Hustle Belt

Temple, The Door Is Over There

2012-02-22T20:00:07Z

Realignment news is the pits. It creates uncertainty not only into the financial situations of those moving (or those left behind), but it can tear apart old rivalries and generate even more cynicism into a lumbering beast of a sport where whiffs hypocrisy can be found at every corner, based on who's making the money and who's doing the work.

It's with this sentiment that I say: if Temple doesn't want to be in the MAC, then I don't want them here.

Y'probably already saw the reports that the Big East is looking to get back together with Temple after kicking them to the curb for noncompetitiveness, then adding them in all sports. We'll know in a week or so, historically when the Big East and MAC release their football schedules — although I guess in a nuclear situation they'd push that back.

But it seems like a fluid situation that I'm sure several high profile and smart beat writers are going to watch, foraging for information and synthesizing the most likely situations. It's what they've done for the last 10 years. If you ask me today, tomorrow, or any calendar day until a decision is announced, I couldn't tell you what I think will happen. Just that I know that when an entity is in your group and they keep one hand on their phone waiting for a call to move somewhere else (because that's what they've been telling their recruits), it makes everyone else uneasy. And I'd like this to be a happy sports conference.

That's about it. I couldn't tell you what'll happen to the future of UMass football and if they will also use the MAC as a steppingstone to a bigger conference. Or if Bowling Green football may be flopped back to the MAC East. I'm kidding. BGSU is going to switch divisions every three years until the end of time, and even after the universe ends, procedurally the hypothetical matter once known as BGSU football will switch divisions for the purposes of human law, of which there will be no record because everyone will be dead by then.

Is Temple finally leaving this hick conference?

2012-02-22T18:43:44Z

Is Temple finally leaving this hick conference?

The NYT's Pete Thamel reports that Temple is in talks to join the Big East for all sports -- not just football -- as early as next season.

Kent State Gets Mavunga'd On Wally Szczerbiak Appreciation Night

2012-02-22T14:13:07Z

Final - 2.21.2012	1	2	Total
Kent St. Golden Flashes (19-8, 8-5 MAC)	22	38	60
Miami RedHawks (9-17, 5-8 MAC)	27	35	62

Complete Coverage >

Call it a surprise or call it nostalgia. You could say it was a bit of both. Wally Szczerbiak was in the building, and for some that's all that mattered. Even though they had good teams (and tournament teams) since then, the defining moment for Miami basketball had to be Wally World's trek into the Sweet 16, beating Washington and Utah. There have been remarkable MAC moments in the NCAAs, but that team was unknowingly the last team in a while to make it to the tournament as an at-large team. Since then it has been a one-bid league.

Julian Mavunga may not be at the same level as Szczerbiak, but he might be the only player since that 1999 team who has shown incredible bursts and ability to make plays when needed. Exhibit A (through Z): With the game tied, the play call was essentially a Mavunga iso. Maybe they've done that before, but I never saw that.

He acted as a point forward, driving all the way into the paint and drew a foul on a shot, as questionable a foul it may have been. He sank both free throws with a couple seconds left on the clock and Justin Greene had to heave a halfcourt shot in desperate response. Mavunga had 17 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Quinten Rollins also had a solid night, despite being erratic at times, to finish with 18 points, six assists, five rebounds and three steals.

You could tell Greene still wasn't himself after sitting out the game vs. Charleston, but he still was able to make a presence and finish with 11 points and six rebounds in just 27 minutes. When they needed a bucket to tie the game in the final minute, they didn't hesitate, went right to him in the post, and he delivered. Most of the scoring was done by way of guard play, however: Carlton Guyton scored 13 and Randal Holt (RANDAL HOLT!) added 15.

And that's what Miami does. They get in your way. Take any sport, any moment in history. When they're not dominant they're downright ornery. It's only their ninth win of the year but KSU suffered a kidney shot in the MAC East, because now it opens the door for OHIO to secure a No. 2 berth and BGSU to win their way into a fourth-place finish and first-round bye.

And don't tell Miami they're not playing for anything. A 5-8 record at this point is good for eighth in the MAC, and wouldn't they like to give Mavunga one more home game to display those skills? Because not unlike Wally World, they're going to miss this fellow when he's gone.

