MAC Sports Blog by VanDelay Sports

The season continues for the Buffalo Bulls. The Bulls improved to 20-13 on the season with a win at Western Michigan on Saturday in Kalamazoo, Michigan to eliminate their MAC foes and advance in the 2011 CIT Tournament. Buffalo trailed at the half 26-23 but was able to outscore WMU 26-22 in the second half to edge the home team 49-48 in a low scoring affair.

With the win, Buffalo will have to travel across the state of New York to face another NY team in Iona. UB will play @ Iona on Tuesday night with the winner advancing to the CIT’s Final Four teams.

In a late night thriller the Kent State Golden Flashes shocked St. Mary’s on the road to give the MAC a perfect 3-0 record in postseason tournament play. Kent scored the go ahead bucket late as they held off the Gaels, a team that many argued should have been playing in the NCAA Tournament.

In today’s action the Miami RedHawks season ended as they fell at Rhode Island 76-59 in the 2011 CBI Tournament. Meanwhile, in the College Insider Tournament, Western Michigan became the third MAC team to advance to the final 12 in the CIT when Western Michigan won 74-66 at home over Tennessee Tech.

In previous action the MAC started the postseason with two wins as Buffalo and Ohio both won CIT road games. Buffalo and WMU will play in CIT second round games while Ohio has earned a bye into the CIT quarterfinals.

Any win over a rival is a good win, and the Ohio Bobcats not only were able to defeat a rival school on Tuesday night, they were also able to end their season. The Bobcats traveled to Huntington, West Virginia to face the Marshall Thundering Herd in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament, aka the CIT, and came away with a 65-64 win. Marshall, a fast-improving program who many say should have been in the NIT this year, scored wins over both West Virginia & Memphis during the season, but seemed uninspired at times during the game. Ohio was led by DeVaughn Washington’s 17 points and Reggie Keely’s 10 point, 13 rebound, 4 blocked shot night as they pickup as postseason win for the third time in four years after a 2008 win in the CBI, a 2010 NCAA Tournament upset of #3 seed Georgetown and tonight’s win over Marshall in the 2011 CIT Tournament.

Ohio’s next opponent is to be determined per the CIT’s re-seeding of teams after the first round as four of 12 teams that advance get a bye into the quarterfinals. Other teams to advance in the CIT already includes Northern Iowa, East Tennessee State, Jacksonville, Air Force & Buffalo. Potential opponents for Ohio include East Tennessee State, Buffalo and Jacksonville as well of the winners of Tennessee Tech @ Western Michigan and Iona @ Valparaiso.

The 2011 college basketball postseason is officially underway with the CollegeInsider.com Tournament, more commonly referred to as the CIT Tournament, having tipped off earlier tonight. In the first game of the 2011 postseason, the Buffalo Bulls traveled to face Quinnipiac in the first round of the CIT in the lone game played on Monday night. Buffalo did the MAC proud in winning on the road 75-68 as three players scores over 15 points in the win. With the win the Bulls (19-13) will advance to the Quarterfinals of the 2011 CIT as the season for Quinnipiac (22-10), a member of the NEC, is now over.

While the Akron Zips won the 2011 MAC Tournament title, Akron is not the only MAC school playing in a postseason tournament this March. On Sunday night it was announced at Kent State received a #7 seed in the NIT Tournament resulting in a trip to St. Mary’s to continue their season as well. Shortly thereafter it was learned that four other MAC schools also will continue their season with Ohio, Western Michigan, Miami and Buffalo all accepting postseason invites. The CBI Tournament selected the Miami RedHawks which we learned around midnight on Sunday night. Miami will play @ Rhode Island. Meanwhile in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament, more commonly known as the CIT, Ohio is at Marshall, Buffalo is Quinnipiac and Western Michigan hosts Tennessee Tech. Here is a look at this week’s calendar of games for MAC teams:

Monday, March 14th

• CIT - Buffalo @ Quinnipiac - 7 pm - MAC release

Tuesday, March 15th

• CIT - Ohio @ Marshall - 7 pm - MAC release
• NIT - #7 Kent State @ #2 St. Mary’s - 11 pm - MAC release

Wednesday, March 16th

• CBI - Miami (OH) @ Rhode Island - 7 pm - MAC release
• CIT - Tennessee Tech @ Western Michigan - 7 pm - MAC release

Friday, March 18th

• NCAA - #15 Akron vs. #2 Notre Dame - 1:40 pm - TBS - Akron vs Notre Dame NCAA Tournament preview - MAC release
  

After shocking the world of women’s college basketball on Sunday night, the #12 seed Ball State Lady Cardinals are back in action tonight as they face the #4 seed Iowa State Cyclones. After an impressive 71-55 win over #5 Tennessee, Ball State looks to continue the magic and advance to the 2009 Women’s NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 round. #12 Ball State (26-8) and #4 Iowa State (25-8) will tip-off around 9:30 pm ET tonight in Bowling Green, Kentucky. As always, fans can look to VanDelay Sports for a great selection of Ball State clothing & merchandise and to DFN Sports partner sites for Ball State hats, gear and more!

For the second year in a row, a new postseason college basketball tournament will be played at the conclusion of the 2009 conference tournaments. Just after the announcement of the NCAA and NIT Tournament teams, the innagural CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament will be held with 16 more teams getting a chance to continue their season and play for a championship.

Of course it was last year when the CBI Tournament made it’s debut featuring two MAC teams, Ohio and Miami. The Bobcats won their first round CBI game at home over Brown before falling on the road @ Bradley, the eventual runner-up. Meanwhile Miami played on the road at Tulsa and loss to the eventual CBI Champion Golden Hurricane.

With the addition of the CIT Tournament, expect to see additional MAC teams get a chance to continue play in 2009. While the media coverage of the CIT Tournament will likely be poor, much like last year’s CBI Tournament, itdoes allow for teams to have an opportunity to get tournament experience and hopefully build for the future.