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.

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)

In my post nearly a week ago that looked at the MAC East vs. the MAC West games for 2008, I made it very clear that teams in the MAC East needed to post a stellar record against teams in the MAC West in order to maintain their much stronger RPI rankings and keep Kent State, Ohio & Akron alive for a potential at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament. We have now completed 2 of the 6 cross-divisional games for each of the MAC’s 12 basketball programs and all I can say is so far, so good.

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Over the weekend, Ohio edged Ball State, Miami topped EMU, Kent State defeated WMU and BG knocked off NIU, but all four were home wins for these MAC East teams. Meanwhile, Akron fell @ CMU and Buffalo remained winless in the MAC losing @ Toledo. While the MAC East went 4-2, they went 0-2 on the road. In mid-week games, Ohio used a strong 2nd hald to crush CMU and Akron did the same to beat Toledo, while BG, Kent & Miami all scored road wins. Only Buffalo lost in midweek play as the Bulls fell at home to WMU in OT. A 5-1 midweek performance with a 2-1 home mark and 3-0 on the road.

Overall, with 12 games in the books and 24 remaining between the MAC East and MAC West in the regular season, the East holds a commanding 9-3 edge going 6-1 at home and 3-2 on the road. Meanwhile, Saturday features 6 MAC match-ups with MAC East teams on the road in 5 of those 6 games. Only Akron plays a home game as they host EMU. Ohio is @ NIU, Miami @ Ball State, Kent @ Toledo, NG @ WMU and Buffalo @ CMU.

Prediction time. The East is clearly the better division, but Akron has already disappointed with their loss @ CMU last weekend, and Ohio is notorious for blowing a road game or two against lesser competition. They already did so @ Bowling Green, and I see them doing the same @ NIU or @ EMU next week. Kent is tough, but Toledo is better than their record indicates. The East goes 3-3 this weekend with Miami, BG and Buffalo all falling. Expect Miami to lose in the final minute of the game while WMU handles BG by 4-8 points and UB continues to struggle. Kent State wins by 10 @ Toledo, Ohio sets the Bobcat faithful up for disappointment by winning @ NIU before losing to EMU this week, and Akron handles the Eagles with a strong 2nd-half run.

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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