Sports
Everything you need to know before the 2025 MAC Tournament
By: Andrew Bowlby
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The Men’s Mid-American Conference Tournament bracket was not solidified until the final moments of the regular season. Friday night, the six-game slate delivered a dramatic finish that locked in the top eight and their seeding. Miami and Toledo both took care of their home finales winning by double digits over Ball State and Ohio respectively.
However, the three main events did not disappoint. Kent State trailed at home to Eastern Michigan by 14 in the second half before rattling off a thrilling comeback to hang on and take the No. 3 seed in this week’s tournament. Western Michigan, off a go-ahead free throw with just 3.1 seconds to go earned a road victory and ticket to Cleveland over Bowling Green. Although the Falcons lost their final game of the year, the squeaked into the tournament because of Central Michigan’s loss to Northern Illinois.
The Chippewas faced a devastating loss to the MAC’s worst team. They were 15-point favorites at home and held all of the tiebreakers. All CMU needed was a win on their home court over a team that had not won a road game all season. But in March, you can imagine what happened. On what looked to be a pass attempt, James Dent Jr. got the ball to go in and won the game for NIU denying Central Michigan a conference tournament spot.
Below is everything you need to know ahead of the MAC Tournament.
(1) Akron vs (8) Bowling Green
All-Time MAC Tournament Meetings:
1999 QF: Bowling Green wins 80-74 (OT), 2002 QF: Bowling Green wins 60-58, 2009 SF: Akron wins 63-55, 2016 SF: Akron wins 80-66, 2021 QF: Akron wins 74-67
Akron has been unquestionably the best team in the MAC during the 2024-25 season. The Zips are the top ranked team in the conference by both kenpom.com and the NET rankings. Winning 17 of their 18 games in conference, Akron broke a four-year regular season title streak by Toledo. Now, they are set to try and win a third MAC Tournament Championship in four years. Akron accomplished a similar feat from 2009-2013 winning three of five split up by a pair of titles by Ohio. Coincidentally, the Bobcats are the only MAC team to have beaten Akron this year.
That game was an outlier for Akron. Going into the lone loss on Feb. 22, the Zips had won their first 13 MAC games. And by dominant fashion with nine of those wins coming by 10+ points. But even after a 84-67 loss in Athens, the Zips went right back to their winning ways and ended up claiming their first regular season title since 2020. No team in the conference has won both the regular season title and the tournament title since Buffalo in both 2018 and 2019.
Regular season success has come by way of offense. Akron leads the conference in both points per game (84.0) and scoring margin (+9.7). Plus the offense flows by leading the MAC in assists per game (18.3). Maybe the weirdest thing about the Zips is that their top scorer, Nate Johnson, ranks 17th in the conference. They really don’t have a top scorer in the MAC, but they make up for it and more with depth. Akron has more players than any MAC team averaging at least six points per game with 10. The depth is what allows the Zips to come in waves and gives head coach John Groce seemingly endless options.
Nate Johnson and Tavari Johnson both recorded over 100 assists each and will be leaned upon when the games get bigger to deliver for the Zips. They are without much doubt the favorite and have an edge over everybody in the tournament field. But Akron’s opening round opponent still posses a significant threat.
Bowling Green thought its season had ended after losing to Western Michigan on the final night of the regular season. But about 45 minutes after the Falcons walked off the court defeated, Central Michigan lost allowing for BG to get back in. It has been a solid season for the Falcons who rank in the middle of most team stats in the MAC. Plus, they won five of their last seven entering tournament play only losing to Kent State and WMU.
The biggest threat to Akron is big-man Marcus Johnson. A graduate of Akron high school St. Vincent-St. Mary, Johnson leads most of what the Falcons do on offense. One of the top five scorers in the conference he has the ability to stretch the floor making 73 threes on the season, the third most in the league. Alongside Johnson, Javontae Campbell, Derrick Butler and Trey Thomas all combine to score 76% of BG’s points. That grouping will have to score big numbers to give the Falcons a chance.
Campbell will be particularly important for the Falcons’ on defense. Campbell led the entire conference in steals at 2.8 per game. Nearly a full steal more than the next player. For BG to have a chance in this game, the Falcons must get off to a good start and keep it competitive. If they can get the game to the final minutes and be a one- or two-score game, the Bowling Green stars could find a way to pull the upset.
Season Series:
Jan. 3, 2025 (in Bowling Green): Akron 71, Bowling Green 68
The only meeting of the season came in the MAC opener for both teams. Bowling Green actually held the halftime lead up 32-30 at home, however, Akron controlled the second and took a tight road win. It was the Zips worst shooting performance from the field in conference play at 38.8%. The aforementioned group of four from BG scored 59 points in the game, and will likely need equal to or better performance for a revenge win.
