OHIO U. at WESTERN MICHIGAN, 7:00 PM Eastern, No TV
Coming off their victory over Toledo this past weekend, the Ohio University Bobcats have taken over as the leaders in the MAC and are our current pick to represent the conference in the NCAA tournament. However, before losing to Ohio, Toledo’s lone conference loss had come in Kalamazoo, Michigan to Steve Hawkins’ Western Michigan Broncos. Tonight, the Bobcats begin their defense of first place in the conference standings with a trip of their own to Kalamazoo.
The Ohio Bobcats are currently 16-5 overall and 6-2 in conference, technically tied with Akron at the top of the East Division standings, and with the same 6-2 record as Toledo in the West. The Bobcats have been dominant on the road in the MAC recently, with 11 road wins in MAC play in their last 12 games. The program in fact is 21-4 in its last 25 MAC regular season games, one of the most dominant streaks in MAC history. The win over Toledo may very well have established the Bobcats as the team to beat. Junior forward Maurice Ndour has been leading the way recently for Ohio, averaging 24.5 points and 11.2 boards in last week’s two games.
Western Michigan enters tonight’s game in second place in the West Division, 5-3 in conference play and 12-8 overall. They feature the MAC’s leading scorer in David Brown, who is averaging 18.4 points per game. This will be the 125th all time matchup between these long-time rivals. Western Michigan trails the all-time series by 6 games, 59-65. They will be trying to narrow that gap by one tonight, while at the same time knocking off yet another MAC leader at home.
I love the MAC. Ohio has emerged as the most successful program in that league as of late. With so many young players, they should be even better next year. Do you think that after this year, they’ll become one of those teams that doesn’t need the automatic bid to get in??
With Taylor and Ndour back next year they will have a chance, but Hall, Johnson, Smith and Kellogg are all graduating so they will have a lot of holes to fill.