Posts under ‘MAC Power Rankings’

The MAC tournament tips off in… oh, a few hours. So let’s run this down one more time in 2010, shall we? I was looking forward to a couple good games to decide the East and West… of course, that didn’t happen. Central Michigan failed slightly less than Eastern Michigan and Kent [...]

Unlike the Postal Service, snow and ice can stop the Power Rankings. No matter, we’re back at it this week. Since we last talked, Kent ran their winning streak to 8 before Buffalo stopped them, Akron regained a share of the East lead, and Ball State joined Central Michigan atop the West. [...]

Last week I suggested interdivisional play would make the difference in the regular season championship. Play since then has borne that out. Kent State has established itself as a clear #1 while watching competitors stumble. #1 and #12 are established. 2-11, however, are shifting almost daily.

1. Kent State (15-7, 6-2) (1): [...]

Road teams scored victories in five of the first 13 games of the conference season. Since then? Home teams won 16 of the next 18. As always, home court is sacred in the MAC. With 11 games left, it’s looking entirely possible that 10 games could be enough to secure the [...]

Wow. Just one week and there’s been a complete reshuffling of the Mid-American deck. This is probably the most radical one-week change in the rankings we’ve ever done. Critics might take this as a sign of league-wide mediocrity while optimists could argue it’s depth. I still think we’re going to see [...]

“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man, healthy, wealthy, and wise.”- Benjamin Franklin
But it doesn’t prevent syphilis, does it, smart guy? I really wish I was one of those people that could regularly fall asleep by midnight and wake up ready to take on the day come morning. I’ve been [...]

A few college hoops seasons ago, we started doing almost weekly power rankings for MAC basketball. As pointless as it may seem to be doing power rankings for a conference that’s currently 17th-best*, we had fun with it, and it was a great way to understand the state of MAC hoops on a weekly [...]

Or should they be called the weakness ratings? Whatever. The important part is, it’s over. I can finally put this mess behind me. I spent a long time staring at this list trying to make sure it made sense. I eventually had to just admit it doesn’t really matter; all [...]

Man, I hate this conference this year. Seriously. Sports are allegedly supposed to be fun, but following this tragicomedy has been about as enjoyable as an enema. Because I take this “job” semi-seriously, I try to take in as many games as possible one way or the other. That usually means [...]

There is no longer any discernible order, reason, or rhythm to this conference. If the conference was not as bad as it is, these last two weeks would be a lot of fun. Instead, it feels like a funeral procession to Cleveland for 11 burials.
The BracketBuster weekend forced the MAC back into the [...]

The world doesn’t make sense anymore! Miami loses at Central, Buffalo loses at Ball State, Akron loses at Northern Illinois and Bowling Green gets walloped at home to Eastern Michigan?!? Geez. Someone’s going to have to win this conference, right?
And am I crazy, or is this the least exciting BracketBusters weekend ever? [...]

Life on the road sure isn’t what it used to be. In 2008, road teams managed just 26 wins. This year, MAC road warriors have taken 16 scalps. Considering we’re halfway through the conference slate, 35 or more wins for road teams is a very real possibility. Many road wins could [...]

Well, it’s January 19. Did you miss us? I know I missed you. Come here, let’s hug. By the way, happy Inauguration Day tomorrow! Unfortunately, I’m gonna miss it. Something about “work” and “showing up.” Nonsense, I say!
Just a quick housekeeping note: My power rankings can also be [...]

The upper-level of the MAC acquitted itself fairly well on last Saturday’s BracketBusters, with three of the top four teams scoring wins, two of them on the road. Of course, the crown jewel of the weekend was Kent State’s 65-57 at St. Mary’s, throwing them into the thick of the at-large discussion. This [...]

Two-thirds of the way to Cleveland and we still have three teams that control their own destinies to capture the regular season championship. Strikingly, they are all East teams: Kent, Ohio, and Akron. If any three of these teams win the remaining six games, they take the floor at Quicken Loans Arena as [...]

After taking the abuse of East fans (and Ohio coach Tim O’Shea) for the better part of the year, the MAC West refused to settle for little brother status in the first round of cross-division games, taking three of the six contests last weekend. It could have been lopsided, too: Both Western Michigan and [...]

After an utterly chaotic first week, order may have been restored in the MAC. Preseason favorite Western Michigan has asserted itself as the leader of the West and Akron has emerged as the overall top dog in the conference. We’ve even seen a couple more road wins. Still, going into cross-division matchups [...]

What have we learned, class? It’s going to be fun going on the road to this year. After the first week of conference play, we have a grand total of one road win. One. Uno. That’s it. Most of the games, in fact, haven’t even been close. This [...]

With the hot MACtion starting today, let’s line them up and see how the conference looks after non-conference play.
1. Kent State (10-3, 0-0): At the risk of sounding like Joe Morgan (and who wants that?), I’m putting the Golden Flashes on top because of their consistency. Jim Christian’s boys play tough defense have enough [...]

If the MAC needed another lesson on the importance of quality out of conference scheduling, they got it from ESPN yesterday.  Toledo, Kent, and Ohio, who sported some of the stronger OOC slates in the conference, were rewarded with quality opponents for the BracketBusters event next Sunday.  Akron, on the other hand, finds itself paying [...]

I apologize for the lateness for these rankings, but those pesky midterms have gotten in the way.  Honestly, college would be a lot easier without them, wouldn’t you say?  Besides, consider this an appetizer for this week’s hot cross-division action.

I like the way the schedule is set up this year.  One around the home division, [...]

Hello class.  Tim’s taken a couple weeks off, and I’m the O Zoner, a big, bad Ohio fan.  Props to the Hoops Junkie for letting an enemy take some of the reins here.  The second weekend of MAC play has come and gone.  Divisional races are starting to take shape, and there’s even a couple [...]

What an opening weekend!
Of the six games, four were decided by two points of less and came down to a shot in the waning seconds. Even the two — Ohio’s 77-72 win over Akron and Central’s 74-68 win over Eastern — that didn’t were pretty fucking tight scraps, which means quite a few things, [...]

We’re a bit more than a month into the college hoops season and the MAC, with the possible exception of Akron, seems harder to figure out than an M.C. Escher work. Take my Bulls, for example. Just this past week, they pulled a no-show in a terrible 80-63 loss to a mediocre Tulane [...]

How much one day can change things in the every game counts world of college hoops. Heading into yesterday, MAC squads had fared pretty poorly in non-league this past week winning but two of eight contests. Based on the uneven play that has been our league’s calling card only weeks into the 2006-07 college [...]