Last night in MACsketball:
OHIO 67, Illinois State 65 — Game o' the night! But this is getting ridoofulous. In a tight contest from start to finish, D.J. Cooper was unstoppable: 29 points, eight rebounds, six steals, five assists, and ... two blocks? That really overshadowed famous freshman Nick Kellogg's 19-point game, a career best aided by five 3-pointers. That's just murderous. They really earned that No. 2 ranking. OHIO's next game: Sunday, 12/12 vs. IUPUI
Buffalo 82, Niagara 64 — Oh, poundcake. UB is really impressing me during this nonconference stretch, thanks to Byron Mulkey who put in a yummy line: 40 minutes, 19 points, five rebounds, five steals, four assists, 8-of-9 free throw shooting. Jawaan Alson had 16 off the bench. They rebounded, they shot well, and Western New York better watch its ass out. No, they don't play Syracuse this year, but with the confidence bubbling up to the top, they might want to. Next game: Saturday, 12/11 vs. Green Bay
Ball State 58, Eastern Illinois 51 — It looked like the Cardinals were struggling on the road but were bailed out by an abysmal second half where EIU could only manage 16 points to Ball State's 32. Jarrod Jones had 20 points and 13 rebounds, and Jauwan Scaife added 16. Randy Davis rounded out the triumvirate with nine points and seven assists. So, hats off to Ball State for a nice little road victory, but this one was pretty much gift-wrapped by the home team. Joyeux Noel to you too. Ball State's next game: Saturday, 12/11 at DePaul
Western Michigan 71, Detroit 69 — Pulled. The heck. Off. The Broncos held off despite numerous dry spells in the second half wherein UDM kept tractoring back into the game. Here's your textbook "team effort" game: five of the nine Broncos who played netted at least 10 points, led by Nate Hutcheson with 14. And nice job shooting better at frees (9-of-18) than threes (8-of-18), but just barely. Next game: Saturday, 12/11 at Georgia State
Drake 58, Eastern Michigan 54 — I hate the Drake. Unhatable is yet another Brandon Bowdry double-double (25 points, 10 rebounds) but whenever any of his teammates want to help him out, that'd be cool. Take away Beast's numbers and the Eagles shot under 30 percent for the game. Eastern Michigan's next game: Saturday, 12/11 vs. Detroit
IPFW 78, Toledo 65 — This is a very fun matchup: prehistoric animals against futuristic weapons. But the victor ... MAY SHOCK YOU. The road losing streak continues for UT, as do several woes. Jay Shunnar and Reese Holliday kept apace the best they could with 17 points each, but the Mastodons, a creature that has been extinct for several yesteryear, shot a killer 11-for-27 from the 3-point line. Likewise, the Rockets had 19 turnovers. And with this, Toledo has lost to IPFW for the first time in their team history. Toledo's next game: Saturday 12/11 vs. Valparaiso
Western Kentucky 59, Bowling Green 52 — Yak. The strong point in this one was coming back from a 17-point hole and coming within two points, but that's such a cavern to reverse-spelunk. The Battle of Bowling Greens goes so "the other one," despite Jordon Crawford's 15 points. Raking together 19 steals was pretty cool though, six by Scott Thomas. But the Falcons haven't beaten a Division I team since last year's BracketBusters game against Valparaiso, a stretch that spans 12 games. Bowling Green's next game: Sunday, 12/12 vs. Florida International (sidebar: OMG Isaiah Thomas)
Today's Basketball Game (singular, but it's a big'un):
7 p.m. — Kent State at Florida (TV: ESPN2). Big test for Geno Ford's bunch to see if they can hang with a ranked team for at least 30-35 minutes.