Eagle Eye

Next up for the Falcons are the Eastern Michigan Eagles, coming down from Ypsilanti for their last regular season appearance at Anderson Arena.  There's not much doubt about one thing.  Eastern is having a dreadful season.  They are 5-14 against the nation's 260 toughest schedule.  But that is actually better than it looks.  3 of their wins--ALL of their non-conference wins--were against non D-1 teams.  MAC teams rarely even play 2 non-conference teams.  Their only wins were @Toledo and CMU.  Their RPI is 332 out of 345.  That is 2 places ahead of Howard, who did beat us, but we're not that team anymore.

EMU is one of the MAC's long-struggling programs.  Since 2000, they have only had a .500 record twice in MAC play and they have not been over .500 in MAC play since 97-98.  Their fan base is non-existent.  They just can't get it going.

To start with the positive, EMU on paper is a team built on defense.  Now, when looking at MAC-game statistics their defensive numbers are buttressed a little by their games with CMU and UT, two of the worst offensive teams in D1.  They did come up with a nice game against Ball State (.9), but have allowed more than a point per possession to NIU, WMU and OU.

Even given all that, their defensive numbers are clearly superior to their offensive numbers, which place them among the worst teams in D1.  Just as a measure of their struggle, in MAC games, they are 2nd in 3 point attempts and 11th in 3-FG%.  They are 10th in FTs, 11th in FG% (37%!), and 11in offensive rebounding percentage.  They are below 300 in 11 offensive categories and 330th in Floor percentage---percent of time your team gets a point when they come down the floor.

Anyway, I could go on, but after a while it gets a little self-indulgent.  They are having a dreadful season.

NCAA Basketball Stats

This is all despite the fact that EMU actually has one of the best players in the MAC.  Brandon Bowdry is 6'6", and is the 2nd leading scorer in the MAC and 1st in rebounds.  His tempo free offensive number (.94) is not that great, and for a big guy, his FG% is only 44%.  Having said that, given he is pretty much a one-man band, he probably ends up taking some shots that he wouldn't on a better team.

Derek Thompson is their only other player in double figures with 10 points.  Darrell Lampley is getting about 4 assists per game.

Anyway, if you have designs on winning a bye out of the MAC East---you gotta beat this team at home.  There's simply no two ways about it.