MAC 2009 Basketball Tournament
Monday, March 9th, 2009Cleveland, 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
