Under the Radar Game of the Day – Tuesday, January 26: Northern Illinois at Akron

Under the Radar Game of the Day: Northern Illinois at Akron, 7:00 PM Eastern, free streaming at gozips.com

There are few conferences in the country that are poised to have as exciting of a conference race during the final 6 weeks of the regular season as the Mid-American Conference.  Entering play today, every team other than Miami (Ohio) and Western Michigan has a winning overall record and eight teams are withing 1-2 games of first place in their divisions.  In looking at RPI as a way to try to figure out who may be the best of this group, three teams stand out as being in the top 100 — Kent State and Akron in the East Division and Northern Illinois in the West.  The tightness in the standings and the ratings makes today’s cross-division battle between NIU and Akron even more intriguing.

As we have highlighted several times this season, the Northern Illinois story is one of those feel-good ones, coming from a program that has spent over a decade being among the worst in the country.  The Huskies enter play tonight at 16-3 overall and 5-1 in the MAC West, in sole possession of first place in that division.  The team is one win away from clinching its first winning record since 2003 and is clearly on pace for the school’s fourth-ever 20+ win season.  They may even be able to take a shot at the school record of 25 wins that Jim Molinari led the Huskies to back in 1991.  The Huskies are led by Marin Maric, who has six double-doubles on the season.   However, they have proven that they do not need to rely on him.  Last time out, in a win over Toledo, Maric was help to only 4 points and 4 rebounds.  Senior Travon Baker helped pick up the load, scoring 21 points and pulling down 9 boards.  Aaric Armstead added 12 points and 8 rebounds as well, as the Huskies showed that they are deep enough to seriously contend for the conference title.

Akron enters play today at 15-4 overall and 4-2 in MAC play, one game behind Kent State for the East Division lead.  The Zips are a deadly three-point shooting team, with as many as five different players that have the ability to drill the long ball.  Their shooters are complemented by Isaiah Johnson down low, who is a double-double threat every time he takes thee court.  This team is very deep as well — in fact, their top three scorers from the weekend win over Miami (Ohio) all came off the bench.  Akron can solidify its position as one of, if not the, team to beat in the MAC East with a win tonight over the Huskies.