Seldom have preseason polls been as wrong as they were in the Mid-American Conference this season.

Toledo and Akon vastly outperformed their predictions. Ohio, Bowling Green, Kent State, Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan ended well below their predicted spot.

Here’s how coaches picked the league before the season started in November and the regular season results.

1. Ohio - 132 points. Finished eighth at 9-10, 15-13 overall.
2. Bowling Green - 124 points. Finished seventh at 10-10, 15-14.
3. Buffalo - 123 points. Finished second at 16-4, 22-8).
4. Kent State - 102 points. Finished ninth at 10-10, 18-11.
5. Eastern Michigan - 83 points. Finished 10th at 4-16, 7-20.
6. Central Michigan - 80 points. Finished last at 2-18, 4-25.
7. Northern Illinois - 79 points. Finished fifth at 11-0, 14-14.
8. Toledo - 67 points. Finished first at 19-1, 25-4).
9. Ball State - 65 points (1). Finished fourth at 11-8, 18-11.
10. Western Michigan - 31 points. Finished sixth at 10-10, 16-13.
11. Miami - 27 points. Finished 11th at 4-16, 8-21.
12. Akron - 23 points. Finished third at 13-7, 16-10.

Crazy year with covid schedule issues likely impacting the performance of some teams, plus some key injuries. Don't know how BG (Fleming), BSU (Clephane) and NIU (Koker) would have done if not for those key players being down. Of course, most all teams were impacted some by injuries, even Toledo lost a contributor for several games. But clearly some teams also just under-performed, while some surprised.

One thing I find interesting is tracking experience (performance * number of seasons per player) and by that metric OU was by far the most experienced team, with EMU 2nd. Both of those teams under-performed significantly. Toledo is still a young team by that metric (9th most experienced), Buffalo is third.

Ball State and Northern Illinois actually rose in the standings after those injuries, which is gredit credit to those teams and coaches.

(03-07-2022 09:16 PM)cschierh Wrote:  Ball State and Northern Illinois actually rose in the standings after those injuries, which is gredit credit to those teams and coaches.

That has been our our question also. We seem to get better when out best player went down.

Koker wasn't a selfish player or divisive, but something clicked with the rest of the team when she went down.

Clephane only played 3 MAC games, so can't really make any comparison about before and after her injury there I don't think. And yes NIU had a better record after Koker went down, but there no way of knowing if they would not have been even better if she played the full season.

(03-07-2022 09:39 PM)northcoastRocket Wrote:  Clephane only played 3 MAC games, so can't really make any comparison about before and after her injury there I don't think. And yes NIU had a better record after Koker went down, but there no way of knowing if they would not have been even better if she played the full season.

You are absolutely correct.

All correct. I wasn’t denigrating either player — just applauding the rest of the teams.

Ohio was slaughtered with injuries (again) throughout the season. It's becoming a common refrain in the program. At one point in the season, seven of their 15 scholarship players were inactive. For the most part, their big three of Hooks, Johnson, and Burris stayed healthy. But worn out legs and inability to run 5 on 5 practices takes its toll.