 The Mid-American Conference opened its 2011-12 Men’s Basketball season Nov. 9, and all 12 MAC schools are now working their way toward intra-conference play once the New Year starts. As it did with football, MRO will provide a MAC Men’s Basketball column to help you keep tabs on teams across the conference. Here is your first overview of the 12 MAC Men’s Basketball teams.
EASTERN DIVISION
AKRON (3-4): Coach Dambrot’s Zips are the defending MAC Tournament champions, having defeated arch rival Kent State in that thriller last march and moving on to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in the last three seasons.
They Zips opened the 2011-12 campaign with a wins at Mississippi State and at home to Division III Hiram College. Then came a pair of losses in the Valparaiso subregional of the 2K Sports Classic to the host Crusaders from the Horizon League and Duquesne from the Atlantic-10.
The Zips righted the ship with an 81-63 home win over Detroit before losing two straight last week at West Virginia, 77-56, and at Middle Tennessee out of the Sun Belt Conference, 77-53,. Freshman F Nick Harney leads the Zips in scoring at 10.6 per game, senior F Nikola Cvetinovic leads at 6.6 rebounds per game, while sophomore G Alex Abreu leads in assist at 4.0 per contest. UA has just one game this week as the Zips make the short trek up Interstate 77 to face the Cleveland State Vikings (Horizon League).
BOWLING GREEN (4-3): The Falcons under head coach Louis Orr began November strong with a 4-2 mark. The first victory was a a win over the Howard Bison of the MEAC in the first ever game played at the new Stroh Center.
After losing at Georgia in the first round of the Progressive CBE Classic, the Falcons returned home to play the remainder of the tournament games, registering wins over Austin Peay (Ohio Valley) and Detroit (Horizon) and losing to George Washington (A-10).
BG finished the month with a home win over Temple and had just one game last week, losing at Western Kentucky (Sun Belt) at historic Diddle Arena 60-53.
F Scott Thomas leads the Falcons in scoring (12.7 per game) and in rebounds (6.7 boards(, while senior G Dee Brown averages 3.1 assists per game.
BGSU has two games this week, the first coming at home on Wednesday against NAIA Malone College (the Falcons only home game in December). On Saturday, BG makes the trip to Valparaiso to battle the Crusaders from the Horizon League.
BUFFALO (4-2): The Bulls have gotten off to a strong start under head coach Reggie Weatherspoon with wins over Saint Peters & Canisius (MAAC), Cornell (Ivy League), and at Dayton (A-10). They handed the Flyers their worst home loss in 16 years. The lone loss came at Princeton.
The Bulls had just one game last week as they traveled south on U.S. Route 219 to Olean, losing to the Bonnies of Saint Bonaventure 66-60. F Zach Filzen was named MAC East Player of the Week as he scored 26 in the Bulls win at Dayton and 24 in the loss at SBU. Filzen leads in scoring 17 points per game,. F Mitchell Watt leads in rebounds at 7.2 while sophomore G Jared Olsham leads in assiosts at 5.7 (third in the MAC).
KENT STATE (5-1): The Golden Flashes are the defending MAC East Division Champions, and they are in their first season under Rob Senderoff, who took over for Geno Ford (who left for Bradley).
The Flashes opened with a big win at West Virginia and followed that with victories over Alcorn State (SWAC), Louisiana-Lafayette (Sun Belt), Morehead State (Ohio Valley), and Alabama-Birmingham (Conference USA). Their lone loss came at the hands of Cleveland State.
KSU ended a five game home stand Saturday night as it pulled away in the second half to defeat UAB 57-48. Junior guard Randal Holt leads in scoring at 12.2 pts per game. Senior F Justin Greene, the reigning MAC Player of the Year, leads at 6.8 boards per game, while reigning MAC Defensive Player of the year, senior G Michael Porrini, leads in assists at 4.3 per contest. Kent State finishes the month on the road, beginning Tuesday night at James Madison (CAA) and then Saturday night traveling to Western Carolina (Southern Conf)
MIAMI (2-4): The Redhawks, under the direction of venerable head man Charlie Coles, opened the season with an overtime home win over Dayton then went on the road for five straight, going 1-4 - the lone win coming at Division II Saginaw Valley State.
The losses on the trip came at Xavier (A-10), Southeast Missouri State (Ohio Valley), and rival Cincinnati (Big East).
MU had just one game last week, that being on Saturday when it lost to the Troy Trojans out of the Sun Belt conference, 80-73. Senior F Julian Mavunga leads the team and the MAC in scoring at 21.5 pts per game and in rebounds at 9.8. Quinten Rollins lead in assists at 7.7. The Hawks will finish the month of December with four of five at home, starting on Saturday afternoon when the Wright State Raiders (Horizon) comes to Millett Hall.
OHIO (5-1): The Bobcats are off to a strong start under third-year head coach John Groce. They opened the season with home wins over Tennessee-Martin (Ohio Valley), Lamar (Southland), and Arkansas State (Sun Belt). Then came a narrow five-point loss at Louisville before ending the month with a win at Marshall.
The Cats played on Saturday, defeating Morgan State (MEAC) 61-53. Junior G D.J. Cooper leads the Cats in scoring at 13.5 pts per game and in assists at 5.7 (second in the MAC), while F Ivo Baltic leads them in rebounds at 6.2. Ohio has two games this week, beginning Wednesday night in the suburbs of Detroit as they face the Oakland Golden Grizzlies (Summit League) before visiting the Pacific Northwest to face the Portland Pirates (West Coast).
