2025-26 Season

[Juice Stand]

Tough loss last night, but probably expected by most of us. The loss drops us to sole possession of 8th place, so we're still in as of today with two home games against EMU and Central Mich coming up.

- Ohio lost, dropping them to 5-5 and a full game ahead of us in 5th place. We get them in our finale.
- In a tie for 6th are Buffalo and Bowling Green, who played each other last night. We're 1/2 game behind and play them both again. Buffalo at home, BG on the road.
- Ball St is just behind us, but we own the tiebreaker and I don't see them keeping up.
- EMU has dropped to 10th place and is scuffling.

I mention all this to say that if we stay the course, I think we're safely in the 8-team field. If we beat EMU and CMU in this next stretch, that'll give us some breathing room, and there's a path to getting as high as 5th, maybe even 4th if we go on a tear and Toledo falls apart (unlikely). The top 3 is out of reach (9-0 Miami, 8-1 Akron, 7-2 Kent).

[Steve81]

Hope so, a few of us that I know already have direct flights (Jet Blue from Logan) and rooms booked. Will use Logan Express out of Framingham for $9.

[MakeMullinsGreatAgain]

Looking at the remaining conference schedule I feel like 10-8 is what we will finish - and that's assuming we lose to Akron and Miami. That last game vs Ohio could be for 5th place. Ohio plays Miami twice, @Buffalo here to end the season - they also play Toledo at home - I see them 4-4 and possibly 3-5.

Anyone know how the tie-breakers work? Spots 4-8 are separated by 1 game - of those 5 teams I really think we're the best of the 5 and have a shot at 4th place. Tie-breakers will most certainly come into play to determine the seeding.

[Juice Stand]

...Spots 4-8 are separated by 1 game - of those 5 teams I really think we're the best of the 5 and have a shot at 4th place...

Yup, it's a tight group. We might be the best of them, but we're too inconsistent to say that with any certainty. Bowling Green impressed me quite a bit. Not just Campbell, but I thought they were very athletic and skilled, more so than most of the other MAC teams we've faced. It kind of blows my mind that they've been so mediocre since beating us. I envision it playing out like this:
5: Bowling Green
6: UMass
7: Ohio
8: Buffalo

[vanmeter]

Mens Basketball Net 187 7th in Mac (was 8th)

Womens Basketball Net 95 3rd in Mac (the same)

[bobolink]

6 losses in the MAC so far. Ohio is in 5th place with 5 losses. The teams tied for last place each have 7 losses. Every game is crucial, and every game has been close. Just about every possession could be said to be crucial, as 3 of the 4 wins have been 1-possession games at the end, and 4 of the 6 losses were 1 possession at the end, with the other 2 being 1-possession games late (i.e., the UMass was within 3 of EMU with 1 minute left and even Kent State loss was 1-possession with ~3 minutes left in the game).

[MikeUMA]

UM has jumped a couple places in the standings, after today's results.
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-baske ... _/group/14

UM is now alone in 6th place, at 5-6.
Buffalo and Bowling Green both lost today, falling to 4-6.
In 5th is Ohio at 6-5. We get them again to close out the regular season.

Every game matters.

[Juice Stand]

Yesterday was big. Central Michigan has looked better lately, beating Eastern and Bowling Green in their last two. If we can get that one on Tuesday, and get to 6 wins with 6 conference games remaining, I'll feel a lot better about our place in the standings. It's starting to feel like we'll get the 6th or 7th spot, but I think we have a shot at 5th if we finish strong. It'll be tough with Akron, a Miami rematch, and Bowling Green on the road, but we're 5-2 since starting 0-4. As mediocre as things might feel right now, we've actually done pretty well since that terrible start.

[69MG]

After CMU we have Akron and Miami, so a real possibility of going 6-8 with 4 games to go. All 4 are against middle of the pack teams so we need to go 3-1 to end at .500. Not as easy as I would like it.

[minutefanjsf]

After CMU we have Akron and Miami, so a real possibility of going 6-8 with 4 games to go. All 4 are against middle of the pack teams so we need to go 3-1 to end at .500. Not as easy as I would like it.

We beat Miami or Akron and then sweep the four. 11 win conference record.

[Juice Stand]

We maintained our 6th place spot in the standings with the win yesterday. One full game behind Ohio for 4th, 1/2 game behind Toledo, 1/2 up on Bowling Green, 1.5 over Buffalo for that final 8th spot, and the really good news is that we're two full games up on NIU and Ball St for 9th. We're in great shape to make the 8-team conference tournament at this point, and if we can find a way to win one of the Akron or Miami games, we could get up to the 4th spot with a strong finish.

[vanmeter]

Mens Basketball net 185 (7th in MAC) was 187 a week ago
Womens Basketball net 93 (3rd in MAC) was 95 a week ago


As an aside Pittsburg Womens Basketball net under Verdi 260

[Juice Stand]

I'm only moderately bummed about the Coastal loss yesterday. Losing stinks, but it didn't do anything to affect the MAC standings, and the game was entertaining as hell. The CMU win and then the Coastal loss, those are two of the craziest games you'll ever see.

I can't remember exactly what my predictions were for this season, but my expectation (what I wanted them to achieve), was something like 20+ wins, top 3 in the MAC, make the tournament semis, and hopefully make an NIT. With 6 games to play and 15 overall wins, they have an outside shot of getting to 20 wins, top 3 is out of the question, and we'll see about the other two criteria. I think we'll probably go 3-3 for an 18-13 reg. season record, but finding a way to go 4-2 (19-12 overall) and getting one win in the tournament would get us to 20-13, which would be nice.

We get a week off to wash the taste of the 3OT loss out of our mouths and regroup. Then off to face a tough Akron team that never loses at home (although they just lost at NET 115 Troy yesterday).

[Juice Stand]

There were 4 MAC games last night, all with teams in the top half of the standings pitted against teams in the bottom half, and all the top half teams won.

Buffalo over Ball St
Toledo over Western Mich
Kent St over Eastern Mich
Bowling Green over Northern Illinois

These results dropped us into a tie for 6th place, in a tie with Bowling Green, who owns the tiebreaker over us. We're still a full game up on Buffalo for the 8 spot, and 2.5 up on the group tied for 9th.

[MikeUMA]

This isn't worth making a new thread for.

Big 12 adding LED-powered floor for men's, women's tournaments
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-baske ... ournaments

This will be interesting to see how the capability is used. Would be very distracting if they changed imaging during play, but seems like that's not the intent, as the article says "during timeouts." Seems like it's to enhance the fan experience within the building, which would be a cool new way to get people off their couch and to the arena.