Eastern Michigan's Biggest Night Was Toledo's Worst Ever

2012-02-22T04:31:15Z

MAC WOMENS BASKETBALL	1	2	Total
Toledo Rockets (18-8, 11-3 MAC)	18	15	33
Eastern Michigan Eagles (20-7, 12-2 MAC)	28	26	54

It's entirely possible that a handful of people, as I hyped the tar out of this game, gave the ol' MAC West decider a shot, saying "what the hell, it's a slow sports night on." By halftime I would not have blamed them if they had turned to something else or even read a book, because defense isn't sexy except on the scoreboard for the coach and in the record to everyone else.

Holding a team to 50 is great. To 40 is outstanding. To 33 is otherwordly ... and keeping TOLEDO to 33 points? Just take the conference. It's yours

Eastern Michigan's defense simply did not allow the Rockets to get more than a few uncontested shots up. But UT would be so lucky to even get to a point where they could shoot the ball, because on 68 of their possessions, 28 of them resulted in a turnover. That goes half-and-half; half to the Rockets offense for being out of sync, half to EMU for getting them to that point. 16 of the 28 turnovers were listed as steals.

That's not to say EMU played perfect. The Rockets defense was also shadowing Tavelyn James so closely, at times I felt her jersey gave her more room than the opposing guard. The Eagles shot just 39 percent from the floor, only hit one 3-pointer, committed 15 turnovers and could barely get to the free throw line. But it was a purely defensive victory and AnnMarie Gilbert's women demonstrated that.

James scored a mere 20 points, Natachia Watkins added 10 points and five steals and Paige Redditt finished with 11 points and nine rebounds. Desyree Thomas also distributed for nine assists as well as pilfering five balls and nabbing six rebounds.

The only player on the Rockets who had a semblance of a good game was Yolanda Richardson, and you might even make a case for her being the player of the game: 18 points, nine rebounds and six blocks. She did all she could to swat away anything brought into the paint, but nobody ever wins on blocked shots alone.

This puts the "magic number" for EMU at one. A win for them or loss by the Rockets gives EMU the division by virtue of the tiebreakers, as well as a double-bye into the MAC tournament semifinals (these are two separate awards, remember). The loss also gives BGSU a cushion in the standings for the top overall seed; ~~one~~ two more wins for them and they win the MAC regular season title.

And to make this ultimately demoralizing: 33 points is the record for fewest points by a Rockets team, EVER. Their previous low was 38 points against Missouri on December 5, 1992. It also "shatters" their record for fewest points in a MAC game, which was 40 twice — once to Ball State and once to EMU.

Just not their night. But they will get their chance again, and still ought to have the WNIT to fall back on again. That worked out well the last time!

Oh, and: Buffalo 85, Kent State 72 — In the race to not be in last place, UB pulled out an impressive victory against the Golden Flashes, a team struggling by their own merits as well. Brittany Hedderson led with 24 and Nytor Longar added 21. What appeared to be an entirely depleted KSU roster, rotating basically six girls and leaning on three to play 40 minutes, was led by Tamzin Barroilhet who poured in 20 points while Trisha Krewson and Itziar Llobet each shot for 15 points

MAC Quarterbacks Are Good And Efficient And People Like Them

2012-02-21T22:28:46Z

Some quarterback statistical crunching was done over at SBN's Cal blog, looking at a new quarterback efficiency formula that appears to put a bunch of emphasis on turnovers and yards gained. The results were that:

a) The rating really does churn out the top five quarterbacks, and Chandler Harnish is one of them.
b) The plotted chart looks like a tornado.

Many of the QBs ranked in the top 50 (out of about 175 passers) — eight to be exact. And if this doesn't make you salivate, nothing will except perhaps chorizo: of those, only two are leaving as seniors, Harnish and Chester Stewart. Which means that Temple's Chris Coyer (3rd), Toledo's Terrance Owens (7th) and Austin Dantin (30th), OHIO's Tyler Tettleton (31st), WMU's Alex Carder (39th) and Miami's Zac Dysert (43rd) bring in yet one more year of experience to their arsenal.

