kreed5120

To toot my own horn I stated that WMU path to staying in the game was getting offensive rebounds, which they have been able to do. Usually the better team can pull away in the final 10 minutes. The longer WMU hangs around, the more they will have confidence they can win. Lets go on a run and put this game out of reach.

Getting offensive boards is the one thing WMU is great at. Best in the MAC at offensive rebounding rate.

WMU 10 offensive boards is allowing them to stay within striking distance. It would be nice to go on a run to put this game out of reach.

I actually hadn't heard about the NIT bringing some auto-bids back. That's at least a positive over the disaster that it was for mid-majors last year.

To clarify I was using Kenpom in my comparison. I'm not sure how to readily find previous years NET data. Kenpom makes it readily available on their main page so it's the tool I use when comparing years past. Especially since NET is only a few years old so even if you find the data, the look back isn't far. I don't think anyone here is downplaying a win streak.

I feel Arth created a lot of problems for himself as well. He decided to bring in his equally, perhaps even more, inexperienced cronies. You had the blind leading the blind. If you're going to bring in an inexperienced FBS coach, you should at least pair him with a long-time FBS coordinator. Perhaps a guy that had a coaching stint of his own and can at least offer guidance on what not to do.

The last team to go undefeated in MAC play was Miami in 1958 when the conference season was only 12 games. There has been nearly 70 years of MAC basketball played since. in that time we've seen some great teams that couldn't do it (Wally Miami, Elite 8 Kent, Oats Buffalo, and I'm sure some more teams even older that were before my time). I think @Toledo or @Ohio present the greatest opportunity for a loss. We live in a world where a 16 seed beat a 1 seed. The better team doesn't always win on a nightly basis.

200 is an arbitrary cut-off. If we use 150 then it would be tied for fewest. That's not even getting into the number of MAC teams who are 300+, which is 5. Nearly half the league. Before covid it was like 1. Other years after covid it was like 2-3. Top to bottom, this is the MAC'S worst year. Last year not being far off.

It would heavily depend on how many P4 who miss the bubble, but decline an invitation to the NIT. When the NIT revamped the format last year, they pretty much came out and said they're looking for the teams that give the best ratings. They aren't bound like the NCAAT selection committee, who have to at least formulate an explanation on why they took the 9th place Big 10 team over a 28 win mid-major. The NIT can state they acknowledge a ~27 win Akron team is more deserving than a 17-16 Virginia team, but Virginia will drive viewers so they went with them.

My first concern is actually winning 3 in Cleveland first. The rest of the MAC might be garbage, but we live in a world where a 16 seed beat a 1 seed. Anything can happen in a single elimination format.

Both CSU and YSU were horrible when the 4 NEO teams had that coaches vs cancer annual challenge. I kind of just viewed it as another cupcake opponent.

To answer the actual question, there is no tie-breaker and it would be recorded as a draw. That's how it's done for the other conference challenges.

The program has been horrific since COVID and were only treading water before. They held onto Hawkins too long. When they decided to move on from him they promoted one of his under performing assistants, who they gave the job because he agreed to taking it on a trial basis while still making only an assistants salary. Not sure about Stephens, but his tenure isn't looking so hot. A prime example of the many MAC programs that have stripped funding from all sports so they can spend every last penny on football. It's why MAC hoops as a whole has been in decline.

With Auburn's loss today Akron has the 2nd longest active winning streak in the nation. Only Duke is currently ahead, which they're currently trailing by 2 to Clemson. Edit: Duke falls to Clemson. Akron has the longest active win streak in the nation.

The last time I think there was real discussion here was Dambrot's final season. Ever since then it's usually just 2-3 delusional posters with the rest of us trying to talk some sense into them.

I think you and I have very different takes. This season is the first one that I don't recall it being talked about, however, I imagine that chatter will start if the Zips are still undefeated in MAC play at the end of February. The disastrous OOC performance made people hold off this year. Below is me responding to someone talking about at-larges during preseason. I do think people are more dismissive of it now compared to what they were 5 years ago.

On the post game Groce said that WMU is the best offensive rebounding team in the MAC by rebounding percentage. As long as we hold our own on the glass and don't make too many unforced errors, we should be able to comfortably win.

We want Bama!

Receiving a vote isn't that high of a threshold. Some voters even intentionally include an under the radar team that they don't feel gets enough attention in their 23-25 spot. If our win streak gets north of 15, we might sneak onto someones ballot.

It's usually around the time that people start talking about at-large bids or getting votes in a poll that we suddenly have a head scratching loss.

Replacing dead weight NIU with UMass will greatly improve the MAC's chances of competing in this in future years.

NIL exists in the NFL. It's just called endorsements. Any star player will make far more in the NFL than they would in college when you factor in both their NFL salaries and endorsements. The players who can make more in college are the guys who are terrific collegiate players, but are practice squad talent at the NFL level. A guy who jumps out to me is Amando Bacot (I know he's basketball) who was making more at UNC than he is now making in the G-League. I think that post was more a knock at Brandon Marshall and his poor money management. Jeremiah Smith has only made a few million at the collegiate level. Obviously that's a healthy sum, but Brandon Marshall should be worth 10s, if not 100+ million, had he not recklessly spent his career earnings.

I actually think QB might be the one position that it's useful to recruit straight out of HS. Even if they sit a year or 2 that gives them additional time to learn the system so those years aren't a complete waste.

You left us blue hairs I see.

The issue is they scheduled the 2nd leg too early. At the time South Alabama was the 2nd best team in the SunBelt (per NET). In the last 2-3 weeks they have fallen off the cliff. Dropping 50-60 spots in NET. Had they delayed scheduling the second leg another week or so, we would have been paired with Troy, which on paper is a quality matchup.