MONDAY FIRST-ROUND RESULTS AND QUARTERFINAL PAIRINGS

No. 9 seed Toledo (7-11, 13-17) 63, No. 8 Akron (8-10, 15-15) 59 at Akron.

Toledo will play No. 1 seed Central Michigan at noon Wednesday. Winner will play winner of Western Michigan-Ohio game at 11 a.m. Friday.

No. 5 Western Michigan (10-8 MAC regular season, 18-12 overall) 84, No. 12 Bowling Green (3-15, 10-21) 67 at Western.

Western will play No. 4 seed Ohio (11-7, 18-11) at about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. Winner of that game will play winner of Central Michigan-Toledo game at 11 a.m. Friday.

No. 6 seed Buffalo (9-9, 19-11) 87, No. 11 Miami (4-14, 11-20) 72 at Buffalo.

Bulls will play No. 3 Kent State at about 8 p.m. Wednesday. Winner will play winner of Ball State-Eastern Michigan game at about 1:30 Friday.

No. 7 Eastern Michigan (9-9, 15-15) 76, Northern Illinois (7-11, 11-19) 69 at Eastern.

Eastern will play No. 2 Ball State (13-5, 21-9) at about 5 p.m. Wednesday. Winner of that game will play winner of Kent State-Buffalo at about 1:30 p.m. Friday.

Finals are at 11 a.m. Saturday.

All games are on ESPN+ except for the finals, which are on the CBS Sports Network.

Here's link to MAC Tournament Central, which has detailed schedule, ticket information and other data. Tickets are $10 for the entire four-game session on Wednesday.

KSU has to be the favorite for a title with CMU in their slump.


I like WMU to win one more as well.

I do a blog on the KSU team, and I'm scared to death of Buffalo. They've beaten KSU twice and are playing like a Top 4 seed.

I still don't understand that six-game losing streak of theirs.

Kent played almost dead even in two games with Ohio and with Ball State. It's anybody's tournament.

A heckuva day for the MAC women. It's too late at night to write anything substantive, but here are the quarterfinal score:

No. 9 seed Toledo 78, No. 1 Central Michigan 71.

No. 4 Ohio 84, No. 5 Western Michigan 75.

No. 7 Eastern Michigan 64, No. 2 Ball State 63.

No. 3 Kent State 72, No. 6 Buffalo 66.

Toledo will play Ohio in the semifinals at 11 a.m. Friday. The Kent State-Eastern Michigan game will start a half hour after it ends, probably about 1:30.

Both games are on ESPN+.

This is a cool little story by Kathryn Rajnicek, one of my students at Kent State, at what it's like watching basketball in an almost-empty arena.

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It’s much too quiet at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. 

No bands playing school fight songs. No cheerleaders pumping up the crowd.

About all you hear is the PA announcing the scoring and the music pulsing from the speakers of the main scoreboard through timeouts and between quarters.

The only fans in attendance are family members of players. They take up two small sections, but the rest of the 19,000 seats are vacant. The rows and rows of empty chairs make the fieldhouse look bigger than it is. 

Fans create so much of the atmosphere of college sports. Without them, March loses much of its madness.