Around the MAC

[DooleyBull06]

Either way…you can immediately see the difference between being a 3 seed as opposed to the 4/5. On paper easier first matchup and then a vulnerable Ohio team in the semi. But be careful what you wish for right lol

[Big 4 Hoops Blogger]

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

[Big 4 Hoops Blogger]

13 minutes ago, DooleyBull06 said:

Either way…you can immediately see the difference between being a 3 seed as opposed to the 4/5. On paper easier first matchup and then a vulnerable Ohio team in the semi. But be careful what you wish for right lol

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.

[DocCas86]

To be honest, getting a headache thinking about the prospects.  Here is what needs to happen at this point:

 

[Tee4three]

1 hour ago, Big 4 Hoops Blogger said:

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.

This mac tournament is going to be great.

Whoever ends up the winner has a good shot at pulling an upset in the NCAA tournament

[promotherobot]

 

 

[squire17]

Assuming the Bulls clinch the third seed, it would appear that their first round opponent in Cleveland will be Ball St. If favored teams win, it would mean Ohio most likely on Friday. Assuming the Bulls win, it could be Buffalo/Toledo for the right to the NCAAs. If the Bulls should falter in the championship, they would probably get an invitation to the NIT, but let’s hope they get to the “Dance” and win a couple.

[squire17]

Another look at the MAC’s decision to go to a 20 game schedule: If it had retained an 18 game schedule, it probably would have been easier to reschedule and play all the games, instead of resorting to its debatable course of using losses as the sole arbiter of place.

[Big 4 Hoops Blogger]

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.

Edited February 27, 2022 by Big 4 Hoops Blogger

[squire17]

37 minutes ago, Big 4 Hoops Blogger said:

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.

This is possible. I think UB will win its 2 games, Kent St will beat NI, but I don’t see Ohio losing either game. 

[skrabukes]

3 minutes ago, squire17 said:

This is possible. I think UB will win its 2 games, Kent St will beat NI, but I don’t see Ohio losing either game. 

I'd happily take that. Obviously would prefer 1, but winning both games is all UB can do on their own. One at a time, win senior night!

[MuchMany]

ESPN's college basketball "experts" picked all 32 conference tournament winners here.

Two for Ohio, one each for Toledo and Kent. Bulletin board material!

[UBinMD]

2 hours ago, MuchMany said:

ESPN's college basketball "experts" picked all 32 conference tournament winners here.

Two for Ohio, one each for Toledo and Kent. Bulletin board material!

I’m good with that. Ohio deserves it since they get up for big games even when they may not be the best. Toledo has history of failure on their side. I think our guys are better off as underdogs mentally. I hope they are up for the challenge. Tomorrow night is step 1

[skrabukes]

Are we confirmed that UB gets the 3 seed with a win on Friday? (Assuming an ohio win, 2 seed with an Ohio loss). Ohio has the 3 way tiebreak (with a win on friday) 2-1 record, UB 2-1 record, kent 1-3 record, but ohio grabs the head to head to jump over UB. Sound about right? 

[Kevin]

33 minutes ago, skrabukes said:

Are we confirmed that UB gets the 3 seed with a win on Friday? (Assuming an ohio win, 2 seed with an Ohio loss). Ohio has the 3 way tiebreak (with a win on friday) 2-1 record, UB 2-1 record, kent 1-3 record, but ohio grabs the head to head to jump over UB. Sound about right? 

That's not confirmed. UB dropped to the 5 seed today. Now after the loss, UB is joined by Akron. They will actually be tied if they beat Kent and Akron beats CMU. Akron has the tiebreaker. Even UB doesn't know if the 3 is achievable any longer.

[skrabukes]

7 hours ago, Kevin said:

That's not confirmed. UB dropped to the 5 seed today. Now after the loss, UB is joined by Akron. They will actually be tied if they beat Kent and Akron beats CMU. Akron has the tiebreaker. Even UB doesn't know if the 3 is achievable any longer.

Ub is 13-5, akron is 13-6. I thought they were basing seeding on number of losses?

[Big 4 Hoops Blogger]

1 hour ago, skrabukes said:

Ub is 13-5, akron is 13-6. I thought they were basing seeding on number of losses?

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.

[Big 4 Hoops Blogger]

Just now, Big 4 Hoops Blogger said:

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.

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.

[BrooklynBull]

The men are now 5th.  From the MAC:

[skrabukes]

49 minutes ago, Big 4 Hoops Blogger said:

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.

It's embarrassing that a league would allow such guesswork to occur with the unbalanced schedules and one team missing a game. If the above scenario is the case, this game on Friday is somewhat meaningless now, at least in regards to seeding.

I mean, I don't understand how a team (akron) could be a full game behind (ohio, kent in this scenario) and be considered "tied". UB being 1/2 game behind but "tied" is foolish also, but it was how it was laid out last week. The full game is dumb though as that clearly is not equal to at least ohio/kent.

Edited March 2, 2022 by skrabukes

[Kevin]

3 hours ago, skrabukes said:

Ub is 13-5, akron is 13-6. I thought they were basing seeding on number of losses?

Both. It's a no contest.

Meaning in standings wise, you can be tied in the wins or losses column and that will tie you overall. 

The MAC wasn't expecting someone to have the potential to be tied in BOTH columns. If UB loses, they are the 5 confirmed. If they win, they are double tied. Meaning that they will be tied with Ohio/Kent for the 2/3 as well as Akron for the 4/5. From the looks of the current standings, the MAC lumped all the teams together (which is a huge advantage for Akron who has is a game behind Ohio). 

[Big 4 Hoops Blogger]

57 minutes ago, skrabukes said:

It's embarrassing that a league would allow such guesswork to occur with the unbalanced schedules and one team missing a game. If the above scenario is the case, this game on Friday is somewhat meaningless now, at least in regards to seeding.

I mean, I don't understand how a team (akron) could be a full game behind (ohio, kent in this scenario) and be considered "tied". UB being 1/2 game behind but "tied" is foolish also, but it was how it was laid out last week. The full game is dumb though as that clearly is not equal to at least ohio/kent.

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.

Edited March 2, 2022 by Big 4 Hoops Blogger

[Kevin]

1 minute ago, Big 4 Hoops Blogger said:

I don’t know exactly that’s 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 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.

CMU needs the game as well, Mike. I always said that game should be played Sunday (4 days before Cleveland). If they don't care about their seeding, they can play backup/reserves. if they do, they can go all out to clinch the 2 or 3 seed. 

Edited March 2, 2022 by Kevin

[skrabukes]

1 minute ago, Big 4 Hoops Blogger said:

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 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.

Agreed wholeheartedly.  To be "tied" both up and down is odd, especially for the "down" team to be then considered equal to the teams 1 full game ahead. Messy and unnecessarily so!

[DooleyBull06]

If they aren’t going to reschedule games (which for us they can easily do) then seeding should be determined by win percentage. It is mind blowing why the mac decided to make this confusing and unfair change. But whatever…I think we all deep inside knew we were destined for the 4/5 game/route.