Inside MAC Men's Basketball

Who's Hot

Western Michigan

The Broncos have won three in a row and are now only a half-game out of second place (held by Northern Illinois) with a 6-7 conference record.

How the Broncos play in their remaining games will go a long way in deciding how the West Division ends up, as their last five games are all against division opponents.

WMU plays Northern Illinois twice, and have a game in hand against Eastern Michigan, Ball State, and Toledo. The Broncos are a combined 2-1 against those teams, and have not faced NIU yet).

Bowling Green

Bowling Green has won two in a row and four of their last five games en route to a second place record in the East Division at 8-4.

The outlook is good for the Falcons, as they can control their own fate as the season continues. BGSU is 4-1 against their next six opponents, losing only to Akron.

Keith McLeod (23 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 3 apg), Len Matela (15.7 ppg, 8 rpg) and Brandon Pardon (10.3 ppg, 6.5 apg) will lead the Flacons down the stretch and into the tournament.

Miami, Ohio

The RedHawks crushed Ohio 79-55 Monday. Miami has also won three in a row and four of their last five, losing only to red-hot Bowling Green.

Miami, however, will have a tough time keeping the streak alive. The RedHawks are 2-2 against their remaining six opponents, and will face first place Kent State twice. The Golden Flashes are on a nine game winning streak while showing no sign of slowing down. Miami also plays Bowling Green, to whom they lost earlier this year.

In the end, Miami will control its own fate for a possible first round bye, given to the two division winners and one wildcard, if they can put some wins together and possibly run the table.

Steve Reynolds, Western Michigan

Not really "Who's Hot," but more like "Who's Fast," as Reynolds proved Einstein's theory of relativity against the Bulls at Alumni Arena Saturday (go ask your neighborhood physics major to explain it).

Time must have slowed down as Reynolds was able to take a dribble, pump fake, and hit a 14-footer in 1.5 seconds to beat the Bulls.

Len Matela, Bowling Green

Matela scored 25 points and had 8 rebounds in a win over Ohio. Then he followed that up with a double double in a win against Marshall, scoring 23 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.

Who's Not

Buffalo

The Bulls have lost three games in a row and five out of their last seven. UB has struggled to stay healthy since the beginning of the season, as starter Clement Smith was diagnosed with a stress fracture at the same time as promising freshman Mark Bortz returned from a knee injury.

A home playoff game looked like a real possibility at the midway point of the season as the Bulls were sixth place in the MAC. Since then, they have dropped to ninth.

Buffalo plays at Ball State tonight and has a game against Central Michigan at Alumni Arena Saturday. If UB can beat Marshall and Toledo, both of whom are ahead of UB in the standings, they will be back in contention for a home playoff game.

Central Michigan

The Chippewas have lost two straight and four of their last five games. CMU are still struggling to find a defensive identity this season and do not have the talent to outscore their opponents often enough to come out above .500.

Central Michigan is 2-2 against their final six opponents and face Ohio tonight. The future doesn't look too bright as CMU also have games against MAC West leaders Ball State and Northern Illinois.

Alumni Arena

Not much of a home court advantage for the UB Bulls, as controversy swirled around the last-second basket by Western Michigan forward Steve Reynolds Saturday.

Coach Reggie Witherspoon doesn't believe that Reynolds had enough time to do all that he did in those 1.5 seconds, and was furious, berating the timekeepers immediately after the game.

Quotes of the Week

"To come out of our stretch (four games in eight days) winning three out of four, you'll take that any year, especially considering this is our second year (under McCullum) and as young as we are . it's more signs of the growth and the progress that this team has experienced." - Robert McCullum, head coach, Central Michigan.

"I thought we got really good play from Lenny Matela, he played outstanding against guys that are always on everyone's first team All-MAC, in Brandon Hunter (Ohio) and J.R. Van Hoose (Marshall). I think Lenny did a pretty good job." - Dan Dakich, head coach, Bowling Green.

"We're struggling to get healthy, we've played [teams] close for the most part. We really struggled against Miami, didn't really come out with a good enough effort to compete and give ourselves a chance to win that basketball game, but I thought we did against Western Michigan and had some glitches at the end of the game there." - Reggie Witherspoon, head coach, Buffalo.