Nate Johnson hit a short pull-up jumper with two seconds left and top-seeded Akron rallied from 18 points down to beat Miami (OH) 76-74 for a second-straight Mid-American Conference Tournament champio

The MAC basketball tournament begins Thursday, and the automatic bid to the Big Dance is Akron's to lose. The Zips (25-6) rolled through conference play this season, dropping just one MAC game while capturing the program's first regular-season championship since 2020.

In one fell swoop, the Akron Zips men's basketball team captured its second consecutive Mid-American Conference Tournament title, the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and a program record for most wins in a season with 28.