And not to gloat, but I had pegged this for a better year than 2010 for QBs, especially since only one was lost to seniordom, OHIO's Boo Jackson. Two transfers ended up earning starting jobs (Chazz Anderson at Buffalo and Clayton Moore at Akron) and did better than their teammates would have, I'd imagine, but everyone improved. Matt Schilz and Ryan Radcliff improved even if their teams weren't up to par yet. Keith Wenning and Alex Gillett certainly had better years as marked by 6-6 seasons. Even Spencer Keith for Kent State started to show some *cough* flashes in the second half of the season.

The QB situations at NIU (who here thinks Jordan Lynch will have be a top-five QB in the MAC next year?) and Buffalo (time to try Alex Zordich again?) might be a little painful, and who knows what UMass will bring to the galleon, but those returning 10 should only see improvement.

And if California Golden Blogs does this efficiency breakdown next year (this is their second year compilin' the numbers), then we ought to expect the same top-heavy dominance yet again. Although ... if the defenses get better, maybe the numbers won't be too wacky.

MAC Hockey Update: The CCHA Seeding Possibilities

2012-02-21T18:35:20Z

Its the last week of the regular season for our teams. After a grueling 5 months so far, we still have another month and a half, but with seasons on the line now. This week marks the last week of a guaranteed tomorrow for our teams, so lets look at the chances our teams have to see that next day.

BOWLING GREEN FALCONS (9-20-5, 4-18-4-3)

Possible High Seed: 11th
Possible Low Seed: 11th

The Falcons finally cooled off, and were blasted by the red-hot Ferris State Bulldogs last weekend. We knew coming into the weekend that they really couldn't move much, and now have solidified the 11th place seed for the 3rd straight year, with the past 2 resulting in last place finishes. The Falcons have now finished last 3 of the past 4 years, so improvement seems to be slow coming. However, the Falcons will be hoping to play the role of spoiler again this year, against a dizzying variety of possible opponents.

MIAMI REDHAWKS (19-13-2, 13-11-2-1)

Possible High Seed: 2nd
Possible Low Seed: 7th

With Miami's sweep of Notre Dame, they are guaranteed no less than 7th, since they would own the 2nd tie-breaker against the Irish, and the 1st against Northern Michigan. For Miami to get the 2nd seed, they would need a Bowling Green sweep over Michigan, so realistically, Miami could go anywhere from 3rd to 7th. They play current 7th place team Ohio State this weekend in a home-and-home, so the Redhawks could easily secure the first round bye if LSSU struggles at Northern Michigan this weekend.

Miami has been on fire lately, and has played their way back into the NCAA picture. If they can make it to Detroit, expect another Miami run come March as the RedHawks look to defend their CCHA title.

WESTERN MICHIGAN BRONCOS (16-13-5, 13-10-3-3)

Possible High Seed: 2nd
Possible Low Seed: 6th

For Western to secure their 2nd straight first-round bye and host series, they simply just need to win a game (probably Friday) and have a Miami "tie" against Ohio State. WMU would then have at least 4 points on the Redhawks and 4 points on LSSU. Ideally, Western would want to hold onto the 3-seed though, but that would require the Broncos matching Michigan State this weekend point-wise, along with holding off the Redhawks and Lakers.

Western has not won a Saturday game since sweeping Notre Dame in a home-and-home on January 14th. Their last Saturday win before that? December 10th versus Bowling Green. This worries me because if Western can't beat the red-hot FSU team on Senior Night on Friday, then they are in a hole for the Saturday game against that same Bulldog squad, in a place where Ferris dominates: 14-1-2. The lone loss? Friday, December 9th against.......WMU.

These two teams were the 4-5 match-up last year, and there is no love lost between the two. This will be the most physical series of the year, as Western looks to try to play back into the NCAA picture, and keep a high seed.

Toledo-Eastern Michigan Women: The Decisive MAC West Game

2012-02-21T14:30:07Z

7 p.m. — Toledo (18-7, 11-2 MAC) at Eastern Michigan (19-7, 11-2 MAC) (MAC-Sports Video Feed, Maybe?)

