One of the EMU posters reminded us that EMU is 5 - 2 in their last 7 games.

I discovered that TOL and UB are also 5 - 2 in their last 7 and then I discovered that Ball State is 6 - 1. Oh, my. I thought UB was a lock... Ooops.

Bottom line: The MAC race is more open, and esp. CLE, than folks thought.

Anyway, TOL visits EMU Tuesday is a game which might be more interesting than folks thought a few weeks ago...

UB has looked very human the past 10 games or so, so yea, I'm not thinking we are sure thing.

I just checked, and Akron has not won a single game away from home this season. I expect that trend to continue for the foreseeable future.

(02-18-2018 04:14 PM)emu steve Wrote:  One of the EMU posters reminded us that EMU is 5 - 2 in their last 7 games.

I discovered that TOL and UB are also 5 - 2 in their last 7 and then I discovered that Ball State is 6 - 1. Oh, my. I thought UB was a lock... Ooops.

Bottom line: The MAC race is more open, and esp. CLE, than folks thought.

Anyway, TOL visits EMU Tuesday is a game which might be more interesting than folks thought a few weeks ago...

BSU killed us twice and UB beat us in week 1 of the MAC season. Other than that we have been relatively dominant.... but EMU's zone and BSU's Person's were the 2 things that scared me the most. If we split with EMU or got smoked at the convo I would not be shocked.

We have looked pretty human since Marreon Jacksons our frosh pg has gone down.... I hope he gets healthy by tourney time.

(02-18-2018 04:14 PM)emu steve Wrote:  I discovered that Ball State is 6 - 1.

I have been pleasantly surprised with how the Cards have salvaged things since the loss of two 20+ mpg guards. This team went from being an extremely deep guard team to one that is very, very thin. I thought that things would collapse, but instead the team has totally reinvented itself as an inside-first team, away from the 3-point focused team before their departure and all of last year. In those last 7 games, Moses is averaging 17ppg, 9rpg, 3apg; while Teague (inserted in the starting lineup at that time) has averaged 16.5ppg, 10rpg, 2apg, 1.5spg. This is entirely a different style of team now. Just impressive how they've been able to pull that off mid-season.

The problem? The bench rotation consists of two inconsistent freshmen who were great against UT, but will need to sustain that level; one RS freshman walk-on guard thrust into a 15 minute a game role; and one senior guard who came into the season destined to be the most prolific 3 point shooter in BSU history, but has found himself barely leaving the bench for the last several games after his shooting woes this season (2 dnp, 1 1min, 2 5min games in that period). Not very deep. Will be hard to win the MAC tournament with that depth, so holding onto a bye is crucial.

BTW, I checked the schedules for the last two weeks of the season, EVERY game will effect teams now seeded 1 - 8. Every game will effect seedings for a bye or first round home court game.

There isn't a game between say the current 9 - 12 seeds.

Ball State has put themselves in a position to fight for the MAC West Title and even still has a shot at the overall #1 seed.. If UB had got its way, the Bulls would get the #1 seed and have Toledo and Ball State finish as 2-3 and duke it out in the semifinals.

(02-19-2018 06:49 AM)emu steve Wrote:  BTW, I checked the schedules for the last two weeks of the season, EVERY game will effect teams now seeded 1 - 8. Every game will effect seedings for a bye or first round home court game.

There isn't a game between say the current 9 - 12 seeds.

Ummm UB is guaranteed a top 4 seed. So the games matter in terms of of winning the conference or not, but not in terms of a bye

(02-19-2018 09:54 AM)BullBoy Wrote:  Ball State has put themselves in a position to fight for the MAC West Title and even still has a shot at the overall #1 seed.. If UB had got its way, the Bulls would get the #1 seed and have Toledo and Ball State finish as 2-3 and duke it out in the semifinals.

I wouldn't mind watching them beat up on each other in the semi's... Nice long overtime game!

if toledo wins at eastern tomorrow they are pretty much a lock for the 2 seed. i could see buffalo losing another game, but not 2. ball state would need to be perfect and have toledo kinda fall apart to get above a 3 seed, but they could slip up a couple times and find themselves in the 4/5 game followed by buffalo in the semis and still have a championship game to play after that. so, there's plenty of motivation for a cards teams that lost a couple role players but found it's chemistry and best way to use the healthy personnel. toledo is in a similar situation to where ball st was a few weeks ago. we had a key rotation player, willie jackson, go down with a month long injury. just as he is about to come back our feisty high percentage shooting freshman pg tweaks a knee and is hurt. if the team can fight through the injuries and grow they could be really tough if everyone is healthy for CLEVE. everything is gonna change 4 through 12 over the next 2 weeks.

