2014 MAC Tournament Round 3 Open Thread: Cleveland Is Chalk City

We're back in the lakeside city of Cleveland, Ohio for the third round of the 2014 Mid-American Conference Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments. The women's doubleheader will tip off at noon EST, and the men's games will follow beginning at 6:30 p.m. EST.

We'll be in Cleveland for all four games today at Quicken Loans Arena. In fact, we'll be live at the Q for the remainder of both tournaments. Stop in and join us to discuss the day's #MACtion with us. Teams that earned byes during the regular season are finally entering the fray, so action and intensity should pick up. Think of it this way -- we're only 48 hours from crowing a pair of champions. Remember, you can log in using a Twitter, Facebook or Google account, or sign up for a free Hustle Belt account using your email. We don't send you emails, so you don't have to worry about your inbox being spammed. But you do get to join the conversation here (and another perk: logged in users actually see a few less ads!).

What do we have today?

On the women's side, the day begins with #4 Buffalo squaring off against #5 Ball State at noon. Buffalo won a four-point affair in Muncie during the regular season but nearly choked away a 19-point second half lead in the process. That game featured two 30-point scorers (Nathalie Fontaine, Kristen Sharkey).

At 2:30 p.m. (or 30 minutes after the end of the first game), the #3 Akron Zips will face the #6 Toledo Rockets. In the one regular season meeting between these two, the MAC's two leading scorers, Rachel Tecca and Hanna Luburgh, scored 40 points for Akron, who raced to a 25-5 lead and never looked back in an 82-62 win.

These games will be available for live streaming (for free) on the MAC Digital Network at mac-sports.com.

The men's doubleheader begins at 6:30 p.m. ET when #4 Akron takes the floor against #5 Ohio. These two teams combined for 43 wins thus far and split their regular season series, with both teams winning on the road. Ohio won in Akron by 16 in February, while the Zips invaded Athens and won an 83-80 decision in double overtime. In the latter game, Quincy Diggs scored 20 points for Akron, including the final two points in the second OT and the basket that sent the game to that second overtime. Maurice Ndour posted 25 for the Bobcats.

Beginning at 9:00 p.m. EST (or 30 minutes after the first game ends), the #3 Buffalo Bulls will play the #6 Eastern Michigan Eagles. In their only regular season meeting, the Eagles held MAC Player of the Year Javon McCrea to only 10 points, but Jarryn Skeete picked up the slack with 19 points off the bench. EMU allowed an uncharacteristic 76 points in that game and fell 76-66. Glenn Bryant led the Eagles in that game with 19 points and also pulled down 10 rebounds. Last night against Northern Illinois, EMU gave up only 48 total points and just 13 in the second half.

Once again, these games will be broadcast LIVE on TWC SportsChannel and can be streamed live via WatchESPN and the MAC Digital Network.

So pull up a seat, fire up the old laptop/smartphone/internet device thing with some form of keyboard and join the discussion. We'd love to hear what you have to say about today's #MACtion.