The Futon Report

The Greg Stempin Variety Hour is the periodical celebration of excellence and existence of MAC basketball.

The story this year has been teams going on the road and losing nine out of 10 times. No exaggeration. After last Saturday, the home team was 32-4 in conference play. But Wednesday night the home team as 1-3. The exception? Of course it was Toledo.

Akron 68, Toledo 52 â—¼ UT had a 14-point lead in the first half, but Akron outscored the Rockets 40-19 in the second half. “See, there’s your problem.” Steve McNees — I loved him in The Great Escape — had 16 points (4-of-5 on 3-pointers) and the high man for Toledo was… well, that’s new. Anthony Byrd had 12 points. Tyrone Kent was held to just 3 points, his season low and just the second time he’s failed to score double digits.

Bowling Green 63, Ball State 53 â—¼ The simple story in this game was field goal percentage. BGSU made 56 percent of their shots to Ball State’s 33.333333333 repeating. Brian Moten scored 19 for the Falcons and Melvin Goins had 18 for BSU. This wasn’t necessarily a statement from the BGSU mens team to Ball State for the way they treated their women last week, but let’s pretend.

Kent State 77, Eastern Michigan 67 â—¼ Sure, Mike McKee took eight 3-point shots and made five of them en route to 19 points. But Carlos Medlock took twelve 3-pointers. You might say he only made four of them, but he’s out there trying harder than anyone else! Let’s see you attempt 12 treys in a game. Yeah… that’s what I thought.

Miami 66, Northern Illinois 51 â—¼ Easy there, Kenny Hayes. 25 points in one game? Save some for the rest of your teammates, like Michael Bramos. He’s just coming back from injury, and he got only 4 points. For shame.

(Photo Credit: Lew Stamp/Akron Beacon Journal)