2025-26 Season

[69MG]

It's almost BB season:

MAC Men’s & Women’s Basketball Tip-Off Show Set For Oct. 21 on Field of 68

CLEVELAND, Ohio – For the second consecutive season, the Mid-American Conference and its Men’s and Women’s Basketball programs will be highlighted on a special 2025-26 Preview Show in partnership with the popular college basketball media network The Field of 68.

The MAC Basketball Tip-Off Show will feature interviews on The Field of 68’s X and YouTube pages with the men’s and women’s head coaches as well as one male and one female student-athlete from all 13 MAC basketball programs.

Additionally, the show will be available in its entirety on the Mid-American Conference’s YouTube channel after the preview show concludes.

The men’s preview show begins at 9 am ET/8 am CT with Jeff Goodman and Rob Dauster conducting the interviews. The women’s basketball preview show will follow with Talia Goodman, who is a national women's basketball reporter for On3/Rivals.

[MikeUMA]

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https://www.youtube.com/@TheFieldOf68
https://x.com/TheFieldOf68

[Juice Stand]

So let's update the projected rotation based on the Brown exhibition:

Starters:
PG: Parker
SG: Banks
SF: Ndjigue
PF/C: Hankins-Sanford
PF/C: Bettiol

Subs:
PG: Carbuccia
SG: Brown
SF: Wimbley
PF: Clerc
C: Damjanac

Less than 10 mins: Outlaw, Placide, Osman, Castineyra.

Next up: RIC this Saturday. 1:00 at the Mullins Center.

[Steve81]

Looking forward to a good season, but don't like playing Div III UMass Boston and have no idea who Le Moyne is. Like Boston College, Florida State, home games with Charleston, Harvard, the Sun Belt Challenge, Kent State, Toledo, Miami, Buffalo and Ohio.

[69MG]

Looking forward to a good season, but don't like playing Div III UMass Boston and have no idea who Le Moyne is. Like Boston College, Florida State, home games with Charleston, Harvard, the Sun Belt Challenge, Kent State, Toledo, Miami, Buffalo and Ohio.

LeMoyne is in the NEC which includes Central CT, LIU and Wagner, among others. Certainly a step below the MAC, but we lost to Central CT last year so keep that in mind. They were 9-23 last year so not at the top of the NEC. I'd do more research but it's not worth the time. It's a game we should win easily (I said should, not will). I've been down this road before.

[Steve81]

Looking forward to a good season, but don't like playing Div III UMass Boston and have no idea who Le Moyne is. Like Boston College, Florida State, home games with Charleston, Harvard, the Sun Belt Challenge, Kent State, Toledo, Miami, Buffalo and Ohio.

LeMoyne is in the NEC which includes Central CT, LIU and Wagner, among others. Certainly a step below the MAC, but we lost to Central CT last year so keep that in mind. They were 9-23 last year so not at the top of the NEC. I'd do more research but it's not worth the time. It's a game we should win easily (I said should, not will). I've been down this road before.

I believe in this team and will try to make a few games. We will have a winning season, but not ready to say more until the lights come on.

[Juice Stand]

...home games with Charleston...

Charleston is not at home. It's the opener of the Paradise Jam down in the USVI. Still, they're usually a good squad and it's a matchup to look forward to.

[Juice Stand]

Again, not a ton here we don't already know, but here's a season preview article in the Gazette for those interested. https://gazettenet.com/2025/10/20/coach ... 26-season/

[MikeUMA]

The MAC's pre-season stuff is out.
The Coaches' Poll has us 5th among the 13, and got one vote for winning the tournament championship.
DHS was named to the All-Conference Second Team.

https://getsomemaction.com/news/2025/10 ... teams.aspx

[TheInsider]

People will lose their shit if we finish 5th..

[eldonabe]

People will lose their shit if we finish 5th..

Some will lose their shit if they "only" come in 3rd.

[Juice Stand]

I'm on record. If we finish 5th I'll be disappointed for sure, wonder about Frank Martin's future as head coach, and think it will be the final nail in Bamford's coffin. If we finish 3rd or better, I'll be pleased as that has been my benchmark for success.

For reference, a 5th place MAC team is something like a 17-14 or 18-13 regular season record and 10-8 in conference. Being barely above .500 is fine, I guess, but that's not the vision we were sold.

[TheInsider]

I think top 3 would be fine.. sometimes its really close and comes down to tiebreakers. Also need to at least make the semi's in the conf tourney

[eldonabe]

I think we are all making the exact same mistake that Frank made in his first year here.... Taking the new conference for granted.

My guess is that teams will be circling Umass on their schedule to prove a point - and that will make something that is unchartered that much harder to navigate. They could finish anywhere from 8th to 1st and no finish in that range would surprise me this year.

[Steve81]

From pono posting in the MAC MBB Preview

exhibition games are starting. generally, don't have stats or video. most of what you get as news is from a beat reporter, coach, message board, or someone who went to the exhibition. most teams will start their projected starters but not all.

UMass plays at mid level Ivy Brown and was losing at halftime but blew them out in the second half. found a box score. UMass Shot the ball well and played pretty clean, 20 assists 10 turnover. Guard Marcus Banks made 7-7 from three and had 24 in 20 minutes. rest of the team was decent 7-20 from three. only shot 9 free throws.

Toledo goes into D2 Findley, a yearly expo, and gets in a small gym road atmosphere against a top D2 team that doesn't have as good athletes but plays good basketball. UT pulls ahead by 20 mid first half and keeps it's foot on the pedal for a 123-103 win. Findley shot 42 threes. Toledo made 12-24 and had a lot of assists. Rockets started 6-10 250 Jr Parks, 6-9 soph Ouwinga, 6-4 Sr Vanderjagt, 6-3 soph Strong, 6-1 Jr Sonny Wilson. played an 11 man rotation with nine scoring in double figures; bench may be 6-7 Sr Craig, 6-5 soph Ode, 7 foot fr Praytor, 6-1 fr Blyden, 6-5 soph Riddle. Praytor and Strong are the biggest surprises. Both were lightly recruited HS players. Strong didn't have a D1 offers so went JUCO and had a big fr year and suddenly plenty mid major options. he's been solid on both ends for UT and will start. Praytor went from a 6-2 HS guard to a 7 foot grad and was expected to RS and work on his body but has already played his way into the bench rotation handling the ball, making 3s, dunks and, while skinny, showing some toughness. Toledo will closed scrimmage Xavier next which will be interesting.

Ohio played a Dayton game with Wright St but on UD's floor. Wright St wins by 6 in a sloppy game in which both teams played their starters almost as much as reg season games and two fouled out. teams combined to shoot 36/25/52. Ohio did shoot 30 ft. they played small 6-2, 6-1, 6-3, 6-8, 6-7 and didn't have a bench player score more than 2 pts. they will usually make more than 4-19 threes so I wouldn't toss aside a preseason top 4 MAC team. I believe they play at OSU next so it gets harder.