MAC Sports Blog by VanDelay Sports

VanDelay Sports is sitting on press row for the next four days, so since it’s Wednesday and most people are stuck in work we’ll be running live diaries during the games. We’ll be updating this at most of the media time outs. Hopefully this will be somewhat entertaining and informative for those who care.

Pregame - This game should come down to BG’s size (rebounds and second chance points) versus Toledo’s speed (steals, fast break points, and points of turnovers). If Toledo can shoot 45% they’ve probably got a pretty good chance in this game, should be interesting to see what wins out.

14:14 - Toledo out to an early 10-3 lead.

10:58 - 14-9 Toledo leading. BG keeping it close early despite shooting only 4-17 from the floor.

7:48 - 16-9 Toledo. BG only shooting 20%, but you’ve gotta figure sooner or later they’re going to get some shots to start falling. This game has just looked a lot better than the last contest. A lot more movement on offense, better looks at the basket, less dumb turnovers. Also, attendance has picked up quite a bit in the night session. When everything’s said and done we’ll probably be at 7,000+ for the day.

3:08 - 18-15 Toledo leads. If I’m Louis Orr, I’m telling my team to dial it down a notch. Twice in a row they had a fast break opportunity, but made an awful pass giving it back to Toledo. If BG slows it down and keeps working it inside they’ve got a chance in this one, as Toledo looks happy to camp out around the 3-pt line and fire away, going 1-11 from 3-pt range so far. The shooting percentages are evening out a little bit at 29% and 28% respectively for BG and UT.

Halftime - Toledo’s up 23-21 at the half, but if they keep firing away from 3 (1-11) I’m not sure that they’ll hold off the Falcons. The Rockets don’t have a lot of size, but Stan Joplin has to be imploring his guys to work it inside more where they’ve come close to matching BG so far (points in the paint 10 to 14 respectively). Both teams have been a little sloppy with the ball, BG with 7 turnovers, UT with 8, and neither team has taken advantage on fast break or 2nd chance points.

14:46 - 31-28 Toledo with BG going to the line after this timeout on the floor. Jonathan Amos is really carrying UT in this game, scoring 8 points so far this half, bringing his total to 11 so far.

11:52 - BG takes their first lead of the game going up 33-31 and Stan Joplin calls a quick 30. Toledo is a mess on offense right now.

11:08 - Toledo with a nice alley-oop play (though there was a moving pick to open up Kent for his run to the hoop on the play) to tie it back up at 33. The last 11 minutes of this one are going to be interesting. Toledo only shooting 32% compared to BG’s 39.5%. Toledo also still cold from 3, shooting 1-14.

7:39 - Still a close one with UT up 40-37. Toledo still clanking away from 3, now shooting 1-16 from beyond the arc.

2:27 - We’ve gone a long time with little scoring and UT’s still up 43-39 with Amos heading to the line when we get back from the timeout on the floor. BG’s going to need to make a run pronto if they have any hopes in this one. Neither team can hit a shot from 3, combined they’re 1-23.

1:34 - Amos misses the first of a one in bonus, Polk knocks down two FTs and Young answers with a pretty reverse that a BG player even got a piece of. It’s still a 4-pt game, but BG’s not going away.

0:31 - Jakubowski hits 2 quick layups as BG trades points with Toledo. Tyrone Kent only hits 1-2 at the line, but BG misses a 3 and can’t hit a stickback before sending Byrd to the line for Toledo up 5.

Final - 52-48 Toledo holds off BG. The shooting in this game was atrocious as both teams combined to shoot 2-25 for 3, and neither team cracked the 40% shooting mark from the field. Toledo’s defense really kept them in this one with 11 steals, forcing 17 turnovers. This is another match-up (Toledo vs Kent State) that I’m really not expecting to be incredibly close tomorrow.

Dan Whitmyer is the head basketball writer at VanDelay Sports. He can be reached at dwhit@vandelay-sports.com

VanDelay Sports is sitting on press row for the next four days, so since it’s Wednesday and most people are stuck in work we’ll be running live diaries during the games. We’ll be updating this at most of the media time outs. Hopefully this will be somewhat entertaining and informative for those who care.

