Captain Kangaroo Posted January 26, 2009 Report Share Posted January 26, 2009 Highly Scientific, Undeniably Accurate Lunchtime Analysis:#1 - Buffalo (12-5) Previous Rank #1To those who scoffed at my early-season ranking of the Bulls at #1, I say RPI…SCHMAR-P-I! Buffalo has the best offensive ball movement in the MAC. Without Betts, their #2 scorer, they still easily dispatched of Miami on Saturday. They remind be a lot of last-season’s UA squad. #2 – OU (10-8)Previous Rank #2After 5 consecutive wins, the Bobcats have lost 2-of-3. And the lone win was an OT home tussle vs. the Zips. Bobcats are #2…but the distance between #1 and #2 expanded this week..#3 – Akron (10-8)Previous Rank #6A road win vs. BG and a home thumping of rival K.e.n.t. vaulted the Zips into the #3 spot. The Zips have a Hostess Factory-sized cake walk over the next three weeks, so don’t look for them to drop any time soon.#4 – Miami (10-7)Previous Rank #3 Home loss to OU… win @ K.e.n.t….win @ BG….12-point home loss to Buffalo. Like the distance between #1 and #2…the distance between #3 and #4 appears to be growing.#5 – Bowling Green (9-9)Previous Rank # 4On the strength of their home win vs. Buffalo, and Saturday’s road win in Athens, I’d like to let BG keep their #4 ranking this week. But their 7-point loss to Miami on January 20th tells me “Don’t do it.” BG slips to #5.#6 BSU (9-8)Previous Rank #7Now 4-1 in the MAC West. A 6-point home win vs. WMU puts them in the lead for the West divisional title. They mopped their home floor with Toledo Sunday 66-53.#7 – K.e.n.t. (8-11)Previous Rank #6 11-point home loss to Miami…11-point road loss to Buffalo…14-point road loss to the Zips. K.e.n.t. is falling faster than my 401k. Geno Ford looks to be a lock for coaching K.e.n.t. to their first sub-20-win season in over a decade.#8 WMU (7-11)Previous Rank #8Drubbed NIU by 19…drubbed Toledo by 18…beat EMU by 8…but lost to Ball State, scoring a horrid 44 points in their 6-point loss. Still looking to be “the second-tallest midget” in the sideshow that is the MAC West, standing at 4-1.#9 NIU (6-11)Previous Rank #9Hey…they beat EMU by 20. But sandwiched it with some double-digit losses to WMU and CMU.#10 CMU (5-12) Previous Rank #12Beat NIU and Ball State. Lost to Toledo!!!#11 EMU (3-16)Previous Rank #10Suffered the ultimate disgrace in losing to lowly Toledo by 12.#12 Akron Women’s Team (7-12)Previous Rank #11Lost 3-of-4. But did beat K.e.n.t. Gotta drop ‘em a spot, however.#13 Toledo Eternal rank - #13.I don’t care if they did beat CMU and EMU, I’m keeping them in the basement for Crimes Against James Naismith. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quickzips Posted January 26, 2009 Report Share Posted January 26, 2009 I'll buy these rankings. I think it's clear that Buffalo has the edge in the East right now through the first go around of divisional play and that the East is the stronger conference. Thus, Buffalo has to be number one. OU, Miami and the Zips seem to be hard to rank. Both have had some good moments and some bad ones. I think I would probably put OU and Miami ahead of us right now based on the head to head matchups, but both games did go into OT and neither team has been that impressive otherwise. Can't and BG are clearly at the bottom of the division right now. As far as the West goes, Ball State and Western were the class of that side of things through the first 5 games, but I expect it to be a blood bath from their prospective once the cross-divisional games begin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zippyrifle32 Posted January 27, 2009 Report Share Posted January 27, 2009 i love how you include the women's team Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave in Green Posted January 27, 2009 Report Share Posted January 27, 2009 CK, I appreciate your efforts to put all this in writing, and agree with your assessments. Last night's YSU game reinforces the Zips recent rise. They are now playing much smarter and with more confidence. That's what I saw in Buffalo's team when they beat the Zips. They played really well as a team, crisply moving the ball around until they found the open man, getting high percentage shots and crashing the boards. The Zips now appear to be on a similar trajectory, and MAC tournament results will depend on which team develops the most cohesiveness over the next couple of months. If they continue improving, I don't think it's unrealistic to hope for the Zips to enter the MAC tournament as a 3 or 4 seed. But the MAC is less predictable this year for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted January 27, 2009 Report Share Posted January 27, 2009 Quickzips....I agree with you that it's hard to not put both Miami and OU in front of us since they both beat us