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2008 MAC Basketball Tournament Preview

With the 2008 MAC Tournament in Cleveland only days away, the MAC hoops faithful is buzzing. In anticipation of 4 days of exciting basketball let’s take a look at what’s ahead.

Most Likely Cinderella
Miami plays on Wednesday, but I don’t think anyone would be incredibly surprised if the RedHawks strung together a couple of wins this week. For our purposes let’s define Cinderella as a team seeded 6-12 with a chance to win twice and make the semis.

Most likely Cinderella Team: Eastern Michigan
Maybe I haven’t seen enough of them this season and I’m still drawn to them because of their nice showings in last year’s tournament, but I feel like if anybody’s got a chance to make some noise from the lower seeds it’s the Eagles. I think Charles Ramsey is a really good coach who has this program headed in the right direction and I love Carlos Medlock, Jesse Bunkley, and Justin Dobbins. Sure, it’s most likely that we’ll be looking at 4 of the top 5 on Friday, but if one of the lower seeds is going to string together a couple of wins, I like the Eagles to do it.

Coach(es) Most Needing a Tournament Win

Reggie Witherspoon and Tim O’Shea - Ironically Witherspoon and O’Shea faced off in the 2005 finals. This year both coaches find themselves needing to beat Miami to appease restless fan-bases. Witherspoon’s teams have underperformed since the graduation of MAC POTY Turner Battle, and he could be done at Buffalo if the Bulls lose their opening round game to the RedHawks.

O’Shea has two full years left on his contract and his job is almost certainly safe. It’s hard to imagine a coach with 4 seasons of 19 wins in a row being in any trouble, but the Bobcats have a history of under-performing in conference road games during O’Shea’s tenure. By only winning conference road games against Northern Illinois and Buffalo this season, little has been done to correct this. Beating the rival RedHawks and at least getting to the semifinals would do a lot to quiet the detractors in Athens.

Most Anticipated MAC Tournament Match-ups

Really, any two East teams matching up from the semi-finals up will be fun. Ohio vs Kent? Kent vs Miami? Akron vs Ohio? All of those pairing would be a lot of fun to watch, but I think the two most fun pairings, like usual, are the big rivalries.

• Kent vs. Akron - If you’re a MAC fan with no affiliation to one school, what better Championship Game match-up could there be than Kent vs. Akron? Anybody who was paying attention to their game in Akron on Sunday, which ended with not one, but two buzzer-beaters knows that this could be a really exciting match-up. With both schools such bitter rivals, so close in proximity, and so close to Cleveland, the Q should be rocking if we’re lucky enough to see this rematch.
• Ohio vs. Miami - It’s not a MAC Tournament if the Bobcats don’t face the RedHawks. They’ll meet in the quarterfinals if Miami can knock off Buffalo in the opening round. If it happens it will be the 4th year in a row, and 5th out of the last 6 that OU and Miami have played at the Q. Like with Kent/Akron, these schools are fierce rivals and always seem to play close games in the tournament. If that paragraph seems familiar it’s because I wrote it last season, all I had to do this year was update the numbers.

Players to Watch

• Leon Williams and Tim Pollitz - Both are senior big men, both have won the MAC Tournament MVP in the past, and one of their careers will be over by the end of the quarterfinal round.
• Haminn Quaintance and Al Fisher - These are the two guys that make Kent State go. Fisher is a scorer who is turnover prone, but has had some huge games (see: St. Mary's). Quaintance is a lock for MAC Defensive Player of the year who’s usually good for 2 blocks, 2 steals, 7 rebounds and 10 points each game.
• Joe Reitz and David Kool - Everyone looks past Western Michigan because of the competitiveness in the East this year, but don’t forget that the Broncos finished 12-4 and could easily grab the auto-bid by winning the MAC Tournament. If Western’s going to do it, their chances rest with David Kool and Joe Reitz. This duo probably isn’t as explosive as Quaintance and Fisher, they don’t have quite the team around them that Kent State does, and neither is as polished of a defender as Q, but both are probably more consistent and could actually mean more to their team’s success than Quaintance and Fisher.
• Jeremiah Wood - Wood is Akron’s enforcer and main glass cleaner. If Doug Penno doesn’t bank in his miracle shot to win last year’s tournament Wood likely would have been named Player of the Tournament. This year Wood is on a slightly hobbled knee, but Akron is going to need a similar effort from him if they even hope to get past Western Michigan on their side of the bracket and make the Finals.

MAC Basketball Tournament