Sure, the SportsTime Ohio televised game will be Kent State at Miami, and that'll be nifty as Wally Szczerbiak returns to Millett Hall and they're doing some type of ceremony for him. However, Miami is the last-place MAC East team and Kent State ought to be able to handle them. Even if the RedHawks win, it won't cause too much sway in the division. Kent State and Buffalo women also play, but neither are contending for the East.

Which narrows it down to Toledo and Eastern Michigan women for a rather large tilt in Ypsilanti's cavernous Convo. Both are 11-2 in the MAC West, tied for second overall in the division, and a win puts either one in great position to secure that double-bye into the semifinals.

I'm 98 percent sure this game will decide the division because either way the game will effectively be worth two games in the standings. If EMU wins, they sweep the season series (they won at Savage Arena 70-66 last month), owning the head-to-head tiebreaker. And if the Rockets pull off the road win, the division is probably theirs. They would split the season series with EMU, then tiebreaker factors in best record against the top team. That'd be BGSU, so advantage Toledo. And if the Falcons do somehow slip up down the stretch, then Toledo is in prime position to win the overall No. 1 seed. That's something the Eagles are not in great position to accomplish.

But Eastern does come in with an advantage. They're a sparkling 9-1 at home, with the lone loss via puzzling fashion to UMKC in overtime. In fact, every home win has been by at least 11 points, with the average being 22.1 points ... and that's even factoring out the Marygrove College Outlier. Against D1 teams at home, which has included Michigan and Miami, they've spanked the opposition.

I can't write enough about Tavelyn James and her impact on this game, so let's just say she scores 30 and we'll move on. What'll be important for the Eagles their defense (rated best in the MAC on opposing points/possession) to slow down that inevitable UT second-half run, or at least mitigate it by matching them on the other side.

EMU does have big-time scorers besides James, and that's the scary part. Even while James has AVERAGED almost 27 points per conference game — and 33 in her last three — Natachia Watkins has three 20-point games in their last six outings, Paige Redditt has one and Olivia Fouty has three 10-point games in their last five. It's a team that metrically might be the best in the MAC, but they happened to play at BGSU, not at home against them. And on a neutral court you have to wonder if the Eagles wouldn't win a rematch decisively.

But seven wins in a row is nothing. Toledo can see that streak and and raise it. January 11 seems like a distant memory, as that was the date of UT's last loss: Eastern Michigan. Since then it's been 10 straight wins of all sorts: comebacks, blowouts, nail-biters, near-collapses, road wins, rival wins, and they sprinkled in some boring W's for good measure. What the Rockets can prove in this game, which I guess is all they have left, is the ability to win on the road. We know they're good in Savage. They won the WNIT last March, a tournament in which they never had to leave town. They beat Bowling Green in miraculous fashion. But can they beat a marginally better team in their own dwelling? Well ... yes, they can. Better question: will they?

What let them down the last time was their defense. I'm sensing a theme. They let James, Redditt and Watkins combine for 56 points, and much of their scoring was from inside the arc. So it's going to be up to whoever guards James to slow her down and have Yolanda Richardson, that big UT center averaging a MAC-best 2.0 blocks/game, challenge shots from those slashing guards. I'm not expecting Courtney Ingersoll or Andola Dortch to score 20 — if it happens, bonus for them — but they've usually won with a healthy distribution of shots.

The game starts at 7 p.m., and I'm not 100 percent sure the game will be available online for free, since the link isn't on the MAC-Sports.com schedule like it normally would be, but here's the EMU streaming page should it become available. You'd have to hope it will be. If not, WEMU normally does a free web radio feed.

National praise for MAC defensive players (which do exist)

2012-02-21T01:46:47Z

National praise for MAC defensive players (which do exist)

Andy Staples made a neat all-college football team comprised of players who were two-star recruits out of high school (or worse), and while no MAC offensive players made the list, Kent State's Roosevelt Nix and Buffalo's Khalil Mack were two of the 11 defensive players named.

I reckon if Eric Page and Bernard Pierce didn't declare for the NFL draft as juniors they might've had chances to represent the conference on the other side of the ball, but Mack and Nix are both excellent choices who should continue to be productive for two teams badly needing winning seasons in 2012.