MAC Sports Blog by VanDelay Sports

VanDelay Sports is sitting on press row for the MAC Basketball Tournament this week, so since it’s Thursday 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.

Preview - Based on yesterday’s game I feel like Central Michigan needs to play much, much better to have any chance of hanging with Akron here today. Yesterday’s game against NIU definitely won the ugly award for the hardest game of the day to watch, but maybe they’ll come out and surprise me.

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17:02 - “Told you so” alert… Akron opens up the game with 7 unanswered points. CMU with a timeout to try to right the ship before this one gets away from them.

15:13 - CMU comes out of the TO and hits two three-pointers to cut it to 7-6. Jeremiah Wood is all business early with 4 points and 2 boards.

11:19 - CMU leading 12-10. All 12 of their points are on 3’s. If those stop falling, or Jeremiah Wood keeps blocking them like he did to Chris Kellermann consecutively on the last possession, the Chips could be in trouble.

6:40 - Central is playing much better than they were yesterday and they’re up 22-17 on the strength of some sweet outside shooting, going 6-14 from behind the arc so far. This is reminiscent of some of John Beilein’s old WVU teams who could beat teams by shooting primarily from behind the arc.

3:45 - 24-23 Central leads. Jeremiah Wood is the guy really keeping this one close as he’s been doing a little bit of everything out on the court in the first half. Just like last year in the Q, Wood seems to turn his intensity up a notch for these tournament games. So far he has 6 points, 3 rebounds, 3 blocks, and assists. Akron’s keeping this close with their inside game as they’re out scoring CMU 16-4 in the paint.

0:17 - Central has gone kind of cold from the floor but 2nd chance points are keeping them afloat. Akron leads 32-29.

Halftime - Linhart hits a floating 8 footer as time expires and Akron goes to the half up 34-29. With how well CMU played in the first half, they’re still down 5. If this were a boxing match I wonder if Akron just took the best couple of punches that Central had to throw at them, yet stayed on their feet. The first 8 minutes of the 2nd half should tell the story. At this point Akron is winning thanks to Jeremiah Wood and their play in the paint, outscoring CMU in the paint 24-8.

16:34 - Akron opens it up to a 10 point lead, 41-31. Central is reeling and they call a timeout.

11:23 - Akron seems to be pulling away in this one up 51-38. When Central cooled down from 3 towards the end of the 1st half is when this one began slipping away from them… in fact CMU has only attempted one three-pointer in the 2nd half. If you’re looking for a difference in the game look at FG% with Akron shooting 53% and CMU only shooting 36%.

10:07 - Akron with another quick 5 and they go up 56-38. This one’s quickly becoming a laugher.

Bold prediction alert - Jeremiah Wood is gonna be on the All-Tournament Team (probably not that bold of a prediction).

7:58 - 61-39 Akron, these updates are going to become less frequent for the rest of this game unless CMU starts gunning themselves back into this game somehow.

2:24 - Akron in control 73-49 and it looks like they’re bringing in their mopup guys to finish this one off. Wood with 17 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocks. Linhart has looked great too with 16 points, 6 boards, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. Forgettable final game for Giordan Watson with 11 points on 3-11 shooting, 3 assists and 3 turnovers.

Final - 81-60 Akron. After starting out really slowly the Zips looked strong in this one. Should be a really good game with Akron and WMU playing tomorrow night.

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 MAC Basketball Tournament this week, so since it’s Thursday 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.

15:39 - Quick start with both teams getting up and down the floor but not necessarily converting with a lot of points. Western out to an early 9-3 lead.

13:19 - EMU does not look sharp early. McLemore hits a 3 and opens the WMU lead to 14-3. Charles Ramsey responds with a timeout.

11:52 - Eastern on a nice little 5 point run to pull it to 14-8 going into the 12 minute media timeout. Jesse Bunkley with 6 of Eastern’s 8 points so far.

7:32 - At this point Eastern just looks overmatched, especially on offense. Western leads 24-11 and if Eastern can’t find a better way to get open looks this one could be a laugher by the half. Kool with 9 points early and Western leading points in the paint 12-2.

4:36 - 27-18 Western’s lead. You can’t fault Eastern for not playing with heart. They’ve been diving on the floor countless times for loose balls and keeping this one within shouting distance.

