CSNbbs

Overall, it's been a very down year for MAC hoops. Now that MAC football is over, it is nice to see the basketball squads show some of that "old spark" this Tuesday evening. The scores...

67 Wright St at AKRON 85
81 BOWLING GREEN vs Lamar 68
103 Tri-State at CENTRAL MICHIGAN 124
68 KENT STATE at Detroit 48
68 MARSHALL at Alabama-Birmingham 66
53 St Francis (IN) at NORTHERN ILLINOIS 82
56 TOLEDO at Louisville 92
81 WESTERN MICHIGAN at Arizona St 76

That's 7-1 for the MAC, with the only loss to Top 15 Louisville. Notice FOUR road wins, plus another on a neutral court. All three home wins were blow-outs (although two of them were against non D-1 competition).

Wow--not often you can give up over 100 and win with no overtimes. :eek:
Hard to imagine what that game was like, though I saw the score developing. CMU had the 20 pt lead early , then it seemed both teams traded baskets with no D the rest of the way. Tri-State? Honestly, I didn't even know they played basketball, though I know their golf coach who runs one of the great small school prgrams around. Tremendous facility etc. He gets some studs there on the links. ANyone know what Div. they are in hoops?

Marshall's UAB win was a good one--would be tied for best OOC win so far except for our win last night in Detroit who was 49th rated. Detroit, btw, had won 80 of their last 85 at home. We were leading 60-26 before coach called off the dogs and cleared the bench.

Akron was mopping up WSU before they coasted home with the win.
WMU made a nice comeback to take out the Sun Devils. This will be a great game Saturday in Akron with lots on the line for so early in the year. Whoever wins will add poll votes for sure.

The Rockets kept the game in the 12-14 pt. range for a long time but then the world caved in. That happens to a lot of teams in Freedom Hall. Disappointing margin, but there aren't a lot of teams in the country who could hang with the Cardinals this year.
Great night for the MAC! In the conference ratings, the MAC jumped up two spots to 14, passing the Horizon and Big West and trailing the Colonial only by a snmall margin. We should pass them soon actually and be back in our usual spot--13 right behind the MVC. BG's loss to the Colonial's sub-.500 American really hurt in this regard.
Everyone off now until Saturday's 6 game MAC slate.

I don't know if Tri-State is DII or NAIA, but the game was essentially a glorified scrimmage, with a lot of reserves getting minutes. The word is, Smith didn't do much coaching in the game, due in large part to that big early lead. Call this game what it was: a tuneup for the Herd.