MAC Sports Blog by VanDelay Sports

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

Trailing 32-19 at the half, things did not look good for the Ohio Bobcats on Bracket Buster Saturday. Trailing 28-11 in the first half it looked even worse. But Ohio’s 8-0 second half lead got them back in the game then a fantastic half by Bubba Walther and the Bobcat offense lead Ohio to a 50 second half points. Ohio outscored George Mason 50-25 in that second half en route to a 69-57 win over the RPI’s 68th-ranked team giving Ohio a 5-5 record against the RPI Top 100 and keeping Ohio’s NCAA Tournament dreams alive. Coming in at #59 in the RPI themselves, the Bobcats should get a nice boost from the win.

With the win, the MAC improves to 1-1 in the Bracket Buster games played so far today with Akron losing vs. VCU earlier in the day.

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After an early basket made it 32-21 the second half of George Mason @ Ohio looked a lot like the first half with turnovers and sloppy basketball. But Ohio senior Bubba Walther responded with back-to-back 3-pointers to cut the George Mason lead to 5. With 15:59 remaining in the game, Ohio now trails George Mason 32-27 after having trailed by as many as 17 in the first half.

Bracket Buster Saturday has proved to be a huge disappointment for the MAC thus far as the Ohio Bobcats trail the Patriots of George Mason at the half 32-19. Ohio’s shooting was ice-cold as the Bobcats made just 4 of their first 20 attempts from the field and trailed by as many as 17 at 28-11 with 5 minutes left in the half. The Bobcats went on a modest 8-4 run to close the half in an effort to get back into the game. George Mason (19-8, #68 RPI) comes into the game 7-7 in road and neutral-site games while Ohio (17-9, #59 RPI) enters Saturday’s contest 10-0 at home on the season.

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There’s no single day where a conference can improve their RPI better than in the Bracket Buster games each year, yet each season the MAC proves why we are a one-bid league. Mediocre showings in the annual Bracket Buster games are becoming expected, and while Akron fought hard at home agains a talented VCU team, the Zips had muliple chances to make a better game of it as they fell to VCU 57-52. The key stat of this game was shooting as Akron was ice-cold all day long. Akron shot 28.3% from the field (13-46) for the game and had just one player, Cedric Middleton (17 points), in double-figures scoring.

The O’Reilly Bracket Busters have begun as Colonial member VCU (20-6, #60 RPI) is in Akron (19-7, #91 RPI) facing the Zips. With an 11 am tip-off, the VCU @ Akron game marks the first game of the day for both the MAC and the Bracket Buster match-ups. At halftime, Keith Dambrot’s Akron team holds a slim 24-23 lead after a sloppy and slow first half from both teams. We’re not sure if VCU Fears the Roo, the 2007 Capital One Mascot of the Year, but what we do know is that we have a good game going on in Akron.

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It is sometimes said that a team may”grasp defeat from the jaws of victory,” and nothing could prove more true than the Ohio Bobcats loss at Toledo on Wednesday night. Ohio lead 45-35 with 6:43 to play then saw Toledo go on a 13-2 run to take a 48-47 lead at the 1:23 mark. Ohio then battled back to take a 52-48 lead with 41 seconds to play only to give away the victory in a game that featured 40 total fouls, 25 of which were called against the Bobcats. Meanwhile, the Akron Zips proved their mediocrity by losing at home on Tuesday night to the NIU Huskies, a team that has been ranked as one of the bottom 50 Division I programs by the RPI most of the season. Akron (17-7) fell 88-78 to NIU (6-17) as the Zips and Bobcats remain tied at 7-4 in MAC play heading into the final 5 games of the MAC regular season. But Ohio and Akron were not the only MAC East teams to lose this week as the MAC West won 5 of the final 6 cross-divisional games. With the West securing a 5-1 completion to the matchup of the East vs. the West, the East ended 22-14 against the West despite a 21-9 record heading into February 12th games.

I have watched enough seasons of MAC basketball to know that we probably will not be a 2-bid league yet again this season. Kent State could potentially sneak into strong at-large consideration. At 20-5 with an RPI ranking of #53, Kent State has 3-4 games with Top 100 RPI teams (Akron ranks #108 and is a win or two from being Top 100). With wins at home over Ohio (#61), Miami (#82) and a tough road matchup @ RPI #21 St. Mary’s, the Golden Flashes could move up enough if they can win all the way to the MAC Championship game. Outside of Kent, only Ohio as an outside chance at even sompeting for at-large consideration, but at 16-8 and a RPI rank of #61, Ohio needs to win out thanks to last night’s embarassing loss.

In the end, I expect we will see the “same old, same old” with the MAC in 2008; one team making the 2008 NCAA Tournament. Hopefully that one team will at least get a win or two for the first time in years.

With 5 games played at MAC West arenas on Saturday, the West had a perfect chance to cut into the East’s 9-3 edge in head-to-head competition. Home court proved to be valuable for MAC West teams as Toledo upset Kent State, Western Michigan defeated BGSU and Central Michigan topped Buffalo in 2 overtimes, while East member Akron used another big second half to beat up EMU. Meanwhile Ohio and Miami won on the road as the Bobcats dominated NIU with a 20-point halftime lead and Miami handled Ball State.

