Teetering between official and rumor, here are the six Mid-American Conference basketball teams playing in the postseason:
Monday, March 14
7 p.m. — CIT First Round, Buffalo at Quinnipiac
Tuesday, March 15
7 p.m. — CIT First Round, OHIO at Marshall
11 p.m. — NIT First Round, (7) Kent State at (2) St. Mary's [TV: ESPN2]
Wednesday, March 16
7 p.m. — CIT First Round, Tennessee Tech at Western Michigan
7 p.m. — CBI First Round, Miami at Rhode Island
Friday, March 18
Time TBA — NCAA First Round, (15) Akron vs. (2) Notre Dame [TV: CBS?]
So they took MAC seeds 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 8. Missing from this list is Ball State, who ended up with a neat record but no wins that pops out. Everyone else had a losing overall record. Still ... to have half the league in postseason tournament is way beyond what I expected. I thought maybe another couple would pop into the lower tournaments, but six. Damn. It sounds like a lot of teams turned down offers to play in these tourneys, including Maryland.
This just gives us that much more to write about. We're not complaining.