MAC Sports Blog by VanDelay Sports

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.

As conference play has begun and every team has two games under their belt, let’s take a look at the current RPI rankings for MAC basketball teams.

MAC East

• Miami - #35 - 6-8 (0-2)
• Kent State - #38 - 11-3 (2-0)
• Ohio - #47 - 10-5 (1-1)
• Akron - #96 - 12-3 (2-0)
• Buffalo - #193 - 6-8 (0-2)
• Bowling Green - #210 - 6-8 (1-1)

MAC West

• Central Michigan - #145 - 6-8 (1-1)
• Toledo - #172 - 4-10 (1-1)
• Western Michigan - #205 - 7-8 (1-1)
• Eastern Michigan - #256 - 5-9 (1-1)
• Northern Illinois - #257 - 4-10 (1-1)
• Ball State - #266 - 2-12 (1-1)

As we mentioned on January 2nd, the MAC had some big games to play before conference game began. While a 2-4 record on Wednesday was less than we hoped, let’s compare Jan. 2 RPI rankings for the MAC to today.

MAC East

• Kent State - was #38, now #31 - a 29-point loss @ North Carolina on ESPN was apparently worth it
• Miami - was #28, now #33 - the RedHawks fall 5 spots despite no games this week
• Ohio - was #40, now #36 - a win over #205 Bucknell seems to help Ohio
• Akron - was #128, now #108 - a 2OT win would have looked a lot better, but playing Dayton on the road jumps Akron up 20 spots
• Buffalo - was #165, now #165 - no games, no changes
• Bowling Green - was #287, now #271 - a loss to Duquesne jumps BG up 16 spots

MAC West

• Toledo - was #113, now #106 - no games, but a slight improvement
• CMU - was #121, now #112 - no games, but a slight improvement
• WMU - was #164, now #178 - a win over a 1-16 team did not impress the computers
• NIU - was #240, now #229 - no games, but a slight improvement
• EMU - was #210, now #245 - another loss to another bad team drops EMU 35 spots
• Ball State - was #271, now #269 - no games, but a slight improvement

Assessment: Call me a MAC East fan or homer if you like, but MAC East contenders Miami, Akron, Ohio and Kent State need NO LESS than 5-1 or 6-0 records against the MAC West this season to maintain their RPI rankings and sweep of BG are going to be nearly essential as well. The best-case scenario, and it will not happen, would be for two teams to emerge dominant or at the very least, these four teams dominate the league and only lose to each other. While Akron’s RPI is similar to Toledo and CMU, there’s no doubt that Akron is a better team and their record shows it. For multiple bids in the NCAA Tournament, we need two to three dominant teams to have any shot. Good luck in conference play MAC teams!

Here’s a look at the MAC RPI rankings to date:

MAC East

• #21 - Miami - 6-5
• #48 - Ohio - 8-4
• #67 - Kent State - 9-2
• #147 - Akron - 9-2
• #149 - Buffalo - 6-5
• #288 - Bowling Green - 4-6

MAC West

• #100 - Toledo - 2-9 
• #114 - Central Michigan - 4-7
• #154 - Western Michigan - 5-7
• #177 - Eastern Michigan - 4-5
• #281 - Northern Illinois - 2-9
• #293 - Ball State - 0-11