Belt Loops: Javon McCrea Named 30th Best D-I Basketball Player

Some MAC links to tide you over today, mostly about basketball:

• In Drew Cannon's top 100 Division I basketball players, two from the MAC were honored: Buffalo's Javon McCrea (30) and Central Michigan's Trey Zeigler (76).

McCrea is an obvious choice and way higher than I'd have guessed, and people still seem to be all about Zeigler. The listmaker is obviously trying to portend who will be good this season, rather than what they did last, which is why some other freshmen are on there. Plus, Zeigler wasn't even one of the 10 best players in the MAC last year. [Basketball Prospectus]

• Western Michigan is going to keep Steve Hawkins around for a while. They signed him to an extension through the 2015-16 season. He did a remarkable coaching job last year, actually improving WMU to a first-round bye team despite the graduation of David Kool. And they oughta become one of the favorites to contend this year rather than a dark horse. [MLive]

• Geeves mentioned this briefly yesterday, but it can't be said enough. The Idaho Potato Bowl is the new name for the Humanitarian Bowl. MAC teams can now send teams to a Potato Bowl or a Pizza Bowl, both with hopefully delicious results. Seriously, that is one delicious logo. [Famous Idaho Potato Bowl]

• While Akron plays exhibition games in Canada, they'll be without their senior post player Nikola Cvetinovic, who will represent Serbia in the World University Games in China this month. [WOIO]

• Nice stitching. Now show us the gosh darn jerseys already. [UB Bull Run]