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MAC Basketball - Hot or Not
With the college basketball season rapidly winding down, let’s kill two birds with one stone, looking at some major MAC award predictions while also keeping tabs on who is hot… and who is not.
MAC Player of the Year
The race for POTY is wide-open this year. Stat watchers will immediately point to John Bowler of Eastern Michigan who leads the conference with 10.2 rebounds a game and is second with 18.8 points per game. The problem is, Eastern has a paltry 2 conference wins. Romeo Travis and Jay Youngblood are other candidates who have been top statistical performers for their respective teams.
However, I’m going with the sleeper on this one and picking William Hatcher of Miami. Hatcher is what makes this RedHawk team go this year. Hatcher isn’t a player who’s just a good scorer, or who just runs the offense well. He affects all facets of the game. He averages a suicidal 37.7 minutes per game, scores 14.3 points per game, shoots decently from the field, very well from the line, dishes out 4 and a half assists a game, and boasts a 1.5:1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
MAC Disappointment of the Year
You could nominate a host of players who haven’t lived up to expectations for this list. Peyton Stovall got injured in Muncie, Darryl Peterson has fallen out of favor in Akron, and Sammy Villegas has followed up a poor junior-year with a worse senior-year.
The choice for the biggest disappointment this year in the MAC is Jeremy Fears of Ohio. Fears, only a sophomore, is a very exciting player who was all over the court on offense and defense, leading the league in steals during the early part of the season. However, as the turnovers and lapses on defense mounted, so did Fears’ familiarity with the bench.
Without much fanfare Fears and Ohio Coach Tim O’Shea announced two weeks ago that he’d be taking a leave of absence for the remainder of the year. Likely transferring after the season, the MAC is going to miss a talented player like Fears; hopefully he can sort out whatever personal problems have been affecting him, and finish his career in style at a school closer to his home in Joliet, Illinois.
MAC Coach of the Year
Charlie Coles is on the short list for this award every year. This year is no different as his squad didn’t miss a step after the graduation of two MAC first team members, Danny Horace and Chet Mason after last season. Keith Dambrot has put together some very impressive records since taking the reins of the Zips starting last season. This season is no different as Akron is likely to lock-up a first-round MAC Tourney bye, even while losing arguably their best player Jeremiah Wood to injury and a member of the regular rotation, Bubba Walther, who transferred to Ohio. At this point, Jim Christian is my pick for this season’s MAC Coach of the Year. Christian has led the Golden Flashes to yet another 20-win season. The Flashes lost some big-time performers from last season, but they’ve managed to rise to the top of the Mid-American Conference yet again this season.
MAC Freshman of the Year
The 05/06 freshman class in the MAC hasn’t been quite as strong as last year when freshmen like Leon Williams, Jeremy Fears, Joe Reitz, and Kashif Payne burst onto the scene. While Carlos Medlock has had a very good season in Eastern Michigan, I think the choice for this award is simple. It’s gotta be Maurice Acker, the Ball State point guard.
Acker has done an admirable job running the point in Muncie. As is written everywhere when discussing Ball State, Peyton Stovall, one of the conferences best guards went down to begin the season. Stovall was probably going to shift to the 2-guard, moving Skip Mills to the other wing position, to get Acker some playing time. As it turned out, Acker probably got a lot more court time than anyone would have imagined to start off the season.
Acker was thrown to the wolves when Stovall went down, but he has turned in a solid performance, giving Cardinal fans some hope for what the future could hold. Acker has averaged more than 30 minutes per game. He’s scoring nearly 10 points per game, and is dishing out four and a half assists, sporting a 1.5 assist/turnover ratio. If Ball State can get Peyton Stovall back healthy next season, this could be a team that could do some really nice things around a returning core of Acker, Stovall, and sharpshooter Skip Mills. |
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By Dan Whitmyer, VanDelaySports.com Head Basketball Writer
published 02.24.06
