MAC Sports Blog by VanDelay Sports

Cleveland, here we come.

So another edition of regular season MAC Basketball is in the books, and the MAC faithful is nearly ready to decend upon Cleveland (including the Vandelay crew who, like the past two years, will be running live blogs during the action). So what can we expect in Cleveland over the next two days? Let’s talk about it…

This Has Been a Season Full of Parity. How Did the Seeds Shape Up?

Say what you will about parity, I for one would prefer to see a dominant team or two at the top of the league, but this year could be exciting in a different way, with few teams able to put together consistent performances throughout the season and anyone beatable on any night. Here is how the seeding shook out after Sunday’s final regular season games.

2009 FirstEnergy MAC Men’s Basketball Tournament

Tuesday, March 10

No. 7 Central Michigan vs. No. 10 Eastern Michigan, Noon

No. 6 Kent State vs. No. 11 Northern Illinois, 2 p.m.*

No. 8 Western Michigan vs. No. 9 Ohio, 4 p.m.*

No. 5 Akron vs. No. 12 Toledo, 6 p.m.*

Thursday, March 12

No. 2 Ball State vs. No. 7/No. 10 Winner, Noon (FS Ohio)

No. 3 Buffalo vs. No. 6/No.11 Winner, 2:30 p.m.* (FS Ohio)

No. 1 Bowling Green vs. No. 8/No. 9 Winner, 7 p.m. (FS Ohio)

No. 4 Miami vs. No. 5/No. 12 Winner, 9:30 p.m.* (FS Ohio)

Friday, March 13

No. 2/7/10 vs. No. 3/6/11 Winner,7:30 p.m. (FS Ohio)

No. 1/8/9 vs. No. 4/5/12 Winner, 9:30 p.m.(FS Ohio)

Saturday, March 14

Championship Game (ESPN2), 8 p.m. EST

What Effects Will the Economy Have on the Week?

Nobody knows the answer to this, but it’s certainly a question looming in the back of a lot of people’s minds with the current recession effecting pretty much everyone across America. Two recent stories that should hit close to home are the news that FirstEnergy will be laying off 335 workers and this excellent NY Times piece about the effects of the foreclosure crisis in Cleveland.

Will the poor economy have an effect on attendance? Kent State and Akron generally travel the best since they’re the nearest schools (with Ohio University fans getting an honorable mention here). Will the divide be even more noticable this year? Stay tuned…

Will Chris Singletary Serve a Suspension for Any/All of the Tournament?

About a minute and a half into yesterday’s Kent State/Akron game, Singletary was ejected for what this blogger will define as a cheapshot to Nate Linhart’s spleen. If you read Mike Rasor on Ohio.com you probably saw a blog post from him yesterday where he reported that Singletary would be suspended for the entire MAC Tournament, sourcing MAC Director of Men’s Basketball Operations Rick Boyages. After a stir across some MAC fansites, Rasor retracted his earlier report, blaming the miscommunication on a University employee. Today Pat McManamon at the PD reports that Laing Kennedy and the Kent State staff are reviewing the incident. Chris Singletary has a history of offcourt incidents at Kent State and it sounds like this could be enough to sit him down for at least a game. Just not smart to take this kind of cheap shot, especially when the game is being televised, so there are a bunch of extra cameras there and a better chance of catching it on film. The Kent State staff really needs to sit this kid down and make sure his head is screwed on straight heading into next season.

So Who’s Going to Win The Tournament?

I fought the urge to just put a question mark under this heading and move on. It seems like every year I make a prediction here, end up way off, and anger a fan base by discounting their team. This year the choice is even harder with the parity of the conference and the inconsistency of every team. Is Central Michigan as good as their record, or did they load up on a weak MAC West? Can Ball State compete without Anthony Newell? Can Western Michigan or Ohio University remember what worked so well for them through the first 4 or 5 games of the Conference slate, and revert to that playing style?

My answer to all of those questions is “maybe” but “probably not”. If I’m handicapping the race for the Championship I break it into tiers with (alphabetically) Akron, Buffalo, BG, Kent, and Miami in the top tier. Ball State , Central Michigan, Ohio, and Western Michigan in tier two. And Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois, and Toledo in the “thanks for making the trip” tier.

Now, I know Ball State is the second seed, yet I’ve got them in my second tier. Losing Newell kills them in my opinion… a real shame he got hurt in Ypsilanti this year, definitely a First-Team All-MAC performer if not. Speaking of injuries, let’s mention Carlos Medlock here, I loved Eastern Michigan’s team with Medlock heading into this season and had high expectations of what they could do in the MAC West. Really a shame that Medlock got hurt. I love the Dobbins/Bowdry tandem in the front court.

But back to picking a tournament winner, we’ve narrowed it down to Akron, Buffalo, BG, Kent, and Miami. Where do we go from there? In all honesty, I’d be flipping a coin. I guess if you have to pick you say that BG is the #1 seed and you’ve gotta go with that (knowing that Buffalo has an identical conference record and Akron/Kent/Miami are just one game behind them. It’s too unknown this season. There’s too much parity and far too much inconsistency. We’ll put it this way, if someone wanted to pick a winner at 5:1 odds, giving me the field, that’s a bet I’d make in a heartbeat, regardless of who they were chose.

And once again, say what you will about parity. I knocked parity at the beginning of this post, but it should make for quite an interesting week in Cleveland.

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