MAC 2016/17 hoops preview

East Division
1. Akron: Isaiah Johnson, Sr. anchors a veteran squad
2. Buffalo: Blake Hamilton, Sr. is a potential star but will need a lot of help from Conner & Perkins
3. Ohio: Campbell and Simmons Jr  are the keys. If they excel, the Bobcats could steal the East
4. Kent State – Jimmy Hall has a solid game but not sure if there's enough brights Flashes to follow his lead
5. Bowling Green – Falcons may rise above expectations but I don't enough scorers in the lineup
6. Miami – Weather' twins are decent  but  the Redhawks will struggle.

West Division
1. Eastern Michigan: Thompson and Lee show will keep on tthe Eagles atop the West.
2. Central Michigan : Marcus Keene's scoring will keep the Chippewas in contention.
3. Toledo-Williams & Taylor Jr need to be supermen all season.
4. Western Michigan: Rough start but they hung tough against Villanova.
5. NIU  lost to Elon, another downer.
6. Ball State struggled to beat Coppin St , from my areaso I'm  not impressed

Week 14 O5 title games

AAC- Temple 22 @ Navy 31.  Both teams have been playing well, but I don't see the Owls, who lost to Army's triple option earlier this season,  slowing down the Navy triple option.
CUSA: Western Kentucky 41 La Tech 23 Two good receivers named Taylor, but Taywan of #wku will be more of a factor than Trent of #louisianatech.
MAC- Western Michigan 34 Ohio 17. Terrell, Franklin, and  Davis  bring too much offense for Ohio to handle.
MWC: San Diego St 27 Wyoming 16. #pumphrey of #sdst will exploit a a banged up Cowboys D.
SunBelt: Troy 24 Georgia Southern 15  Chunn churns out big yards on the ground  in a tough win for Troy who ties @appst for the Sunbelt crown.

Dec 3

#wmu (13-0), the MAC champs,  should be be picked for the Cotton Bowl. Terrell to Davis was solid again for WMU, but they needed a last minute interception  of Ohio QB Windham, who had tossed three TDs, to survive 29-23.
Dec 4
AAC: Owls shut down Navy's rushing attack.. Props to Temple on the 34-10 win .
CUSA:Even less D than I expected as #wku defeated La Tech 58-44. Also more rushing as Anthony Wales (wku) rushed for 209 yards and four touchdowns.
MWC: Pumphrey & Penny led a strong SDST rusihing attack to a 27-24 win over Wyoming Jake Allen tossed 3 TDs in a losing efffort.
SunBelt: Kevin Ellison threw for two touchdowns and ran for two more in  Georgia Southern's win over Troy 28-24. Tro fell out of first as APPST and ark st ended the season tied  for first.
Three out of five for the week  #wmu  #sdst #wku

AAC Hoops 2016/17 preview

1) Houston: Robinson, Gray and Dotson are a potent backcourt., and the Cougars play well all season
2) Connecticut Adams, the PG, is the key for the Huskies to rebound from another shaky November
3) Cincinnati: Will the addition of transfer Kyle Washington and the return of  Evans provide enough O?
4) SMU Jankovich is the HC and he's emphasizing the trey.
5) Temple: Owls miss Decosey, their leading scorer, last season, already.
6) Tulane: I'll role on the dice on  a big improvement with Dunleavy Sr at the helm,  and #melvinfrazier, a local NOLA star, who stayed home
7) Memphis: It will be a rough first season for Coach Tubby.
8) Tulsa- Eight seniors gone from last year's dance entry.
9) South Florida- Transfers  may help a little. #isaiahmanderson, a 6-11 transfer from texas tech may help.
10) UCF Johnny Dawkins first year will be about re-building
11) East Carolina-  Where's the D?

MWC 2016/17 hoops' predictions.

1)  Nevada coached by Eric Musselman  will ride Cameron Oliver and Marcus Marshall to the MWC title.
2) New Mexico has two solid scorers , Elijah Brown and Tim Williams.
3) San Diego St with it's lawfirm-named trio, Kell, Hemsley, and Cheatham, will be in contention all season.
4) Utah St is led backcourt of seniors Jalen Moore (15.2 ppg) and Shane Rector (9.3 ppg)
5) Fresno St will miss Marvelle Harris
6) Boise St is banking big on incoming freshaman James Hobbs.
7) Colorado St A  surprising sixth year for Clavell won't be enough for the Rams to contend.
8) UNLV is pinning its hopes onTroy Baxter Jr., a 6-9 forward.
9) Wyoming lost conference player of the year Josh Adams, and has  new head coach Allen Edwards
10) San Jose State has a steep uphill battle

