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| Toledo point guard, Juice Brown has lifted the Rockets past several opponents this season but is Western Michigan a bad loss on Toledo's resume? Photo Credit: www.Toledofreepress.com |
The MAC is becoming a mid-major powerhouse in Men's Basketball with teams such as Western Michigan making a climb back to prominence. Aside from the Broncos who have a current overall record 17-8, Akron also has seventeen wins with a 17-9 overall record. Once again, the Ohio Bobcats are a very serious threat to win the MAC this season as well with a 18-8 overall record thus far. However, they're all chasing the men in the Midnight Blue & Gold, the Rockets of Toledo. Currently, Toledo is tied with Western Michigan for the best record in the MAC with a 10-3 conference record. However, Western Michigan's win over Toledo on January 8 has the Broncos with the tie-breaker until they meet again on March 1 in Toledo.
So what if Toledo doesn't live up to expectations and gets taken down in Cleveland without an automatic NCAA bid? Can they receive an at-large bid to the big dance?
As it currently stands, Toledo has only four losses with their 22-4 overall record. Of those four losses, only one is seen as a truly poor loss and that came to the Eastern Michigan Eagles in Ypsilanti. Not only did they lose the game, but they were blown out 65-44, which certainly looks bad on a tournament resume. The Eagles are currently 15-11 overall in the MAC, which isn't seen as a dominant conference by national media.
Aside from the lost to EMU, the Rockets dropped a game in Athens against the Ohio Bobcats, 95-90 in overtime. The loss to the Bobcats isn't seen as too bad of a loss on the Rockets' resume since Ohio is one of the top teams in the conference but with only four losses, it could attract attention from the NCAA tournament committee. Ohio currently has an 18-8 overall record but just an 8-5 record in the MAC, which could turn Toledo's loss to the Bobcats into a poor loss on the resume.
Toledo also dropped a game in Kalamazoo which could prove huge on their resume. Not that it is seen as a bad loss by any means, but Toledo could have sole possession of the MAC lead if they beat the Broncos back on January 8th to begin MAC play. The Rockets lost that game 87-76 but they will meet at Savage Arena on March 1 in Toledo where the Rockets will look for revenge.
In non-conference, Toledo went 13-1 overall with a loss to the nationally-ranked Kansas Jayhawks in Allen Fieldhouse. This was only a ten-point loss to one of the top programs in the country which is something the tournament committee can look past. Toledo really proved that they can hang with anybody in the country on any given night with their performance against the Jayhawks on December 30th.
There is a side-effect of Toledo's 22-4 record, however. The Rockets' strength of schedule is a poor. Aside from playing at Kansas, Toledo's toughest non-conference opponent was Boston College, who is playing poorly this season. However, the game was at Boston College and the Rockets did pull out the 95-92 win early in the season. The next difficult non-conference games would most likely be Detroit and Cleveland State, two decent teams in a dismal Horizon League conference. It will come down to Toledo's strength of schedule if they fail to receive an automatic bid this March.
Another downfall on the resume is Toledo is lacking big time resume building wins. Big wins don't come in the MAC conference no-matter who you beat during conference play, so it is important that MAC teams get important wins during the non-conference schedule. Toledo's win over Boston College will need to get them into the big dance, but it may not be enough, especially if the Rockets get another loss before the end of the season. A 28-4 regular season record will be hard to ignore but of course this whole conversation is invalid if the Rockets win the MAC Championship in Cleveland on March 15 and receive the automatic bid to the big dance.
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