Pregame - You know who has a good band? Northern Illinois (though they do carry music, so -10 points for that). It’s a shame that they’ll probably be gone after this game (Central is favored by 7).

17:03 - 11-4 CMU lead early on the strength of a couple of Ben Watson 3’s.

Crazy Q update: There’s a flock of maybe 5 birds flying around near the top of the arena, between the rafters and top of the scoreboard and stuff. When we came back in from a food break earlier the people sitting next to us had bird poop on their laptop. I tried to tell them that’s considered good luck and they shouldn’t wash it off. They weren’t buying it.

11:14 - 21-13, CMU has continued to open up their lead against the Huskies on the strength of some early 3 point shooting (5-8). If NIU can cool the Chippewas off from out there they’ve got a chance, as they’ve been dominating them (10-2) in the paint.

7:38 - 24-17 Central still leading as both teams have cooled down on offense considerably over the past 4 minutes. NIU with only one team assist so far, could explain the lack of offensive production.

3:50 - 27-20 Central leading. This game has been really, really ugly so far. Not a lot of movement on offense on either end, dumb fouls, lazy turnovers. In fact there are already 16 combined turnovers and neither team is over the 40% shooting mark. I’m already calling for a 20-point Akron win tomorrow over the winner of this game.

Halftime - Ugly half with Central leading 37-30. They’re certainly letting NIU hang around… finally I have 1st half stats. The story in this one so far is CMU’s 3 shooting as they’ve gone 8-15 behind the arc so far. NIU has a big edge on the inside, up 18-6 on points in the paint and +7 in rebounds, but they’re only 1-5 from 3, which pretty much explains the point differential, or “The Diff” as they call it on the scoreboards here at the Q.

Living on a Prayer Count - 2… yet I’ve still heard nothing that rivals this.

18:07 - CMU with a quick couple of buckets to push it to 41-30 and force NIU to call a quick timeout.

15:51 - 48-34 Central starting to open up a comfortable lead. For those wondering about CMU’s second leading scorer, Nate Minnoy’s absence, word on press row is that he’s been suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules. He’s definitely done for the tournament, not sure beyond that.

13:22 - NIU still hanging around enough to make this thing interesting. Michael Patton laces a 3, cutting it to an 8 point deficit and the Chips are forced to take a time out.

11:59 - CMU answers back and has built the lead back to 12, with a 54-42 score. NIU has been having a lot of trouble getting good looks, and then converting on them. It took me nearly 3/4’s of the game to realize this, but Central Michigan didn’t bring a band for some reason… I guess I just thought they were really quiet.

7:51 - 67-47, CMU is putting this one away.

2:58 - 75-61 Central, I’ll post more when this one is over and I’ve got the final stats.

1:01 - I still think it’s too little too late, but NIU has put on a nice little run to close it to a 9-point game with the ball, 77-68.

Final - Central closes out a comfortable 12-point win and Watson is named Player of the Game with 20 points and 4 assists. Like we mentioned at the half, 3 point shooting was the difference in this one. While the Huskies did hit a couple of shots, ending 4-10 from behind the line Central was on fire from 3, shooting 12-23. They’re going to need to keep lighting it up from the outside to have a chance at keeping it competitive with Akron, especially minus Minnoy.

Dan Whitmyer is the head basketball writer at VanDelay Sports. He can be reached at dwhit@vandelay-sports.com

VanDelay Sports is sitting on press row for the next four days, so since it’s Wednesday and most people are stuck in work we’ll be running live diaries during the games. We’ll be updating this at most of the media time outs. Hopefully this will be somewhat entertaining and informative for those who care.

20:00 - Not counting the media, bands, and teams I’m guessing there are about 500 people here for the start of this one. Of course neither Ball State nor Eastern Michigan or expected to make it to the semis and both campuses aren’t exactly close to Cleveland, so there you go.

15:11 - 9 to 5 Ball State with an early lead. Looks like both teams are still waking up.

