Kent State @ Miami
With an extra day away from the office I figured I would start a thread on Saturday's game against the College olde and grande! But first, a look around the Mid American Conference.
As it stands there seems to be three tiers of teams as conference play gets underway. I'll get a little crazy here and call them group 1, group 2 and group 3.
Group One
Kent State Golden Flashes:
This early assessment is, for the most part, based on record only. That said, we know all about KSU's "good losses", high NET Ranking (currently 40), and returning talent. While the Golden Flash fan in me wants to believe this is Kent's conference to lose, the analytic side of me knows to throw out the numbers above, wait and see all while enjoying the ride. I'd rather break down teams I know virtually nothing about anyway.
Ball State Cardinals:
BSU is 10-4, boasts a NET ranking of 102 and is coming off a nice road win at Savage Hall. Although none of their wins jump off the page as overly impressive, that's tough to find in the MAC this year anyway. The Cardinals are unbeaten at home and started conference play with a big road win. Not that it always works like this, but a road win in January can help offset the inevitable home clunker that all MAC teams face. One thing that does stick out to me about BSU is how balanced their attack seems with four players averaging 13 or more points AND 4 or more rebounds per game. The Flashes will see Ball State at the MAC Center in late January and return the trip about a month later.
Toledo Rockets:
The Rockets are 9-5 with a NET of 117. Their schedule is actually quite appealing to a mid major junkie like myself as they have played and defeated Vermont, Northern Iowa, Richmond and UAB while losing at George Mason and Marshall in reasonably close games. The thing about Toledo is that this seems like a repeat of a long-standing tradition; high expectations, decent record but nothing much comes of it. But what you can't ignore about UT is the three headed monster of RayJ Dennis, JT Shumate and Setric Millner. Dennis is averaging just under 20 per game, Shumate is right behind him and Millner scores 14 per night to go along with nearly 7 rebounds. For now, UT stays in Group One. Time will tell for how long.
Akron Zips:
I know, I know screw z roo and write haiku. But this is a John Groce coached team that went to the Cayman Islands and held their own against some pretty stiff competition. With a 9-5 record, including an opening night home win over NIU and an 8-0 home, non-conference slate...The Zips can have a seat at my table for now. Don't be surprised if Akron enters the February 4th game vs. Kent with a 6-2 conference record.
Group Two
Ohio Bobcats
Ohio University, or Ohio U. as they prefer to be called is 8-6 with NET ranking of 130. They lost at Buffalo to open conference play and the only thing about their schedule and results that is impressive is a 4 point loss to the Victors Valliant in Ann Arbor. We will get an up close and personal look at Ohio next Friday when they visit the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center. For more info on the Cats please reach out J.S. Fitzgerald or whatever that guys name is/was that used to drop in here to lament his favorite teams shortcomings.
Bowling Green Falcons
BG is 7-7. On a sad note, former BG head coach Louis Orr passed away in December. Coach Orr always came across as a classy individual and a great representative of BG and the MAC. I was sad to hear of his passing and I hope that he and Coach Coles are talking zone defense somewhere better than here.
Buffalo Bulls
The University at Buffalo is 7-7 and nowhere to be found in the NET rankings. Oh...hold on...they are at 190. But they are coming off a nice win over Ohio U. and boast wins over George Mason and Saint Bonaventure. Like Ball State they have a balanced offensive attack. Real or imagined, they also have a nice homecourt advantage and have for years. I always got a kick out of Ty Linder's calls from Alumni Arena. He and Dave Carducci did a great job of making the listener feel the atmosphere inside that place. The Bulls and Flashes will meet at the MAC Center for a 9:00PM affair to be televised on ESPNU on January 27th.
Group Three
I can't. And don't get me wrong, one of these five is probably "better" than someone I listed above. But I am trying to be nice here. So I will reserve comment on any of these squads until we've seen some more con-fer-ence action.
Miami Redhawks
Northern Illinois
The Michigans
Oh, sorry burden, I almost forgot. As for the game Saturday...
Take Miami against the spread.
Kent 69
The Harvard of Ohio 65.5
(This post was last modified: 01-04-2023 02:45 PM by fallsdog.)
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