Big 4 Hoops Blogger

I’m at the arena right now! Great to have the MAC Tournament back to normal.

My list is long… Grew up a diehard Syracuse fan but not really passionate about them anymore. I love Ohio University since I went to college there. Obviously care a ton about UB as well which makes things interesting every year. I support all of Buffalo’s Big 4 opponents. Canisius was the first school I had season tickets for. My uncle went to St. Bonaventure and I have a soft spot for A10 hoops. Also, Niagara was good during my teenage years when they had Mihalich. The one outlier is Purdue Fort Wayne (formerly IPFW). I covered the Mastodons for two seasons and have a lot of respect for their head coach, Jon Coffman.

Updated look at MAC Tournament odds

If Mballa returns to form, I think UB will beat Akron. I think the biggest key to a run will be how Toledo performs in a different atmosphere. If the Rockets play like they’ve been all season, I don’t think Buffalo can upset them but if the Rockets start missing looks they normally hit, they’ll be vulnerable and anything could happen.

Had UB won tonight, they would've been the 2-seed since Ohio lost.

UB wins and Ohio loses, UB can move up to the 2-seed. Every other scenario involves UB in 4/5 game.

Finally got 100% confirmation. Buffalo can’t be the 3-seed. There will be no multiple team tiebreakers with unbalanced records. In Kent State, Ohio, Buffalo scenario, they’ll break the 15-5 tie first betwen Kent and Ohio which Kent wins. Then it would be 15-5 Ohio vs. 14-5 Buffalo, which Ohio wins.

Getting more clarification now. The previous scenario where UB could be tied with “both” teams ahead and behind them based off winning percentage is not applicable, meaning, if Akron is 14-6, UB is 14-5 and Ohio is 15-5, that will not be considered a 3-way tie even though UB would technically be tied with both of them according to “no contest” rules. This is a complete mess!

Disregard earlier note about 3-seed. Just discussed another possibility. Assuming Buffalo wins, if Ohio wins and Akron loses, UB should get the 3-seed with Ohio at 2, Kent State at 4 and Akron at 5.

Yep, I’m still looking for definitive answers. I wouldn’t rule out anything at the moment.

This isn’t official but sounds like the 3-seed is no longer in play. From what I’m hearing, it looks like UB can be the 2-seed with a win and Ohio loss They should be the 4-seed with a win, Ohio win and Akron loss. Everything else results in a 5-seed.

I don’t know exactly what’s going on 100% but the no contest rules have made this more complicated than necessary. They should’ve stayed with winning percentage. Would’ve been unfair to UB but a much simpler solution or they could’ve tried harder to reschedule the CMU game. They had the entire conference schedule to do so. I understand worries about fatigue and lack of availability but this is a mess right now.

Either way, I’m not sure how UB can move up if Akron wins on Friday. Issue being, if the Zips and UB win, that could potentially trigger a 4-way tiebreaker with Kent State, Ohio, UB and Akron. Ohio would be 3-2, Kent would be 3-3, Akron would be 2-3 and UB would be 2-2. So in that scenario, UB would be a 4 taking on Akron. if they don’t do the 4 way tiebreaker though, UB would have a tiebreaker against Akron and lose that to be the 5. I haven’t gone beyond that but I’m guessing for UB to not be in the 4/5 game, they need Akron to lose to CMU and they have to beat Kent State.

According to Wolff, the no contest rule works both ways so a 13-5 UB team would be tied with a 14-5 MAC team and a 13-6 MAC team which is why it gets confusing heading into Friday. Main issue being, is UB currently 5th because a tiebreaker with Akron or are they 5th due to a 3-way tiebreaker with Akron and Ohio, which would be completely unfair to Ohio since they’re a full game ahead of Akron in the standings.

UB/Toledo Postgame Show

This is the first real opportunity for a lively home crowd since before COVID. Big-time opponent with something on the line on a night honoring the Bulls senior class. There’s no excuse for it not being a great atmosphere tonight. Kent State and Ohio were before students came back and we didn’t get to host Akron this year. Those all hurt the overall vibe at Alumni Arena but tonight should be different.

Im not expecting a sellout but it should be a solid crowd. 4,500-5,000 would be my minimum expectation.

As I posted in another thread, there appears to still be a scenario in which Buffalo can win the MAC and get the top seed. UB would need to: -Win out against Toledo/Kent State -Have Ohio lose one of final two games -Have Kent State win on Tuesday against NIU That would set up a situation in which UB is tied with Toledo. In that scenario, they would split the head-to-head. Next tiebreaker would be record against next highest ranked opponent. That’s where Kent State comes in. If Kent State is 3rd, UB would win that tiebreaker. If Ohio is 3rd, Toledo would win the tiebreaker. If wrong, please correct me but that’s what some of us concluded after looking into scenarios earlier. It’s unlikely but possible.

Ohio is weird. They’re vulnerable but they also just killed CMU by 26 after they almost upset Toledo and before they nearly took down Kent State. I still think any of the top five seeds are capable of winning the MAC Tournament this year.

You guys might want to check me on this but I believe this is correct.

The crazy part about Cleveland is that you can throw away the entire regular season. Your points are 100% correct but all it takes is one team to get hot and make a run. Playing in a NBA arena changes things for college athletes.