MACTION

You may not have heard but Miami (OH) is undefeated heading into this thing. Many people have bad opinions about this but this blog does not. This is a tournament team.

The MAC isn’t great. Only 5 teams have a plus net rating and the league slides in at 17 overall in KenPom. That’s behind the WAC, the Coastal and Big Sky to name a few. Is being undefeated in this league that impressive? 

The answer is a resounding yes. Ask yourself this, how many teams have gone undefeated this century in non-covid years? It’s 3 teams. That’s it. I don’t care the schedule you play. Winning is hard. Being undefeated at the end of the season is infinitely harder. Spare me analytics, spare me schedule talk. I have no doubt Miami wouldn’t go undefeated in the SEC. I also have no doubt the bubble teams across the country wouldn’t go undefeated in the MAC. 

As far as the tournament goes, Akron is the favorite as we get back to analytics. 30 spots better in KenPom and with only 1 loss in conference, this is also a very good team. In fact, they had the best offense and defense in the league this season. They also only lost by 3 at Miami earlier this year.

Fun stat: Akron is 7th in effective fg% and Miami is 6th. Miami shoots better from 2 and Akron shoots better from 3. Akron’s slightly weaker 2pt shooting % is the minuscule difference. Defenses are similar and tempo is basically the same. This could be an all-timer as a conference tourney final. Let’s hope for that. I’ll pick Akron and pull for both to cause some grief next week for some Power 4 teams.