The growing pains continue, and the best team in the Mid-American Conference is coming to town.

So it goes for the Miami University men’s basketball team, which is 8-13 overall and has six losses by eight points or less as Akron prepares to invade Millett Hall Saturday afternoon.

“You’re building, you go through it, and that’s where it is,” RedHawks coach John Cooper said. “We’re doing some positive things. We’ve just got to get better.”

MU will face a major challenge against the Zips, who are 18-4 and on a 14-game winning streak, the longest active streak in the nation.

Akron is unbeaten in MAC play and appears to be well on its way to the eighth consecutive 20-win season under Keith Dambrot.

“We’re going to have to put some kind of effort together,” Cooper said. “We almost have to play perfect, and basketball is an imperfect game.”

The Zips are big, athletic and talented. Senior Zeke Marshall, a 7-foot center, is averaging 12.6 points, 6.9 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per game.

“I think the beauty of our team this year is that we can kind of play almost any style you want,” Dambrot said. “We can play fast. We can play slow. We can press. We can play man to man. We can play zone. We can play on the perimeter. We can go inside. We’ll play the way we have to play to win.”

Akron is a hot topic of conversation among college observers when it comes to mid-major schools that could make a splash in the NCAA tournament. Dambrot isn’t worried about anything other than Miami at this point, but conceded that the Zips are a versatile group.

“We go into every year thinking we should be good,” Dambrot said. “We’re built kind of like a high-major team. We’ve got a 7-footer, the big power forwards, an experienced point guard. We’re big and strong. You never think you’re going to win 14 games in a row, but we’ve been able to put it together and win some close games.”

He likes what the RedHawks are doing under Cooper and feels they will only get better. This may look like a mismatch on paper, but Dambrot insisted that his team won’t take MU lightly.

“We’re going to play the same way we always play,” the Akron coach said. “They’ve got some good players, and we know how hard it is to win at Miami. We’re not head and shoulders above them by any means. We’re going to have to play a good game to win.”