Two more nail-biting finishes over the “big boys” by the MAC

BGSU33 · Post by **BGSU33** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 9:38 pm

Last night in Hawaii, Ohio beat St. John’s (Big East) on a Bubba Walthers’ full-court pass with 1.6 seconds remaining to Leon Williams who scored the game-winning shot on a layup with 0.2 left for a two-point OU win. This happened after St. John's tied the game with a three. Then tonight, Miami got a close one to go its way (all four Miami losses were by four points or less) as the Redhawks beat Illinois (Big Ten) on the road in overtime by three, 61-58.

cowboyjoe · Post by **cowboyjoe** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:05 pm

If we don't get at least 2 teams in the "Big Dance" this year we never will. Miami, Ohio, Kent, Western Mich all looking to very good with some very nice quality wins.

BleedOrange · Post by **BleedOrange** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:50 pm

These are MAC Sagarin rankings, which hint where the MAC stands in the RPI. The MAC is #12 as a conference. I'll just say it right now: there are no bubble teams in the MAC this year unless Miami can limit their MAC losses to 2. This will be another 1-bid year.

59 Miami-Ohio
63 Kent State
71 Ohio University
102 Akron
117 Central Michigan
120 Western Michigan
153 Toledo
169 Eastern Michigan
191 Buffalo
221 Bowling Green
288 Northern Illinois
303 Ball State

Dayons_Den · Post by **Dayons_Den** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 11:40 pm

[quote="cowboyjoe"]If we don't get at least 2 teams in the "Big Dance" this year we never will. Miami, Ohio, Kent, Western Mich all looking to very good with some very nice quality wins.[/quote]

This statement confuses me?

Falcon137 · Post by **Falcon137** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 9:46 am

Were only going to get 1 and it's to bad.

Miami has lost by 1 to Dayton, 3 to Louisville, 1 to Wright St., and 4 to USC. They are 9 points from being a top 15 team.

Jacobs4Heisman · Post by **Jacobs4Heisman** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 9:49 am

The cannibalization starts in less than a month. Win the tourney if you want to dance.

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 10:32 am

Falcon137 wrote:Were only going to get 1 and it's to bad.

Miami has lost by 1 to Dayton, 3 to Louisville, 1 to Wright St., and 4 to USC. They are 9 points from being a top 15 team.

But you don't get credit in the RPI or in the selection committee's eyes by losing close games to good teams. They look at signature wins, not signature "we played 'em close and fells". If they had pulled off a couple of those games I think they'd have a legit shot at an at large, but I don't see two teams in this conference that are going to have tourney worthy resumes.

Falcon137 · Post by **Falcon137** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 11:22 am

hammb wrote:
Falcon137 wrote:Were only going to get 1 and it's to bad.

Miami has lost by 1 to Dayton, 3 to Louisville, 1 to Wright St., and 4 to USC. They are 9 points from being a top 15 team.
But you don't get credit in the RPI or in the selection committee's eyes by losing close games to good teams. They look at signature wins, not signature "we played 'em close and fells". If they had pulled off a couple of those games I think they'd have a legit shot at an at large, but I don't see two teams in this conference that are going to have tourney worthy resumes.

I didn't say we would get 2. I said were only going to get 1 as in 1 MAC team in the NCAA tourny. I was stating that if Miami could easily be undefeated right now. Every game they've lost they've had a lead, 2 of the 4 by 15+.

Falcon137 · Post by **Falcon137** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 11:30 am

cowboyjoe wrote:If we don't get at least 2 teams in the "Big Dance" this year we never will. Miami, Ohio, Kent, Western Mich all looking to very good with some very nice quality wins.

Put the brakes on. Miami has some good wins, Miss St., Illinois, Xavier. Kent has a few with them pounding St. Louis and George Mason.

You're going to have to sell me on Ohio....lost @ Holy Cross, lost @ Temple, beat a Maryland team thats way down and followed it up with a 40 point beating @ Kansas.

Western is also another team that does NOT deserve any postseason talk. They are currently 5-6. They lost to Pacific, Valpo, San Diego St, Northwestern, and IUPUI. Their good wins are Davidson, and S. Illinois. Davidson HAS to win their conference to get in the NCAA and S. Illinois stinks this year. The same USC team that beat Miami by 4 beat them by 25. S. Illinois is 6-5 1 with good win over St. Mary's.

Bottom line we MAC people better root for Miami to beat Kansas, win 12-13 MAC games, make it to the finals, and lose. That is the ONLY possible scenario where more than 1 team from the MAC gets in.

JoeFalcon · Post by **JoeFalcon** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 12:27 pm

Most of the time, I root for every team in the MAC to lose. They are BG's competitors for recruits, media attention, regular students, state money and a hell of a lot more. To paraphrase Sonny Corleone "If business (MAC prestige) has to suffer, so be it." The whole prestige business is vastly overrated anyway. Other fans don't lose sleep thinking about the MAC or follow the day to day minutiae to begin with.

I get the arguments about a rising tide lifting all boats, but there's only one boat that matters to me, and I don't like the others getting in the way.

I'm a BG fan first, a MAC fan second and a Kiefer Sutherland fan a distant eigth.

