The MAC has six teams in the top 100 in this week’s RPI rankings by the NCAA. I can’t imagine that’s ever happened before.

Here’s what it looks like going into Saturday's games:

1. Central Michigan (11-3, 2-0 MAC) 21st.
2. Buffalo (9-4, 1-1) 47th.
3. Ohio (12-1, 1-1) 58th.
4. Toledo (9-4, 1-1) 89th.
5. Northern Illinois (9-5, 1-1) 92nd.
6. Kent State (9-4, 2-0) 96th

Then:

7. Miami (10-3, 1-1) 116th.
8. Akron (10-3, 1-1) 165th.
9. Ball State (5-8, 1-1) 195th.
10. Bowling Green (7-6, 0-2), 203rd.
11. Eastern Michigan (7-6, 0-2), 217th.
12. Western Michigan (7-6, 1-1), 292nd.

There are 351 Division I teams.

As a league, the MAC’s RPI ranks eighth 32 Division I conferences in the country. It was also eighth last season, best in MAC history.

More at http://wbbflashes.com, a blog I write on the Kent State women's team.

Impressive.

Unfortunately for NIU and Lisa Carlsen we keep stacking up with more injuries like last season. If she could keep a healthy roster it would be interesting to see how good NIU could really be.

(01-11-2019 10:09 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  Unfortunately for NIU and Lisa Carlsen we keep stacking up with more injuries like last season. If she could keep a healthy roster it would be interesting to see how good NIU could really be.

Miami is 10-4 but has lost 3 out of 5 since losing star freshman Nia Clark to a knee injury. We are much easier to defend now, plus she was our defensive stopper.

(01-13-2019 10:55 PM)DICK Wrote:  

(01-11-2019 10:09 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  Unfortunately for NIU and Lisa Carlsen we keep stacking up with more injuries like last season. If she could keep a healthy roster it would be interesting to see how good NIU could really be.

Miami is 10-4 but has lost 3 out of 5 since losing star freshman Nia Clark to a knee injury. We are much easier to defend now, plus she was our defensive stopper.

Is she done for the season?

(01-14-2019 06:33 AM)Dwight Wrote:  

(01-13-2019 10:55 PM)DICK Wrote:  

(01-11-2019 10:09 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  Unfortunately for NIU and Lisa Carlsen we keep stacking up with more injuries like last season. If she could keep a healthy roster it would be interesting to see how good NIU could really be.

Miami is 10-4 but has lost 3 out of 5 since losing star freshman Nia Clark to a knee injury. We are much easier to defend now, plus she was our defensive stopper.

Is she done for the season?

Rumors say yes, but nothing official yet.

Nia Clark is officially done for the year. Despite that, Miami had a huge upset win at Central Michigan last, CMU hit a 3 on their first possesion, but that was their only lead. Central tied the score late, and Miami's Savannah Kluesner made an old fashioned 3 point play with 2 seconds to go for the win.

Miami with another huge road upset as we take down 17-1 Ohio 67-61. This was a game in which the Bobcats led almost the whole game, by 10 at half, but Miami finally tied it up with about 4 minutes to go and were up one point when Leah Purvis hit her only 3 of the game to put us up 4 with 12 seconds to go. The pace of the game was fast for 3 quarters and many of the players were playing huge minutes and the 4th quarter it looked like both teams were tired. OU only scored 3 points in the 4th quarter, as trying to score over bigger players inside seemed to wear on them. Lauren Dickerson with 28 points and Savannah Kluesner with 21 points and 16 rebounds did almost all of the damage.

prior to that upset ESPN was predicting 3 MAC teams in the tourney, CMU, Ohio and Buffalo

(01-31-2019 02:22 AM)pono Wrote:  prior to that upset ESPN was predicting 3 MAC teams in the tourney, CMU, Ohio and Buffalo

There are still a bunch of game between CMU, UB, OU, Miami, and Toledo, plus other teams are good enough to pull upsets. Those games will not kill our RPI's, but there are going to be a bunch of losses added to the resumes. We will see how much respect our league has earned.

ESPN's most recent WBB Bracketology has only 2 teams in the tournament:

CMU 8 seed - at large

Miami 11 Seed - Conf Champ

Both Buffalo and Ohio, not in the first four our, but in the next four out at 5 & 7 respectively

3 bid MAC is starting to dangerously look like 1 bid MAC

Charlie Creme's most recent Bracket has:

CMU at large - 7 seed

Miami Conference Champ - 11 seed

Both Ohio and Buffalo, not in first four out, but next four out at #s 6 & 8 respectively.

UB has been leaking oil. They are breaking down and will have to win the tourney.

If Ohio wins at home against Buffalo and at Miami, the Bobcats would look good for an at-large bid. As zrb2 said, Buffalo no longer has a chance. I don't see Miami getting in, either. If Central loses in the MAC tournament, then the MAC should be a two-bid league.

Well if Buffalo is down and out, they just brought Ohio with them tonight. 30-point road win vs the Bobcats.

(02-27-2019 09:28 PM)zrb2 Wrote:  Well if Buffalo is down and out, they just brought Ohio with them tonight. 30-point road win vs the Bobcats.

Yeah, the MAC is cannibalizing itself this year, unlike last year when Buffalo and CMU pretty nearly ran the table except for games against each other. The conference is just as strong as last year, but that is because of more depth. I don't think anyone this year is as good as the top two last year. Still, a CMU loss in the MAC tournament should make us a two-bid league again. With all the tough teams, I definitely wouldn't bet even money on Central to win the tournament.

Ohio can look really bad at times. The Bobcats lost to Toledo a couple weeks ago 76-50.

As of yesterday
23 CMU
32 Ohio
42 Miami
43 UB
80 Toledo
85 Kent
99 NIU

It seems odd to me that the NCAA adopted the NET ranking for the men's game, but still use RPI for the women's game. It's a stat based ranking system. One would think it wouldn't take much effort to implement it on the women's side.

And they are really different. RPI rewards SOS more (especially road wins), and NET rewards results (wins and scoring differential) more. Why use different measures for men and women?