[quote='northcoastRocket' pid='18684919' dateline='1671736889']
Non conference season mostly over, save a handful of games next week, the only one of those of consequence for the MAC is OU vs Columbia. So, let's take a look at NET rankings for MAC teams and UT opponents so far.

Team / NET / OpScs / OpNET / D1Rec / NC SOS
Duke / 11 / 70 / 121 / 11-1 / 85
Mich / 19 / 88 / 150 / 11-1 / 63
BGSU / 44 / 241 / 218 / 10-1 / 238
Toledo / 55 / 118 / 168 / 9-2 / 108
PennSt / 58 / 128 / 127 / 9-4 / 234
BallSt / 89 / 222 / 157 / 8-3 / 216
Kent / 96 / 71 / 131 / 5-3 / 67
Akron / 123 / 325 / 187 / 6-2 / 321
Cinci / 128 / 269 / 190 / 7-6 / 266
MizSt / 132 / 96 / 122 / 5-4 / 86
UTArl / 140 / 44 / 133 / 5-6 / 47
NIU / 152 / 228 / 224 / 8-3 / 221
EMU / 184 / 347 / 228 / 7-3 / 348
Oaklnd / 208 / 51 / 169 / 5-5 / 53
Buff / 210 / 331 / 226 / 4-3 / 327
WMU / 234 / 13 / 139 / 4-6 / 14
Dayton / 246 / 211 / 126 / 0-10 / 206
Miami / 254 / 299 / 166 / 4-8 / 296
Canis / 255 / 306 / 229 / 5-6 / 291
Ohio / 282 / 243 / 183 / 2-8 / 239
CMU / 299 / 159 / 139 / 1-9 / 152
LoyMd / 318 / 339 / 259 / 5-6 / 337
WriSt / 332 / 35 / 122 / 0-11 / 19

The BBall gods were not kind to UT in a lot of ways, but primarily because of the huge drop offs in Missouri St and Dayton this year. If those two teams had not lost their coaches and were at NETs similar to the end of last year (43 & 44) I think UT's NET would be better than 40, even if they had only won 1 of those 2 games. Of course, playing WSU and Loyola really hurt too. Canisius NET is helping a bit this year, as they are up about 80 spots from last season. Penn State's NET is also way up this year, although that may fall during the B10 season unless they can win more games than they did last year.

In the MAC, you can see BG's SOS is low, so we really don't know how good they are yet, but their D looks better this year, and when they shoot the three well, they can compete with most everyone. The best SOS's are WMU, Kent and UT. WMU has gotten blasted in all their tough games though, so not sure what to expect from them on January 4. Kent still a bit of a mystery, but may be very good, but that's what I thought last year. Ball State still has the potential to be really scary, but they also have a bad loss already to Tennessee Tech. Akron I think is over-ranked due to their weak schedule. EMU too. CMU played a tough schedule too and could win some games this year, if their freshmen can stay up to the task. NIU the big disappointment, with the really bad loss to SIUE and a squeaker by also-bad Detroit.

UT has a chance to have another really good MAC season, but there will be tests and it's hard to duplicate a 1 loss season. Need to come to play every night.
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IMO BGSU is the most improved team in the league. Getting Fleming back is big but Dziekan (6-2) is much improved and gives them an effective backup in the middle. They also got a good transfer in Day (6-1) from Loyola who is averaging 9 points/game as a starter. Something must be going right when Kadie Hempfling, two-time 3rd team MaC player can't get meaningful minutes. She is down to around 9th on the rotation. So, for me, BGSU looks like the major competition to the rockets this year.