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2007 MAC Basketball Awards

The MAC basketball regular season is over, so head basketball writer Dan Whitmyer has named his 2007 MAC basketball award winners.

MAC Player of the Year – Romeo Travis

The race for POTY was wide-open for much of the year. I say Travis cemented his claim on it coming down the stretch. Starting on February 17 th in the Zips Bracket Buster game versus Austin Peay, Travis brought solid consistent efforts and really started to lead this Akron team.

A case could be made for some other players around the MAC, but I think when the votes are counted Travis wins this one going away. Leon Williams and Jerome Tillman put up some good numbers for Ohio, but the Bobcats didn’t play well enough on a consistent enough basis for either of them to have much of a case. Toledo played very well but I think Keonta Howell and Justin Ingram will split some votes. Kent doesn’t have one player that really stands out. Miami’s Tim Pollitz is another solid candidate, but I think his numbers sort of “sneak up” on a lot of people, and I would contend that he’s under-appreciated outside of Oxford, Ohio.

1st Team All-MAC – Prediction

• C – Yassin Idbihi - Buffalo
• F – Leon Williams - Ohio
• F – Romeo Travis - Akron
• G – Keonta Howell – Toledo
• G – Justin Ingram – Toledo

I already made the case for Travis in the POTY discussion. In my opinion, it’s a toss-up between Leon Williams and Jerome Tillman for one of the forward spots on the 1 st Team. I don’t think Ohio had the success to justify two players on the 1 st Team, and I think Williams closed the season a little better than Tillman and gave him the nod. Idbihi had a great season on a poor team. Had Buffalo been better he’d have been in the POTY discussion, and really he had a fantastic career at UB. And as for the backcourt I thought Howell and Ingram both stood out for the Conference Champion Rockets, and could see them both making the first team.

2nd Team All-MAC – Prediction

• C – Joe Reitz – Western Michigan
• F – Jerome Tillman - Ohio
• F – Tim Pollitz - Miami
• G – Omni Smith - Kent
• G – Giordan Watson – Central Michigan

The biggest omission from the 2nd team is probably Martin Samarco. Really, Samarco should be on here somewhere, but honestly I couldn’t figure out who to bump in favor of the conference’s leading scorer from Bowling Green. I’m curious to see how the All-MAC teams shape up when they’re announced later this week, and I’m interested to hear how other fans who follow the MAC feel these teams will shake out.

MAC Basketball Tournament