not have an answer for him.

SIDELINES

Where rubber meets the court

Akron’s fast-paced offense might be worthy of their “Zips� nickname, but speed has nothing to do with the nickname.

Their mascot also has nothing to do with the University of Akron, the state of Ohio, or even the entire Western Hemisphere. It’s a kangaroo… who lives in a jar.

Make sense?

If not, let’s go back to the to the 1920s, when the city of Akron was known as the Rubber Capital of the World, with manufacturers such as B.F. Goodrich, Goodyear and Firestone all having set up shop in the northeastern Ohio city.

Akron had been playing football since 1891, first as Buchtel College and then as the University of Akron since 1913, but had no nickname until a contest was held in 1925. Top contenders were Rubbernecks, Hillbillies, Tip Toppers, Cheveliers and Golden Blue Devils, according to a 2022 Akron Beacon Journal story.

But the school instead paid a freshman student $10 for suggesting to name the school’s teams after a popular B.F. Goodrich rubber overshoe, “Zippers," which featured revolutionary slide fasteners instead of buckles.

At the time, the Beacon Journal jumped on board, saying, "It will work well into peppy songs. It is full of the old Zip needed in good songs and yells and on good teams. Get back of the Zippers."

But in the following decades, zippers became more associated with pants, creating a different sort of interpretation, so in 1950 then-AD Kenneth Cochran shortened the name to “Zips.�

Two years later, the “Zips� settled on a unique mascot thanks to a school vice president who declared there were “so many bulldogs and lions and tigers and whatnot,� and suggested a kangaroo. Initially named “Mr. Zip,� the mascot reportedly looked more like a cow than a kangaroo with a papier-mache head and heavy costume, but evolved into a more aggressive “Zippy� by 1965.

Zippy remains around today but normally stays in a JAR, the nickname for Akron’s James A. Rhodes Arena.

Luka-like

Last Saturday, Nate Johnson hit 8 of 13 field goals against Miami (Ohio), including a game-winning floater with 2.3 seconds to go in the MAC tournament championship game.

The assist went to the Lakers’ Luka Doncic, in a way. 

“There’s a Luka Doncic move we worked on in the summer,” Johnson said of his Euro-step after the game, according to . “In that moment, I just told myself not to rush, because if I would’ve rushed, I probably would’ve airballed or did something crazy, but just letting the mind do what it do."

After the game, Johnson also had to slow down, or at least quickly put the highlight off to the side to focus on facing Arizona just six days after that emotional moment.

“Afterwards, it was a little crazy,� Johnson told the Star on Thursday. “But I have good people around me that's helped me just come back down to earth and lock in for this week, just try to just keep pushing and keep going forward, keep trying to win.�

Back off, bro

Akron coach John Groce and former Arizona coach Sean Miller became close friends while working together on the staffs of Xavier and North Carolina State, and Groce says he is fired up that Miller led Xavier into the NCAA Tournament this season.

“I think the world of him,� Groce said. “Have a lot of respect for him and his entire family.�

But at one point, the two were almost too close: That’s when Sean’s younger brother, Archie, was developing into a standout point guard at N.C. State in the late 1990s.

“I was Arch’s position coach at N.C. State and we kind of had a lot of fun with that,� Groce said, correcting himself with a laugh. “I had the guards, but let me tell you: Sean had Arch.�

NABC honors Love, Bradley

While there aren’t any Arizona players dotting postseason all-American teams, the National Association of Basketball Coaches put UA guard Caleb Love on its 10-player first team “Mountain District� while point guard Jaden Bradley was named to the Mountain District’s second team.

BYU’s Richie Saunders was the other Big 12 player named to the all-Mountain first team, while New Mexico’s Richard Pitino was named the district coach of the year.

Meanwhile, Akron’s Nate Johnson was named to the NABC’s all-East first team, while Tavari Johnson was all-East second team.

Numbers game

4: Arizona wins in seven NCAA Tournament games under fourth-year coach Tommy Lloyd.

33: Times No. 13 seeds have beaten No. 4 seeds in the past 39 NCAA Tournaments, since David Robinson led Navy past LSU in 1985.

78.4: Arizona’s free-throw shooting percentage, within striking distance of the school-record 78.6% set in 2003-04.

81.7: Arizona’s points per game, the 22nd-most nationally.

84.6: Akron’s average points per game, the eighth most nationally.

— Bruce Pascoe