Central picked up a good win over Dayton last night (81-80 in OT)

Lauren Dickerson went for 37 in an 18 point win at Eastern Kentucky.

I would say that the conference looks solid top to bottom this year, but we don't have the strength at the top that we did last year. If Summer Hemphill gets healthy, Buffalo seems a likely bet to be the second best team. A couple teams are much improved over last year - Bowling Green and Ball State. Western Michigan is probably in that category, too. In other words, the worst teams improved a lot, and a couple of the best teams (Miami and Central Michigan) got a bit worse.

Ball State beat previously unbeaten Butler today 74-70, outscoring the Bulldogs 25-11 in the 4th quarter. It was the Cards' 2nd win over a Big East team this week. They beat Xavier 70-49 Wednesday.

Some bad losses today. Western Michigan lost at home to Florida Atlantic. Bowling Green lost at Valparaiso. Toledo lost at home against Memphis. Northern Illinois lost at Purdue, which of course was expected. Kent State won a squeaker against Robert Morris, which is a nice win.

Looks like a few tournaments this coming weekend for the women.

Ohio - Daytona beach Invitational (vs. Pittsburgh and Butler)
Miami - Miami Thanksgiving Tournament.... in Coral Gable (vs. Liberty and the other Miami, the Florida one)
Western Michigan - UTEP Thanksgiving Classic (vs. UTEP and New Mexico State)
Ball State - Bahamas Hoopfest (vs. Lehigh & Wisconsin)
Northern Illinois - Southpoint Thanksgiving Shootout (vs. Tennessee Tech & Sotuh Dakota)
Buffalo - Hawks Classic at St. Joseph (vs. Drexel & American)

Looks like Buffalo unveiled a secret weapon in their loss Sunday to Stanford. Elea Gada, a 6'3" freshman from Germany, hadn't played much this season and was averaging less than 2 ppg. Against Stanford, she played 28 minutes and scored 16 points on 8-14 shooting. Dyaisha Fair also played well. The Bulls seem to have reloaded just fine this year.

(11-25-2019 03:43 PM)Eagle66 Wrote:  Looks like a few tournaments this coming weekend for the women.

Ohio - Daytona beach Invitational (vs. Pittsburgh and Butler)
Miami - Miami Thanksgiving Tournament.... in Coral Gable (vs. Liberty and the other Miami, the Florida one)
Western Michigan - UTEP Thanksgiving Classic (vs. UTEP and New Mexico State)
Ball State - Bahamas Hoopfest (vs. Lehigh & Wisconsin)
Northern Illinois - Southpoint Thanksgiving Shootout (vs. Tennessee Tech & Sotuh Dakota)
Buffalo - Hawks Classic at St. Joseph (vs. Drexel & American)

I can't resist: Can Miami play Miami in Miami? I guess Miami would be the home team.

(11-26-2019 12:20 PM)emu steve Wrote:  

(11-25-2019 03:43 PM)Eagle66 Wrote:  Looks like a few tournaments this coming weekend for the women.

Ohio - Daytona beach Invitational (vs. Pittsburgh and Butler)
Miami - Miami Thanksgiving Tournament.... in Coral Gable (vs. Liberty and the other Miami, the Florida one)
Western Michigan - UTEP Thanksgiving Classic (vs. UTEP and New Mexico State)
Ball State - Bahamas Hoopfest (vs. Lehigh & Wisconsin)
Northern Illinois - Southpoint Thanksgiving Shootout (vs. Tennessee Tech & Sotuh Dakota)
Buffalo - Hawks Classic at St. Joseph (vs. Drexel & American)

I can't resist: Can Miami play Miami in Miami? I guess Miami would be the home team.

I dunno but if they can I’d put my money on Miami

Next year CMU will be at the tourney in the Bahamas. Caught the announcement this afternoon.

Awaiting word on the men.

BG is in the Greater Victoria Invitational, lost first round to Wisky Green Bay, 73-54. They will play the loser of Miss St and San Fran on day 2. #10 Miss St up big on San Fran so BG vs San Fran is likely.

