You are here > VanDelaySports.com > MAC Football > MAC Basketball - Golden Flashes earn 12 seed in NCAA Tournament
 |
| MAC Football |
| MAC Basketball |
| MAC Message Boards |
| Related MAC Sites |
| Nick's Picks 2005 |
| Contact VanDelay |
| MAC-Sports.com |
Golden Flashes get 12 seed in NCAA Tournament
While I attended the MAC Tournament this past weekend I heard a lot of speculation about where the MAC Champions would be seeded. Earlier this year Joe Lunardi, the ESPN Bracketology guy, paid the MAC the ultimate disrespect by picking the MAC Champs to be a #14 seed. When asked many times on Saturday night and Sunday where I thought Kent State should be seeded I replied every time that I was hoping for an 11 seed but I thought a 12 seed was quite realistic. But now that speculation can be put to rest as the Oakland bracket has been announced and the Golden Flashes of Kent State have been given a #12 seed and will face the #5 seed Pitt Panthers.
Pitt has a history of struggles with the MAC
The Pittsburgh Panthers come into the NCAA Tournament ranked #16 in the nation as they fell on Saturday in the Big East Championship to Syracuse. At 24-7 on the season this Pitt vs. Kent match-up has a lot of similarities to the 2002 NCAA Tournament where the Kent State Golden Flashes, then a #10 seed, defeated the #3 seed Pitt Panthers 78-73 in overtime.
But Pitt's struggles against the MAC are not limited to that one game, and those struggles are certainly not limited to basketball either. This past fall the Panthers football team, led by new head coach Dave Wandestat, marched into Athens, Ohio. The Ohio Bobcats and their new head coach, Frank Solich, were led by two interception returns for touchdowns by senior cornerback Dion Byrum as Ohio defeated Pitt by a score of 16-10. Just two years prior to Ohio's upset of Pitt, the Toledo Rockets, led by 461 yards passing from QB Bruce Gradkowski, shocked then #9 Pitt 35-31.
Looking at this game and the players on the Pitt roster a couple of things stand out in my opinion. The first thing I thought of was how will Kent be able to contain Pitt's 7'0" center Aaron Gray? There's no doubt that 6'9" center Nate Gerwig will get the match-up with Gray, but containing Gray's 13.8 points and 10.6 rebounds/game will not be easy. 6'8" MAC Tournament MVP Kevin Warzynski will also likely be matched against Gray as there's no doubt that Gerwig will not likely be able to go for more than 20-25 mionutes at most.
Another interesting match-up in this one will be between two senior point guards, Pitt's Carl Krauser and Kent's DeAndre Haynes. Haynes, the MAC's Player of the Year, comes in after a less than spectacular MAC Tournament offensively, but he has still scored in double-figures in 10 straight games.
Match-ups aside, the Golden Flashes are the MAC's most recent claim to NCAA Tournament success. Their Elite 8 run in 2002 was nothing short of awesome. Here's hoping that we can witness a similar run in 2006 to erase much of a season that many will say was the MAC's least-impressive in years. |
|
By Michael Shull, VanDelaySports.com Guest Writer
