It's now October, so time to start talking basketball, especially for somebody like me who is a huge basketball fan. With that said, I know about most of the MAC returnees, but I want to hear from the fans from those schools.

I'll start it off with this: The team to beat will be Akron.

I know I'm a homer and that pick is going WAY out on a limb, but despite the losses, here is a quick breakdown on the Zips:

There is no more Zeke Marshall, no more Brian Walsh, no more Alex Abreu and no more Chauncey Gilliam. But what you have is a reinstated Quincy Diggs (former MAC 6th man of the year) along with potential MAC POY Demetrius Treadwell, and potential All-MAC candidate Nick Harney.

Lets face it, the Zips are doing what they always do under Keith Dambrot ... reload. Reggie McAdams and Jake Kretzer are now sophomores after showing big signs as freshmen. 6-11 Pat Forsythe may not be Zeke, but he is only a "sophomore" and was a 4-star West Virginia recruit coming out of HS a couple years ago.

The incoming frosh boasts a couple of players who had high major offers, though none will be asked to fill a major role (but should contribute)

The biggest question mark is PG where Carmelo Betancourt is now a sophomore and JUCO Nyles Evans (former Stark County Player of the Year) is in the fold. The Stark POY may not seem like much until you look at some of the past winners: Raymar Morgan (All-Big 10 at Michigan State), Kenny Frease (4-year starter at Xavier), Kostas Koufos (NBA first-rounder from Ohio State) and C.J. McCollum (NBA lottery pick). That's good company to keep. From somebody who also follows the local HS basketball scene, I'd say that Nyles is better than his older brother N'Gai, who was a 14-4-4 player at Wright State and is playing professionally in Europe.

My early MAC take:

East
1. Akron
2. Buffalo
3. Ohio
4. Kent
5. Miami
6. Bowling Green

IMO, Akron and Buffalo are clearly the teams to beat. I'll give OU the benefit of the doubt, though I don't think Beans Willis is what he is being touted by OU fans. I saw him a couple of times at TTU and have a couple of buddies who follow Big 12 basketball, and they agree with me that he's a average D1 player, despite the high rankings out of HS. We'll see, even if he is a solid MAC player, he has a tall order ahead of him to fill the void of D.J. Cooper, who not only carried OU last year, but would've been a starting PG on all but probably 15-20 teams in the country.

Like Ohio, Kent also loses a lot. Miami, while I rank 5th, has a shot at moving up with the revamped roster John Cooper is bringing in.

BG isn't bad, but somebody has to be last. Though 3-6 is a toss up, IMO.

As for the West:
1. Toledo
2. Western Michigan
3. Eastern Michigan
4. Ball State
5. Central Michigan
6. Northern Illinois

This is where I need some help. I have no doubt that Toledo is going to be the heavy favorite. Pearson is a bonafide star in this league and he now has experienced help. Eastern and Western are tossups, IMO, though I'm one of the few people who believes that Steve Hawkins is a good coach ... and Shayne Whittingham is probably the best true post player in the league. I like what Rob Murphy is doing at EMU, but simply due to style of play (makes me want to watch pain dry) makes me pick them third.

Overall MAC rankings:
1. Akron
2. Buffalo
3. Toledo
4. Ohio
5. Kent
6. Western Michigan
7. Eastern Michigan
8. Miami
9. Bowling Green
10. Ball State
11. Central Michigan
12. Northern Illinois

Where am I off? Lets get the hoops talk started. From the recruiting thread, the league seems to be on the up. Hopefully, it starts on the court as soon as this season. I think the top 3 is going to be very good. 4-5 have the pedigree where they will be in the mix. Hopefully 6-12 all improve.

Just to share, here is some vid of Treadwell in the Akron-Canton Pro-Am dunk contest. The MAC still has two years of this bull in a china shop.

BTW, he's the first one to go. The second cat is Jordan Barham, a Cleveland kid who went to academic powerhouse University School and is now at Davidson. The last kid is Jamil Dudley, who went to Massillon HS, is a 7-4 high jumper who was invited to the Olympic tryouts.

Edit: that didn't work, here's the link:

http://www.3rdcoasthoops.com/video/detail/256

You have EMU way too low. They will be the surprise of the conference.

They have a senior-laden team which has been augmented by a nice transfer PG, Michael Talley, a really good JUCO SF, Karrington Ward, a healthy redshirt frosh, Ray Lee, (who played 8 games before getting hurt), etc.

Folks in Ypsilanti think we have 8 or 9 players capable of starting.

This is a deep team.

I really think PG was the weakness of last year's team. PG is the 'straw which mixes the drink'.

We will play a much different style of ball this year.

Be ready to be surprised...

(10-03-2013 05:33 AM)emu steve Wrote:  You have EMU way too low. They will be the surprise of the conference.