head-to-head, and one could arguably make the point that they buried us when it came to those last few overtimes minutes, when it mattered most. I really hate to say this, but....regardless of how Can't State looks right now, and my opinions about how poorly I think this coach has done his job of molding these guys into any kind of team, I still believe that Can't has the talent to make up serious ground as the rest of the season progresses.Our biggest hurdles? We still have to play road games at Buffalo and Can't. And please...we all do this every year....don't assume that we breeze through the MAC West schedule, and win all of our remaining homes games. Even our best teams over the last few years weren't able to get this done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave in Green Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 Last year the Zips were 4-2 against MAC West teams in the regular season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 Dave...unfortunately it was even worse. We were only 3-3 last year against the West. And they were awful last year too. A close loss @ Central, a 20-point loss @ Western, and a 10-point home loss to NIU...which I felt was the WORST game we played all last year.Speaking to the character of that team, we avenged that 20-point loss to WMU by beating them in the semis of the MAC tournament, which I thought was the BEST game we played all last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Hip Zip Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 I really think that Miami was far the best until Hayes went down. Here is my top four.BuffaloMiamiAkronOU Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave in Green Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 Dave...unfortunately it was even worse. We were only 3-3 last year against the West. And they were awful last year too.Oops. I used to be good at math, but miscounted on this one. That 3-3 record is an even bigger warning not to expect this year's Zips team to sweep the weak West. It's not impossible, just not likely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RowdyZip Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 While we may have been bad vs a bad west last year, if i'm not mistaken we were missing a key cog in JWood last year for a couple of those games. If I recall, the home streak ended vs NIU without Jeremiah in the game because of the knee injury. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeaglet1 Posted January 29, 2009 Report Share Posted January 29, 2009 Nice work Capn. I think you nailed it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave in Green Posted January 30, 2009 Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 It's official now. CBS Sports projects Buffalo as a 14 seed in the South regional of the Big Dance:http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/11233762 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave in Green Posted January 30, 2009 Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 And more from CBS Sports on Buffalo in March Madness: Mid Major Bracket Busters:http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/messages/thread/13278859 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeaglet1 Posted January 30, 2009 Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 I think OU might slip "slightly" after losing at CMU last night.... OUCH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave in Green Posted January 30, 2009 Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 Elite MAC East teams shouldn't worry about those lowly MAC West cupcakes, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Kangaroo Posted January 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 Elite MAC East teams shouldn't worry about those lowly MAC West cupcakes, right? I never said anything about OU's ability to digest cup cakes...I only know the Zips can digest them easily. OU losing to BG at home, then CMU on the road. I sense a change atop the Power Poll next week if the Zips can take care of business... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave in Green Posted January 31, 2009 Report Share Posted January 31, 2009 So far so good. The Zips take care of business, and OU loses yet another to the West. Looking forward to the new poll. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Hip Zip Posted February 2, 2009 Report Share Posted February 2, 2009 I really think that Miami was far the best until Hayes went down. Here is my top four.BuffaloMiamiAkronOUSticking with my top 4 but tempted to replace OU with BG or Cant in the 4 spot. I eagerly await the Capt's rankings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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