Kenpom, which factors in SOS and pace, actually rates the Zips offense #1 in the conference and 47th best in the country. Akron had no trouble keeping up with a more explosive Marhsall and slowed down perhaps the most explosive offense in the nation in Creighton.

CMU will need to have an unbelievable shooting night as I fully expect them to get destroyed on the glass and in points in the paint. CMU, like Akron, struggles against teams with length. CMU lacks length while Akron starts 2 players that are 6'10 and have at times rolled out a lineup of Robotham (6'1), Ivey (6'4), Aaron Jackson (6'8), Kwan (6'10), and Big Dog (6'10).

(01-09-2017 12:04 PM)kreed5120 Wrote:  Kenpom, which factors in SOS and pace, actually rates the Zips offense #1 in the conference and 47th best in the country. Akron had no trouble keeping up with a more explosive Marhsall and slowed down perhaps the most explosive offense in the nation in Creighton.

CMU will need to have an unbelievable shooting night as I fully expect them to get destroyed on the glass and in points in the paint. CMU, like Akron, struggles against teams with length. CMU lacks length while Akron starts 2 players that are 6'10 and have at times rolled out a lineup of Robotham (6'1), Ivey (6'4), Aaron Jackson (6'8), Kwan (6'10), and Big Dog (6'10).

KenPom has Akron's SOS above 300

(01-09-2017 12:35 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(01-09-2017 12:04 PM)kreed5120 Wrote:  Kenpom, which factors in SOS and pace, actually rates the Zips offense #1 in the conference and 47th best in the country. Akron had no trouble keeping up with a more explosive Marhsall and slowed down perhaps the most explosive offense in the nation in Creighton.

CMU will need to have an unbelievable shooting night as I fully expect them to get destroyed on the glass and in points in the paint. CMU, like Akron, struggles against teams with length. CMU lacks length while Akron starts 2 players that are 6'10 and have at times rolled out a lineup of Robotham (6'1), Ivey (6'4), Aaron Jackson (6'8), Kwan (6'10), and Big Dog (6'10).

KenPom has Akron's SOS above 300

And even after adjusting for that it ranks Akron's offense #1 in the MAC in points per 100 possessions.

(01-08-2017 09:47 PM)OhioBobcatJohn Wrote:  2. Toledo- two impressive wins early in conference play.
3. Ohio- two impressive home wins, but just 1 win against rpi top 150 so far and 1-3 on the road puts them behind the top two.

You realize that both your comments apply to both teams, right? Are Toledo's home wins over Miami and Buffalo better than Ohio's home wins over Western Michigan and Kent State? Why is Ohio's 1 win over a team in the top 150 RPI any less impressive than Toledo's 1 win over a team with a top 150 RPI? Why do you hold one teams 1 and 3 road record against them but not the other's identical 1 and 3 road record?

(01-09-2017 12:37 AM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  

(01-09-2017 12:11 AM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  Impossible to judge just on MAC play because as we know in the MAC just like any conference, home games are everything.

http://godawgz.com/MAC_power_rank.htm

I still have EMU and CMU leading the pack, but narrowly. Toledo is surging in my rankings

1) Eastern Michigan
2) Central Michigan
3) Toledo
4) Buffalo
5) Kent St
6) Ohio
7) Akron
8) WMU
9) BGSU
10) Ball St
11) NIU
12) Miami-OH

EMU just got blown out by what seems like an average UB team. How are they 1? They also played 4? Non D1 schools? I think they have talent... but 1? And 3 MACW teams in front with 10+ win teams in the East? Nahh. Not feeling these. Maybe it will become closer as the season ends but, nahhhhh.

Blown out? We lost by 9 and were down by 3 with 2 minutes left in the game. Nice try though.

But there's no way we should be #1 in the conference. Akron and Ohio are in a league of their own, in my opinion.