2:00 - Eastern keeping it respectable but Reitz muscles down a board then hits a shot with a foul to open the lead to 12. Rebounds are a major factor in this one. At last count the Broncos had a 15 to 7 advantage on the glass.

Halftime - 36-23 Western leads at the half. More info coming when I get the 1st half stats. Western shooting 48% Eastern shooting 30%. That’s pretty much the difference at the half. It’s not a matter of Western shooting lights out or anything either, the Broncos have just done a better job of getting better looks than the Eagles in the first half.

Band update - Rarely do I say this, but I really like Western Michigan’s band. If somehow the Broncos and Bobcats would face off in the Finals the Q would be rockin’.

15:09 - More of the same, Western tries to pull away Eastern keeps it within shouting distance at 41-31. At this point I don’t really see a way that Eastern can score with enough efficiency or stop Western enough to close this even within 5, but there’s a bunch of time left, and it’s still a possibility. Ramsey could try going to a press maybe to turn up the pressure on the Broncos soon.

13:06 - Well, ignore that last post. Eastern with a quick 7 point run to close it to 3. The Eagles have certainly been hanging around all game when it looks like Western keeps trying to put it away. Now they’re making a run and seeing if maybe they can win this one.

11:54 - 41-38 Western leads, but you can see the Eagles getting more confident after their nice 7-point run to pull it to 3. This is the run that Western is going to need to withstand right here. Reitz with 3 fouls has been on the bench for the last sequence and is still sitting now. Interesting.

Is now a good time to point out that I picked Eastern Michigan as my potential Cinderella team? I think it is.

10:34 - Tie game at 44…

9:24 - Reitz and Kool coming up big. Western goes up 4, 48-44. Eastern with a 30.

7:47 - Western with a tiny bit of breathing room up 52-46.

6:55 - Eastern with a chance to cut it to two, blows a bunny, Western converts on FT’s, goes up 6.

4:29 - Bunkley DAGGER… Eastern pulls it within 3. WMU with a quick timeout.

Free-Throw contest alert. Every possession there’s a whistle. I’m not exaggerating.

3:14 - Bunkley clanks a 3, Western drives back down and Gary laces one. Western up 62-55. Eastern with the ball when we come back.

1:33 - 64-57 Eastern’s still hanging around but they’re going to need to nail some shots pretty soon or this one’s going to be over. Western’s been pretty solid at the line.

1:04 - Western two FT’s, Western steal, Fracalossi dunk… Western by 11. This one’s about done.

0:46 - Eastern 1 of 2 at the line. Medlock steps in front of the PG and takes a charge, Jones hits a 3, and suddenly it’s a 7 point game again.

0:23 - Again Western (especially David Kool) solid at the line. 9 point game. Western with the ball. Eastern with a solid effort today, but it’s just not going to be enough.

Final - And it ends 70-61. Shawntes Gary is your player of the game with 14 points and at last count 8 rebounds. Though I’d say that David Kool has to be right up there too with 24 points, and his solid shooting at the line really helped Western out late as this game turned into a whistle-fest.

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.

Preview - Miami doesn’t typically play a style that lends itself to blowouts (save 10 days ago versus Ohio), but I expect them to beat Buffalo fairly comfortably unless Andy Robinson goes absolutely nuts. Also I claim that Jermaine Henderson plays a (slightly) faster tempo than Coach Coles, so it’ll be interesting to see what the RedHawks look like with Henderson at the helm.

Miami’s band is here, I’m not impressed. Though a couple of guys in the UB band are decked out in top hats and shades, so… I don’t even know what joke to make here.

15:21 - Miami out to an early 8-4 lead. If some of their big men could finish off on nice feeds from the Pollitz brothers this would be an even bigger lead.

13:30 - If John Boyer isn’t Amish he pulls off the look really well with that shaved head and scraggly beard.

11:30 - Tied up at 12. We’re sitting right behind OU Assistant Coach Kevin Kuwick and I’m pretty sure he’s rooting for a 3 overtime thriller in this one. Early misses from the 5 foot range are plaguing Miami. Dierkers and Fletcher have blown a couple easy tries from in close.

9:16 - 20-14 UB with the lead. Boy is my blowout call looking dumb (but to be fair I was pretty much spot on with the earlier 3 games, so… yeah.)

7:46 - 22-16 UB is still up. Bramos with a thunderous block of a Buffalo 3-pt attempt sending us to a timeout on the floor. If I’m Miami here I’m working the ball to Tim Pollitz on the next few trips. Main difference so far is UB winning the rebounding battle 15-7.