WESTERN DIVISION
BALL STATE (4-2): The Cardinals are the defending Western Division titlist under the direction of Billy Taylor. They started the season with two road losses at Arizona and Indiana State. Since then they have rattled off four consecutive wins over IUPUI Summit League), Calumet College, Texas Southern (SWAC) and on Saturday against Tennessee-Martin (Ohio Valley). Senior F Jarrod Jones leads BSU in scoring at 19.5 per game (second in the MAC) and rebounds at 6.7 (also second). Ricky Davis leads the MAC in assists at 7.5 per game.
The Cards have just one game this week, and it’s a big one as they host intra-state rival Butler, who has gone to the last two NCAA Division I Tournament Championship games, losing last year in Houston to Connecticut.
CENTRAL MICHIGAN (4-3): The Chippewas under head man Ernie Ziegler opened the month of November with four wins in five starts. After opening the season with a home win over Division II Ferris State and a loss at Charlotte. CMU traveled to the Carrs Safeway Great Alaska Shootout in Anchorage and picked up wins over UC-Irvine Anteaters (Big West) and the Big Green of Dartmouth (Ivy) before losing to the Aggies of New Mexico State (WAC).
The Chips will play six of their seven December games on the road. That stretch began Saturday in Philadelphia, where CMU lost to Temple, 86-47. G Trey Ziegler leads in scoring at 17.4 and 8,6 rebounds ( third in the MAC), while freshman G Austin McBroom leads at 3.6 assists per game. CMU has one game this week (at Tennessee State of the Ohio Valley Conference).
EASTERN MICHIGAN (4-4): The Eagles are in their first season under former Syracuse player and assistant coach Rob Murphy, EMU started the season at 4-1 with wins over Illinois-Chicago (Horizon), IUPUI (Summit), Arkansas-Little Rock (Sun Belt) and NAIA Rochester College before a home loss to Michigan State and, last week, a setbacks Syracuse and Colgate.
Senior G Darrell Lampley leads in scoring at 16.8 per game and in assists at 3.0. Junior F Jamell Harris leads in rebounds at 6.0 per game.The Eagles continue this six game road trek on Thursday night when they face the Drake Bulldogs (Missouri Valley) in Des Moines and then on take on Purdue Saturday.
NORTHERN ILLINOIS (0-7): The Huskies are finding it tough sledding in their first season under Mike Montgomery who took over in the off-season for Ricardo Patton The Huskies have lost all seven games against some pretty good competition in Purdue, Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Horizon), Iowa, Eastern Illinois (Summit), Boise State (Mountain West) and Utah Valley (Great West).
NIU had just one game last week when Division I transitional member Nebraska-Omaha came to the Convocation Center and picked up a 77-72 win.
F Tin Tolar leads NIU in scoring at 11.4 and rebounds at 5.4, while Marquese Ford leads in assists at 2.7. The Huskies have just one game this week, heading into Chicago to battle the Flames of Illinois-Chicago (Horizon)
TOLEDO (6-1): So far in this young season, the Rockets have been the biggest surprise of the MAC. In their second season under head man Tod Kowalczyk, UT had just four wins (4-28, 1-15 MAC) in 2010-11. They already have six, and we’re barely into December. Toledo started the season at the Texas-Pan American Tournament with wins over the hosts (Great West), South Carolina-Upstate (Big South) and Victory University of Tennessee. Their lone loss came against Texas State (Southland).
Toledo returned home to Savage Hall and collected wins over Illinois-Chicago and North Carolina-Wilmington (CAA). The Rockets last game was on Saturday, traveling to the south side of Chicago to defeat the Cougars of Chicago State, 73-61.
G Dominique Buckley was named MAC West Player of the Week averaging 21 points, five rebounds, and five assists in the wins over UNCW and Chicago State. Sophomore Rien Pierson leads in scoring at 17.4 points and 8.3 assists at 8.3 Freshman G Julius Brown in assists at 5.0.
UT begins a four-game homestand on Wednesday night against Temple and then on Saturday when the Ramblers of Loyola-Chicago (Horizon) come to The Glass City.
WESTERN MICHIGAN (1-6): Last season, the Broncos made it all the way to the MAC Tournament semi-finals before losing to Akron. This year, coach Steve Hawkins’ charges are off to a slow start. They began the season with a home loss to the Jackrabbits of South Dakota State (Summit League) and then headed toPuerto Rico at the 5-Hour Energy Puerto Rico Tip-Off ,losing all three games to Temple, Iona (MAAC), and Colorado (PAC-12).
Then came road setbacks at Purdue and Gonzaga before returning to University Arena, where they picked up their first win of the season by defeating NAIA Hope College, 80-58.
Sophomore F Matt Stainbrook leads in scoring at 15.4 per game, senior F Flenard Whitfield leads in assists at 8.0 per game, senior G Mike Douglas leads in assists at 4.0 per game. WMU has two games this week - the first on Thursday night as the Broncos travel east on Interstate 94 to Detroit to battle the Titans (Horizon) and then home on Sunday against the Salukis of Southern Illinois (Missouri Valley).
There you have it. The 2011-12 season clock is running.
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