Sunday 1/4
No Games Scheduled

Monday 1/5
No Games Scheduled

Tuesday 1/6
Central Michigan @ Toledo, 7:00pm ESPN3
Western Michigan @ Akron, 7:00pm

Wednesday 1/7
Northern Illinois @ Ohio, 7:00pm
Ball State @ Eastern Michigan, 7:00pm
Bowling Green @ Kent State, 7:00pm
Buffalo @ Miami, 7:00pm

Thursday 1/8
No Games Scheduled

Friday 1/9
Akron @ Toledo, 7:00pm ESPNU

Saturday 1/10
Buffalo @ Western Michigan, 1:00pm
Ohio @ Bowling Green, 4:00pm
Central Michigan @ Ball State, 4:30pm ESPN3
Eastern Michigan @ Miami, 5:30pm
Kent State @ Northern Illinois, 8:00pm ESPN3

Great start for MAC hoops.

Upstart, CMU, plays at MAC power, Toledo and WMU plays at a weakened Akron (Tree is gone) on Tuesday while the Zips play at Toledo on Friday.

UB at WMU Saturday in a key matchup.

We'll get some ideas how good CMU, Toledo, Akron and WMU are.

We could see some craziness come sundown Saturday...

BTW, too bad the MAC couldn't open with Toledo AT CMU. McQuirk go crazy?

BTW, I wish the MAC would schedule more games split over Tuesday and Wednesday. Maybe a few Sunday games too after football is over.

Some conference (e.g., B1G) try to get eyeballs glued to television for multiple games on multiple days.

Last RPI check before conference play starts:

34 Buffalo
84 EMU
100 Bowling Green
102 CMU
123 Kent St
137 Toledo
144 Akron
174 WMU
216 NIU
225 Ohio
277 Ball St.
297 Miami

Let the shuffling begin!

Bulls with two straight on the road to get things going. I think at Western Michigan on Saturday will be a great test right out of the gate to really see how good we are.

MAC's best RPI (34) @ MAC's worst RPI (297) to open the conference season. Nice.

(01-04-2015 02:59 PM)axeme Wrote:  MAC's best RPI (34) @ MAC's worst RPI (297) to open the conference season. Nice.

Doesn't mean much.. Winning on the road is hard. I expect a competitive game with Miami. What is weird is we play both our games vs. Miami within the first 13 days of the conference season.. We are at Miami on Wednesday and they are at UB on 1/17

(01-04-2015 07:03 PM)BullBoy Wrote:  

(01-04-2015 02:59 PM)axeme Wrote:  MAC's best RPI (34) @ MAC's worst RPI (297) to open the conference season. Nice.

Doesn't mean much.. Winning on the road is hard. I expect a competitive game with Miami. What is weird is we play both our games vs. Miami within the first 13 days of the conference season.. We are at Miami on Wednesday and they are at UB on 1/17

I believe Miami's 2nd game is at home vs. EMU.

Not an easy start for Mia.

Unless they win. Then it will be a hard start for UB and/or EMU.

Updated RPI (ESPN) the day before MAC play begins:

1 (48) Buffalo
2 (110) Eastern Michigan
3 (119) Central Michigan
4 (121) Bowling Green
5 (136) Kent State
6 (145) Toledo
7 (174) Akron
8 (208) Northern Illinois
9 (211) Western Michigan
10 (238) Ohio
11 (290) Ball State
12 (307) Miami (OH)

SOS after non conference games-

114 Buffalo
164 Toledo
191 Ohio
198 Kent State

228 Miami
233 Akron
253 Northern Illinois
261 Ball State
266 Eastern Michigan

321 Western Michigan
323 Bowling Green
328 Central Michigan

Out of curiosity, where did you get those SOS numbers? ESPN shows some different SOS numbers for some teams. (I don't look at the SOS frequently, so I'm not sure how much it can vary from day to day this late in the year.)

Buffalo - 154
Ohio - 170

Northern Illinois - 220
Kent State - 223
Miami (OH) - 227
Toledo - 263
Ball State - 264
Akron - 268

Eastern Michigan - 305
Bowling Green - 326
Central Michigan - 341
Western Michigan - 343

The average MAC OOC SOS this year is 258.7. Since 2010-11, it has never been higher than 196. We also have more teams with an OOC SOS over 300 this year (4) than the previous 4 seasons combined (3).

(01-06-2015 10:56 AM)Eagle66 Wrote:  The average MAC OOC SOS this year is 258.7. Since 2010-11, it has never been higher than 196. We also have more teams with an OOC SOS over 300 this year (4) than the previous 4 seasons combined (3).