11:31 - Anthony Newell on fire for 10 points already, though Ball State is only up 15-14 as Eastern Michigan has been finding the open man on the offensive end.

9:09 - I really like these refs so far, they’re letting a lot of contact go and really letting both teams play. Far better than the free throw contests that sometimes happy with more whistle happy crews.

7:55 - Newell with 12 points now, but nobody else on the Cardinals is doing a whole lot, though they’ve still got a 17-16 lead over the Eagles.

Halftime - Ball State leading 30 to 26 over Eastern Michigan at the half. Newell started out strong for Ball State, but they started looking even better towards the end of the half when they spread the scoring throughout the rest of their lineup. Eastern has looked solid so far too, getting 10 points from Travis Lewis and having the rest of their lineup pitch in for point. This one looks like it could be a fairly exciting game in the 2nd half.

7:42 - This game has stayed close, Eastern Michigan with a 1-point lead, 41-40. Newell has 15 points, but also 4 fouls. The Cardinals really need him to stay on the floor if they’re going to have much of a chance as this game winds down. Dobbins has been killing the Cardinals here in the second half, he’s got 19 points on the game.

4:34 - Jesse Bunkley hits his first field goal, a 3, and Ball State takes an immediate time out. Could Eastern be pulling away? They’re up 6, and Ball State has been having trouble scoring over the past 4 minutes.

3:37 - Eastern still up 6, going to the line with a timeout on the floor. Have I mentioned how much I like Dobbins, Medlock, and Bunkley? Oh yeah, I did. Dobbins is only a sophomore too. He could be a major player in this conference if Ramsey continues to build a good team around him.

1:47 - Dobbins gets tackled on his way to the hoop, still makes the layup, but comes up limping. Ball State quickly runs it down, gets fouled, hits two freebies. 53-49 Eastern.

0:24 - Eastern hits two free throws and Ball State knocks down a 3 on their 3rd chance in that possession. It’s a 5 point game, but it’s Eastern Michigan’s ball and this one looks like theirs to lose.

0:21 - Dear Eastern Michigan Trumpet Player, the next time the Director calls for Living on a Prayer just don’t play if you can’t hit any of the notes.

0:04 - Ball State with another 3, but they’re down 4 with 4 seconds left. EMU with the ball, this one’s all but over.

Final - 59-55 Eastern Michigan wins. Justin Dobbins leads all scorers with 21 points and is named player of the game as he tacked on 6 rebounds and 3 assists as well. We’ll be back for the CMU/NIU game starting at 3:30.

Dan Whitmyer is the head basketball writer at VanDelay Sports. He can be reached at dwhit@vandelay-sports.com

After an exciting day of play at “The Q” in downtown Cleveland, Ohio on Tuesday, the MAC women’s basketball tournament is now down to just four teams remaining for the Mid-American Conference’s automatic bid. Miami knocked off Western Michigan 65-60 before a mild upset that saw Ohio top EMU 76-62. In the night games, Toledo upset West #1 seed Ball State by a score of 65-60 and the East’s #1 seed, Bowling Green, topped Kent State 86-57.

The semifinals for the women will be played on Friday afternoon as East #2 Miami faces West #5 Toledo @ noon. East #1 Bowling Green will then face East #3 Ohio @ 2:30 pm with the winners advancing to Saturday’s MAC Womens’ Championship game.

The 2008 MAC Basketball Tournament pairings have been announced with the Mid-American Conference’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid on the line. As the MAC Tournament is set to begin on Wednesday, the top four seeds, Kent State, Western Michigan, Akron & Ohio, each have a bye until the quarterfinals on Thursday. VanDelay Sports is pleased to announce that we will be covering the MAC Tourrnament live from Cleveland for the 3rd consecutive season and will provide live game updates on our MAC Basketball blog and on our MAC Basketball fan site. Check VanDelay Sports and the Van Delay Sports blog for MAC basketball previews, recaps, game updates, scores, schedules and more as we are your full-service MAC sports fan site!