Horrors at JAR continue

Well, that was ugly.  It was ugly without consequence, but it was ugly.  BG played probably its worst game of the season in Akron, I don't think there's much doubt about it.  Akron came in as the worst 2FG and 3FG shooting team in the MAC, and against BG they shot 70% and 45%, their best shooting game of the MAC schedule.  It was their best offensive game of the MAC season as well.

And it is the third time in recent days that BG has been torched by an offensively-challenged team.

Meanwhile, BG had its third-worst offensive game of the year, worsted only by VCU and @Miami.  They shot 36% from 2FG and 28% on 29 3FG attempts, which is just not the way that team is going to win.  A few times BG got into the paint and the shot got rejected and they seemed to avoid it after that.  That's the most 3 attempts by BG in MAC play.  They also made only 11 of 19 FTs.

Wiggins played only 15 minutes.  Frye had an awful shooting night.  Lillard and Laster, too.  And no one can possibly have been defending anybody.

BG is almost certain to finish 3rd in the MAC.  Which is a good outcome, any way you want to slice it and something we have rarely achieved in recent years.  The question from here is what will happen in the MAC Tournament.

BG has played bad basketball in 3 of the last 4 games.  When they needed it, they rallied against Kent State in a meaningful game.  Coach said BG "got ahead of themselves."  And all this is fine as long as they come back to playing at the level we know we can play at in 8 days.  If not, it's going to be a short trip to Cleveland. 

As mentioned, BG is likely to be #3.  To get #2, BG would need to win @UB and then have EMU beat the Rockets at Savage.  Note, that #3 sets BG up to be in the latest games Thursday and Friday, if you want to drive over from BG.

So, at #3, BG would play the #6 and #11 seeds.  Right now, that's EMU vs. Ohio. 
That's not for sure.  You could end up with a 3-way tie, CMU, EMU and AK...in that case, I think BG plays AK with CMU in #5.  If CMU and EMU end up tied, CMU wins the tie breaker and BG plays EMU.  If AK and CMU tie, I think AK gets the nod for #5 because of the BG game, and BG would play CMU.

But don't quote me.

Similarly, OU and BSU could still finish 10th/11th.  If that happened, OU would get #10 as they beat BSU twice, believe it or not.

For my money, I'd rather not be matched up with OU, who is actually playing pretty well.  I'd rather not play EMU, either, just for freaky zone reasons.  Beyond that, these are pretty even teams and the biggest variable is which BG team shows up.

But, again, the matchup won't matter if BG doesn't bring the focus we are used to seeing.