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Ohio Basketball Topic
Topic: How good is the MAC?
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LoganElm_grad09
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Posted: 11/15/2013 10:23 PM
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We beat Northern Iowa and competed with Ohio State.  Kent beat Temple (heh) and competed with Seton Hall, almost beating them.  Then you have Toledo and EMU with good wins against BC and Robert Morris.  I'll admit, I'm not sure what else has been going on around the conference.

So how good is this conference?  Or more accurately, how good CAN it be?
JSF
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Posted: 11/15/2013 10:54 PM
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Probably not that good. Losing record against D-I opponents.
RSBobcat
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Posted: 11/16/2013 12:15 AM
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So - MAC is just better, but not that good?
DallasCat
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Posted: 11/16/2013 12:27 AM
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JSF wrote:expand_more
Probably not that good. Losing record against D-I opponents.

Unfortunately this. The top MAC teams are doing well, but the bottom is doing horribly (albeit still  very early in the season).

Miami, Buffalo, and NIU all started the season 0-2. CMU's lone win was against a D-III school. Ball State's was against an NAIA school
JSF
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Posted: 11/16/2013 12:46 AM
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I predicted the MAC would only end up with two teams in the top 150. Based on very early returns, that is too pessimistic. It looks like we'll be merely bad instead of painfully terrible. Akron has some issues to work out with who is going to run their offense, but Toledo looks really quite solid. I underestimated Ohio. I don't expect EMU to be better than mediocre, even with the Robert Morris win. Not sold on Kent; Seton Hall is pretty crappy and they've beaten Temple before and had it amount to little. So I guess maybe 4 teams in the top 150.
catfan28
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Posted: 11/16/2013 1:39 AM
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Teams have played 3 games at most. Let's hold off on too much evaluation just yet. It's just too early right now.
The Optimist
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Posted: 11/16/2013 9:18 AM
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I am more excited than I was a week ago but that may because I am even more confident now that we can win the whole league...
 

I think the East is still way better than the west. I like EMU over Toledo. Riley is a freaking monster. Such a large dude. If any of these transfers can score for them I think they'll be tough.
 

I am surprised Kent keeps coming back and playing so solid. They have neglected their hoops program. They have been living off their tourney run for too long without making proper investments. But hey, they look solid again. If Ohio, Akron, Kent and hopefully Buffalo are all decent the MAC rpi shouldn't suffer too much.
 

Wmu is the team that completely surprised me. Had no clue they would even be competitive.

Last Edited: 11/16/2013 9:19:40 AM by The Optimist
Victory
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Posted: 11/16/2013 9:36 AM
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Last year Akron and Ohio were much, much better than everyone else.  I think the same thing about MAC basketball that I thought going in.  Its is a conference of haves and have nots this year.  Just like football this year.  Its half teams that are among the better mid-majors and half terrible teams.
Pataskala
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Posted: 11/16/2013 10:02 AM
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The Optimist wrote:expand_more

I am more excited than I was a week ago but that may because I am even more confident now that we can win the whole league...
 

I think the East is still way better than the west. I like EMU over Toledo. Riley is a freaking monster. Such a large dude. If any of these transfers can score for them I think they'll be tough.
 

I am surprised Kent keeps coming back and playing so solid. They have neglected their hoops program. They have been living off their tourney run for too long without making proper investments. But hey, they look solid again. If Ohio, Akron, Kent and hopefully Buffalo are all decent the MAC rpi shouldn't suffer too much.
 

Wmu is the team that completely surprised me. Had no clue they would even be competitive.



All that rowing.
The Optimist
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Posted: 11/16/2013 10:09 AM
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Victory wrote:expand_more
Last year Akron and Ohio were much, much better than everyone else.  I think the same thing about MAC basketball that I thought going in.  Its is a conference of haves and have nots this year.  Just like football this year.  Its half teams that are among the better mid-majors and half terrible teams.

Agreed.

Moving forward, I think Ohio and Akron are going further that gap. Good news for the rest of the MAC is they have done some decent recruiting... Guys like Lamonte Beard at Buffalo. Problem for them is Ohio and Akron are recruiting even better...
Athens
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Posted: 11/16/2013 1:34 PM
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The Optimist wrote:expand_more
Last year Akron and Ohio were much, much better than everyone else.  I think the same thing about MAC basketball that I thought going in.  Its is a conference of haves and have nots this year.  Just like football this year.  Its half teams that are among the better mid-majors and half terrible teams.

Agreed.

Moving forward, I think Ohio and Akron are going further that gap. Good news for the rest of the MAC is they have done some decent recruiting... Guys like Lamonte Beard at Buffalo. Problem for them is Ohio and Akron are recruiting even better...

What I'm noticing out of Ohio is recruiting more scorers and less guys who are lifetime projects when you compare going back to the the LH and TOS years. The recruiting today is what you would expect out of mid major programs that are NCAA regulars from the MVC or A10. 

