This team is NOT going to win the MAC Tournament

[BGSU33]

I said it at the start of the MAC season and I'm saying it again, there's no way in hell this team is winning the MAC Tournament. . They simply don't have the makeup to do it. No team that gets absolutely blasted by the last-place team in the MAC is going to be cutting down the nets in Cleveland. Hell, Miami should have won the other meeting, and the same could be said for many of BG's win this year. The winning streak was impressive and that's the kind of run you need to get on to win the MAC Tournament. Not showing up one game and sleepwalking in another. BG had yet another stone-cold start which has happened over and over and over and over and over, and that more than anything is what's going to prevent BG from doing it. No team is going to win the MAC Tournament digging a hole and having to play uphill like that three games in a row in Cleveland.

BG is the only - ONLY - school in the MAC to never win the MAC Tournament. Not even once. Think about it. Ball State has won it 7 times, Ohio and Kent State have won it 6 times each, Kent State, Buffalo and EMU have won it 4 times, Akron has won it 3 times, CMU and WMU have won it 2 times, and even Toledo and NIU have won it once. BG has never done it. And won't. It's why BG is and will remain irrelevant in basketball. It can't even win its own conference tournament. Not once in 40 years of existence. And this year will be no different. Just watch.

[mbenecke]

I love reverse jinxes.

[Hooper]

I love reverse jinxes.

Exactly

[gspointer]

I see a game 1 bounce

[Matty B]

The bottom 4 teams in the MAC all won Saturday. Gonna be anybody's ball game in Cleveland.

[BleedOrange]

I see know reason to expect this team to mentally respond to the MAC tournament. Eugene Norman by himself demonstrates something that our entire team is missing. Not one player is of the ilk of McLeod or Stacey. Not even close.

[bgsufalcon24]

Azz.com by its very nature is often bipolar, but I’ve rarely seen a BG team with a more divided and bipolar fan base as men’s basketball this year.

Beat Cincinnati - hey we might be pretty good
Lose to Nevada - ok maybe not
Lose home to Kent State - wait till next year
Win at Toledo - next year is now
Lose to Central Michigan - see I told you we stink
Win home vs Toledo - suck on that baby!
Pound Akron at home - we’re going all the way!!!
Get pounded at Miami - we’re going home first tournament game

Don’t like what people are saying about the team?? Wait a few days.

You’d think a 21-8 team that has won literally every close game they’ve been in and is getting great output and results for the talent they have would be getting much better support than this. Especially given that the last time we were in first place this late in the season, I was still a college senior and people thought Louis Orr was a better coach than Jim Larranaga.

[Globetrotter]

It wouldn't surpise a person here if they lost their last 4 games of this season.

[mbenecke]

I also don't think many would (or should) be shocked if we won the whole thing.

We have the ability to beat anyone and the ability to lose to anyone. That's college basketball, man. Heck, Duke lost to 13-15 Wake Forest by double digits. That's just how things are in this sport sometimes.

We have a real shot to run the table in Cleveland because of the work we have put in this season. We can talk about win margin/point differential all we want (and I do appreciate the stat, Globe) but ultimately what matters is getting wins, and we have 21 of them, including one by 18 over the "best" team in the conference just 1 week ago.

I refuse to be a prisoner of the moment and overreact. As close as many games have been, what matters most to me is that we're 21-8, 12-4, and 1st in the MAC with 2 to go.

[Falcon Commander]

Azz.com by its very nature is often bipolar, but I’ve rarely seen a BG team with a more divided and bipolar fan base as men’s basketball this year.

Beat Cincinnati - hey we might be pretty good
Lose to Nevada - ok maybe not
Lose home to Kent State - wait till next year
Win at Toledo - next year is now
Lose to Central Michigan - see I told you we stink
Win home vs Toledo - suck on that baby!
Pound Akron at home - we’re going all the way!!!
Get pounded at Miami - we’re going home first tournament game

Don’t like what people are saying about the team?? Wait a few days.

You’d think a 21-8 team that has won literally every close game they’ve been in and is getting great output and results for the talent they have would be getting much better support than this. Especially given that the last time we were in first place this late in the season, I was still a college senior and people thought Louis Orr was a better coach than Jim Larranaga.

[hammb]

The team is bipolar. They've been bipolar all year. They've been bipolar for most of Huger's tenure. It is what he is. He's not a great coach. He's not a terrible coach. He's brought in a lot of high end MAC talent. He's had some misses as well. We've developed some players nicely, some players are still the same as they were when they got on campus.

But all told our ability win close games, anchored by the best clutch player in the MAC (and best BG has had since McLeod), makes us to be a pretty good team when it's all said and done. The team is not good enough for me to have high EXPECTATIONS in the MAC tournament, but it's certainly good enough for me to have high hopes. I do think they'll win their first game on Thursday, but Friday & Saturday all bets are off. The MAC is a pretty deep league this year without any truly elite teams. Wouldn't be surprised if any of the top 6-7 teams ended up taking it all, BG included.

The rollercoaster mentality/play of this team lends itself to the rollercoaster discussion on this board, I'm sure. But when you step back and look at the body of work as a whole, we win far more than we lose, even against similarly talented teams in the MAC. And we are absolutely great in close games. We're also far more battle tested in close games than your average top 1/2 seed team is. I've got no predictions, but I'm enjoying every game I get to watch Frye, Turner, and Plowden play in a BG uniform. And I hope like hell Huger can keep everybody with eligibility around for next season, as it could be an even better year.

[mbenecke]

hammb, that's brilliant. Not high expectations, but definitely high hopes. I think that sums up how I feel nicely.

[MarkL]

ESPN analysts were unanimous on Akron winning the tournament. I can definitely see Akron as a safe pick but unanimously? This is a deep conference.

[Globetrotter]

The thing that makes it so frustrating is that it doesn't seem to be a lack of talent. It seems to be a lack of basketball intelligence and effort.

[mbenecke]

The thing that makes it so frustrating is that it doesn't seem to be a lack of talent. It seems to be a lack of basketball intelligence and effort.

I woudn't even say it's a complete lack of IQ/effort. Sometimes they show real flashes of brilliance - I think it's more of a lack of consistency in those areas than anything else.

If we could consistently be as good as we really can be, we would be the best team in the league. I think we have the highest ceiling of anyone in the MAC. Now, we don't always reach that ceiling, and THAT is what I feel is the issue here - We don't always know what BG team is going to show up.