Ready for another exciting week.

EMU (3-1) hosts Akron (3-1) and Ohio (3-1) as the two marque conference games.

I believe the Akron game is on TWC SC and Ohio is an ESPN-U game.

Kent visits Toledo next Sunday in another important game.

Five teams are emerging as the top contenders for the byes. Toledo, Buffalo, Akron, EMU and Ohio. All five with top 120 rpi's on the season so its not a fluke start to MAC play they are battle tested and now its up to wins the majority of the critical games to decided who gets the best seeds in the MAC.

(01-19-2014 10:45 PM)OhioBobcatJohn Wrote:  Five teams are emerging as the top contenders for the byes. Toledo, Buffalo, Akron, EMU and Ohio. All five with top 120 rpi's on the season so its not a fluke start to MAC play they are battle tested and now its up to wins the majority of the critical games to decided who gets the best seeds in the MAC.

I've never been a big fan of the RPI (I go with the Sagarins once the season is say 1/3 over), but it has two teams (UT and EMU) in the top 50.

http://www.realtimerpi.com/rpi_Men.html

With Ohio and Buffalo we have 4 top 100 teams which is pretty good.

Top of the MAC looks strong this year and we finally have good teams in the MAC West.

(01-19-2014 10:45 PM)OhioBobcatJohn Wrote:  Five teams are emerging as the top contenders for the byes. Toledo, Buffalo, Akron, EMU and Ohio. All five with top 120 rpi's on the season so its not a fluke start to MAC play they are battle tested and now its up to wins the majority of the critical games to decided who gets the best seeds in the MAC.

if you look at it from a tournament seeding perspective there are really 7 teams in the mix for the 6 spots with byes (4 single byes and the 2 double byes).

Still too early to know who will take the top 2 spots and I imagine those could be heavily contested all the way up to the last game of the season. The question at this point in the season is- which of these 7 teams will be the odd one out?

current RPIs

38 Toledo
43 Eastern Michigan
72 Ohio
75 Buffalo

121 Akron
174 Kent State
199 Western Michigan

Only four teams get byes.. There are going to be some very good teams this year that will be playing first and second round games and not getting a bye.

that's right, there were 5 last year because Toledo was out and I added one instead of subtracted. thanks for the correct.

no problem.. I can see Toledo, Akron, Buffalo, Ohio, WMU and EMU all fighting for those four spots.

Got to throw kent in there. They are 145 while Akron is 144 in sagarin. And although I think WMU is top half, I don't think they are a team in the top 4 worthy of a bye. Just by the way they played this week, they are in a hole.

for those interested, here's attendance numbers through 1/19/14

6,342 Ohio
4,434 Toledo
3,323 Akron
3,257 Ball State
3,133 Buffalo
2,785 Kent State
2,442 Western Michigan
1,566 Central Michigan
1,546 Bowling Green
1,398 Miami
998 Eastern Michigan
851 Northern Illinois

i think miami and bg are capable of upsetting the order during the reg or post season. both have shown the ability to compete against good teams. if either starts to peak they could get on a roll. miami is a pretty well coached team from what ive seen.

(01-20-2014 02:28 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  for those interested, here's attendance numbers through 1/19/14

6,342 Ohio
4,434 Toledo
3,323 Akron
3,257 Ball State
3,133 Buffalo
2,785 Kent State
2,442 Western Michigan
1,566 Central Michigan
1,546 Bowling Green
1,398 Miami
998 Eastern Michigan
851 Northern Illinois

Hopefully Buffalo will improve now that our students are back from break...

KSU will have its first game this week with students on campus.

(01-20-2014 02:28 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  for those interested, here's attendance numbers through 1/19/14

6,342 Ohio
4,434 Toledo
3,323 Akron
3,257 Ball State
3,133 Buffalo
2,785 Kent State
2,442 Western Michigan
1,566 Central Michigan
1,546 Bowling Green
1,398 Miami
998 Eastern Michigan
851 Northern Illinois

I think you're missing some games.

(01-20-2014 02:55 PM)pono Wrote:  i think miami and bg are capable of upsetting the order during the reg or post season. both have shown the ability to compete against good teams. if either starts to peak they could get on a roll. miami is a pretty well coached team from what ive seen.

Moore and Edwards returning has been huge. Even though McLimans (family issues) and Johnson (transfer) are no longer in the program, they weren't doing well anyway and we've stepped it up as of late.

As far as attendance goes, Miami is still on winter break so that's been hurting a bit. It's not like we get much student support when classes are in session, although a fair amount showed up to our God-awful Wilmington loss.

Ohio already gearing up for Toledo on 2/1.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKKhWMeZuk4

Todays games with spreads...

Bowling Green (+11) @ Ohio - 7 PM
Akron (+2.5) @ Eastern Michigan - 7 PM TWCS / ESPN3
Central Michigan (+7) @ Miami - 7 PM
Northern Illinois (+16) @ Toledo - 7 PM

Jake Kretzer is beating EMU 19-13.

Let it be known that playing a 2-3 zone against him is a terrible idea.

(01-22-2014 07:41 PM)uakronkid Wrote:  Jake Kretzer is beating EMU 19-13.

Let it be known that playing a 2-3 zone against him is a terrible idea.

Meh. We've shut down much better shooters than Kretzer. Not hard to hit open looks though. We are playing with our heads up our butts. Horrible half on both ends. Kudos to Akron for capitalizing.

(01-22-2014 07:59 PM)EagleSam Wrote:  Meh. We've shut down much better shooters than Kretzer.

If they were better shooters, they wouldn't have been shut down by such an elementary defensive set.

(01-22-2014 08:09 PM)uakronkid Wrote:  

(01-22-2014 07:59 PM)EagleSam Wrote:  Meh. We've shut down much better shooters than Kretzer.

If they were better shooters, they wouldn't have been shut down by such an elementary defensive set.

It looks elementary when guys are playing sloppy and not rotating in time. You've watched us play once.