5:17 - Miami with two quick hoops closing the deficit to 26-20 and Reggie Witherspoon responds with a quick time out.

2:50 - Buffalo up 6, 29-23. Both teams are shooting 42% from the field, both teams have 3 3’s and 2 FTs. The difference is that UB is out rebounding Miami 19-10 and they’re beating them in the paint 14-10.

1:39 - Bramos with a 4-pt play. Miami on a 7-0 run.

Halftime - Buffalo up 1, 30-29 at the half. Who’s more excited about Buffalo being up at the half, UB fans or OU fans? I’m gonna say OU fans, but it’s probably a close one. It looks like Michael Bramos might be getting untracked, which spells trouble for UB. Bramos started out slow, but ended the half with 11 points. Both teams are shooting pretty evenly, but Buffalo is demolishing Miami on the boards 24-9, 10-0 on the offensive boards. Is it scary that Buffalo is outrebounding Miami by 15 and they’re still only up 1? Probably.

My Second Half Prediction - Miami closes the -15 rebounding deficit a bit and pulls out to about a 7 point lead 8 to 10 minutes into the half. Buffalo starts chucking up 3’s to get back close. They knock ‘em down and this turns into a wild finish. They clank them and Pollitz and Bramos impose their will and pull out a close one (but not a nailbiter).

19:06 - Let’s Go REDHAWKS!!!!… That wasn’t me, it was the guy behind me. He screamed it in my ear so loudly that it just typed into my keyboard somehow.

17:42 - Miami’s not messing around coming out of the half. They’ve already built a 5 point lead… make it 6 as Pollitz adds a FT.

16:18 - Bramos tries to step into an airborne UB defender, the officials don’t call it (it was a good no-call), UB grabs the board runs down and laces a 3 to go up by 1. Henderson was working Referee Terry Wymer hard during the timeout and it actually looked like both might dance for a second (not slang, really dance) as both had their hands on each other’s hips, but the Miami band must not have any good slow dance songs in their repertoire.

14:33 - UB up 44-40 with 2 Miami free throws coming. Momentum keeps swinging back and forth in the 2nd half of this one.

12:11 - Boyer with a 3, Buffalo up 9, Miami with a time out. Chaos!

11:39 - Shocker alert here. 51-42 Buffalo up. Bramos or Pollitz or somebody has to takeover here. It actually looks like Pollitz has been trying, but nothing around the hoop has been falling for the RedHawks. The rebound differential has not tightened up either, it’s 38-16.

10:37 - Bramos quickly cuts it to 51-46 and UB spends a 30.

7:32 - 53-49 Miami’s inching closer. This is the run right now that UB needs to withstand. If they knock down a couple of shots and build the lead back to 9 or so they’re looking great. If they trade shots with Miami they’re in trouble. Maybe I’m over-analyzing a little bit with Coach Coles out, but it just kind of looks like Miami is out of sorts and not quite as smooth on offense as they usually are.

4:32 - Miami takes the lead back going up 58-57. This could be a wild finish.

3:30 - Buffalo up 1, Miami with good ball movement, but if I’m a RedHawk I want to die with Pollitz or Bramos here, not Moosman taking long jumpers.

2:25 - 60-59 RedHawks thanks to a nice runner by Kenny Hayes. Buffalo runs down the shot clock and then makes a mistake and gets called for up-and-down.

2:25 - Bramos can’t get the ball inbounded and calls a TO. Miami only has one left. This could be big later.

1:54 - Tim Pollitz, absolutely beautiful job breaking down his defender with about 100 pivots. Miami up 3.

0:58 - Andy Robinson airballs an incredibly ill-advised 3. Turns out it was tipped by Miami. Inbound right to Alford who lays it in for 2. Kenny Hayes with an awful runner (why are they not getting the ball to Bramos/Pollitz here) Dierkers with an O-board, gets fouled, will get 2 freebies.

0:35 - Miami up 3, Bramos going to the line. Looks like they’re about to dodge a majjjjjor bullet.

0:30 - Bramos hits both. UB timeout. This is going to take a miracle.

0:04 - UB hits a 2 on their 3rd chance, not much time hopes are slim but Buffalo’s still got a ray of hope here. UB needs to hope for a miss and a 1/2 court make.

0:02 - Pollitz ices both. Unless Drew Gooden is on the court going for a block this one is O-V-E-R.

