Around the MAC

[Dave in Green]

Last night the Zips zapped WMU and CMU upset Toledo. Tonight the first round of MAC play is completed with a couple more upsets:

NIU 70, OU 60

BSU 60, EMU 59

BGSU 66, Can't 64

Buffalo 79, Miami 72

NIU was projected to be at the bottom of the MAC West, so OU's shaky results to date are confirmed by this bad loss. BSU was projected to be near the bottom of the MAC West and EMU near the top. Oops.

BGSU and Can't were projected to be in the middle of the MAC East, so this was a coin toss. Buffalo was projected to be near the top of the MAC East and Miami at the bottom, so this one came out as expected.

EAST
Akron 1-0

Buffalo 1-0
Bowling Green 1-0
Can't State 0-1
Ohio 0-1
Miami (OH) 0-1

WEST
Central Michigan 1-0
Northern Illinois 1-0
Ball State 1-0
Eastern Michigan 0-1
Western Michigan 0-1
Toledo 0-1

[Sportsjunkie330]

More interesting than the upsets is that 6 of 7 road teams won this week, UA is the only home winner.

Normally MAC basketball is all about the home team.

[ZachTheZip]

The MAC this season has a lot of teams with inflated records coming from playing weak schedules. Lots of paper tigers.

[Dave in Green]

A little more on the Bobkitties: This is their first season with Coach Saul Phillips, who came over from the successful North Dakota State program. Looking at tonight's box score shows something very different from past OU teams. Although the starting lineup of 3 guards and 2 forwards was typical OU, the minutes played were not:

Starters

39 = Maurice Ndour (F)

38 = Ryan Taylor (G)

33 = Antonio Campbell (F)

33 = Javarez Willis (G)

28 = Mike Laster (G)

Subs

16 = Stevie Taylor (G)

13 = Treg Setty (F)

This is the shortest rotation I can recall seeing OU play. Don't know if that's the new coach's philosophy or if circumstances dictated it. Senior Stevie Taylor coming in as a sub after starting half of the Kitties' 12 games is a bit of a mystery. Whatever's going on in Athens, the Kitties are now 5-7 and struggling mightily, their 3 NCAA tournament wins in recent years a distant memory.

[zippypitt]

Think our attendance is pathetic? 530 brave souls to watch Miami at Millet tonight.

[ZZZips]

Think our attendance is pathetic? 530 brave souls to watch Miami at Millet tonight.

I saw this post on the EMU board by EMUSuperFan: "With this loss attendance will drop off big time just like last year."

Last year EMU average attendance was 940 per home game. Last night their attendance was 1,036.

I guess a "big time" drop off is going from 1,036 down to 940.

[OU Dude]

Last night the Zips zapped WMU and CMU upset Toledo. Tonight the first round of MAC play is completed with a couple more upsets:

NIU 70, OU 60

BSU 60, EMU 59

BGSU 66, Can't 64

Buffalo 79, Miami 72

NIU was projected to be at the bottom of the MAC West, so OU's shaky results to date are confirmed by this bad loss. BSU was projected to be near the bottom of the MAC West and EMU near the top. Oops.

BGSU and Can't were projected to be in the middle of the MAC East, so this was a coin toss. Buffalo was projected to be near the top of the MAC East and Miami at the bottom, so this one came out as expected.

EAST

Akron 1-0

Buffalo 1-0

Bowling Green 1-0

Can't State 0-1

Ohio 0-1

Miami (OH) 0-1

WEST

Central Michigan 1-0

Northern Illinois 1-0

Ball State 1-0

Eastern Michigan 0-1

Western Michigan 0-1

Toledo 0-1

I can shed a little light on Ohio. Ohio has 12 scholarship players, 2 are out all season per transfer rules and a 3rd is a grad student that would be eligible immediately but there's been some sort of clerical hold up with his records from his under grad. He should be able to play soon but at best will be a role player coming off the bench will limted minutes.

That left 9 eligible for last night, the two that didn't play were RS Fr Harley who was just cleared after being out with a nagging back injury and Monpremier, a sophomore big that is underdeveloped and slow. Stevie has been benched because he's shooting .276 from the floor and .171 from 3. He's also .478 from the foul line. He and and our other senior guard, Bean Willis are sloppy on defense, don't pass the ball well, and chuck up 3s like they're DJ Cooper, but they're not. Its going to be a frustrating season.

