BG at Akron

[gmartin]

EMU now up by 8 with 2 min remaining. Come on Eagles

[HoopsFan]

87-80 Eastern. 90 seconds left.

[gmartin]

I could care less if CMU loses. I want the #1 seed and not play the Zips until the finals

[bgsufalcon24]

Eastern up 90-82 with 1:05 left in overtime. The Chips are going down. BG will be the #1 seed in Cleveland.

[HoopsFan]

YAY! Thank you Eastern. Falcons get the MAC regular season championship, the #1 seed, and don't have to face Akron unless they meet in the finals! Under 20 seconds 95-82

Go Falcons!

[Class of 61]

Well, the Chips DID blow it BIG TIME... announcers said EMU outscored them something like 29-5 or similar in last minutes of reg. + OT.... if CMU is still "on the bubble" as you put it, the bubble may have burst, unless of course, they win the tournament...then, would BG be "on the bubble"?

[bgsufalcon24]

Well, the Chips DID blow it BIG TIME... announcers said EMU outscored them something like 29-5 or similar in last minutes of reg. + OT.... if CMU is still "on the bubble" as you put it, the bubble may have burst, unless of course, they win the tournament...then, would BG be "on the bubble"?

Well, if you're one of the people in MAC office...you're probably rooting for either Akron or CMU to take out BG in the tournament finals. That likely results in 2 teams making the NCAA tournament. BG is virtually a lock at this point.

The only way I could see this not happening would be if BG somehow gets beat by Buffalo or Ball State in the tournament semifinals, because that would put a very bad defeat on our ledger and give the committee an alibi if they elect not to take us. But failing that, I can't see how a tournament final loss against CMU or Akron would be a disqualifier. CMU is in the RPI top 40, so losing against them is nothing. Akron's RPI right now is 97, which is somewhat more sketchy, but in a scenario in which they beat CMU and BG both en route to the MAC tournament title, that number would skyrocket into the 70s, maybe even the 60s, making that not really a big deal.

If there's a valid comparison to be made between our team this season and our team in 2009 that got snubbed, its this. Both the 2009 and 2014 teams had great records...but the 2009 team had a TERRIBLE defeat in the 2nd last game of the regular season at Miami. The Redhawks had an RPI north of 200 at the time. That teams record in the end was 28-4, this year's squad is 27-3 with 2 games to go. But this year's team doesn't have any defeats on their resume that even remotely resembled that meltdown at Millett Hall. I'm absolutely convinced the committee used that single performance as the reason to exclude BG from the tournament. By the way...it was a total sham job, which MAC tournament champion Ball State highlighted so dramatically when they clobbered Tennessee in the opening round. BG could've done damage in that tournament as well, no doubt.

Again, I go back to the fact that only 1 team, ONE team, that had an RPI of under 44 got left out of the NCAA tournament last year. Our RPI right now is 30, and it might improve a few places after today's win. Only a loss against Buffalo or BSU (I can't imagine us facing anybody else on Friday), would put us in danger.