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This year we profile the Top 15 Men’s Basketball Players in the MAC and we start with #15 - Tim Bond Jr.
Tim Bond Jr. started as a true freshman in the 2014/15 season. He was unable to play in the non-conference portion of the schedule due to injury but was able to appear in all of the conference games in 2015. He made his debut at the Convocation Center in a game against Ball State on January 7, 2015. The Eastern Michigan Eagles would go on to lose that game by 1 point in the overtime session. Tim Bond’s stat sheet was not that impressive in that game by playing only four minutes and getting zero points.
After three similar games against Miami, Kent State and Northern Illinois, he would have his true coming out party against Bowling Green at Bowling Green. In that game, he would get 27 minutes and score 13 points. But he showed his true potential with 3 blocks and 1 steal. He would end up finishing the season by averaging 6.4 points/game and 2.7 rebounds per game. He finished that season with 17 steals.
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He would start to shine in the 2015/16 season where he played in every game. He ended up leading the MAC in steals with a total of 67. This would put him 4th on the all-time EMU season list. He ended up averaging 8.8 points per game and 4.2 rebounds per game. He also averaged a little over 2 steals per game. This would be enough to earn him a place on the MAC All Defensive Team.
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His junior year would end up bringing him further glory. He improved his points per game to 9.1. He also improved his steals total to 69, this would move him up on the all-time EMU steals list. He took a little slip in his rebounds by averaging 3.7 per game. All together, this would be enough to put him on another MAC all defensive team.
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If his trends continue, he should be able to put up good numbers in this season as well. He is definitely an electric player to watch and I’ve watched his play energize the team. Eastern Michigan may need that this year with Tim Bond being the team’s only senior.
On a personal note, this is another Eastern player that I’ve got to watch mature into a pretty decent ball player. I know that I’ll miss him at the end of this season.