MAC Men's Hoops Preview

1.  Ohio U

Despite an off-season that saw Armon Bassett leave as well as a couple of other players (Kinney and Coleman) who were projected to be big producers, OU is still the clear favorite to win the East.  DJ Cooper might be the best player in the conference and he might have been last year.  Tommy Freeman is an outstanding shooter and DeVaughn Washington is a viable inside presence who proved himself during the NCAA tourney.  They have a strong recruiting class coming in, including at least one player (Ricardo Johnson) who might contribute.  OU should win the East, and then I like the odds of Groce getting better employment.

2.  Miami

And what do we hear from the evil genius, Charlie Coles?  I think Miami may be a sleeping giant.  3 of their top 4 players return (they lost Kenny Hayes) and they have 5 very interesting players coming in, including two  who averaged double-doubles in High School.  I think the question for Miami is whether the guys in the middle classes--who did not play much last year--are ready to take bigger roles with around the very strong returning cast.  Miami has their usual backbreaking out of conference schedule but I think they could be strong in the MAC season.

3.  Kent

Kent is going to be very interesting.  If this was hockey, Kent is more or less doing a shift change.  They return only 4 players who saw time on last year's team, but have an interesting and compelling case to make to be very good this year.  They add 3 JUCO transfers, 1 D-1 Transfer, 1 JUCO transfer who redshirted, and honest to god transfers.  On the upside, the players who are back (Sherman and Greene) are very good. One of the JUCO players (Porrini) was really good as a HS player in OH but signed at Western Carolina, and then went to JUCO and then Kent.  They appear to have some incoming talent at Guard, and C Justin Manns (Owens Community College) is set to enter the lineup in the post.  I don't know....this doesn't seem to be a very good way to run a railroad, but it will be interesting to see how good Kent is.

4.  Bowling Green (Preview here)

5.  Akron

Akron has certainly been very competitive over the years.  They lost quite a bit from last year's team, including Jimmy Conyers, Chris McKnight and Humpty Hitchens, who transferred.  They return two starters, Brett McKnight, who has been good in the Akron role-dominated game but may not be able to be a premier player, and Zeke Marshall, who is all-OMG.  They have five players coming in, including a very interesting PF from Kentucky named Dakotah Euton.  The have some transfers sitting out, so if this is a down year, it might not last long.

6.  Buffalo

Buffalo cracks me up.  Most teams do a pre-season prospectus, and that shows who returns and who was lost, etc.  Buffalo did one too, but there is no mention at all of players being lost, and that's because (I assume) they are thinking no one will notice that they lost their 5 top players.  Their leading returning player averaged 5.8 points per game.  They have a transfer from Iona (Wolfley) who has nice size and could be a competitive player, but for this team to compete, the middle classes need to step up, and we just have no way of knowing what they can do.

West

1.  Ball State

I do like Ball State quite a bit this year.  I think they are probably the second best team in the MAC.  They return Jarrod Jones, a member of the All-Freshmen team, and one of the MAC's top 3-pt shooters.  Billy Taylor is doing a great job bringing this program back from the absolute ashes.  With only one senior, they are set to be good next year, too.  Freshmen Jesse Barry looks to be the kind of player who can make an immediate impact.  They were a .500 team last year and look to be better this year.

2.  Central Michigan

CMU has won the West the last two years.  However, their top four scorers are not back, and even with the addition of OMFG recruit Trey Zeigler, I don't think they will beat BSU.  The Chips do have 4 seniors, each of whom came to Mt. Pleasant by way of a JC or CC.  Finally, I'm not convinced that Ernie Zeigler is a good coach or if he would be at CMU if it weren't for the desire to bring his son in.  In the West, they certainly have the ability to compete and if the supporting cast is better than they look, they could compete for the division, but for this year, I like BSU.

3.  Eastern Michigan

Eastern....what can you say about Eastern?  Perennially disappointing....but there always seems to be a little something hidden in there that makes you think they can compete.  They are not helped by their nearly non-existent fan following and their dark and cavernous building.  (The first time I googled "EMU"  I was sent to the site for Eastern Mennonite University.  Do I feel lucky?)  They lost one of the conference's better players, Carlos Medlock, but they do have Brandon Bowery back.  Bowery is one of the better dual-threat players and could be in line for a big year.  Jay Higgins and Antonio Green are also back.  One odd fact:  they have no freshmen on their roster.


4.  Western Michigan

3 of the top 4 scorers on the WMU team graduated, including the MAC player of the year.  They do bring back Flenard Whitfield, who is projected to be an All-MAC player, and Donald Hutcherson, who was All-Freshmen, as will as Mike Douglas, who I like even on the point quite a bit.  Beyond that, they are counting on untested players to contribute both at 2-guard and at Center.  The Broncos are certainly one of the more consistent programs in the West, and but I think this year's team has a low ceiling.

5.  Northern Illinois

I don't see the Patton era in NIU ending well.  Three of their top four scorers are gone from a team that was 10-20 to start with.  Yes, I know that they have Xavier Silas and that he put up bunches of points and came back after sniffing the scent of death in the NBA draft, but I'm going to tell you that he's among the move overrated players in the MAC.  Yes, he was second in scoring, but he was #17 in offensive efficiency, which means he racked up big scoring totals while also gobbling up a lot of possessions with missed shots and turnovers.  It is difficult to win when that is where your scoring comes from.  Hard to see where he gets any help, though.

6.  Toledo

Not going to beat a dead horse here.  Gene Cross left things in bad shape, but I think Tod Kowalcyk is somebody who is going to win at Toledo sooner as opposed to later.  Toledo might be the only team in the nation to lose 60.8% of its scoring and be better.  They will finish last in the West this year, but enjoy it because it won't stay that way.