Day 3, they will play one of these
Cal Baptist vs #3 Stanford
Houston vs #18 Syracuse.

Ohio beats Pitt, 72 - 50

On Thursday Ball State beat previously unbeaten Leghi 54-52 on a putback of an airball at the buzzer. Lehigh had tied the score with 2.9 seconds to play.

(11-29-2019 07:04 PM)OUBobcat1804 Wrote:  Ohio beats Pitt, 72 - 50

Gotta love this. I know Pitt isn't supposed to be very good, but destroying an ACC team is a good thing no matter what.

Ohio ended up losing to Butler in the second game of that tournament, but did beat IUPUI at home. The Bobcats did lose Eric Johnson to an injury, hopefully not serious as they are playing @ TCU and @ Texas in the next two.

On a related note, Ohio's win @ Ohio st. is looking pretty good after OSU beat a top 10 Louisville team last week.

As teams took finals this week, I played around with how they ranked so far.

Here's what I have (listed by record) as of Friday afternoon (Dec. 13).

Buffalo (7-2). RPI 89. Power ranking 114. Not a strong schedule so far. Freshman Dyaisha Fair leads the MAC at 23.4 points a game.

Ohio (6-2). RPI 108. Power ranking 77. Has league's best win — 74-68 over Ohio State in Columbus.

Kent State (5-3). RPI 66. Power ranking 150. Has beaten 5 mid-majors with 3 games decided in last minute. Lost to 3 Big Ten teams.

Bowling Green (5-3). RPI 110. Power ranking 112. Leads MAC in offense but hasn't beaten a team with RPI under 150.

Central Michigan (4-3). RPI 104. Power rating 74. Lost first three to very good teams, then won four in a row.

Western Michigan (4-3). RPI 223. Power ranking 241. Beaten 3 Division I teams with combined 3-24 record. Lost to 3 with 20-6 record.

Ball State (4-4). RPI 130. Power rating 104. Has 2-3 record against teams in RPI to 100.

Akron (4-4). RPI 169. Power ranking 159. Played well in loss vs. Michigan, but wins other than Youngstown were against weak teams.

Miami (4-5). RPI 154. Power ranking 148. Lost to 2 top-25 teams and haven't beaten team with RPI above 199.

Northern Illinois (3-5). RPI 161. Power ranking 196. Lost 3 closes games to good teams, beat 2 weak teams in overtime.

Eastern Michigan (3-6). RPI 195. Power ranking 246. Toughest schedule in MAC, but average loss is by 20 points.

Toledo (2-5). RPI 272, Power ranking 174. Four of 5 losses have been by fewer than 8 points.

Lots more detail is at my blog on the Kent State women at http://wbbFlashes.com.

--

League ranks 11th of 32 conferences in most ratings I've seen. Last two years it was eighth.

Buffalo looks better than I expected. All-MAC post Summer Hemphill hasn't played yet because of an injury.

Ohio plays at TCU and Texas next week. That should be interesting.

Ball State and Bowling Green are playing better than predicted. Toledo, Northern Illinois and Miami are doing worse.

League looks as if it go in a lot of different directions once conference play starts.

Thanks for the thorough run-down on your blog. I agree with you that Buffalo is doing well considering the absence of Hemphill. The Buffalo coach indicated that it is possible Hemphill won't play this year. With her in the lineup, the Bulls would be formidable.

Kent State has been fun to watch as well with their two standout freshmen.

I warned you about Toledo. I don't think the Rockets will finish last in the conference, but I do think they will be in the bottom four, which hasn't happened in a very long time.

The MAC has a lot of good freshmen. The future looks bright for the conference, but this year seems to be a one-bid year.

FWIW, Miami has only played one of our first 9 games at home. I would agree that we are playing much worse than last year. New coach, new system.

Nice day for the women today. Three road wins - BG over Milwaukee, Toledo over winless Detroit, and Central Michigan over a good South Dakota State team. Western Michigan also won at home against a horrible Chicago State team.

I was watching the CMU game. Chips looked really good. Micaela Kelly (38 points) looked like a league MVP.