Edit: Ok, WTF is up with the formatting? The screenshot at the bottom is what the seeds should look like.
We’re now past halfway in the conference season, so I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the current matchups:
Akron vs.
Kent
BGSU vs.
Ohio
Toledo vs.
WMU
CMU vs.
Miami
This honestly wouldn’t be a bad draw for us. Central wouldn’t be an easy out, but they don’t seem to be a typical 2 seed. We would also avoid Akron until the championship.
I know they’ve already beaten us, but I wouldn’t mind a matchup with Central in the 1st round. It really shows how bad the MAC is this year considering CMU is 9-3, and they have a NET Ranking of 239 and a 252 KenPom.
After 2/20. 5 games left. The race has tightened for #1 and #8.
Akron 11-2
Toledo 11-2
Akron holds the tiebreaker with their win over Central. Toledo lost to Central.
Central 10-3
OU 8-5
BG 7-6
Western 6-7
Kent 6-7
Miami 6-7
Ball St. 5-8
NIU 3-10
Eastern 3-10
Buffalo 2-11
So with another loss to Western, any tiebreaker involving them would be bad. However, a 3 team tie with Western and Ball St. would get us in. If Ball St. beats Western again, we’re all 2-2 head-to-head, but we went 1-0 against Akron. If Western beats Ball St., it would go Western, Miami, Ball St.
But it still holds that 9-9 gets you to Cleveland, 8-10 gives you a chance, 7-11 would probably leave you on the outside looking in.
If I’m not mistaken, we have not finished in the top half of the MAC regular season standings since 2010-11 (if you ignore old divisional format and look at the entire league rankings). Making Cleveland is the first priority, but would really nice to go above and beyond that to show real progress.
Was checking a MAC tourney site and it shows only a smattering of tix available. Is that because blocks are committed to schools and elsewhere? Can’t believe that many tickets have been sold to public. Dick?
They do assign a seating area to each team and those tickets can be purchased from a Miami rep before the game on site or probably through the University in advance once the tournament field is set. We have always purchased a full tournament pass from the Cavs, but this year they did away with the cheap pass and the prices are either $180 or $300 ( includes men and women). The most we ever paid previous was $80. We were discussing what to do last night, but I think we will just buy an individual ticket before each session $25 plus fee for men( 28 for final) $10 plus fee for Women. There are only 3 sessions for men and 3 sessions for women. So that is $108 plus fees. We are not sure if fee is $3 or $5 per session. Now to tell you the truth, we almost never sit in our assigned seats ( maybe 10 % of the time, we mostly end up in the first row of the club level which are just a spectacular view (we have a special group of seats which we call the Penno seats). For men’s games, all seats are assigned, but we find ways around that. For women’s games, everything but the first 3 rows are general admission seating.
An important thing to know is that both men and women now play a 4 game session in the quarterfinals, with the next game always starting half an hour after the previous game ends. They do allow you to leave and go out and eat or go back to your room and then return, but make sure you find out the correct procedure and entrance to leave and return. It is not always the same procedure.
DICK, enter discount code “MAC” on Seatgeek to get $10 GA tickets for Women and tickets as low as $19 for Men (fees included). For all 6 sessions, it will cost you $87 with the discount compared to full price of $165.
2 games left. It’s mostly about seeding, but even after their unexplainable breakdown at the end of their game yesterday, Ball St. is still alive.
If you see anything that needs to be corrected, please do so.
Akron 13-3. Clinches #1 by winning 1 of their last 2 games.
Toledo 12-4. Toledo can finish anywhere from 1-4. They’re #1 if they win out and Akron loses both of their games.
OU 11-5. OU can finish anywhere from 2-5. They lose tiebreakers with Akron and Toledo. They have head-to-head with Central. They would lose a tiebreaker with us if we end up tied (that’s where the win over Akron comes in handy).
Central 10-6. Central’s range is 2-5 as well it seems. They would win all of the tiebreakers with the 8-8 teams if they were to somehow lose their remaining 2 games.
Miami 9-7. We could finish anywhere from 3-8. Right now a 4/5 matchup with Central is the most likely.
Kent 8-8. At Ball St. on Tuesday.
BG 8-8
Western 8-8
BG and Western still have to play. In the head-to-head right now, it’s Kent 2-0, BG 1-1, Western 0-2. Even if Western beats BG, BG would still have the tiebreaker because of their win over Toledo.
The range for those teams is 5-9.
Ball St. 6-10. They’re still alive. Obviously, they have to win out to have a chance, but they have some favorable tiebreak scenarios.
Well, it’s March. Of course, the same Eastern team that was abysmal against us on Saturday went to Akron and won tonight. Even down 1 with the ball with 7 seconds left, their win probability was 8%, 2% after Osojnik missed the 3, but then Billingsley rose for the putback slam.
(Also, #1 seed E. Kentucky in the ASun lost at home in the quarters of their conference tourney)
So, 1 game left and there’s a lot to be decided.
Toledo 13-4. With OU guaranteed at least 3rd, Toledo now has the head-to-head. Toledo also wins a 3-way tiebreaker with Akron and OU.
Akron 13-4. They’re #1 with a win and a Toledo loss. They’re #2 otherwise.
OU 12-5. They’re #2 with a win, a Toledo win, and an Akron loss. They’re #3 otherwise.
Central 11-6. Locked. They lose the head-to-head with OU.
BG 9-8. Now that Toledo is #1, BG has the tiebreaker on us.
They finish #5 with a win OR a loss and Miami loss and Western win.
They finish #6 with a loss and Miami win and Kent win and Western win OR a loss and Miami loss and Kent win and Western win.
They finish #7 with a loss and Miami loss and Kent loss.
Miami 9-8. Any tiebreaker with Western involved we lose.
We finish #5 with a win and BG loss OR a loss and BG loss and Western loss and Kent win
We finish #6 with a loss and BG win and Western loss and Kent loss
We finish #7 with a loss and BG loss and Kent loss and Western win
We finish #8 with a loss and BG win and Kent win and Western win OR a loss and BG loss and Kent win and Western win.
Kent 8-9. They have clinched. They win a head-to-head with Ball St. on the 2nd level.
#5 if they win and BG loss and Miami loss and Western win #6 if they win and Miami win and Western win and BG loss OR if they win and Miami win and BG loss and Western loss #7 if they win and Western win and BG win and Miami win OR if they win and BG win and Western win and Miami loss OR if they lose and Western win and Ball St. win #8 if they lose and Western win
Western 8-9. Win and they’re in.
#6 if they win and BG win and Kent win and Miami loss OR they win and BG loss and Miami loss and Kent loss #7 if they win and Kent loss OR they win and Kent win and BG loss and Miami loss #8 if they win and Kent win and Miami win OR if they lose and Ball St. loss #9 if they lose and Kent loss and Ball St. win
Ball St. 7-10. 1 scenario. They lose head-to-heads with Kent and Western.
#8 if they win and Kent loss and Western loss
Out otherwise
And I think that does it?
Postscript: Keep in mind that if Akron wins the MAC, we regain the head-to-head over BG.
Akron completely choked, losing at home to Eastern on Wednesday and at Western tonight. So if Toledo holds on (they lead Kent by 10 at the half), I believe it’s: