Slim

What if Toledo and Ohio both lose one more game ... and either the Bulls/Kent win out? That's a three-way tie for first. Can Bulls be No. 1 via tiebreaker!!!!!

31 minutes ago, UBlearns said:

Pete Thamel reporting MAC is considering expansion, namely WKU and MTSU.  Would be solid basketball adds.

Personally would take WKU and UMass ... interesting to see how FB divisions look with WKU/MTSU.

On 10/26/2021 at 12:39 PM, DooleyBull06 said:

Big early season blow. He is a physical presence. 

Might not be alone ... both of Kent State's SEC transfers (win from Georgia and post from Vanderbilt) have yet to practice due to unspecified injuries. At least one, and possibly both were projected starters.

On 8/31/2021 at 6:16 PM, MKBullsfan said:

I don't get it. How can they go from D-1 down to Juco? Isn't it usually Juco to D-1? Especially how can Malik go Juco to D-1 then back to Juco?

Last year did not count on the books ... players can repeat which is why there are so many transfers. Seniors last season are seniors again this season, ditto on down the line.

On 8/23/2021 at 11:07 AM, Tee4three said:

Regarding red shirting the incoming freshman, I don't know if ub can afford to. Even though they might not a ton of minutes I think ub will need the offense off the bench. 

Personally ... with the 'extra' years several players have taken advantage of - I think this is the perfect season to redshirt one or two guys. Would love to see it from several teams around the league. Nothing worse than talent sitting, anticipating, but getting no run. That's why, in the past,  you would often see a lot of the powerhouse teams with just 10 guys. 

56 minutes ago, 121Merrimac said:

Did the conference remove divisions indefinitely, or only temporarily (for covid)?

Removed them last season to go to 20-game MAC season. Tradeoff is playing two teams only once every year. Schedule this year also eliminates 'rivalry Friday' the last game of the season. Granted this was no big deal to UB (paired with BG) but the rest of the MAC was greatly impacted: OU-Miami, Central-Western, Akron-Kent were not just quality games, but often had a huge impact on tournament seeding. Not to mention these were great TV games with big crowds.

MAC needs to find a sweet spot with its BB scheduling. Also don't see that 'bye' week late in the season when teams only played once. In a 'neighborhood' league like the MAC, this was huge, if only for the mental break.

The other loss, w/no divisions, was the ability for UB/NIU to get a distant travel game cross-division game off the books early before second semester started. Now I see UB/NIU playing 'cross division games' late in the season which are a killer, when on the road.

Lots to look at ...

46 minutes ago, RecoveringHillbilly said:

Agreed our biggest MAC rivals is a shock. I am thinking, we need the best MAC seeding to make the highest odds for reaching the Tournament. The MAC is sadly still an automatic 1 bid league UNTIL (not unless lol) a ranked UB rises up again. Back in 04-05 I hated that we got to whip weak Marshall twice which hurt our RPI and partially cost us that at-large chance. Today, I think it is all about key non-conference wins and the #1 MAC seed.

Key to Toledo winning the MAC last season ... Pandemic aside - was only playing Ohio and UB once. As most MAC teams do with a target on their back, UT had some late-season losses but overall record and locked-in tie-breakers made the Rockets a comfortable conference champ.

That said UT's MAC Tournament draw - in the end - was not as easy as Ohio's meaning it went through Buffalo instead of Kent (a team they beat twice), and the Bulls made them pay.

Just sayin ...

18 minutes ago, Tee4three said:

I wonder if the future is football being separated from conference affiliations or having their own affiliations that are different from other sports

 

This makes sense, particularly considering there are (a) roughly just a third of the D1 membership that plays D1 football and (b) only roughly a fourth (if that) from those schools are truly power football teams.

Strong as the SEC is, realistically only half or less can truly be considered a 'power' team. For the sake of argument, let's say Ohio State is the Jerry Quarry of power conference teams. How many SEC-B12-PAC12-B10-ACC teams in a given year can measure up to them? 5-10 at most.

I say let FB go its own way. The NCAA should police and govern the rest of the sports harshly but fairly to clean this stuff up. Let the cheaters cheat among themselves in FB.

4 minutes ago, squire17 said:

The huge super-conferences are already unwieldy when it comes to equitable scheduling within said conferences. This could be offset by the NCAA acknowledging that much of college sports is a financially lucrative business. It could allow more games per week…which would increase revenues, pay for the expanded financial benefits of the student athletes, and mitigate the uneven scheduling that arises from super conferences. The Supreme Court has weighed in. Now is the time to further the nation’s addiction to bread and circus.

I think the NCAA - gutless as the organization/Emmert is - should mandate (for basketball) no more than 20 conference games and a max of 30 regular season games (not counting NCAA/Conference Tournaments). It should also mandate for any team to get an at-large bid to the tournament it must be 2-games above .500 in league play and/or have 2 or more Top 35 RPI non-conference wins. This Syracuse NCAA formula (.500 ACC 8-2 non-con) has got to stop.

1 hour ago, UBlearns said:

While there will obviously be indirect fallout from conference realignment (in terms of a total shakeup of the college sports landscape, potential collapse of the Big 12 as we know it, beginning of formation of superconferences), I'd be pretty surprised if UB was a major player in any move.

A jump to the AAC - as the AAC is currently constructed - would absolutely be a step-up for UB, and something the administrators should consider if given the opportunity.  That said, I wonder what the AAC will look like after this shakes out.  The real athletic "meat" of the conference - teams like Houston, Cincinnati, Memphis, UCF, SMU - are all prime candidates for Big 12 expansion if the Big 12 tries to survive.  The AAC minus those schools in some combination looks vastly different.  No offense to schools like East Carolina, Tulane, Tulsa - but that's a much different conference than the AAC as we know it.

While I can see some logic in the C-USA - honestly, I'm not convinced it's better than the MAC.  Ever since it was raided by the American, it's not the same conference.  It's a 1-bid basketball conference that's on par with the MAC.  C-USA football is better, but not by much, and that's only because the MAC is the worst FBS conference.  The MAC is 10th in terms of FBS conferences, but right now C-USA is 9th.  I don't really think C-USA is an upgrade at this point.  It was back in the day when Marshall jumped, but I'm not sure it is at this point.

Let's look at this from another angle: ... The MAC is probably the most solid mid-major conference in the country, fb/bb. Instead of looking to exit, I would be looking at teams like Iowa State and Cincinnati (a charter member of the MAC)to find a way to bring them into the league. Surely that would mean re-doing the ESPN TV deal (which is still one of the best on the books) and perhaps changing conference championship payouts from equal shares to % based on reg season titles/NCAA Appearances and so forth. Yes, that's probably a tougher negotiation overall - but for a team like Cincinnati, which missed out on the FB Playoffs last season - it (and Iowa State) might find easier and more consistent FB Playoff entree by winning the MAC. ...

The other longterm benefit - much like when Marshall joined the league - is it will force the rest of the MAC to step up or get left behind. Buffalo is already making that move. Toledo is trying. After that most MAC teams seem to focus on one main $$$ sport (NIU-FB, Akron-BB). That could change. Finally Cincy would give the MAC a 7th Ohio team which may not sit well with some and Iowa State may be step outside of the MAC's traditional footprint which may not sit well with some (but should be a plus in my mind).

But overall, I believe trying to expand 'up' is better for the MAC as a whole, and for individual teams looking for greener pastures elsewhere, over expanding out (WKY, Marshall and others), or individually leaving for another league.

2 hours ago, UBinMD said:

That’s the rub, do you use some scholarships now on experienced players that may be waiting a year (and finding kids to buy into that) or next year you have 5 scholarships for freshmen and transfers. I think if there is some talent they think blends with the group and can wait a year, grab them and start practicing, but if not, wait and find the right fit. Not a bad position to be in either way. We can be choosy.

Frankly ... every MAC team should be thinking like this. Any opportunity to add 'upper crust' talent to the league should be taken advantage of.

On 6/2/2021 at 7:56 AM, DocCas86 said:

I will try to abide by that.   😉  For the record, my actions are spurred by excitement for the potential of the team and desire to see them add more depth at guard.  I am a little more hopeful when a player who could be a potential contributor becomes available and sharing to board is my way of sharing that increased optimism.  However, at this point I hope they have been working on options for a few weeks, hopefully bearing fruit in next week or so. 

Just looking around the MAC have noticed Central Michigan has picked up a several experienced transfers whic h should make them an interesting team to watch ... And Kent State as usual picks up some interesting guys late; one from Rhodes Island, one from Georgia and one from Vanderbilt. two were rotational players (RI, Ga.) while the other had more splinters than points/rebounds combined.

8 hours ago, DooleyBull06 said:

Did Kent State just lose their lead recruiter? 

Looks like it ... but they did sign 3 recruits in November. All freshmen.  Nuga is in the portal and Pippen is done so they have some holes to fill.

On 3/26/2021 at 6:19 AM, DocCas86 said:

This is true.  I hope he is able to recover from this at some point, but this latest bit of news is not sounding good from UB basketball perspective.

On 3/26/2021 at 12:29 AM, DooleyBull06 said:

Just an ugly situation. I’m all for second chances, I’m all for standing by someone in a difficult situation but this continues to push the limits. From potential jail time to multiple shoulder operations. At what point do we cut our losses?

Here's the deal ... if this goes to trial then ALL the players involved in the game, if not the fight, could be called as witneses. Not a good look for either player or either school.

1 hour ago, DocCas86 said:

Kent State lost tonight to Akron 72-61.  They played without Mike Nuga who is likely out the rest of season.  This is a tough loss for Kent as he was their second leading scorer.

https://www.record-courier.com/story/sports/college/basketball/2021/02/03/ksu-guard-michael-nugas-season-likely-over-due-knee-injury/4371916001/

Played w/o Nuga (18 ppg 5.5 rpg) and Hamilton (9.9 ppg/7 rpg). Team Averaging almost 82 ppg before those two went down. Nuga out for the season (knee), not sure about Hamilton.