Minions night. Miami is 16-5 (8-1) We are 4-4 in true road games. Central is 10-11(4-5). They beat us the last two years in Mount Pleasant. All time we are up 57 to 25. Central played 4 power conference teams earlier.
They beat BG 90 to 71 at home on Saturday. 6-10 JR Ugnius Jarusevicius had 21/12. 6.4 JR Kyle Vanderjadt had 25 points with 6 threes. 6.2 SR Anthony Pritchard was a first team All MAC preseason pick averaging 13ppg. 6-6 Jacoby Heady averages 13ppg, and 6-6 Caden Vasco averages 8ppg.
I certainly would not count this as a sure win. They have size and athleticism and maybe the best point guard in the league. Plus none of our recent wins have been easy and we got drilled in our last road game.
It’s absolutely a tough game. No cake walks in the MAC in my opinion even though many feel otherwise. Central lost close to Minnesota and beat Geo. Mason earlier who has a lot of good wins. I think we can win because we have a few intangibles they don’t, but prolly it’s an 8 point win max.
Very few sure wins in the mac (and soon we will have one less with NIU leaving, don’t let the door hit you on the way out).
So far we’ve been very good at beating the teams we should beat, so let’s hope that continues.
At this point, it looks like there’s Akron, a big gap, then Miami and Toledo. The computers still like Kent too.
I’d love to win a share of the league but ultimately there’s no real difference between finishing 2 or 3. Either would set us up for a finals with Akron.
Not sure how many computers take injuries into account. Kent had some really nice non-conference wins while Safford was healthy, particularly 2 road victories over mid-major teams currently leading their conference. Kent has twice as many Quad 3 wins as Miami.
We know what a great all-around player Safford is, and Kent with him was probably a top 3 MAC team, if not right there with Akron.
Speaking of that, I have noticed Appy State isn’t having such a bad season… I saw they were 13-9, and tied for 3rd in the Sunbelt w a 7-4 conference record.
Depending on what metrics you look App state is either our best win or our second-best win (Kent being the other). The Wright State and Vermont losses continue to haunt us.
Doesn’t matter a ton since we can’t get an at large bid, but Troy would be nice W from a computer perspective.
Yeah I keep track of their(WSU and VT) scores, hoping they improve enough to move up out of Quad 4.
I know the computer rankings don’t matter unless Miami wins the MAC Tournament and an NCAA seed comes into play, but it’s enjoyable to see the better numbers.
I like Torvik’s “Win above bubble” metric which scores each game based on how a team on the bubble would be projected to do in them. We’re currently 1.8 wins below the bubble but if we had won both then that would have accounted for the 1.8 and we’d be right on the bubble (WSU was -0.92 and Vermont was -0.88). Even winning one would have put us in the position from here to win out and be right on the bubble (possible to gain 1.02 with the current remaining schedule, although any loss in the conference tournament would probably drop us back down).
We are currently 16-5. This is the first time we’ve been 11 games over .500 since we beat Wichita St. on 2/19/05 in a nationally televised Bracket Buster game. We haven’t been 12 or more games over since the 1998-99 Sweet 16 season. Let’s change that tonight.