(01-09-2017 02:19 PM)EagleSam Wrote:  

(01-09-2017 12:37 AM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  

(01-09-2017 12:11 AM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  Impossible to judge just on MAC play because as we know in the MAC just like any conference, home games are everything.

http://godawgz.com/MAC_power_rank.htm

I still have EMU and CMU leading the pack, but narrowly. Toledo is surging in my rankings

1) Eastern Michigan
2) Central Michigan
3) Toledo
4) Buffalo
5) Kent St
6) Ohio
7) Akron
8) WMU
9) BGSU
10) Ball St
11) NIU
12) Miami-OH

EMU just got blown out by what seems like an average UB team. How are they 1? They also played 4? Non D1 schools? I think they have talent... but 1? And 3 MACW teams in front with 10+ win teams in the East? Nahh. Not feeling these. Maybe it will become closer as the season ends but, nahhhhh.

Blown out? We lost by 9 and were down by 3 with 2 minutes left in the game. Nice try though.

But there's no way we should be #1 in the conference. Akron and Ohio are in a league of their own, in my opinion.

Time will tell, but I think particularly Akron, is a bit overrated at this time. Probably not as low as I have them here, I think my rankings will adjust as more data gets in, but I don't think they are the best team in this conference.

Part of the problem with ranks right now is that you probably have 6 or 7 teams you could argue are the best in the conference. There is very little separation in the top half of this conference.

(01-09-2017 02:28 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  Time will tell, but I think particularly Akron, is a bit overrated at this time. Probably not as low as I have them here, I think my rankings will adjust as more data gets in, but I don't think they are the best team in this conference.

Part of the problem with ranks right now is that you probably have 6 or 7 teams you could argue are the best in the conference. There is very little separation in the top half of this conference.

I agree with this. It's really impossible to tell who might come out of the scrum. Not one single team distinguished itself in preconference play. There wasn't one single truly good win out of conference. We can look at OOC SOS all we want but the fact of the matter is every single team lost to the tough teams they played and for the most part won the games they should have. There are three 3-0 teams right now but they all played both their games at home so far. Tomorrow night could help shed some light on the murky situation as those three teams all play on the road but they all three could easily lose and muddy the waters even more. Cleveland should be a lot of fun this year.

(01-09-2017 03:06 PM)OUVan Wrote:  

(01-09-2017 02:28 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  Time will tell, but I think particularly Akron, is a bit overrated at this time. Probably not as low as I have them here, I think my rankings will adjust as more data gets in, but I don't think they are the best team in this conference.

Part of the problem with ranks right now is that you probably have 6 or 7 teams you could argue are the best in the conference. There is very little separation in the top half of this conference.

I agree with this. It's really impossible to tell who might come out of the scrum. Not one single team distinguished itself in preconference play. There wasn't one single truly good win out of conference. We can look at OOC SOS all we want but the fact of the matter is every single team lost to the tough teams they played and for the most part won the games they should have. There are three 3-0 teams right now but they all played both their games at home so far. Tomorrow night could help shed some light on the murky situation as those three teams all play on the road but they all three could easily lose and muddy the waters even more. Cleveland should be a lot of fun this year.

Only 2-0 so far.

I agree with your assessment. In OOC, no one showed themselves to be as good as the better MAC teams in even recent years which opens this year's teams up to be even more likely to be upset. There are quite a few teams in the conference who have showed they are capable of some pretty good peak performances to go with their very bad nights. It's not clear at all that this is a 3-team race. It could well be much more balanced than that.

(01-09-2017 03:06 PM)OUVan Wrote:  

(01-09-2017 02:28 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  Time will tell, but I think particularly Akron, is a bit overrated at this time. Probably not as low as I have them here, I think my rankings will adjust as more data gets in, but I don't think they are the best team in this conference.

Part of the problem with ranks right now is that you probably have 6 or 7 teams you could argue are the best in the conference. There is very little separation in the top half of this conference.

I agree with this. It's really impossible to tell who might come out of the scrum. Not one single team distinguished itself in preconference play. There wasn't one single truly good win out of conference. We can look at OOC SOS all we want but the fact of the matter is every single team lost to the tough teams they played and for the most part won the games they should have. There are three 3-0 teams right now but they all played both their games at home so far. Tomorrow night could help shed some light on the murky situation as those three teams all play on the road but they all three could easily lose and muddy the waters even more. Cleveland should be a lot of fun this year.

Definitely tomorrow night will say that. If Akron goes in and demolishes CMU like everyone expects here, than Ill jump on board the Akron bandwagon.

One Akron fan thinks it will be a mismatch. That's hardly everyone here. I think Akron will win, and any win is good enough, by one point or 25 points. It's tough picking games since every team has its flaws. It wouldn't be that surprising if CMU won, but this year, nobody should be surprised by any home win. Some road wins would be very shocking.

For the record Akron opened as 3 point favorites. I expect them to cover, but I'm not expecting them to win by 20 or anything crazy. An 8-10 point win is what I expect.

(01-09-2017 03:30 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  Definitely tomorrow night will say that. If Akron goes in and demolishes CMU like everyone expects here, than Ill jump on board the Akron bandwagon.

Who expects that? At most I see Akron being favored by a point or two. I can't see any of the games tomorrow having a line of more than 3 or 4 points except maybe Ball State over Miami.

(01-09-2017 04:04 PM)OUVan Wrote:  

(01-09-2017 03:30 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  Definitely tomorrow night will say that. If Akron goes in and demolishes CMU like everyone expects here, than Ill jump on board the Akron bandwagon.

Who expects that? At most I see Akron being favored by a point or two. I can't see any of the games tomorrow having a line of more than 3 or 4 points except maybe Ball State over Miami.

I could see Kent winning by 15 or so against NIU. That NIU offense is just horrendous.

CMU has 2 good little guards, and a couple of big guys who can rebound ok and dunk, that's about it. akron also has some good little guards, but has a couple well rounded big guys and a several decent swingmen who can be physical and athletic. i'd give cmu a chance since it's a big home game but akron is the better team. any team with josh kozinski playing 33 minutes a game doesn't scare me.

In a world where better teams than Akron have lost to worse teams than CMU anything is certainly possible. I do agree with Pono and would be surprised to see CMU finish better than .500 in the MAC.

I however do find it humorous someone questioning Akron's ability to score the basketball when Dambrot has came out and said this is his best offensive team ever at Akron and advanced metrics support his claim.

(01-09-2017 04:12 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(01-09-2017 04:04 PM)OUVan Wrote:  

(01-09-2017 03:30 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  Definitely tomorrow night will say that. If Akron goes in and demolishes CMU like everyone expects here, than Ill jump on board the Akron bandwagon.

Who expects that? At most I see Akron being favored by a point or two. I can't see any of the games tomorrow having a line of more than 3 or 4 points except maybe Ball State over Miami.

I could see Kent winning by 15 or so against NIU. That NIU offense is just horrendous.

I don't know if I'd say horrendous, but it's on the road so I wouldn't be surprised if it was for this game.

Four home dogs tonight:

Miami
BSU -6.5

Akron
CMU +2.5

Ohio
Buffalo +1

Toledo
WMU +3.5

EMU
BGSU +2

NIU
Kent St -5.5

If there were just some way we could figure out who the best team is...

(01-10-2017 09:12 AM)OUVan Wrote:  Four home dogs tonight:

Miami
BSU -6.5

Akron
CMU +2.5

Ohio
Buffalo +1

Toledo
WMU +3.5

EMU
BGSU +2

NIU
Kent St -5.5

A lot of line movement. Akron opened at 3, moved to 2.5 and now back at 3. Buffalo opened as a dog but now a 1.5 favorite.

(01-10-2017 11:01 AM)axeme Wrote:  If there were just some way we could figure out who the best team is...

I have an idea, let's take a vote!