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The MAC basketball season begins tomorrow with six games starting at 11:00a.m. EST, so some of Hustle Belt's staff voted on a poll for each division as well as the first team All-MAC and tournament champion.
On October 28, the MAC released its official media poll, which picked the Akron Zips to win the East division, and the Central Michigan Chippewas to win the West division as well as the conference tournament.
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Here's what some of our own staff members came up with.
Preseason MAC East poll
1. Akron Zips
2. Kent State Golden Flashes
3. Buffalo Bulls
4. Miami RedHawks
5. Ohio Bobcats
6. Bowling Green Falcons
Outside of Akron and Kent State, it's difficult to gauge where the rest of the teams in the East will end up. Ohio lost most of its scoring, but brought in a few transfers. Buffalo loses a few stars and have a new coach, just like Bowling Green. Miami loses Will Sullivan, but has great guards in Eric Washington and Geovonie McKnight. This race is pretty wide open going into the season.
Preseason MAC West poll
1. Central Michigan Chippewas
2. Western Michigan Broncos
3. Toledo Rockets
4. Eastern Michigan Eagles
5. Ball State Cardinals
6. Northern Illinois Huskies
Central Michigan was a unanimous selection. Western Michigan is going to be without Connar Tava for a while, so some of their younger players will have to step up if they are going to contend for the top spot in the West. Toledo and Eastern Michigan have also lost quite a few key players and Ball State and Northern Illinois have very low expectations following a couple of bad years.
First Team All-MAC
Raven Lee, G, EMU
Chris Fowler, G, CMU
John Simons, F, CMU
Jimmy Hall, F, Kent State
Pat Forsythe, C, Akron
Another fun season of MAC basketball is upon us. It all starts with Eastern Michigan hosting Vermont at 11:00a.m. on Friday.
The 2016 MAC tournament begins at campus sights on Monday March 7, and the championship game will be on Saturday March 12. The tournament returns to the old format, which has each of the top four seeds getting byes to the Thurday quarterfinals.