(12-06-2017 06:12 AM)emu steve Wrote: Crazy things happen which don't normally happen in say football. (When is the last time a MAC team beat a top 10 FOOTBALL team? Never?).
Miami did beat #8 LSU in Baton Rouge back in 1986.
Meanwhile, I believe we were technically the last MAC team to beat a Top 10 opponent, albeit only a few weeks following the other examples pointed out from 2001.
WOW!!! ... Looking back at some of those teams, it's amazing only one MAC team advanced to the NCAA Tournament that season (2001-2002). Miami, Bowling Green, Ball State and Kent State were all extremely good basketball teams ... and Marshall may have had the most talent overall in the league, based on what I've heard over the years.
BG only lost eight games through the reg-season and MAC Tournament, and four of those were to Kent State/Ball State. As mentioned Ball State beat UCLA and Kansas ... Miami beat Boston College and Kent beat all those teams in the ncaa tournament. All nationally-ranked Top 25 teams.
However, BG also beat Michigan that year ... Western Michigan def. Michigan and Virginia Tech ... and Ohio defeated DePaul.
If the league were to put together a non-conference string of wins like that now (and for argument sake say a comparable Kent State re-season/mac tournament scenario played out again by another MAC team) ... it would be extremely hard I believe to say the MAC was a one-bid league.
That said ... it obviously happened in 2001-2002. ... And may be why the league overall schedules collectively as softly as it does now.
(This post was last modified: 12-06-2017 09:37 AM by cleveland.)
Great win Ball State! I think Kent may have been the last MAC team to beat 2 top ten teams in 2002? #9 Alabama and #8 Pitt both in the NCAA elite eight tourney run?
(12-06-2017 10:50 AM)BuckeyeFlyerFlash Wrote: Great win Ball State! I think Kent may have been the last MAC team to beat 2 top ten teams in 2002? #9 Alabama and #8 Pitt both in the NCAA elite eight tourney run?
Ohio in the 2012 NCAA tourney beat #15 ranked Michigan.
But you are right it doesn't happen as much as it used to mostly because we don't play that many ranked teams anymore.