Under the Radar Game of the Day: Ball State at Toledo, 8:00 PM Eastern, BCSN/Time Warner Sports-Ohio/espn3
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The UTR Game of the Day heads to Toledo, Ohio tonight, home of Corporal Maxwell Klinger, the Toledo Mud Hens, and of course the MAC’s Toledo Rockets. Tonight, the Rockets welcome in the surprising Ball State Cardinals, who have sprinted out to a two game lead in the conference’s West Division and are trying to lock down a first round bye in the upcoming conference tournament. Toledo enters the game with a record of 16-11 overall and 7-7 in MAC play, locked in a three way tie for second place in the West along with Northern Illinois and Central Michigan. The three teams hold a narrow one game lead over Eastern Michigan and two games over Western Michigan in what may be over these last two weeks a tight battle for the 5th through 8th seeds in the conference tournament. The first round of the MAC tourney is played on campus sites, and finishing between 5th and 8th would give a team a home game, while finishing 9th-12th will make a team have to go on the road. Toledo has been led so far this season by Nathan Boothe and Jonathan Williams. Both players were in double-digits in scoring in a loss back on January 6 at Ball State. Williams is actually coming off his career-best scoring game in conference play, having scored 24 points in a loss to Eastern Michigan this past weekend.
Ball State currently sits at 18-9 overall and 9-5 in MAC play. Although they are in firm control of the MAC West Division which a two game lead and only four to play, the conference ignores division standings when seeding the conference tournament. In terms of their possible seed, they are locked in a three way tie for second place with Ohio and Kent State, all a game behind Akron. Buffalo is sitting at 8-6, lurking only a game behind those three. Finishing in the top four comes with a bye into the quarterfinals, so the Cardinals cannot let off the gas pedal these last two weeks. Ball State has won five of their last six games including a home win last Friday night over Northern Illinois. The Cardinals had five players in double figures in that win, most notably of which was Bo Calhoun who scored 10 points while pulling down 15 rebounds. Ryan Weber was the star of the earlier win over Toledo, dropping 21 points, though Ball State had five players in double-digits in that win as well. If that can put together another solid, balanced scoring attack tonight, the Cardinals can move one step closer to a division title and a first round bye with a win tonight.