With the overall record in head-to-head competition now at MAC East 12 - MAC West 6, a few takeaways I have from play thus far include the following:

• Kent State is a top-tier MAC team, but very beatable. With road games remaining @ CMU, Buffalo, BG and Akron, the Golden Flashes will reach their annual 20-win mark, but I do not see Kent State winning the remainder of their MAC games.
• Miami is a team nobody wants to play come Tournamnet time in March. Charlie Coles is starting to get his team going with 4 wins in their past 5 games.
• Ohio has the talent to win the remainder of their MAC games this season. Avoiding the upset bug on the road @ EMU this week and @ Toledo next week are critical given the Bobcats’ history of dropping MAC road games against lesser competition.
• Kent, WMU, Akron and Ohio look to be solidifying their places as the top 4 seeds heading into the 2008 MAC Tournament in March.
• Buffalo is not as bad as their 0-8 MAC record indicates. With 4 of their next 5 games at home, expect to see the Bulls pickup 2-3 wins for the home crowd.
• While WMU has a solid MAC record, I’d still rather get the #3 seed and be on WMU’s side of the bracket in the MAC Tournament than have the #1 or #4 seed. I am still not a believer in the Broncos, but they host Akron and Miami and travel to Athens to face Ohio in their next three. If they can take 2 of these 3 games I may change my tune.

Up next for the MAC in cross-divisional play this week includes:

• Tuesday - Buffalo (6-14, 0-8 MAC, RPI #259) @ Northern Illinois (5-15, 2-6 MAC, RPI #276)
• Wednesday - Central Michigan (9-11, 4-4 MAC, RPI #174) @ Bowling Green (10-10, 5-3 MAC, RPI #191)
• Wednesday - Ohio (15-6, 6-2 MAC, RPI #50) @ Eastern Michigan (7-13, 3-5 MAC, RPI #247)
• Wednesday - Ball State (3-17, 2-6 MAC, RPI #295) @ Kent State (17-5, 6-2 MAC, RPI #48)
• Wednesday - Akron (16-5, 6-2 MAC, RPI #75) @ Western Michigan (12-9, 6-2 MAC, RPI #163)
• Wednesday - Toledo (7-13, 4-4 MAC, RPI #186) @ Miami (10-10, 4-4 MAC, RPI #76)

In my post nearly a week ago that looked at the MAC East vs. the MAC West games for 2008, I made it very clear that teams in the MAC East needed to post a stellar record against teams in the MAC West in order to maintain their much stronger RPI rankings and keep Kent State, Ohio & Akron alive for a potential at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament. We have now completed 2 of the 6 cross-divisional games for each of the MAC’s 12 basketball programs and all I can say is so far, so good.

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Over the weekend, Ohio edged Ball State, Miami topped EMU, Kent State defeated WMU and BG knocked off NIU, but all four were home wins for these MAC East teams. Meanwhile, Akron fell @ CMU and Buffalo remained winless in the MAC losing @ Toledo. While the MAC East went 4-2, they went 0-2 on the road. In mid-week games, Ohio used a strong 2nd hald to crush CMU and Akron did the same to beat Toledo, while BG, Kent & Miami all scored road wins. Only Buffalo lost in midweek play as the Bulls fell at home to WMU in OT. A 5-1 midweek performance with a 2-1 home mark and 3-0 on the road.

Overall, with 12 games in the books and 24 remaining between the MAC East and MAC West in the regular season, the East holds a commanding 9-3 edge going 6-1 at home and 3-2 on the road. Meanwhile, Saturday features 6 MAC match-ups with MAC East teams on the road in 5 of those 6 games. Only Akron plays a home game as they host EMU. Ohio is @ NIU, Miami @ Ball State, Kent @ Toledo, NG @ WMU and Buffalo @ CMU.

Prediction time. The East is clearly the better division, but Akron has already disappointed with their loss @ CMU last weekend, and Ohio is notorious for blowing a road game or two against lesser competition. They already did so @ Bowling Green, and I see them doing the same @ NIU or @ EMU next week. Kent is tough, but Toledo is better than their record indicates. The East goes 3-3 this weekend with Miami, BG and Buffalo all falling. Expect Miami to lose in the final minute of the game while WMU handles BG by 4-8 points and UB continues to struggle. Kent State wins by 10 @ Toledo, Ohio sets the Bobcat faithful up for disappointment by winning @ NIU before losing to EMU this week, and Akron handles the Eagles with a strong 2nd-half run.

The first two games of cross-divisional play in the MAC are in the books, and already the MAC is screwing up my thoughts on the MAC East vs. the MAC West. Ohio hosted Ball State and trailed 35-23 at the half, but Tim O’Shea’s club had enough to comeback and win 61-59. Meanwhile Akron visited Mount Pleasant, but nothing pleasant results for the Zips. Central Michigan out-shot and out-rebounded the Zips to hold on for a 65-64 win.

In the short term, the win helps Kent State, Ohio and Bowling Green in the MAC East and obviously helps CMU in the MAC West. The updated MAC basketball standings show Ohio and Akron tied in the MAC East, but the loss by Akron hurts Ohio & Kent State as well as Akron. With the RPI being a factor for the NCAA Tournament selection committee, The Zips are sure to fall from #71 with a loss to the #194 Chippewas. Kent State (RPI #33) and Ohio (RPI #36) will surely take a slight RPI hit as well as both teams benefit from the MAC East rivals playing a strong schedule with solid results.