Week 8 Power Rankings: Let The Dogfights Begin

What a change a week makes.

Heading into MAC play, it was difficult to know what exactly to make of this college hoops aggregation. A few teams — Kent, Miami, Northern Illinois, and Toledo come to mind — entered league play with records that were either at or slightly above.500. Ohio, the team widely thought to be the MAC’s best won the games they should’ve but failed to get any big out of conference wins. The same can’t be said for Akron and my UB Bulls, who beat Rutgers, 82-79 victors over Seton Hall yesterday (go Scarlet Knights!), of the Big East and Fresno from the WAC. Maybe it’s my enthusiasm for the Bulls but I fully expected them to roll into the January 26th scrap against Ohio with an 18-1 record.

After yesterday’s 84-82 overtime loss to the Huskies in DeKalb that ain’t gonna happen. What is going to happen, however, is another season of MAC dogfights, as the fist full weekend of league play saw two OT games — Buffalo’s loss to NIU and Miami’s 64-59 triumph over Eastern Michigan; overmatched Central Michigan playing with Kent State for 40 minutes before losing 66-60; and Ohio needed a sterling second half comeback to vanquish a pesky Ball State team. The victors in each of those games were appropriately rewarded in this week’s Power Rankings.

Like always, we encourage to hop on over to Vandelay Sports for Power Rankings done by the folks that know MAC football better than I know the best places to get Baltika Porter in Brooklyn.

1. Ohio (8-2, 2-0) (2) – The Bobcats were a tad uneven in their first full week of league play, routing Western Michigan in their league opener and coming from behind to beat a gritty Ball State team today but the simple fact is, Ohio is the best team in the MAC right now. They’re the most talented, deepest, and most explosive squad and they should all of those traits this week. While EMU should play them tough this Wednesday — how good will the Leon Williams-John Bowler match up be? —- the first real MAC test for the Bobcats will come when they visit DeKalb on the 17th to take on the Huskies.

2. Akron (8-3, 2-0) (3) - So much for Bubba. The Romeo Travis-led Zips ran Toledo yesterday to improve to 2-0 in MAC play. More importantly, that was the sixth time this season the Zips have beaten someone by double digits. Beating Wright State, the MAC’s non-league bitch, by 28 isn’t that impressive but thrashing the team that may win the MAC West is. The Zips are for real.

3. Miami (6-5, 3-0) (5) – To quote The Monkees, I’m a believer. I’ve doubted the Redhawks since the Preseason NIT schedule was announced but after playing one of the toughest non-league slates in all of D-I, Charlie Coles squad kicked off MAC play by beating NIU in DeKalb and emerging from their Saturday scrap with EMU with a 64-59 dubbya. That being said, we’ll know much more about Miami when the Redhawks square off with Akron, Ohio, and Buffalo in a four-game stretch at the end of January and beginning of February.

4. Buffalo (11-2, 1-1) (1) – How the mighty have fallen. I haven’t lost faith in coach ‘Spoon’s squad but yesterday’s loss to Mike McKinney-less Huskies while not devastating was a game the Bulls needed to win not just to make a statement to the rest of the MAC but to the Big Dance selection committee as well. They didn’t, which means Calvin Cage & Co. better win their next four before Ohio comes calling on January 26th.

5. Northern Illinois (7-4, 2-1) (7) – The Huskies bounced back from a home loss to Miami by outlasting Buffalo to reestablish themselves as the team to beat in the MAC West. Like all Huskies’ wins this season, the key to this one was tempo, as Rob Judson’s squad pushed the ball at every chance to win 84-82. Upcoming five-game stretch will be crucial for NIU. They could either win the West or keep Toledo, Ball State, or Bowling Green alive.

6. Kent State (8-5, 2-0) (6) - With two league wins this week, continuing the streak of 20-win seasons is looking a bit more doable for the Golden Flashes than it was before MAC play started. Still, getting 20 wins figures to be an uphill struggle for the Jay Youngblood-led Flashes since they’ll need to play much better against the likes of Akron, Buffalo. Miami, and NIU than they did against CMU yesterday.

7. Ball State (4-6, 0-2) (8) – The Cardinals may not have won either of their league games but you’ve really got to like the way Tim Buckley’s undermanned squad competes. They played the MAC’s two best teams — Akron and Ohio — this week and had a chance to win each of those contests. Skip Mills, Charles Bass & Co. have a better chance at getting their first MAC win this week when they travel to Kent and host Miami.

8. Western Michigan (4-8, 1-1) (11) – Steve Hawkins’ squad didn’t do anything special this week, beating up on one of the MAC’s bottom feeders and getting beaten up by Ohio, but at least they won a game this week, which puts them ahead of the others. Broncos’ fans should enjoy their time in the sun since upcoming four-game stretch is likely to leave Broncos with a 4-12 record and 1-5 league mark and a permanent spot amongst the bottom feeders.

9. Eastern Michigan (3-7, 0-2) (10) – Charles Ramsey’s squad continues to play hard despite having little other than MAC POY candidate John Bowler. They got blitzed by the Bulls in the first half of their conference opener but battled back to make it somewhat of a game before taking Miami to OT in a 64-59 loss yesterday. With three home games in a row, the Eagles have a chance to win a game or two.

10. Toledo (7-4, 0-3) (4) – What’s up with the Rockets? Stan Joplin’s squad has the talent to win the MAC West but right now they don’t like a team that will even win a league game, as they failed to compete in getting whupped by Kent State on Wednesday and offered little resistance against Akron yesterday. With games against Buffalo, Ohio, Miami, and NIU looming, it could get worse before it gets better.

11. Bowling Green (5-7, 1-1) (9) – Simply put, there’s no excuse for losing by 20 to a youthful WMU squad like the Falcons did yesterday. This team has less consistency than the Bush regime’s rationale for why we went to war in Iraq. Upcoming four-game stretch could prove a bit more amenable to Dan Dakich’s squad, as Toledo’s been equally mediocre and EMU and Ball State remain beatable.

12. Central Michigan (2-9, 0-3) (12) - I just don’t see how these guys are going to win a league game. They got blown out by fellow bottom feeders BGSU and lost to Kent State despite getting 30 points from sophomore guard Giordan Watson in a battle of one-man armies.