FalconBlog--Triumphs and Trials in the BGSU Falcon Nation

Hoops Mop Up

First, a final epilogue on the Buffalo Debacle. In her blog, Maureen Fulton had this from the Dayton Daily news that I believe sums up the whole situation--with no winners.

Know how we look down on third-world countries and say about them, “Aw, look how cute they are, trying to be grown-up nations”? It’s incidents like that that make people feel the same way about the MAC and other mid-major conferences. Can you imagine this same thing happening in the Big Ten or the Big East?

Could this have happened at Assembly Hall? Don't think so.

Finally, if you want a clear cut, story over wrap up to this situation, the Buffalo News has it. This is a must read.

Step back from the fiasco at the end of Tuesday's Bowling Green-University at Buffalo game and look at the bigger picture. Look past the foolish mistakes made by the three officials, the silliness of the Falcons running to the locker room without shaking hands and the bratty antics of UB coach Reggie Witherspoon.

The whole thing reeks of a conference that once had a lot of nationwide buzz and now has none. The talent level in the Mid-American Conference has dropped precipitously, and the officiating is downright laughable. Clips of Tuesday's slapstick act made it to "SportsCenter." That's the only way this league deserves to get on ESPN.

On the Bracket Buster, the MAC went 6-6. On analysis, it is as much of a wash as it would appear. Kent winning at George Mason is a downright nice win, as was Miami winning at Indiana State. The WMU win over Valpo was a good one, but one you should win at home. The Akron game was kind of a mismatch, and the BG and EMU wins were meh.

As for the losses, we had three teams lose at home. NIU was probably overmatched, but a UT win would have been nice for the conference, and Buffalo was hosting a pretty average team. CMU, Ball State and OU had really tough assignments, especially given OU's travel requirement.

Below are my bracket buster ranking. 2 points for something really good or bad, 1 point for something that happened as it should have. Numbers are Sagarin rankings.

Miami (124) beat Indiana State (121) on the road. +2
EMU (227) beat Manhattan (243) at home. +1
Kent (86) beat George Mason (106) on the road +2 (best team we beat)
Akron (67) beat Austin Peay (153) at home +1
BG (234) beat Morehand (272) on the road +1
WMU (136) beat Valpo (147) at home. +1
Detroit (177) beat Buffalo (209) on the road -1
Wisconsin Green Bay (144) beat NIU (260) on the road -1
UIC (124) beat CMU at home (98) -1
Illinois State (98) beat Ball (206) at home -1
Old Dominion (71) beat UT (96) on the road. (-2)
New Mexico State (80) beat Ohio (114) at home (-1)