(2) Miami vs (7) Eastern Michigan
All-Time MAC Tournament Meetings:
1987 QF: Eastern Michigan wins 87-64, 1989 QF: Eastern Michigan wins 70-69, 1992 QF: Miami wins 67-66, 1994 QF: Miami wins 90-60, 1997 Championship: Miami wins 96-76, 1998 Championship: Eastern Michigan wins 92-77, 2000 1st RD: Miami wins 64-51, 2013 2nd RD: Eastern Michigan wins 58-47, 2015 1st RD: Eastern Michigan 62-61 (OT)
The complexion of this game has changed significantly since the pair met earlier in the season. EMU got hot and ended the season with five wins in its last seven. That stretch includes wins over Toledo, Miami and Ohio and helped get the Eagles into their first MAC Tournament since the 2020 season. Eastern Michigan got things rolling behind the incredible play of Jalen Terry. Following a 38-point performance against Toledo, Terry was named the Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week. In 16 of Eastern Michigan’s 18 conference games, Terry scored in double figures leading him to back-to-back MAC Player of the Week awards for the weeks of Feb. 17 and Feb. 24.
With the regular season ending, Terry finished second in scoring in the MAC coming up just 0.1 points per game behind Quentin Jones (NIU). But it isn’t just Terry who leads the Eagles. Da’Sean Nelson also averages over 16 ppg, and ranked fourth in the conference. Nelson serves as the post presence for the Eagles. While he does score, he also can pass and plays tremendous defense. Nelson scored 25 points in the second meeting of the season with Miami and needs to be apart of the game-plan for the Eagles to succeed.
The combo of Terry and Nelson are also backed by another guard/forward duo that are equally important for EMU. Christian Henry facilitates the offense for the Eagles leading his team with 107 assists. But, Henry can also score, with six games over 20 points. The other big is Jalin Billingsley. A grouping of four players as good as this one will make things difficult for any opponent. Considering the team also got hot down the stretch of the season, there’s not doubt the Eagles are a dark horse in the tournament.
EMU head coach Stan Heath will make his first trip to Cleveland with the Eagles this week, however, he has been there once before and won it. During the 2001-02 season, Heath led Kent State to MAC Regular Season & Tournament Championships. In his only year with the Golden Flashes, he took them all the way to the Elite 8 of the NCAA Tournament and was a better first half away vs Indiana from a Final 4.
While the Eagles certainly pose a threat to Miami, the RedHawks are still the No. 2 seed for a reason. Miami has been a consistent force all season. Finishing with a 14-4 conference record, all four losses came to teams in the tournament (Akron, WMU, EMU & Ohio). This year also resulted in the RedHawks earning the second most wins in program history at 23. The question now is can Miami end a season with a win in Cleveland. The RedHawks have won a handful of First Round tournament games on campus sites, but they haven’t come out victorious in Cleveland since the 2010 tournament vs Buffalo.
This year’s team could be the one to break a 15-year drought. In 2024-25, Miami finished second in the MAC, the best standing since 2010-11 when the RedHawks finished second in the MAC East and tied for the second best record overall. One of the most significant numbers that helped Miami to the high standing is the three-point shooting. This year the RedHawks shot 39.4% from deep, the best percentage in the conference, and the seventh best in the country. Akron was the only team able to make more triples than Miami knocking in 334 compared to the RedHawks 325.
Four Miami players make up the top five three-point shooters (by percentage) from MAC play. Luke Skaljac, Cam Kraft, Brant Byers and Eian Elmer all shot better than 41% from three and made at least 25 deep-shots. Of those four, Kraft made the most of the bunch with 83 total (second only to EMU’s Jalen Terry). The offense runs through Kraft and 6-foot-5 guard Peter Suder. The pair score over 26 points per night and will be the focal point for the Eagles defensive plan. Miami’s offense set a school record for most points in a single season and are a dynamic group that can score in many ways. Additionally, Kraft and Suder have the two highest single-game scoring totals among MAC players with 40 and 42 points each.
Season Series:
Jan. 28 (in Oxford): Miami 89, Eastern Michigan 80
Feb. 18 (in Ypsilanti): Eastern Michigan 76, Miami 66
A regular-season split between the Eagles and RedHawks sets up round three to be very competitive and come down to the little things. As mentioned, the three-point shot is Miami’s key. In the win over EMU the RedHawks shot 47.4%, in the loss just 23.1%. The first meeting featured six Miami players score in double figures Antwone Woolfolk netting a season-high 21. EMU was led by Henry in the loss, but the biggest key from the loss was Terry shooting only 4/12. Meeting two was flipped around. It was the Eagles suffocating first half defense that paved the way for a victory. Allowing just 23 points in the opening 20 minutes, EMU was able to hang on in the second and take down Miami.
