On March 11, 2017 the Kent State men’s basketball team beat Akron in the MACC Championship, and they were off to March Madness.

As soon as Kent won the game, production started for shirts to be sold the following week. The shirts’ design were created to celebrate the men’s basketball team involvement in March Madness.

“I think it’s really dope to see these shirts around campus,” said Daniel Murphy, a senior integrative studies major. “I feel like this doesn’t happen a lot, so to see these shirts around campus and to see people wearing them is kinda insane – but in a good way.”

While the shirts did help build the excitement for the first game on March 14, Kent lost in the first round of the tournament. While many people were upset about game, some wondered about the shirts. Would they continue to be sold? How many of them are left?

“The shirts are still selling, and that’s all we have,” said Patrick Duff, the general manager at the Kent State University Bookstore. “We were ready for a reorder if they had won.”

Duff explained how they used the statistics and the odds of them winning to determine the number of shirts they would order.

“I’ve been in this business a while, too; you see that if they don’t win, then it stops,” Duff said.

Though Kent State was unable to continue in the tournament, they were prepared if they had went on to last longer.

“If they had won, we had orders ready, and we had sweet 16 orders all built,” Duff said. “It was all booked, all setup; graphics had been selected, the license all approved.”

While the goal was to have shirts sell out, the snow day on March 15 hurt the sales a bit, but not too much. Duff said the sales of the shirts have been strong online and that orders were sent out the same day.

You can still purchase the tees in store or online at www.kent.bncollege.com. Sizes range from small to 3x large with a price of $27.97.

By Akii Butler and Allison Sarachene