 
Eagle66
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Posted: 11/16/2013 1:45 PM
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Overall I think the conference is better than I thought. Of course, I had very low expectations, and wouldn't have been surprised with a 15 seed this year for the conference champ. I think the MAC will end up with 4 maybe 5 teams in the top 150, which would exceed my expectations. My way too early groupings would be:

Teams I think are good and who have played well
Kent State - won @ Temple (who also lost @ Townson) and hung tough @Seton Hall.
Ohio - Good win and a close loss to the best team anyone in the MAC has played thus far.
Western Michigan - Good Win over New Mexico State in Hawaii. 
Toledo - Good win at BC (but they're 0-3 and I wouldn't be surprised if BC fails to win 10 games this year)

Teams I think will but good, but haven't shown it..
Akron - I expected a much better showing @ St Mary's
Buffalo - Looked terrible @ Texas A&M, and lost to Niagara. I know McRae is good, but are his numbers inflated because everyone else is playing so bad?

Teams who have played better than I thought
Eastern Michigan - only 1 D1 game, but they beat Robert Morris, something DJ and Co. never did.
Ball State - Lost by 9 at Indiana state. Tough to lose Kamenicki right before the season.
Bowling Green - had no expectations for them, but didn't look that bad against USF last night. 


Teams who look as bad as I thought
Central Michigan - haven't seen much, but don't expect much.
Miami - Looked respectable against. Note Dame, but laid an egg at AZ St. 
Northern Illinois - lost at home to Nebraska-Omaha and James Madison
Monroe Slavin
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Posted: 11/16/2013 3:23 PM
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It'd be nice if everyone in the conf was good (with us best,of cOUrse) but it still works so long as the conf has a handful of good teams.
OUVan
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Posted: 11/16/2013 4:37 PM
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Watching the Zips against Middle Tennessee and they don't look all that good.  They've got no one to create on offense so they end up going one-on-one and taking tons of ill-advised shots.  On defense they really miss Zeke.  He was able to hide a lot of defensive deficiencies on the perimater.  Betancourt just doesn't create at all and his back-up, Nyles Evans is quick as hell but he keeps taking terrible shots.
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Posted: 11/17/2013 3:55 PM
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Monroe Slavin wrote:expand_more
It'd be nice if everyone in the conf was good (with us best,of cOUrse) but it still works so long as the conf has a handful of good teams.

Most of the teams in a conference have to be good to produce an at-large candidate at the MAC level. Eight out of twelve teams with a real shot at winning in Cleveland. For years its been 4-5 teams capable at most. Basketball is one of those sports like football that requires the administration to take an active oversight and head off player issues and recruiting gaps before they take the entire program out. Administrations in the MAC hire good coaches but aren't active enough with the program. Issues arise, players graduate and no team chemistry exists in the program. CMU will get a strong recruit and not build a program around the player. The cupboards are continually under stocked with talent at half the schools in the MAC for no reason beyond inept leadership.

 
cbarber357
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Posted: 11/17/2013 5:06 PM
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Why don't we get UMass in the MAC for basketball... 
anorris
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Posted: 11/17/2013 7:06 PM
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cbarber357 wrote:expand_more
Why don't we get UMass in the MAC for basketball...
Because the league apparently didn't put the screws to them when they came in for football, and it has zero upside for UMASS.
RSBobcat
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Posted: 11/17/2013 10:46 PM
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anorris wrote:expand_more
Why don't we get UMass in the MAC for basketball...
Because the league apparently didn't put the screws to them when they came in for football, and it has zero upside for UMASS.

And who exactly had the screwdriver in their hand - MAC, or UMASS?



 
anorris
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Posted: 11/18/2013 8:52 AM
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RSBobcat wrote:expand_more
Why don't we get UMass in the MAC for basketball...
Because the league apparently didn't put the screws to them when they came in for football, and it has zero upside for UMASS.


And who exactly had the screwdriver in their hand - MAC, or UMASS?
I guess I feel like the conference held the cards at the time. UMASS wants to move up, how many viable conference options did they have? I thought and still think we should've learned from Temple and said if we are going to take your cruddy football team, you have to bring something of value to the conference as well (i.e. the rest of their sports, primarily men's basketball).
The Optimist
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Posted: 11/18/2013 8:58 AM
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anorris wrote:expand_more
Why don't we get UMass in the MAC for basketball...
Because the league apparently didn't put the screws to them when they came in for football, and it has zero upside for UMASS.


And who exactly had the screwdriver in their hand - MAC, or UMASS?
I guess I feel like the conference held the cards at the time. UMASS wants to move up, how many viable conference options did they have? I thought and still think we should've learned from Temple and said if we are going to take your cruddy football team, you have to bring something of value to the conference as well (i.e. the rest of their sports, primarily men's basketball).

 

I agree.
 

I bet the alternate dimension where Ohio is playing in the same hoops conference as UMass and Temple is pretty sweet.

cbarber357
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Posted: 11/18/2013 10:19 AM
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If I remember correctly, we can't just kick their football team out, but we can tell them we want them to join in other sports or they're out and they have like a year to decide
cbarber357
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Posted: 11/18/2013 10:36 PM
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every MAC team that played today won
bornacatfan
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Posted: 11/19/2013 5:09 PM
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Locals were very impressed with Balls game vs SEMO. Seem to be happy for the moment following the demise and departure of Billy
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