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A look around the MAC
There’s less than a week left in regular season MAC basketball play. Let’s take a quick look at what’s happening across the Mid-American Conference.
Kent State Golden Flashes
The class of the conference once again, Kent State has made believers out of their critics. Almost unbelievably the Flashes have run out to a 14-2 record in the MAC behind the strength of tough defense and hard-nosed rebounding. The Flashes only two losses came at home to a much weaker Bowling Green team and on the road to Toledo. Kent has Ohio at home and Akron on the road remaining. Two more wins will give them an outright regular season conference championship, a #1 seed, and some serious bragging rights heading to Cleveland.
Akron Zips
The Zips have put-on an extremely solid performance this season. Nick Dials has recovered extraordinarily fast from ACL surgery to help run the offense, while doing more than his share of scoring. Romeo Travis has been a monster on the boards and in the paint. Cedric Middleton has been doing an increasingly good job knowing when to score and running the point when Dru Joyce III needs to sit, whether it’s due to physical or mental tire. Maybe most surprisingly, Rob Preston has come on to be a real x-factor, adding clutch shooting from the outside and another big body in the paint. 
However, until Akron can beat cross-town rival Kent, they’re going to be considered as the step-brother to the seemingly always dominant Golden Flashes. Akron has a chance coming up in what should be an extraordinary end of the season match-up at home. If Akron can even up the season series it will make for one exciting opportunity for a re-match in Cleveland.
On a side note, I attended the Zips game versus the Ohio Bobcats this weekend. Whoever is running the public address system at the JAR, especially during player intros needs to turn it down about seven notches. I’ve visited many collegiate and professional venues that pumped in loud sound during my life, but this took it to a new, uncharted level. Talk about rattling the fillings out of your teeth.
Miami RedHawks
Another year, another first round bye for Charlie Coles’ bunch. The RedHawks looked good winning a hotly contested home match-up versus the Akron Zips last week. However, with a chance to throw their hat in the ring for the regular season championship, Miami faltered on the road to Kent State, in what really wasn’t that close of a match-up in the second half.
That said the RedHawks have a very well balanced team and are a definite favorite to win the conference tournament. Hatcher does a great job running the offense, Peavy is an athletic scorer/rebounder, the offense is best when running through the hands of Tim Pollitz, and shooters like Doug Penno and Josh Hausfeld keep defenses honest, regularly torching zone defenses that give them space to shoot. In fact, if Miami wins the auto-bid they could have the best chance in the conference at winning their opening round match-up in the NCAA Tournament.
Western Michigan Broncos
So who was listening at the beginning of the season when the Kalmazoo media and those close to the team said that the Broncos would be far improved and could still challenge for the West by season’s end? I’ve been saying for a month that Coach Hawkins had these guys moving in the right direction, and they were my mid-season pick to grab the two-seed, but it’s still kind of amazing to see this type of turnaround.
I still don’t think Western is much of a threat to win the conference tourney, as they’ll most likely have to go through two of the big three of Miami, Akron, and Kent, but they could surprise a team or two that looks past them in Cleveland, and they’ll only be better next year with the major recruiting class that’s coming in.
Toledo Rockets
Stan Joplin is finally getting the most out of this team. After stumbling out of the gates in MAC play they’ve jumped to an 8-8 conference record and are 7-3 in their last 10. Freshmen Jonathan Amos and Tyrone Kent are contributing valuable play to the team as Joplin has finally seemed to give up on highly touted, but highly disappointing Sammy Villegas, who’s averaged only just over 10 minutes over the past 5 games.
The question is, is it too little too late for Joplin? This isn’t the first time that one of Stan Joplin’s teams has underachieved before showing signs of hope at the end of the season. I think he’s got to at least take the Rockets to the semifinals to save his job, and that might not even do it. One thing’s for sure, there isn’t a team hoping to draw the Rockets in Cleveland. With their pressure defense and high amounts of forced turnovers Toledo can give any team in this conference fits. Remember, they’re one of two teams in the MAC to have beaten Kent State so far.
Ohio Bobcats
I’ve given up trying to predict this team. One night they’re up, the next night they’re down. If they’ve proven one thing, it’s that they cannot beat quality competition on the road, which probably isn’t good news for their chances on a neutral court. If the Bobcats’ inconsistency holds true they’re going to lose by about 15 points on the road to Kent State, win by a handful at home versus Bowling Green, and slide through their first round game before dropping their quarterfinal game without much of a contest to Akron or Miami.
Of course I’ve been wrong about this team all season, so it could be interesting to see how the season plays out for them.
The Conference
For the first time since 1999 the MAC won’t be complaining about not receiving an at large bid. No, 
that’s not because the MAC has a lock on an at-large, it’s because no team in the conference has any chance at an at-large, not even conference leader Kent State. With the less than stellar RPIs of the top teams in the conference and the weakness of the conference as a whole this has been a year to forget for the MAC.
What could help everyone forget about the lackluster season for the conference is a strong tournament in Cleveland next week. Conference officials will never admit it, but they have to be hoping for Kent State, who always brings droves of fans to avoid any upsets. Other teams with fans that consistently travel well are Buffalo and Ohio.
Even though they rarely get past the quarterfinals there’s some hope that Akron could rival Kent’s following if they continue their solid play. With the re-emergence of the Zips over the past 2 years, and the obvious closeness of Akron to Cleveland, no one would mind at all to see a championship or even semi-final match-up of heated rivals Akron and Kent State. |
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By Dan Whitmyer, VanDelaySports.com Head Basketball Writer
published 02.28.06
MAC basketball by VanDelay Sports