(02-19-2018 09:52 PM)pono Wrote:  if toledo wins at eastern tomorrow they are pretty much a lock for the 2 seed. i could see buffalo losing another game, but not 2. ball state would need to be perfect and have toledo kinda fall apart to get above a 3 seed, but they could slip up a couple times and find themselves in the 4/5 game followed by buffalo in the semis and still have a championship game to play after that. so, there's plenty of motivation for a cards teams that lost a couple role players but found it's chemistry and best way to use the healthy personnel. toledo is in a similar situation to where ball st was a few weeks ago. we had a key rotation player, willie jackson, go down with a month long injury. just as he is about to come back our feisty high percentage shooting freshman pg tweaks a knee and is hurt. if the team can fight through the injuries and grow they could be really tough if everyone is healthy for CLEVE. everything is gonna change 4 through 12 over the next 2 weeks.

Are the TOL fans going to make the trek tonight to Ypsi? Always fun when TOL fans show for a game.

(02-20-2018 02:15 AM)emu steve Wrote:  

(02-19-2018 09:52 PM)pono Wrote:  if toledo wins at eastern tomorrow they are pretty much a lock for the 2 seed. i could see buffalo losing another game, but not 2. ball state would need to be perfect and have toledo kinda fall apart to get above a 3 seed, but they could slip up a couple times and find themselves in the 4/5 game followed by buffalo in the semis and still have a championship game to play after that. so, there's plenty of motivation for a cards teams that lost a couple role players but found it's chemistry and best way to use the healthy personnel. toledo is in a similar situation to where ball st was a few weeks ago. we had a key rotation player, willie jackson, go down with a month long injury. just as he is about to come back our feisty high percentage shooting freshman pg tweaks a knee and is hurt. if the team can fight through the injuries and grow they could be really tough if everyone is healthy for CLEVE. everything is gonna change 4 through 12 over the next 2 weeks.

Are the TOL fans going to make the trek tonight to Ypsi? Always fun when TOL fans show for a game.

Huge game tonight. Rockets coming off a loss and the Eagles are hot. If we lose we are in serious danger of losing the division. Unfortunately influenza will be keeping me on the couch tonight

Miami snaps a four-game losing streak with an 84-81 upset against UB.

EMU knocks off Toledo, with a dominant performance from our starting front court.

Akron steals one from BG on the road, and CMU/WMU heading to OT.

Fun night in the conference tonight. Lots of upsets, with all but two games having the lower seeded team winning. Add to that a fun OT game with CMU/WMU, and a good evening to be hopping between games on the Tres. Not the sharpest game for the Cards, but put things away with a solid beginning to the 2nd half. Sean Sellers tied the 3pt record for BSU tonight, and the bigs combined for 36 points, 4 blocks, and 21 boards. Outside of the stinker at EMU a couple of weeks ago, this team is rolling with 7 of 8 wins.

(02-21-2018 10:19 AM)BobcatEngineer Wrote:  

Wow what a game between WMU and CMU. Thomas wilder with a 3 point play late in OT to save us. This is literally anyone's conference, I thought it was all locked up by buffalo and Toledo but they have proven to be very beatable. Tourney should be very interesting.

If I had to personally guess I'd say seeding in the NCAA tourney would be close to this.

13 UB
13 Toledo
14 Ball State thru Kent
15 CMU thru Ohio (Akron and OU get name recognition)
15/16 NIU

(02-21-2018 10:19 AM)BobcatEngineer Wrote:  

Has Toledo not clinched a bye? Three losses would leave us with seven. A loss by the only two teams with seven losses would leave them with eight. They play each other meaning Buffalo, BSU, Toledo and either EMU or Western will have the four best records even if Toledo loses out. Am I missing something?

No, you are correct. Toledo clinched a bye. But BG, Kent, or Miami could also still get a bye if either WMU or EMU go 1-2 or 0-3. There could be some pretty confusing tie breakers.