As is true for the men, winning the Mid-American Conference tournament is the only way for a MAC women’s team to punch its ticket to March Madness.
The Toledo Basketball program completed the regular season sweep for the third straight season, with the women’s team joining the men as regular season conference champions and earning the top seed in the conference tournament.
The Rockets are again the team to beat in the MAC tournament, and these are the participants of the teams that will be trying to dethrone Toledo starting on March 13 at 11 a.m. in Cleveland.
No. 1 Toledo (25-4, 17-1) vs No. 8 Western Michigan (12-17, 7-11)
The defending MAC tournament champion Rockets will most likely be favored against any team they face in the tournament and will be heavy favorites against their first-round opponent.
The Rockets should easily win the opening round, as the Broncos have fewer than half the wins that Toledo does.
Toledo has been incredibly dominant this season. Their lone conference loss came on the road to Ball State. That loss was the only blemish on an 11-1 record against tournament teams.
Western Michigan has improved greatly this year, and like their men’s team, they earned a spot in the MAC tournament after not qualifying last season.
Be that as it may, they only recorded seven conference wins, and only three of them were against tournament teams. However, they had no problem recording losses against tournament teams, picking up eight, including four in a row to end the season.
They have played the Rockets twice, losing both times. If they are going to pull the upset, they’ll have to play a nearly perfect game and force Toledo to play one of their worst.
No. 4 Buffalo (17-12, 10-8) vs No. 5 Bowling Green (16-13, 10-8)
These two teams were close in the standings all season long, with Buffalo a game or two ahead most of the time. They ended up with the same conference record, but the Bulls won the tiebreaker due to their regular season sweep of the Falcons.
Buffalo has been sitting in the fourth seed for essentially the whole season and has never been able to compete with the top two or three teams in the conference, recording a 5-7 record against tournament teams.
Regardless, they are improved from last year when they had a 7-11 conference record, which landed them in the eighth seed and a first-round loss to Toledo.
Bowling Green will look to avoid falling victim to a three-game sweep against the Bulls this season.
Unlike Buffalo, who improved from last season, the Falcons have dropped off a bit from their 14-4 conference record a year ago. Their ten wins are still solid, but only half of those came against tournament teams, as they also picked up six of their eight conference losses against tournament teams.
The other positive is that the Falcons perhaps now have a better game plan to defeat Buffalo. The Falcons have been sitting right behind the Bulls all season long and did squander both chances to overtake them, but they can avenge those missed opportunities in the quarterfinals.
No. 2 Ball State (27-4, 16-2) vs No. 7 Ohio (11-18, 8-10)
Ohio University lost the tiebreaker to Northern Illinois, which resulted in them having to play Ball State, the team with the most total wins of any MAC team.
Ball State was on top of the conference for quite some time, starting off 10-0 in conference play, including a win over Toledo. However, a Feb. 7 overtime loss at Northern Illinois gave them the same conference record as Toledo, and a Feb. 24 loss to the Rockets knocked Ball State out of first, and they finished the season in second.
Even with the losses, the Cardinals have been dominant throughout the season, with a 10-2 record against tournament teams.
After missing the tournament last season, Ohio has improved on its 4-14 conference record, picking up seven this season.
They haven’t been especially impressive, but they do have a win against Kent State, who enters the MAC tournament as the No. 3 seed.
The Bobcats have eight conference wins, but only two are against tournament teams, with all ten of their conference losses being against tournament teams.
Ohio will have to come into the mid-afternoon game with their best game plan all year and hope to catch the Cardinals off guard if they want to have a shot at making the semifinals.
No. 3 Kent State (18-10, 13-5) vs No. 6 Northern Illinois (15-15, 8-10)
In a rematch of last year’s quarterfinal, in which Kent State was the No. 4 seed and Northern Illinois was the No. 5 seed, The Flashes are again favored to advance.
The Flashes enter the MAC tournament somewhat in a tier of their own. They aren’t quite up there with Toledo and Ball State, but they are certainly better than Buffalo and Bowling Green.
Kent State’s final regular season game was a good test before heading to Cleveland, but the comeback effort against Ball State came up short, as the Flashes lost 75-71 on March 6. That loss was one of five losses in their 6-5 record against tournament teams.
The Huskies and Flashes only met once this season, and the Flashes dominated, winning 73-48 at home back on Jan. 14.
Northern Illinois will have to play similarly to how they did on Feb. 7, when they took down Ball State if they’re going to give themselves a shot at defeating Kent State.
The Huskies have eight conference wins, half of which come against tournament teams. This season, they went 4-7 against tournament qualifiers.
Demetri Manousos is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].
