After following Mid-American Conference basketball for three years, I should expect this by now.
The conference season is young, but I can already see that we're in for another mind-boggling MAC campaign. Predicting this conference is as impossible as trying to figure out why anyone in the world would pick a fight with Ronnie from Jersey Shore.
So far, eight out of the 12 teams in the league have conference records at or above .500. All the teams seem to be taking turns beating each other except for Toledo, who hasn't beat anyone.
Besides the Rockets, who haven't had a winning record since 2006-07, it looks as if any team in the MAC could win or lose to any other squad in the conference by 20 points on a given night.
Akron and Kent State look like the class of the East Division again this year, but both teams have looked vulnerable at times.
Buffalo charged out of the gate, beating Miami, Bowling Green and Akron by an average of 11.3 points per game. Since then, the Bulls have looked awful, losing to Kent State by 35 and Ohio (who lost to all three teams Buffalo beat) by 22.
Bulls coach Reggie Witherspoon said after the Ohio game that his team needed to do some soul searching. Well good luck, coach, because searching for anything in this conference is a maze.
Miami entered league play with just three wins on the season, but has already doubled that total in its first six conference matchups. The RedHawks played an out-of-conference schedule loaded with NCAA tournament regulars such as Cincinnati, Dayton, Xavier and Kentucky. Miami lost all of those games by single digits, perhaps giving the team an edge in the MAC.
The Bobcats' 1-4 league record is deceiving, as they held second-half leads in all four losses. Still, Ohio is young and its freshmen have not been through the physical and mental grind of the MAC schedule.
As cross-division play begins this week, we get to see the one thing I feel confident about in this conference: the East is the superior division.
Last year, Ball State finished first in the West with a 7-9 record, the same mark as the Bobcats, who finished last in the East. Additionally, the West has not produced a MAC-Tournament champion since 2004 - when LeBron James was still a teenager.
That may change this year, as Northern Illinois and Central Michigan have jumped to 4-1 starts. But with 10 games remaining on the schedule for most teams, I have no clue what will happen.
No matter how crazy this conference may be, I love every second of it. I love waking up every day not knowing which teams won. It excites me to think that any team in the league could get hot at the right time and make a run to the NCAA Tournament. I just wish it didn't make my head hurt this much.
2 Sports
Vince Nairn
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Kent State's Tyree Evans reacts to scoring a three-point basket during the final moments against Akron at the M.A.C. Center at Kent State Saturday. MAC play has been hard to predict so far this season, but both Akron and Kent State have looked strong. (Karen Schiely | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)