0:00 - Pierce ices a 35 footer as time runs out. No contact though, Miami wins 69-68.

Final - Bramos is your player of the game with 23 points and 3 blocks. Tim Pollitz did a nice job too with 20 points even though a lot of stuff around the hoop wasn’t really falling for him. I say play of the game was with about 2 minutes left when Miami was up by 1 and Kenny Hayes missed an ugly runner. Tyler Dierkers muscled down a rebound between two Bulls and got fouled in the process. From there he went to the line and knocked down the pair. Gutsy effort from Miami tonight, though I still question not repeatedly going to Tim Pollitz and Bramos down the stretch.

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 - 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!

It’s the end of the MAC regular season, so it’s time for us to take a look around the conference and evaluate what we’ve seen and hand out some awards. Without further ado…

Defensive Player of the Year
Hands down, this award goes to Haminn Quaintance. The guy rebounds with the best of them and he averages 2 full blocks and nearly 2 full steals per game. Kent State has done a wonderful job of reloading over the past 10 years, but they’ll certainly miss Q next season.

Most Exciting Game of the Year
Dear Miami v Ohio,

Kent v Akron might be giving you a run for most heated rivalry in the MAC. Nothing was a better display than the most exciting game of the MAC regular season, which ironically doubled as the final game of the MAC regular season. With the high-octane ending to today’s game and the nearby location of both fan base’s to Cleveland a lot of people have to be rooting for another Kent vs Akron showdown in next week’s tournament.

MAC Freshman of the Year
Kind of a weak year for Freshman across the conference, but there was one player, Darion “Jake” Anderson who just played at a higher level than the rest of this season’s incoming class. While NIU had a lackluster season, they could have a bright future building around Anderson and Michael Patton in the backcourt. Anderson finished the regular season average 11.8 ppg, 5.2 rpg, and 2.8 apg, if he can cut down on his turnovers, Anderson could be a major player in this league.

MAC Player of the Year
In the running…

• Al Fisher - KSU
• Haminn Quaintance - KSU
• Joe Reitz - WMU
• Leon Williams - OU

It’s a close race, and really there are other guys who could be considered here (Pollitz, Kool, Wood…) but I’ve gotta give the nod to Leon Williams. Ohio stumbled down the stretch slightly this year, but Williams put up major numbers for the entire year. 15.8 ppg and 9.7 rpg with 14 double-doubles. Often the POTY vote goes to a player from the Regular Season Champs. With neither Fisher or Quaintance emerging as the alpha dog on KSU this year, they’ll probably split some votes and allow for Williams, who Ohio would have been lost this season without, to bring home the hardware.

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

Bracket Buster Saturday for the MAC started slow with an Akron loss, received a boost with a Ohio comeback victory, then continued to show why many feel the M.A.C. stands for “Mediocre Athletic Conference.” In typical up-and-down MAC fashion, the MAC went 5-5 through the first 10 games, thus blowing a great opportunity to improve the conference RPI in these 10 games. It’s now up to Kent State to pull off the upset @ St. Mary’s and firmly plant the Golden Flashes on the bubble. Ohio remains the only other MAC team with legitimate at-large chances, but even the Bobcats need a hot streak and more than a little help.

• Kent State (22-5, #39) @ St. Mary’s (22-3, #26)
• Ohio (17-9, #59) vs. George Mason (19-8, #68) - Ohio wins 69-57
• Akron (19-7, #91) vs. VCU (20-6, #60) - Akron falls 57-52
• Miami (13-12, #87) @ Valparaiso (13-12, #130) - Miami falls 99-94 in 2 OT
• Western Michigan (15-10, #140) @ UW Green Bay (13-13, #133) - WMU wins 74-67
• Bowling Green (11-14, #208) @ Detroit (6-19, #280) - BGSU wins 81-65
• Eastern Michigan (10-15, #223) vs. SE Missouri State (10-16, #277) - EMU wins 86-82
• Buffalo (7-17, #272) vs. Youngstown State (7-18, #194) - UB wins 95-82
• Toledo (8-16, #203) vs. Delaware (11-15, #182) - Toledo falls 77-69
• Central Michigan (10-13, #175) @ Missouri State (12-15, #156) - CMU falls 90-76
• Ball State (5-20, #281) @ Eastern Kentucky (11-13, #245) - Ball State falls 51-48