You know it is March when…

a basketball loving dude puts his basketballish thoughts down on paper (computer screen) about a conference he has no affiliation with whatsoever.

Corey, an Oakland University student and the basketball loving dude I mentioned above, is a versatile individual with a keen grasp of what March Madness is all about. Only a versatile person such as Corey would ever actually go through the process of writing something about the Mid-American Conference (MAC). See Corey understands what it means to be a fan of a mid-major basketball. He knows it is not all about rooting for teams to make final fours or to sign phenomenal high school players that will only stay a year or two. It is about finding the right nucleus of overlooked, under-valued players who will stay for FOUR years and help mold and stabilize a good program into a great program. Corey understands college hoops at its most unblemished, purist level.

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This Slipper Is One Size Fits All

This year has been a down one for the Mid-American Conference. Put simply, the programs that gather ‘round the Great Lakes have done nothing but beat up on each other. This isn’t a new phenomenon either. Over the past decade the MAC has slowly taken a backseat in mid-major importance to the sheep-like MAAC, a conference that has two NCAA tourney wins in as many years and boasts a great Siena squad. The MAC, on the other hand, hasn’t posted a victory in the bracket games since Chris Kaman and his Central Michigan squad took down Creighton in 2003. The likelihood that this trend will reverse this year looks bleak.

With that said, there has been some great basketball going on in the MAC this year. We’ve seen teams like Ball State, Bowling Green, and Miami (OH) dominate opponents throughout the season only to falter at some point, pointing to the great amount of parity that exists in the league this year. All of this culminates in the conference tourney, scheduled to begin today (Corey sent this to me early Tuesday) in Cleveland at the House LeBron Built.

Over the next five days expect a mix of mediocrity and excitement from the games at the Q. Sure, there will be some early games that will be sloppy and exhaustive to watch. But the games starting on Thursday will surely bring out some excitement from these football schools as absolutely anything can happen when you are talking about a league without a reliable “top three.” The Akron Zips or the Kent State Golden Flashes have just as good of a chance of coming out victorious as the number one seed Bowling Green. Me, I’m expecting the Buffalo Bulls to parallel the recent success of their football program, which played in its first ever bowl game back in January. For the men’s basketball team, a win here would result in their first ever NCAA tourney appearance. ‘Tis a good time to be a Bull.
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FYI

Every so often Corey will post content on his own site, The Peeking Grizz. A little while ago he wrote about star Oakland University big man Keith Benson. You can access the post here. And while you’re at it, leave a comment for Corey, the post is darn good, I mean, Rush The Court linked to it for cripe’s sake!!