They have a senior-laden team which has been augmented by a nice transfer PG, Michael Talley, a really good JUCO SF, Karrington Ward, a healthy redshirt frosh, Ray Lee, (who played 8 games before getting hurt), etc.

Folks in Ypsilanti think we have 8 or 9 players capable of starting.

This is a deep team.

I really think PG was the weakness of last year's team. PG is the 'straw which mixes the drink'.

We will play a much different style of ball this year.

Be ready to be surprised...

You said last year EMU was going to be force in the West.

Dear axeme,
I tend to agree with emu steve. The big question to how well Eastern does, is how well and quickly will they jell together. There are many new faces with plenty of potential. It really depends on what I have already stated. Also, there have been some reports that Coach Murphy is going to be more up tempo this year. Only time will tell with that.

(10-03-2013 07:12 AM)axeme Wrote:  

(10-03-2013 05:33 AM)emu steve Wrote:  You have EMU way too low. They will be the surprise of the conference.

They have a senior-laden team which has been augmented by a nice transfer PG, Michael Talley, a really good JUCO SF, Karrington Ward, a healthy redshirt frosh, Ray Lee, (who played 8 games before getting hurt), etc.

Folks in Ypsilanti think we have 8 or 9 players capable of starting.

This is a deep team.

I really think PG was the weakness of last year's team. PG is the 'straw which mixes the drink'.

We will play a much different style of ball this year.

Be ready to be surprised...

You said last year EMU was going to be force in the West.

Ehh, I think he's closer to being correct this year. This is finally a team filled with Murphy's players. Only J.R. Sims is left of the Ramsey recruits and the four guys we lost from last season (Thompson, Balkema, Harris, and Harper, who transferred) are being replaced by more athletic and talented guys. I won't say we will win the MAC or anything like that, but we should be much better than 7-9 in the league again.

(10-03-2013 07:12 AM)axeme Wrote:  

(10-03-2013 05:33 AM)emu steve Wrote:  You have EMU way too low. They will be the surprise of the conference.

They have a senior-laden team which has been augmented by a nice transfer PG, Michael Talley, a really good JUCO SF, Karrington Ward, a healthy redshirt frosh, Ray Lee, (who played 8 games before getting hurt), etc.

Folks in Ypsilanti think we have 8 or 9 players capable of starting.

This is a deep team.

I really think PG was the weakness of last year's team. PG is the 'straw which mixes the drink'.

We will play a much different style of ball this year.

Be ready to be surprised...

You said last year EMU was going to be force in the West.

he says that every year and we're still waiting to see it happen.

You're right, Miami could range anywhere from 3-6 in the division standings. It's going to take at least another year until we really become competitive in MAC play, but we've got a completely different team this year than last due to transfers, recruits, etc. Cooper was hired late and had to work with Charlie Coles' players from his half court system last year, so with a normal year I think we'll see a lot of improvement out of us.

NIU could finish anywhere from 11th to 12th and I wouldn't be surprised.

I honestly don't know what to expect from Buffalo this year.

We only graduated 2 (Tony Watson & Richie Sebuharara). Tony Watson was probably one of our 3 most important players last year and Richie was a walk-on who only played 174 minutes on the season.

I'm really excited about Bobby Hurley and apparently the existing players (including McCrea) really like the new system, but its going to be a big change. In one off-season we went from a team whose primary focus is size and strength down low, and with the player turnover we have experienced as well as the new players Hurley is bringing in we will likely be much more guard oriented. Hurley has said that getting McCrea the ball will still be the primary focus, which makes me suspicious how close the offense we see this year will appear to the offense Hurley wants to run in the coming years.

I think Hurley's greatest accomplishment thus far was mitigating turnover. While there were departures, they weren't key contributors and frankly could be replaced without too much difficulty if Hurley really is a better recruiter. Transferring out of the program are G/F Thomas-Edwards, F Andre McPhail, and G Stan Wier. F Cameron Downing apparently failed to qualify academically. Downing is the biggest loss, but all 4 players combined only accounted for 29 minutes per game, 8.1 PPG, and 5.6 Rebounds per game last year.

G Josh Freelove (transfer from Alabama State) will almost definitely be the biggest impact newcomer. As a junior there he basically matched or exceeded Tony Watson's senior production, so I don't think there will be a dropoff.

Bobby Hurley also likes Forward Justin Moss (JUCO transfer) who should be the first forward off the bench behind McCrea and Regan. Our biggest place of improvement should be outside shooting. Freshman Shannon Evans is a high percentage outside shooter who has a good chance at playing quality minutes early on.

Basically the newcomers should be able to match or beat the production of the guys they are replacing. Then you add Jarod Oldham to the back court after being out all of the 2012-13 conference schedule, Javon McCrea anticipated to have a POY caliber season in his senior year, and Will Regan and Jarryn Skeete (runner up for freshman of the year) with another year of tutelage under their belts and this should be a much improved squad from last year.