Congrats on the dominant win over the Broncos, I'm guessing a little payback from last season felt good.

[Dave in Green]

Thanks for the update, OU Dude. We're so used to OU quickly reloading that it's a bit of a shock to see how lean things have been so far this season. No matter what their record the rest of the season, I'm sure the Kitties will be up for the Zips games.

[zippyfan34]

So now Akron has 11 scholarship players but all can play. I guess I didn't fully realize that when someone transfers they take up one of the 13 scholarships that year even though they aren't playing. It makes sense as I step back now to look at it.

[OU Dude]

Thanks for the update, OU Dude. We're so used to OU quickly reloading that it's a bit of a shock to see how lean things have been so far this season. No matter what their record the rest of the season, I'm sure the Kitties will be up for the Zips games.

3 coaches in 4 years finally takes its toll. When Groce left Ohio lost commitments from Evan Bradds (Belmont) and Caris LaVert (Michigan). When Christian left Ohio lost commitments from 2 JUCOs who are now contributing +20min/gm for USF and Buffalo, and a 4 star freshman now with the Vols. Add to that 2 high major transfers and 2 promising freshmen that never made it onto the court for various reasons and you have a whole lot of talent that got away.

[Z.I.P.]

A little more on the Bobkitties: This is their first season with Coach Saul Phillips, who came over from the successful North Dakota State program. Looking at tonight's box score shows something very different from past OU teams. Although the starting lineup of 3 guards and 2 forwards was typical OU, the minutes played were not:

Starters

39 = Maurice Ndour (F)

38 = Ryan Taylor (G)

33 = Antonio Campbell (F)

33 = Javarez Willis (G)

28 = Mike Laster (G)

Subs

16 = Stevie Taylor (G)

13 = Treg Setty (F)

This is the shortest rotation I can recall seeing OU play. Don't know if that's the new coach's philosophy or if circumstances dictated it. Senior Stevie Taylor coming in as a sub after starting half of the Kitties' 12 games is a bit of a mystery. Whatever's going on in Athens, the Kitties are now 5-7 and struggling mightily, their 3 NCAA tournament wins in recent years a distant memory.

Here is my take on Ohio, after seeing them play three games in the beautiful Hawaiian Islands over the holidays:

Stevie Taylor has lost his PT and his starting spot in the rotation to the "New Taylor".. Ryan is a very good freshman -- big guard who should develop into a very effective scorer and defender, possibly an all-MAC caliber baller.

Setty is so very inconsistent: He can literally take over a game on the inside (as he did versus DePaul) with his aggressive play, offensive rebounding and fine court vision. Unfortunately for coach Saul (nice guy BTW, spent some time near him, he's a laid-back sort of guy, who reminds me somewhat of coach Hawkins at WMU), Treg gets out of rhythm and tends to get lost for long stretches, and can commit bad fouls.

Green Bean Willis, when he gets hot -- pphewwwww, does he get hot -- he can just blow off a streak of points that can change the game (33 pts vs DePaul, IIRC).

In general, you are right that this OU team lacks depth -- and they also lack size and rebounding. But on a given night, they can surely beat any team in the league.

[zippy5]

Not gonna lie, it takes a little fun OUt of it when OU fans actually admit they aren't that good.

[Dr Z]

When Groce left Ohio lost commitments from Evan Bradds (Belmont) and Caris LaVert (Michigan). When Christian left Ohio lost commitments from 2 JUCOs who are now contributing +20min/gm for USF and Buffalo, and a 4 star freshman now with the Vols. Add to that 2 high major transfers and 2 promising freshmen that never made it onto the court for various reasons and you have a whole lot of talent that got away.

I know how you feel, ZN lost GP1 and Zipmeister.

[Balsy]

I know how you feel, ZN lost GP1 and Zipmeister.

When did we lose Zipmeister?

[LZIp]

When did we lose Zipmeister?

Can't believe I forgot about him considering the remarkable thought provoking opinions he contributed to the forum.

[Hilltopper]

I know how you feel, ZN lost GP1 and Zipmeister.

When did we lose Zipmeister?