(3) Kent State vs (6) Western Michigan
All-Time MAC Tournament Meetings:
1987 QF: Kent State wins 84-75, 1992 QF: Western Michigan 61-57, 2004 Championship: Western Michigan wins 77-66, 2007 QF: Kent State wins 75-66, 2012 QF: Kent State wins 76-72
When Kent State and Western Michigan suited up Friday for their final games of the regular season, they began the night as the No. 4 and No. 8 seeds respectively. But after both earning wins, they moved up and it’s the No. 3 vs No. 6 matchup. Kent State is just two years removed from winning the MAC Tournament in 2023. For the Golden Flashes entering tournament play, they possess a stingy defense. KSU is first in points allowed per game in the conference. In 15 games this season, the Golden Flashes allowed less than 70 points. According to barttorvik, Kent State is the best team in the MAC for adjusted defensive efqieicny.
That defense has been phenomenal, but Kent can also score. Because of this, the Golden Flashes have played, and won, many different styles of games. They have multiple one-point wins, they have played an overtime game, a 40-point blowout win over Toledo and just come-from-behind wins. It’s a team that can get the job done in many ways and that may prove to be valuable experience as the tournament begins.
They will also have the players needed to make a run in March. The Golden Flashes top duo of VonCameron Davis and Jalen Sullinger are a dangerous guard/forward pairing. Davis can play down low, but will also stretch the floor and make threes. This year alone he was second on the team in made shots from beyond the arc only to Sullinger. His all-around abilities are critical for Kent State, and Davis is not unfamiliar to showing up in the conference tournament. Last year, he had two 20-point games against Toledo (1st RD) and Akron (Championship).
His backcourt counterpart is also no stranger to the bright lights. In last season’s MAC Tournament, Sullinger scored at least 14 points in all three games and finished the weekend with 55 total points. Sullinger can flat out shoot, and flat out score. Over his final three games of the regular season, including one vs Western Michigan, Sullinger put up 22.7 points per game and made 12 triples. Two of the three 30-point games he recorded this year came against the Broncos.
Sullinger and Davis are certainly a key for KSU, but, the other deciding factor in this matchup is rebounding, specifically on the offensive side.
These two are the first and second ranked offensive rebounding teams in the MAC. WMU picked up 13.3 offensive boards per game while Kent State got 13.0. KSU was also the 14th best ORB% team in the entire country, while Western Michigan ranked 43rd (barttovik). This stat is so important in this matchup because the team who had more offensive rebounds than the other won both regular season meetings.
It’s also significant because both KSU and WMU land in the bottom half of the conference for defensive rebounding. For the Golden Flashes, Davis helps out on the offensive glass, but their two headed monster on the boards includes Delrecco Gillespie and Cli’Ron Hornbeak. The duo had 85 and 73 ORB this year respectively, putting them at third and fifth in the conference. Western Michigan does their offensive rebounding by committee.
Five players average 1.7 or more ORB per game, and six players have at least 50 on the season. And it’s not just the bigs that will fight for boards, multiple Broncos guards will seek rebounds get second-chance opportunities. One player who doesn’t grab many offensive boards, but is paramount for WMU is Chansey Willis Jr. who leads his team in scoring at 17.0 per game. Had Willis played the entire year and not missed games early in the season, he would have been the MAC’s top scorer. Willis is a bucket getter and has put up 10 or more points in 11-straight games. In game one vs Kent State he scored 16 on 3/9 from the field, rather quiet by his standards, but in game two he dropped 24 on 8/14.
Heading down the stretch of the regular season Western Michigan won three tight games, including a pair of road games at Northern Illinois and Bowling Green. They nearly beat Kent State at home but ended up falling by one. The Broncos enter the tournament for the second-straight year as the No. 6 seed. Last season, they were blown out in the quarterfinal by Ohio. It will be another uphill battle for WMU, but it’s a team that got things going down the stretch and won’t be an easy out.
Season Series:
Jan. 14 (in Kent): Western Michigan 94, Kent State 83
March 4 (in Kalamazoo): Kent State 77, Western Michigan 76
This year’s season series was split with both teams winning on the road. In the first game WMU put up 94 points on Kent State’s defense. That is the second most all season allowed by KSU, and the only team to score more was Miami, who had 96 but that game went into overtime. Sullinger did everything he could in the first meeting scoring 32 points and making eight threes, but he didn’t have enough support from the guys around him. With the big key being offensive rebounding, well WMU won that battle in the first meeting 14-10. The second, which the Golden Flashes won, they won the ORB stat by an astonishing 26-10 margin. Game two also game down to the final moments with Cian Medley sinking a pair of free throws to put Kent State ahead with under five seconds to go.
