CTC Day Eight Preview: The New-Look MAC…A Welcome Change

I have been a pretty loud opponent of the two division, 12-team tournament bracket.  And, the MAC was the poster-child for its injustice, as the Eastern Division is so far superior to the West that it presented a grossly unfair advantage for some and a huge disadvantage to others.  Well, they changed (maybe they read my post about a month ago…or the idiot blogger that wrote that didn’t do his research…), and what they came up with was genius.  They took the double-bye concept employed by 8-team tournaments, such as the OVC, and extrapolated it to their own 12-team tournament.  So, for the first time ever, the MAC will have a six-round tournament, complete with double-byes and triple-byes to accompany a First Round quadruple-header tonight.  The four winners tonight will make up the Second Round on Wednesday, where those winners will be joined on Thursday by the 3- and 4-seeds in the quarters.  The semis will be Friday, when the top two seeds enter the mix, followed by the championship on Saturday.  Awesome!  MAC, I applaud you…

This year’s MAC picks are absolutely all over the place, which should make for a fascinating tournament, from the CTC standpoint.  More people picked the 3-seed to win the tournament (despite having to play an extra round) than the 1- and 2-seeds, combined!  Doogan has won three of the four MAC tournaments on record.  The only one he didn’t was won by Teddy in 2010…see below – it was amazing.

Championship Picks
3 for #1 Akron (Bry, Rikey, Waters)
4 for #2 Buffalo (Gross, J, Lil Lohse, Primm)
8 for #3 Ohio
2 for #3 Kent St. (Dave, KA)
1 for #5 E. Michigan (Teddy)

Biggest Upset
R1 – #12 N. Illinois (Bry, Doogan, Gross, J, Mac, RDoc)
R2 – #10 Miami (OH) (Scoot, Waters)
QF – #7 Toledo (Gross, J)
SF – #6 Bowling Green (KA)

Previous CTC Champions
2011 – Doogan/J
2010 – Teddy* (in the most unbelievably ridiculous individual CTC bracket ever filled out – do yourself a favor and look at this bracket and marvel at someone picking it perfectly)
2009 – Doogan
2008 – Doogan

#5 Eastern Michigan vs. #12 N. Illinois
NIU is really bad every single year, and I honestly do not know why.  They should be great.  They are a good school with decent facilities in the shadow of one of the best basketball cities in the country.  Oh, and did I mention that the big boys like Northwestern and Illinois often have trouble recruiting Chicago kids?  So, why can’t NIU ever field a competitive team?  I don’t get it.  Their opponent tonight, E. Michigan is always decent, but their conference record this year might be a bit inflated by their unbalanced schedule being so easy (they get to play the Western Division teams twice).  Fortunately for them, though, they get one of those Western teams in the First Round and are guaranteed to get another one in the Second Round if they get there.  6 people (Bry, Doogan, Gross, J, Mac, RDoc) went for the huge upset pick of NIU.  Teddy has everything at stake here, as he has EMU winning 6 games to cut down the nets. 

#6 Bowling Green vs. #11 Central Michigan
Bowling Green had a really nice year, but fell victim to the unbalanced schedule and ended up 6th.  C. Michigan is not very good.  J and Primm are the only two with CMU in the big upset here.  KA has the most at stake with Bowling Green, as she has them in the finals.

#7 Toledo vs. #10 Miami (OH)
Miami (OH) is the black sheep of the Eastern Division because they weren’t all that good this year.  Toledo, generally a total doormat in this league, has actually played really well down the stretch and might be a tough out.  This game is rather split and could be somewhat important.  7 people have Miami in the upset (Bry, Dave, Gersh, Lynch, RDoc, Scoot, Waters).  Waters and Scoot have them going to the semis.  Gross and J have Toledo in the semis.

#8 Western Michigan vs. #9 Ball St.
Ball St. started MAC play red-hot, but has cooled off mightily down the stretch and fell to #9.  WMU was supposed to have a terrific, senior-laden team this year, so they put together a ridiculous non-conference schedule and lost most of their non-con games.  I guess losing bred more losing at WMU, as they didn’t turn it around in conference play and now enter as a longshot to even compete in this tournament.  This game is rather split, as well, as 9 people went for the minor upset of Ball St. (Doogan, Gersh, KA, Lil Lohse, Lohse, Primm, Rikey, Scoot, Waters).