20 Western Michigan = 85.94
26 Toledo = 85.00
50 Kent St. = 82.92
77 Akron = 79.69
110 Buffalo = 77.65
162 Miami-Ohio = 74.51
189 Ball St. = 72.94
205 Northern Illinois = 72.21
210 Marshall = 72.18
213 Eastern Michigan = 71.87
228 Central Michigan = 70.81
231 Bowling Green = 70.62
233 Ohio U. = 70.41
Here's the reverse angle replay:
WMU--Detroit (52)--Best win: USC (96)
Toledo--Detroit (52)--Best win: DePaul (131)
Kent--BC (18), URI (22)--Best win: SW Missouri (112)
Akron-- UNC (5), UC (13)--Best win: James Madison (212)
Also, the 3-loss teams:
Ball St.--IUPUI (88), Wright St. (192), Indiana St.--(271)
Buffalo--Rutgers (29), Canisius (141), Penn St. (155)
One could argue here that despite 2 losses, Akron is really off to the best start. Then one could argue that by comparing common opponents, since Akron barely beat Cleveland St. (216) and Kent beat them by 50, that the Flashes may be off to the best start...
Of course
I would never make such specious mathmatical arguments when all the teams get to settle the discussion on the floor in the next couple of months.
Random thoughts...
As I learned painfully last season, it is still very early. Most teams still trying to get chemistry and sort out line ups in the first ten games.
In the West...
WMU has picked up right where they left off last year. I recall the Broncos made some noiise in 2003-03; and seem to have improved with a new coach. They will be exciting to watch.
UT has a young team, giving Rockets fans lots to look forward to over this season and the next two. It's just hard to read how they will hold up down the stretch .
NIU and BG just have too much talent to continue their early season blues. Of the two, NIU has played better and will probably get over their flu earlier.
In the East...
OOOOH...the battle we've been waiting for. I think it will come down to the Flashes and the Zips. To me, it's a toss up at this point. The Zips have more experience. Tarver is a handful...but his supporting cast is suspect. They too, have young talent, which take time to develop. Will Hipsher the younger finish he season given his back problems? The Zips seem to really need him. The team has the talent...this season will tell if Hipsher the senior is an asset or liability. The Flashes have good news and bad news. The good news is the Flashes really have no problem other than consistency. They need to figure out the best team chemistry and how to use their depth. The bad news is that some teams never figure it out. Big John continues to develop, finally, and may be a key down the stretch. Or, knowing his history, maybe not. Haut is either "haut" or ice cold. We also have a young team...Haynes and Brown will both be all first team MAC before they are through...encouraging early reads from Culver. We have not used our prize recruit Mr. Johnson much...so have not seen his potential much so far.
Buffalo will make the season very interesting. Battle also has first team all MAC potenial. With some breaks and continued improvement...would not be surprised at all to see a third place finish for them.
Miami fans may be more disappointed than expected and Marshall fans happier than expected by season's end.
Ohio will pull off some nuisance upsets...the Flashes are vulnerable here... but may bring up the rear or be in a close race for fifth the East.
The curious thing about the Zips thus far is that they're not winning games because of Tarver & Hollingsworth. Actually there's been a few wins that they've had IN SPITE of DT & JH. The Carolina game might have gone the other way if they had gotten more than 9 points from the senior backcourt.
The frontcourt combination of Wood / Travis / Futch kept the Zips in that game and others has really led the Zips. These new players aren't very intimidated by the college thing. Could be all the pub they've gotten around LBJ in recent years.
Zips are looking about 10-12 deep. If Peterson & Hipsher get healthy enough to contribute this season, and the guards just play their average game from last year .. this team will be a real handful in conference.
Lots of IF's .. but this is the best Akron team since 86-89. Talent wise probably better .. but this one has yet to prove it on the floor before they can fairly be compared to the Cricket & co.
FlashFan Wrote:NIU and BG just have too much talent to continue their early season blues. Of the two, NIU has played better and will probably get over their flu earlier.
In the East...
OOOOH...the battle we've been waiting for. I think it will come down to the Flashes and the Zips. To me, it's a toss up at this point. The Zips have more experience. Tarver is a handful...but his supporting cast is suspect. They too, have young talent, which take time to develop. Will Hipsher the younger finish he season given his back problems? The Zips seem to really need him. The team has the talent...this season will tell if Hipsher the senior is an asset or liability. The Flashes have good news and bad news. The good news is the Flashes really have no problem other than consistency. They need to figure out the best team chemistry and how to use their depth. The bad news is that some teams never figure it out. Big John continues to develop, finally, and may be a key down the stretch. Or, knowing his history, maybe not. Haut is either "haut" or ice cold. We also have a young team...Haynes and Brown will both be all first team MAC before they are through...encouraging early reads from Culver. We have not used our prize recruit Mr. Johnson much...so have not seen his potential much so far.
Buffalo will make the season very interesting. Battle also has first team all MAC potenial. With some breaks and continued improvement...would not be surprised at all to see a third place finish for them.
Miami fans may be more disappointed than expected and Marshall fans happier than expected by season's end.
Ohio will pull off some nuisance upsets...the Flashes are vulnerable here... but may bring up the rear or be in a close race for fifth the East.
Fair analysis overall. Just a couple disagreements:
I just don't see this abundance of talent on BUGS' roster. I was shocked they were predicted so high at the beginning of the season. They are playing at about the level that was to be expected, IMO, although even then they have been slightly disappointing (IPFW?!!?!?).
I watched Marshall on Saturday against UMass and wasn't impressed. The Herd's big win is over an NIU squad that just lost to "BYU-Hawaii", so I'm not sure how impressive that is. Marshall has no real inside presence, which will hurt them against of the MAC's bigger front lines (WMU, OU, BSU, Edwards @ Kent).
I really hope you are right about Miami, but if Coles has shown one thing it's that he is capable of bouncing back from a bad pre-season. The lack of scoring is a concern, but with the rather crappy quality of the MAC this year, the Redhawks are still a favorite in the East.
Zip Watcher-
Geez- if Tarver isn't contributing with 20.5 ppg, I'm worried about him catching on! Hollingsworth has been quite.
You do have some good SVSM talent.
See you on January 31. Should be a war.
Flash,
I guess maybe it's a perception more than anything else .. looking at Taver's game by game numbers, he's certainly putting up numbers. I will also credit him with upping his defense this year and learning the motion offense. However, he's turning it over a fair amount more this season, and it always seems to prevent the Zippers from blowing teams out that they should. The Duquesne and JMU games were both games that shouldn't have been as close as they were.
I think the telling statistic that the guards are off to a slow start is the turnovers vs. assists. Thus far the JH/DT assist to turnover ratio has been 30/34 (0.882), whereas last season it was almost the reverse of that at 163:131 (1.24). Might seem a minor thing, but consider that this year the team is turning it over at a clip of 18.6 a game and last season it was 12.5 / game. Now if we had freshman guards or new players handling the ball, I'd understand a jump of 50% in TO's .. but we have a backcourt of two guys picked for the pre-season all-MAC teams.
The SVSM talent has been nice to add .. but it's the Central Hower talent that is going to take this team north in the standings. J Wood is almost averaging a double double (9.0 RB) and has been a beast inside. The inside game is new to the Zips.
Also looking forward to the 31st .. and to a battle at Gund Arena (can you imagine the crowd if they could meet late in the MAC tourney)? Of course we have to overcome the ghost of failures past to get there .. but it could be a good year for the Zips
As a Miami fan, I am not "more disappointed than expected". In fact, I am disappointed, but I fully expected it.