Can't believe I forgot about him considering the remarkable thought provoking opinions he contributed to the forum.

Funny that they both disappeared at the same time.

[K92]

Funny that they both disappeared at the same time.

Interesting theory, but I always got the idea that Zipmeister was a bit older than GP1. Do you have any other ideas about multiple accounts? There have definitely been some threads where it sure would have been fun to comment via an alternate persona.

[Dr Z]

Interesting theory, but I always got the idea that Zipmeister was a bit older than GP1. Do you have any other ideas about multiple accounts?

One stopped posting in the beginning of November, the other stopped posting at the end of November. I'm pretty sure Zipmeister used to comment on GP1's posts. I think Zipmeister started calling GP1 "the grate" one too.

[Hilltopper]

I hope Zipmiester is OK. Just having a little fun with the suggestions.

[Dr Z]

I hope Zipmiester is OK. Just having a little fun with the suggestions.

Understood. I just didn't want members to think that we don't keep an eye on accounts. Hope he/she is just on a long vacation somewhere warm.

[Dave in Green]

Upsets continuing in the second round of MAC action today. So far:

Miami (1-1) came back from 25 points behind to upset EMU (0-2) in OT, 82-81

WMU (1-1) upset Buffalo (1-1), 78-68

Ball State (2-0) surprisingly hammered CMU (1-1), 83-65

OU's (0-2) woes continue to grow with a bad 69-54 loss to Bowling Green (2-0)

With only tonight's game between Can't (0-1) and Northern Illinois (1-0) remaining, Bowling Green and Ball State are currently the only undefeated MAC teams at 2-0.

[Dave in Green]

Of course Can't beat NIU, 67-65, to make a lot of 1-1 teams in the MAC. It shouldn't take long for Bowling Green and Ball State to join the other losers. It's really wide open this season.

EAST

Bowling Green 2-0

Akron 1-1

Buffalo 1-1
Can't 1-1
Miami 1-1

Ohio 0-2

WEST

Ball State 2-0

Central Michigan 1-1
Northern Illinois 1-1

Western Michigan 1-1
Toledo 1-1

Eastern Michigan 0-2

[The Hip Zip]

To me, the Miami game was truly a shocker, even though they were at home. W Mich was actually favored to beat Buffalo so that one didn't surprise me much.

[Dave in Green]

Not sure exactly what qualifies as an upset in the MAC this season. But since a lot of folks thought Eastern Michigan was hot stuff this season I'll go with Can't dropping EMU to 0-3 as the upset of the night. Certainly Toledo dropping OU to 0-3 is no longer in the realm of upset. Maybe Western Michigan taking 2 overtimes to hand Ball State its first conference defeat of the season is a little surprising. CMU beating Miami is no shock, but 105-77 is a little surprising. And Buffalo topping NIU was expected. Anyway, the East and West now have mirrored records of 4 teams each at 2-1, 1 team each at 1-2 and 1 team each at 0-3.

EAST

Akron 2-1

Buffalo 2-1
Can't 2-1
Bowling Green 2-1

Miami 1-2

Ohio 0-3

WEST

Toledo 2-1

Western Michigan 2-1

Central Michigan 2-1

Ball State 2-1

Northern Illinois 1-2

Eastern Michigan 0-3

[Dave in Green]

With 4 of the 5 teams leading the MAC standings at 3-1, the East is starting to separate a little from the West after Saturday's round 4 of conference play. WMU edges UT in OT, EMU gets its first win and OU is the only team without a conference win.

Zips 82, Chips 76

WMU 81, UT 78

EMU 54, NIU 46

UB 77, MU 68

Can't 69, OU 59

BGSU 58, BSU 46

EAST

Zips 3-1

UB 3-1
Can't 3-1
BGSU 3-1

MU 1-3

OU 0-4

WEST

WMU 3-1

UT 2-2

CMU 2-2

BSU 2-2

NIU 1-3

EMU 1-3

Wednesday's matchups include:

3-1 Zips @ 1-3 NIU

2-2 UT @ 3-1 Can't

3-1 UB @ 2-2 CMU

1-3 EMU @ 3-1 BGSU

3-1 WMU @ 1-3 MU

0-4 OU @ 2-2 BSU