OSUFALCON · Post by **OSUFALCON** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 5:24 pm

I think the MAC has an outside chance of getting a second bid. The only teams with a real chance would be Ohio, Miami and Kent St. OU can gain some points if it can win the Rainbow Classic in Hawaii. Miami's chance would be very good if it hadn't blew big leads to Dayton and Wright St. and lost at the buzzer.

http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_midam_Men.html

Men's Basketball - Mid-American (2007-2008)

Conf. RPI Rank: 12 Conf. SOS Rank: 7

Join Discussion now in Mid-American Message Board new
Only games against Division I opponents are counted.
Teams that made the tournament are in bold
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Last updated - Fri Dec 21 15:07:37 PST 2007 Switch to Power Ratings

RPI Rk Mid-American Conf All RPI SOS Rk SOS

East Division
39 Ohio 0-0 7-3 0.6053 47 0.5610
40 Miami (OH) 0-0 6-4 0.6044 11 0.6089
60 Kent St. 0-0 9-2 0.5815 167 0.5012
133 Buffalo 0-0 4-4 0.5266 103 0.5355
160 Akron 0-0 8-2 0.5011 326 0.4015
280 Bowling Green 0-0 4-5 0.4230 323 0.4080

West Division
91 Cent. Michigan 0-0 4-5 0.5534 67 0.5519
102 Toledo 0-0 2-9 0.5486 1 0.6774
115 West. Michigan 0-0 5-6 0.5418 64 0.5523
175 East. Michigan 0-0 4-4 0.4904 198 0.4872
288 Northern Illinois 0-0 2-8 0.4153 168 0.5011
293 Ball St. 0-0 0-10 0.4118 75 0.5490

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BGSUfalcons · Post by **BGSUfalcons** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 8:18 am

Falcon137 wrote:
cowboyjoe wrote:If we don't get at least 2 teams in the "Big Dance" this year we never will. Miami, Ohio, Kent, Western Mich all looking to very good with some very nice quality wins.
Put the brakes on. Miami has some good wins, Miss St., Illinois, Xavier. Kent has a few with them pounding St. Louis and George Mason.

You're going to have to sell me on Ohio....lost @ Holy Cross, lost @ Temple, beat a Maryland team thats way down and followed it up with a 40 point beating @ Kansas.

Western is also another team that does NOT deserve any postseason talk. They are currently 5-6. They lost to Pacific, Valpo, San Diego St, Northwestern, and IUPUI. Their good wins are Davidson, and S. Illinois. Davidson HAS to win their conference to get in the NCAA and S. Illinois stinks this year. The same USC team that beat Miami by 4 beat them by 25. S. Illinois is 6-5 1 with good win over St. Mary's.

Bottom line we MAC people better root for Miami to beat Kansas, win 12-13 MAC games, make it to the finals, and lose. That is the ONLY possible scenario where more than 1 team from the MAC gets in.

I don't think that losing at Holy Cross (the probable Patriot League champ) and at Temple by 2 is going to hurt Ohio very much. If OU beats St. Marys tonight, they will be looking really good for an at large spot. This is assuming, of course, that OU goes at least 11-5 in conference. Also, how Maryland and St. John's finish will be very important.

Miami has some really good wins and has played one of the more difficult OOC schedules in the country. I don't think they need to beat Kansas, but they do need to beat Cincinnati and have a very good conference record as you mentioned.

I also think Kent St has a shot if they do really well in conference as long as GMU, Illinois St., St. Louis, etc finish strong.

BGSUfalcons · Post by **BGSUfalcons** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 8:52 am

BGSUfalcons wrote:
Falcon137 wrote:
cowboyjoe wrote:If we don't get at least 2 teams in the "Big Dance" this year we never will. Miami, Ohio, Kent, Western Mich all looking to very good with some very nice quality wins.
Put the brakes on. Miami has some good wins, Miss St., Illinois, Xavier. Kent has a few with them pounding St. Louis and George Mason.

You're going to have to sell me on Ohio....lost @ Holy Cross, lost @ Temple, beat a Maryland team thats way down and followed it up with a 40 point beating @ Kansas.

Western is also another team that does NOT deserve any postseason talk. They are currently 5-6. They lost to Pacific, Valpo, San Diego St, Northwestern, and IUPUI. Their good wins are Davidson, and S. Illinois. Davidson HAS to win their conference to get in the NCAA and S. Illinois stinks this year. The same USC team that beat Miami by 4 beat them by 25. S. Illinois is 6-5 1 with good win over St. Mary's.

Bottom line we MAC people better root for Miami to beat Kansas, win 12-13 MAC games, make it to the finals, and lose. That is the ONLY possible scenario where more than 1 team from the MAC gets in.
I don't think that losing at Holy Cross (the probable Patriot League champ) and at Temple by 2 is going to hurt Ohio very much. If OU beats St. Marys tonight, they will be looking really good for an at large spot. This is assuming, of course, that OU goes at least 11-5 in conference. Also, how Maryland and St. John's finish will be very important.

Miami has some really good wins and has played one of the more difficult OOC schedules in the country. I don't think they need to beat Kansas, but they do need to beat Cincinnati and have a very good conference record as you mentioned.

I also think Kent St has a shot if they do really well in conference as long as GMU, Illinois St., St. Louis, etc finish strong.

Well, yesterday didn't help.