I think a lot of it has to do with not being able to get good mid majors, and low end BCS teams, to come to our arenas. I'm mostly speaking from EMU's perspective, but our three best OOC home games in Murphy's tenure have been MSU in 2011 (part of MSU's deal to play at all the Michigan mid majors...after we played there 3 years in a row), Purdue in 2012 (part of home-home-home that they didn't renew after we beat them), and UMass in 2013 (MAC deal).

We played Syracuse on the road 3 years in a row, but they wouldn't do their old assistant a solid and come here for the 4th. And honestly, there is no incentive for them to do it. Same with any mid major that has at-large aspirations. They're just hoping to avoid a bad loss (and don't get it twisted; losing to a MAC team is a bad loss on an at-large resume), while we are looking to shock the world. It's a lose-lose for them.

Murphy said after last year's gauntlet (@Kentucky, @Duke, @Syracuse, @Purdue, Green Bay), that his schedule this year wouldn't be as daunting. I don't like the 4 non-D1 games, but I imagine it's tough to fill a home OOC schedule without having a bunch of RPI destroyers like Coppin State and Longwood. Both WMU and CMU have similar looking scheds (with fewer non-D1s), and I imagine a lot of it is for the same reasons as mentioned above.

So our conference is reduced to having to pull nearly impossible upsets on the road against elite teams for any at-large hopes. Sadly, I see us being a one-bid league in the near future until the big boys come to our places, or we beat the Duke's and Kentucky's of the world at theirs.

Here's the lines for today's conference openers (courtesy of vegasinsider.com). Lines for tomorrows games haven't been posted yet.

Tuesday 1/6
Central Michigan +8.5 @ Toledo, 7:00pm ESPN3
Western Michigan +4 @ Akron, 7:00pm

(01-06-2015 11:10 AM)EagleSam Wrote:  

(01-06-2015 10:56 AM)Eagle66 Wrote:  The average MAC OOC SOS this year is 258.7. Since 2010-11, it has never been higher than 196. We also have more teams with an OOC SOS over 300 this year (4) than the previous 4 seasons combined (3).

I think a lot of it has to do with not being able to get good mid majors, and low end BCS teams, to come to our arenas. I'm mostly speaking from EMU's perspective, but our three best OOC home games in Murphy's tenure have been MSU in 2011 (part of MSU's deal to play at all the Michigan mid majors...after we played there 3 years in a row), Purdue in 2012 (part of home-home-home that they didn't renew after we beat them), and UMass in 2013 (MAC deal).

We played Syracuse on the road 3 years in a row, but they wouldn't do their old assistant a solid and come here for the 4th. And honestly, there is no incentive for them to do it. Same with any mid major that has at-large aspirations. They're just hoping to avoid a bad loss (and don't get it twisted; losing to a MAC team is a bad loss on an at-large resume), while we are looking to shock the world. It's a lose-lose for them.

Murphy said after last year's gauntlet (@Kentucky, @Duke, @Syracuse, @Purdue, Green Bay), that his schedule this year wouldn't be as daunting. I don't like the 4 non-D1 games, but I imagine it's tough to fill a home OOC schedule without having a bunch of RPI destroyers like Coppin State and Longwood. Both WMU and CMU have similar looking scheds (with fewer non-D1s), and I imagine a lot of it is for the same reasons as mentioned above.

So our conference is reduced to having to pull nearly impossible upsets on the road against elite teams for any at-large hopes. Sadly, I see us being a one-bid league in the near future until the big boys come to our places, or we beat the Duke's and Kentucky's of the world at theirs.

I was just pointing it out since they seemed to be so far off the previous years... Didn't the league also mandate a certain number of home games to receive a full share of the NCAA tourney money?

free vid link for NIU @ Ohio (click TV icon)

http://portal.stretchinternet.com/ohio/

UB beats Miami 79-72, we pulled it within three in the second half after being down eighteen at one point. Bulls were 25 of 30 from the line, Redhawks were 8 of 19.

(01-07-2015 09:06 PM)Love and Honor Wrote:  UB beats Miami 79-72, we pulled it within three in the second half after being down eighteen at one point. Bulls were 25 of 30 from the line, Redhawks were 8 of 19.

NIU beats the kittens 70-60.

I really like Jordan Threloff. He'll be All-MAC.

Sellers with a clutch 3 to take a one point victory for BSU! Cards get the birdie in OT at EMU!!! Wow... NIU and BSU both win on the road. Wacky MAC season commence!