MAC Sports Blog by VanDelay Sports

Everyone knows that Florida State is a tough team to beat at home, but the Akron Zips defied the odds last night in the NIT Tournament. Akron knocked off Florida State 65-60 in OT last night to advance in the 2008 NIT as the Zips will be one of just 16 teams remaining for the NIT Championship. Meanwhile, the Ohio Bobcats were also given the opportunity to continue their season as they hosted Brown in the CBI Tournament on Tuesday night. Ohio trailed at the half but came back in the second half for a 80-74 win to advance as one of the final eight teams in the inaugural CBI Basketball Tournament.

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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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)

As we mentioned, January 2nd was a night of big games in the MAC, and MAC basketball teams came to play. Western Michigan tipped off hosting North Carolina Central and cruised to a 77-43 victory to improve to 6-7. Ohio played @ a dangerous Bucknell but escaped with a 53-47 win to improve to 9-4.

Akron travled to Dayton and took the #20 Flyers into 2OT’s before falling 83-80 to the #20-ranked team in the nation. Akron drops to 10-3 with the loss. Kent State (10-3) played in a hostile Dean Dome in Chapel Hill, NC, falling to #1 North Carolina by a score of 90-61.

Unfortunately more losses plagued the MAC despite lesser competition. Eastern Michigan fell to 4-8 overall with a 70-68 home loss to Chicago State. Menawhile, Bowling Green lost a home game to A10 member Duquesne by a final score of 96-78 to fall to 5-7 on the year.

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