The wild card will be how good a game day coach Hurley is, which none of us can predict at this point. I think if the players buy in to what Hurley is doing then this team can finally make a run at a MAC championship.

i have no idea about Ohio's chances. hopefully, the guys will use our tradition of success to build confidence and all of that good stuff until such time as they gel as a team. but we lost a lot from last year, so who knows. also, Christian is still somewhat of an enigma (at least to me) at this point. I'm hoping for good things but wouldn't be surprised to see a middle of the road finish.

I know I will probably be crucified for saying this, but in a way, it's kind of nice not having that pre-season pressure of high expectations like we've had the past few years.

there's an assumption being made that Akron has the ability to reload but Ohio doesn't. I don't agree with that assumption.

with that being said, change always brings with it a level of uncertainty and teams have an ability to play above or below their potential.

I think JC has brought in transfers and freshmen that have the potential to make an immediate impact. I won't be surprised in the least if Ohio wins the MAC regular season and MAC tournament this year.

(10-03-2013 12:13 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  there's an assumption being made that Akron has the ability to reload but Ohio doesn't. I don't agree with that assumption.

with that being said, change always brings with it a level of uncertainty and teams have an ability to play above or below their potential.

I think JC has brought in transfers and freshmen that have the potential to make an immediate impact. I won't be surprised in the least if Ohio wins the MAC regular season and MAC tournament this year.

Don't worry. It's simply that anti-Ohio bias that everyone has here.

With a month left before the season begins, Akron has sold over 1,100 season tickets. That's 20% of the JAR's capacity.

(10-03-2013 12:47 PM)CMUprof Wrote:  

(10-03-2013 12:13 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  there's an assumption being made that Akron has the ability to reload but Ohio doesn't. I don't agree with that assumption.

with that being said, change always brings with it a level of uncertainty and teams have an ability to play above or below their potential.

I think JC has brought in transfers and freshmen that have the potential to make an immediate impact. I won't be surprised in the least if Ohio wins the MAC regular season and MAC tournament this year.

Don't worry. It's simply that anti-Ohio bias that everyone has here.

To be fair, Keith Dambrot has a history of successfully reloading at Akron year after year after year. It would be a surprise to everybody if they dropped out of contention.

(10-03-2013 05:38 PM)uakronkid Wrote:  With a month left before the season begins, Akron has sold over 1,100 season tickets. That's 20% of the JAR's capacity.

thats nothing, Toledo has sold out for the year!!!

*assuming 4000 students come to every game and we get 2000 walkup crowd each game

I see Ohio behind Akron and Toledo to start this season but I do think Ohio has without question hit reload status. I believe we are easily one of the most talented teams in the league this year and expect that to continue for the foreseeable future.

We lost a lot of experience. The talent will take some time to develop a new chemistry and style of play. Style of play is the big story line for me. I think Bean Willis is going to prove to be a good player, especially on defense. No matter what, he will be a very different player from Cooper. Cooper's crazy vision made Ohio a very fun team to watch the last couple years. You just don't see guys playing basketball that way. Ohio is going to look completely different without that and with a bigger defense focused team.
I am confident this team will earn a bye to Cleveland. Anything less is a failure.
I am very excited about the future of this program. With Christian in as a stable head coach, one of the best atmosphere's of all mid-majors and a budget over $1,000,000 higher than anyone else in the MAC I have some very lofty expectations for the program.

Ohio will be an unknown. They don't have that go scorer that Cooper, Bassett and Offutt gave them in recent seasons. Bobcats may be better on the glass with more size inside. On the flip size this will be year two for Christian and the returning player more comfortable with his system. Ohio has a lot of solid role players but lack the guy they can count on to get big buckets in crunch time. In MAC speak that means close loses as they struggle to close games. Expect a .500 mac team 9-7, 8-8 or perhaps 7-9. Bobcats will be decent, but not even close to the school record numbers the last couple years put up. A lot like the Kent State team last year. Average, dangerous on given nite.

Eastern's defense will be just fine, particularly since Bryant wasn't booted from the team. however, on offense we will rely on three guys who have a lot to prove:

Michael Talley III, pg. showed some promise in two years at Duquesne before transferring. will he make a leap, or will he stay a 7pts, 3assists, 3 boards kind of guy?

Karrington Ward, sf - big time JUCO scorer. EMU fans are counting on him to be a 15pt/game guy, but we've never seen him play. can his scoring translate to the MAC?

Ray Lee, sg - showed a ton of offensive potential last year in the first 8 games, but he was also extremely raw. after missing the majority of the season with a broken foot, is he going to be more in control/less turnover prone, or will he be the same guy he was at the start of last season?

we know Bryant, Riley, Sims and Harrison won't score many points, so right now we're hoping for big things from Lee, Ward and Talley.

(10-03-2013 05:38 PM)uakronkid Wrote:  With a month left before the season begins, Akron has sold over 1,100 season tickets. That's 20% of the JAR's capacity.

check this out!!



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