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15 hours ago, DooleyBull06 said:
15 hours ago, squire17 said:

The MAC is crazy. I hope that the Bulls are the team that survives. And my second wish is that they draw Arizona St as their first round opponent. My third wish...lol

Alabama? lol

Would not be a surprise.  In 2019 Danny Hurley called Oats on the morning of the Selection Sunday to tell him that the NCAA was setting it up for UB to play Arizona State.  Story is in John Feinstein's Back Roads to March. (Highly recommend the book.)

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It is looking like we will have to wait until next week for our next game.  I thought I would update with latest composite rankings.

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I have added a view of the distribution of the 30 rankings for the top five teams:

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As I look at the second chart - I would make three groupings:  (1) Toledo; (2) Akron / Kent; (3) Buffalo / Ohio.  With respect to Buffalo in particular - the rankings generally put us on par with Kent and Akron.  However, the Bulls also have the highest number of rankings >=131, which is not surprising, since the team has been inconsistent.   The rankings suggest the win probabilities would likely be close to 50%/50% for the last five games.  A minimum of a 3-2 record would be what I am looking for in the last five games to build toward Cleveland.

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Being a top 2 seed should mean an easy win into the semis.  The 7 and 8th seeds could be two trash teams.  Once the MAC semis are set then its wide open. BG, UB, Toledo, Akron, Kent and Ohio on their best days can all beat each other.  That's why a top 2 seed is important.  Won't have to deal with any of these teams until the semis. Outside the 2 seed, it becomes a gauntlet 3 games. 

After our Eastern Michigan game the schedule gets tough.  Which could be a good thing.  It will have us battle tested headed into Cleveland.

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I was looking at the top 8 teams in MAC and focused on the record to date against other top 8 teams and remaining scheduled games against top 8 teams.  Here is a summary:

image.png.bd0d8b3af64dc25b641ae730fb318d8b.png

You will likely notice that I have 4 games listed for Buffalo rather than 5.  This is because the game @Akron is currently not on our schedule, and I wonder if it will be left off.  Perhaps the MAC decision makers are striving to get close to an equal number of games against likely MAC tournament.  Ohio would be one team that is currently short with current games not scheduled at Akron, Miami OH and BG.  It won't be perfect, but some semblance of fairness.

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After the Toledo game we don't play again until 27th.  Hopefully a game or 2 gets made up in that time.  Yes that would be 3 games in one week but we need to play.  The team is rested enough.  Plus there is 6 days off from the last game of the season to the first game of the MAC tournament. So plenty of rest, recovery and prep time.

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17 minutes ago, DooleyBull06 said:

After the Toledo game we don't play again until 27th.  Hopefully a game or 2 gets made up in that time.  Yes that would be 3 games in one week but we need to play.  The team is rested enough.  Plus there is 6 days off from the last game of the season to the first game of the MAC tournament. So plenty of rest, recovery and prep time.

I was kind of hoping for an announcement regarding this today.

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2 hours ago, UB05 said:

I was kind of hoping for an announcement regarding this today.

Here is current status of MAC schedule - sorted from least played + scheduled to most:

image.png.5527a81268fa85226f7dc7703669ae6f.png

As you can see there are a lot of games that would have to be made up - by my count 27.  Of likely teams going to Cleveland, Ohio and Buffalo will have played the fewest games.  Since we have not played Northern or Central yet, perhaps a game with one of them on Tues 2/23 (no MAC games scheduled) might make sense.  Ohio only has two games scheduled at this point, so I would expect they would like to add a game or two.  However, I don't know how much motivation Northern Illinois or (C. E. W.) Michigan teams have to play.  As alternative, since most of the top 8 will have played 12 games against the other top 8 (Ohio - 10, Ball St - 11 and Bowling Green - 13),  seeding could be based on the top 8 games only, if makeup game not played on 2/23. Honestly, it would be nice to keep playing, but I  am not sure it is going to happen.

 

 

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9 hours ago, DooleyBull06 said:

We got no help from anyone tonight for seeding purposes.

The Bulls have to take matters into their own hands, starting with Toledo.  They need to use recipe of last few games, start game with intensity and playing tough 'D' for full 40 minutes.

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55 minutes ago, DocCas86 said:

The Bulls have to take matters into their own hands, starting with Toledo.  They need to use recipe of last few games, start game with intensity and playing tough 'D' for full 40 minutes.

The Bulls need to just play. The recipe is correct, but being able to get on the floor with opponent would help too.

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22 minutes ago, skrabukes said:

The Bulls need to just play. The recipe is correct, but being able to get on the floor with opponent would help too.

Of course.  At this point the main gap in the schedule is next Tuesday.  I agree that it would be nice for continuity to schedule a game, but perhaps an intra-squad game will be best we can hope for.

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15 hours ago, DocCas86 said:

Since we have not played Northern or Central yet, perhaps a game with one of them on Tues 2/23 (no MAC games scheduled) might make sense. 

 

8 minutes ago, ChubbyHubby said:

Ask, and it shall be given.

Some rescheduled games.

Buffalo at Northern Illinois -- From Saturday, January 23 to Tuesday, February 23 at 7 PM (ET)

Central Michigan at Buffalo – From Tuesday, January 26 to Thursday, February 25 at 2 PM (ET)

Hey what do you know - maybe I should ask for another MAC championship! 😉 No I guess the team will have to earn that!

Edited by DocCas86
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