Say what you will about Devin Davis, but he represents an era when the MAC had NBA and NBA-caliber players and when Ohio v. Miami meant something more than it has the past several years.
Give me more Devin Davises and others like him and fewer Logan McLanes on rosters of MAC teams.
No doubt about that.
Gary Trent - Ohio '95
Ben Handlogten - WMU '96
Ira Newble - Miami '97
Nate Huffman - Kent '97
Antonio Daniels - BG '97
Bonzi Wells - Balls '98
Casey Shaw - Toledo '98
Derrick Dial - EMU '98
Earl Boykins - EMU '98
Wally Szczerbiak - Miami '99
Tamar Slay - Marshall '02
Keith McLeod - BG '02
Theron Smith - Balls '03
Chris Kaman - CMU '03
Brandon Hunter - Ohio '03
John Edwards - Kent '04
All played multiple years or at least had a cup of coffee in the NBA and came through the MAC over that stretch of 9 years. Not to mention the Curis Simmons/Geno Ford/Antonio Gates/Devin Davis who were fantastic college players.
Certainly night and day from what we've seen since 2005.
Who has the conference had in the NBA since then? Richaun Holmes and N'dour are the only two I can even think of in the last 13 years.
So we went from 16 over 9 years, to 2 in the last 13 years (though I'd argue if he were 3 inches and 30 lbs bigger DJ would have made it).