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GoCats105
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Member Since: 1/31/2006
Location: Seattle, WA
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| Makeup of a MAC Champion |
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Posted: 2/28/2018 10:38:59 AM |
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Thought about the way the team has been playing lately and wanted to do a bit of research. For the teams that won the MAC Championship in the past, what did their last month/two months look like? Are there any outliers? Has anyone come into the tournament ice cold and just flipped a switch? Here's what I found:
2017: Kent State
Flashes were 7-3 down the stretch, starting on January 31st. Lost their finale against Akron at home after winning five straight. Rattled off four straight to get to the NCAA Tournament. All four games were close, including an OT survival over CMU in the opening round at home.
2016: Buffalo
Bulls were actually not playing that great to end the year. Starting on February 9th, they had lost five of their final eight games. They beat BG on the road in the finale, then blew the doors off both Miami and Ohio in the first two rounds of the tournament before finishing off Akron in the title game.
2015: Buffalo
This Bulls team went on an absolute tear at the end of the year. Going into the MAC Tournament they had won six straight and nine of their past 12 starting on January 27th. They got the double-bye straight to semi-finals and finished off Akron and CMU from there.
2014: WMU
Talk about red hot: starting on January 23rd, the Broncos went 12-2 down the stretch, one of the losses being an OT affair with Toledo on March 1st. They beat Akron in OT in semifinals then blew out Toledo by 21 points in the title game.
2013: Akron
This Akron team was on the cusp of going undefeated in MAC play until the calendar turned over to March. They had just beaten Ohio in Athens and were riding high at 13-0 in league play. Then they lost two of their last three to Buffalo and Kent State. They beat Kent State in a rematch a week later then beat Ohio handily in the finals. Then VCU murdered them and their unborn children.
2012: Ohio
The Bobcats were 11-3 starting on January 18th, but all three of those losses came in February and all three of them were on the road. They didn't secure the double-bye, but beat a solid Toledo team in the quarterfinals before beating Buffalo and Akron to take the championship.
2011: Akron
This Akron team certainly looked the part in February. After a rough start to conference play in (3-5), they rattled off seven straight wins. But then they lost their last two games, both on the road to rivals Ohio and Kent State, so you didn't really know which Zips team would show in the tournament. They played on campus and beat EMU, then it took 2OTs to beat Miami and another OT to beat Kent in the championship.
2010: Ohio
We all know the story about this Bobcats team. They were 7-9 in conference play, had to go on the road to Ball State in the first round and eventually pulled off an insane run to take the championship. But going back and looking at the schedule, it's not like this Ohio team was getting blown out in their nine losses. Here are the point differentials: 2, 5, 12, 8, 1, 9, 3(2OT), 7, and 3. Some of those are a couple of possessions to put them in a completely different scenario. Six of those nine losses were on the road, so going to Muncie and then winning in Cleveland was pretty miraculous to think about.
2009: Akron
This Zips team had a brilliant late-January to mid-February surge, winning seven straight. But then in the last few weeks they completely fell apart going 3-4, including a loss to a dreadful NIU team that went 10-20 on the year. They almost got knocked out of the tournament on the first day (back when all of the games were in Cleveland) by another dreadful team in Toledo (which won seven games all season), but won in OT. Every game after that, they won by eight points or more to take the title.
2008: Kent State
Probably one of the better MAC teams of the past decade, these Flashes were pretty consistent. They never lost two straight games all year and every loss was followed by at least three wins to make up for it. They went on the road to a ranked St. Mary's in the Bracketbuster and won by eight. They were 13-3 in conference play and probably the odds-on favorite to take the title in Cleveland. After a slow, clogging win over Miami 49-47 in the semis, they beat rival Akron by 19 in the championship.
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