RoyalBlu

With the exception of Peterson ... I really haven't heard of any of these guys. Either in HS or in college. The Johnson brothers have good HS reputations. But college???

Since when did NE Ohio have a legit Top 100 recruit after LeBron James?

Personally speaking, every top tier MAC team from last season is in some form of major transition at two or more positions. To start the season, bet on experienced coaching. The talent on the well-coached teams will flourish the second half of the season. The MAC schedule changes dramatically, a complete round-robin, so by Valentines Day the standings should be interesting ... yet still in a state of flux. Talent and good coaching down the stretch will show up well into the MAC Tournament.

He looks to be the perfect roster add at this point. No matter if he starts or comes off the bench. At minimum, he should be an 8pt, 6reb, 20-minute guy with ability to deliver much more at any spot along the baseline. Those kind of players are hard to find.

Two/three PGs, 2 post players and a bunch of 6-5, 6-6. wings that can shoot is the current formula for success both Akron and Miami have used the past few seasons. Add Toledo to that list and it's easy to see where MAC success in basketball is headed.

After he left ... Kent picked up a worse 'shooter' (less than 30% on 3s) but more familiar player in 6-0, 200lb Chansey Willis, who was pretty good at Western Michigan two years ago, 16pts, 5.8ass, but got hurt at Minnesota last year and played just 7 games.

Think about it ... teams aren't just replacing their starting 5s, (Akron, Kent) they are basically replacing 2/3rds of the roster, almost every year. Just not sustainable for stability or success.

No way to find out ... but it would be interesting to know how many of the players in the portal would have actually left the teams they were playing for, if there was no NIL?

When judging these recruiting classes I personally look at a few things: 1) Who's making style/philosophy changes. Last season it was obvious Kent made changes to more mirror Akron and Miami. Didn't get better than those two, but was clearly ahead of the rest of the MAC. 2) Toledo did not seem to change style/philosophy, but did seem to bring in more physical/athletic players and by the end of the season were arguably playing better defense. This seems to be a trent they are continuing. 3) Ohio seems to be searching a bit. Boals is known for recruiting bigs, but hasn't really hit on any of note. Now going the international route. 4) BG, Ball State, EMU, UB all look to be searching for an identity, even as they improve their rosters, on paper. EMU, by keeping Habhab, should be pretty solid if the Eagles have a good PG.

I don't even think 8-10 games will be a good measuring stick. Buffalo was a different team in MAC play, even with Freitag, than what they looked like early. Ohio was a disaster early, then became MAC-average. Toledo was also under-whelming, but improved down the stretch. UMass didn't wake up until the MAC Tournament.

I agree Kent is TBD, but I would put Toledo up there w/Ohio-Akron-Miami. Toledo has picked up a nice veteran PG from Marquette, and have a pair of high-quality freshmen guards coming in. Don't sleep on UMass, either. If they pick up a couple shooters their stock will rise. Sadly, with graduations and the portal the 2026-27 season likely won't be as good as the last one. But somehow come March the MAC still puts 4 quality teams on the court for the MAC Tournament semis ... no matter what their records.

I wish I was you🤣

What is the link to this website

No doubt, the MAC is still a guard league. But a MAC coach (I believe Charlie Coles) once said "The MAC is a guard league ... but good MAC guards win with good MAC post guys." Now, in his era, one good 6-7 post guy (Wally, Ira Newbill, Alex Shorts, Ohio w/Trent or Brandon Hunter) was all they needed. Now, even at the mid-major level, most good teams not only have guards, they have TWO post guys. That's why you see so many teams loading up with bigs, even at this level. As the season wears down, good bigs start to play up.

They have added 3 portal bigs so far (lost 2 grad bigs, 2 portal bigs) but none seem like a swap for Gillespie. Williams maybe swaps Whaley ... maybe. But one from EMU looks like just a rim protector and the other looks like a serious project. Both Kent starting guards portaled (both to losing programs) and SF (Safford) graduated, so they still got a ton of work left to do. In fact, all Kent's new signees are coming from losing programs so that lockerroom should be interesting.