(4) Toledo vs (5) Ohio
All-Time MAC Tournament Meetings:
1983 SF: Ohio wins 70-59, 1993 QF: Toledo wins 85-84 (OT), 1999 QF: Ohio wins 70-60, 2001 QF: Ohio wins 64-63, 2011 1st RD: Ohio wins 74-57, 2012 QF: Ohio wins 65-57, 2017 QF: Ohio wins 67-66, 2021 SF: Ohio wins 87-80, 2023 SF: Toledo wins 82-75
The final first round matchup puts a pair of teams against each other who played just days ago to finish the regular season. It’s offers a chance for both to get a fresh start and shake off rocky endings to their respective seasons. Ohio ended the year with losses in three of four games, and the only win came over rival Miami at home. Since the second game in the MAC-Sun Belt Challenge, the Bobcats went 4-4 vs their conference opponents. But the most notable result from Ohio’s regular season is just how disappointing it was. The pre-season team picked to win the league and the MAC Tournament fell apart with a string of injuries to key players and an inability to win road games.
Injury wise, Ohio’s stars AJ Clayton, Shereef Mitchell, AJ Brown and Aidan Hadaway have all missed games dealing with their own injuries. Hadaway and Brown are both unlikely to play again this season, and Clayton hasn’t been his true self since the mid-season injury. Down the stretch the Bobcats offense has been reliant upon both Mitchell and Jackson Paveletzke to create shots both on their own or with their passing. The guards are what make this team what they are, but the question Ohio must answer, and the one they have tried to answer all year, is how they will fare in a tournament game against size. As a group, the Bobcats are one of the smaller teams in the MAC with their tallest playing coming in at 6-foot-9.
While the guards have been great all year, including depth guards like Elmore James who score 20 points against Toledo in the season finale, the bigs are the question. Ohio has only won the rebounding battle 12 times this year, but 11 of them came during the first half of the year. Since Jan. 11 when the Bobcats out rebounded NIU by 18, they have only had more boards than their opponent once. Certainly not something that bodes well considering their first round matchup.
Another aspect of this quarterfinal is the fact that every possession will matter. Toledo and Ohio are the best two teams in the MAC at limiting turnovers. It’s hard to steal possessions from either; however, if either can cause chaos on defense it could be a game-changing factor.
The Rockets MAC season was as much of the cliche ‘A Tale of Two Halves’ as it could have been. Before Feb. 8, Toledo was 8-2 winning games left-and-right, but after they were just 2-6 and were in a major slump. But they did get the confidence-boosting win taking down Ohio to end the season. But the regular season doesn’t matter for Toledo, the pressure is winning games in the MAC Tournament. Before this year, the Rockets had won four-straight regular season championships earning them four-straight No. 1 seeds in the tournament. However, all of that success resulted in no MAC Titles and only one trip to the championship game.
For head coach Tod Kowalcyk he has posted a 11-13 career record in the tournament, and despite winning seven MAC regular season titles in his career, he’s not been able to finish the job in Cleveland. Even as a program the Rockets haven’t had success. The one MAC Tournament Title the program has to its name came all the way back in 1980.
Toledo’s biggest weapon in this game will be Javan Simmons. He is the number one post player in this head-to-head and caused Ohio havoc in the end-of-year meeting. Not only did he eclipse 20 points, but he also shot 100% from the field. It is likely that the offense will run through him either in the post, or to draw a double team and spray out to the many capable guards. Sam Lewis and Sonny Wilson scored 13 or more in each of the two meetings.
This third meeting may come down to defense. Both teams scored with ease in the regular season and both will be looking for defensive improvement as the tournament meeting takes shape.
Season Series:
Jan. 28 (in Athens): Toledo 86, Ohio 83
March 7 (in Toledo): Toledo 96, Ohio 82
In two meetings combined there were only 29 total turnovers (7.25 per team/per game). Both teams shot efficiently, it was really an offensive clinic. But now into a tournament style game, will things slow down and force the Rockets and Bobcats to grind it out. The first game featured Toledo’s six-man rotation all score 10 or more points, Paveletzke and Brown had to step up as Ohio was without Clayton. Game two in Toledo went even more in favor of the Rockets as they finished the first half in dominant fashion and continued it into the second half.