Correct, just the top 8.
Adding pdf link to the women's brackets.
https://getsomemaction.com/documents/20 ... cket24.pdf
Because it's A10T week, do not want to distract from the main focus, so piling on to this post.
Wendel: Welcome to the MAC, UMass hoops fans. Here’s what’s waiting
A primer to the basketball side of MACtion
Men: Meet the “Ohio Four”
Modern MAC men’s basketball is thought of by me as being led by the “Ohio Four” (name created by yours truly): Akron, Kent State, Ohio and Toledo. Two to four of these schools will be contenders yearly, and apart from Buffalo’s late-2010s run, one of them typically wins the conference tournament (at least one of the first three: Toledo hasn’t appeared since 1980!). This year, it’s the Zips leading the conference, followed by the Rockets and Bobcats in that order. The Golden Flashes are the odd team out, sitting in seventh.
Why are these four at the top, you might ask? Well, in addition to having the most resources invested in hoops, the “Ohio Four” have managed to hang on to their coaches, a blessing in the mid-major world. Toledo’s Tod Kowalczyk and Kent State’s Rob Senderoff are on seasons 14 and 13 with their schools, respectively. Akron’s John Groce is in year seven, while Ohio’s Jeff Boals is in year five. These coaches have built up positive cultures at their respective schools and they, along with players and fans, have reaped success because of it.
If Frank Martin remains with the Minutemen through their first couple seasons in the MAC, which I see as likely, a similar story may await UMass men’s basketball.
Women: Two at the Top
The women’s basketball scene in the MAC is led by two heavyweights: Ball State and Toledo. Massey has both programs ranked in the top-70 nationally, putting the MAC’s top two on a similar playing field as the A-10’s top two programs this season, Richmond and Saint Joseph’s.
The Rockets have a one-game lead in the conference at time of writing, sitting at 21-4 (13-1 MAC). Led by head coach Tricia Cullop, Toledo pulled off a shocker in the NCAA Tournament last season, defeating Iowa State as a 12 seed before falling to Tennessee in the round of 32.
Ball State also has four losses on the season, and of its 23 victories, some have been over marquee names. At the Sun Coast Tournament in December, the Cardinals took down Pittsburgh and Georgia by 11 points and 1 point, respectively. In conference play, Ball State handed the Rockets their lone conference loss thus far, winning by 14 at home before the Rockets got their revenge in late February.
Warning: MACtion May Contain Ballers
Despite their middling reputation, the MAC still produces stars yearly. Here’s a fun fact for you: the MAC has had one pick in each of the last three NBA drafts. Those three draftees put the conference on par with the A-10 (three) and ahead of the Mountain West (two).
A potential reason I’ve found for this is that MAC teams’ offensive systems give stars more breathing room to do their thing. An extreme example of this was Emoni Bates with Eastern Michigan last season, as the forward took just under 16 shots per night. This season, there are three MAC players in the top eight nationally in field goal attempts per game.
Especially with guards, it doesn’t take long for MAC talent to emerge and either go pro or transfer up to a bigger school. Just this past offseason, three MAC guards transferred to power-conference programs (Curtis Jones from Buffalo to Iowa State, Kevin Miller from Central Michigan to Wake Forest, RayJ Dennis from Toledo to Baylor). All three are prospering at their newest stops, showcasing the talent level of the conference in the process.
Despite their reputation as an average conference, the MAC is actually above average when it comes to men’s basketball attendance. The conference averaged 2,804 fans per home game last season which ranked 12th out of 32 Division I conferences. In the grand scheme of things, that’s not too far off from the A-10, which averaged 4,354 fans per contest. The Minutemen’s 2022-23 average of 3,580 fans would have put them fourth in the MAC, behind Toledo, Ohio and Ball State.
https://dailycollegian.com/2024/03/wend ... s-waiting/Be proud of the present and look to the future.