Week 13 key O5 matchups

AAC: Temple and USF are tied for first in the East.Temple should handle ECU, but USF  will get another  monster game from QB #Quentin Flowers and beat an improved UCF squad. USF lost to Temple a few weks ago.
CUSA: WKU beat ODU a few weeks ago and owns a tie breaker in the East and should handle the #herd. D Washington of #odu will toss a few TDs in a  win over #FIU.
MAC: #westernmichigan will survive a battle from Toledo and move one step closer to the #accessbowl. Terrell to Davis aerial show will be the key for #wmu.
MWC: #wyoming owns the tiebreaker over #boise st in the East  but needs to get by #UNM while Boise plays #afa.. #joshallen will  toss a few TDs and the Cowboys will outlast the Lobos.
SUNBELT: #arkst should handle ull and hold onto first place, while second place #appst  and pound #marcuscox will rush to a win over a #nmst, a team with more offnese than defense.
BTW, #arkst and appst didn't play each other this season.

Nov 26

MAC: #wmu is one win away from a New Years Day bowl game. Woodside and Hunt put up up good numbers for #toledo, but a big rushing day from Bogan plus decent stats from the Terrell to Davis aerial show  pushed #wmu to a 55-35 winand on to next week's title game against #ohio, who owns the tiebreaker over #miamiohio in the East.

MWC: Air Force special teams and D were the  keys on Friday. Tyler Weaver returned a blocked punt 11 yards for a touchdown in the first half, and the Falcon D had a late goal -line stand to beat No. 19 Boise State 27-20 .

Nov 27

Head to head matters
AAC- Temple and USF won yesterday but the Owls are moving on to face Navy in the AAC title game.
CUSA- La Tech played poorly in a loss to USM but face a scorching #wku squad in the CUSA final.
MWC- Wyoming was pounded 56-35 by New Mexico but will limp into the title game against SD St. 
Sunbelt: Wrong about arkst. appst ended their regular season beating the Ags easily 37-7 and are a half game up in first  over  arkst and troy.

Sunbelt 2016/17 hoop hunches

1) Arkansas-Little Rock made big news last spring upsetting Purdue at the Dance  and and also  return five starters including  Erick Neal and Jalen Jones. Wes Flanigan replaces Chris Beard (Texas Tech) as head coach.
2) Ga St: Hollowell & Seymour are tuning up against Auburn , and Purdue which should help them stay near the top in Sunbelt.
3) Ga. Southern- Can Tookie Brown , a budding star point guard, lead them  to a conference title?
4) S. Alabama:  Ken Williams and the Mountaineers beat UNLV and played Tennessee tough this mo
5) UT Arlington Kevin Hervey, a solid PF, returns after missing the second half of last season due to a torn knee ligament.
6) App. St.:Shabazz & Good show will be solid
7) Coastal Carolina: Elijah Wilson will need to use all his skills  to keep his squad in the middle of the pack in their first Sunbelt season
8) Troy: Wesley Person and Jordan Varnado lead a  decent but erratic Trojan squad
10) Arkansas St.- Devin Carter will need to put big numbers
10) UL-Monroe- Senior guard Nick Coppolla will be counted on heavily.
11) UL Lafayette Jay Wright, and BartleyIV, a transfer from BYU, will have a tough time  getting the Cajuns above .500
12) Texas St:. Kevin Gilder-Tilbury and his teamates face a long tough season

Week 12 Other 5 matchups

AAC: UCF and Tulsa need this game to stay in their respective divisional races. Evans will toss Tulsa to 40-30 win.
CUSA: #ODU QB David Washingtomn will lead the Monarch to a win over FAU to keep them within a game of idle #wku.
MAC: #Ohio needs to win at #cmu to keep ahead of Miami (OH) in the East. Maybe #rush tosses a few TDs but Ohio survives.
MWC: look for #pumphrey to rush for 200 yards  for #sdst , and burst the #wyomingcowboys title hopes.
Sunbelt: #troy hosts #arkst to end the tie atop the league.I'll roll the dice on Chunn to have a big rushing game in a #troy win

Nov 16

MAC-Nailed the #cmu  27-20 win over #ohio.  Rush threw two touchdown passes to Tyler Conklin, and Sean Bunting intercepted a pass in the end zone with 34 seconds left.
SunBelt- Good thing I don't bet on my hunches. Chunn was kept in check and #arkst rolled #Troy 35-3. Stellar special team and D play as Chris Humes caught a 31-yard pass on a fake punt and recovered a fumble in the end zone.

Nov 20

AAC- Evans was decent but it was Tulsa's rushing attack: #D'AngeloBrewer ran for 167 yards and two touchdowns, and #JamesFlanders ran163 yards that carried them to a 35-20 win over UCF.
CUSA- Nailed the #ODU game :David Washington threw for 416 yards and five touchdowns in the #odu 42-24 win over #fau.
MWC: #wyoming QB Josh Allen had a great second half and the Cowboys D stopped a two point conversion  attempt by #sdst to win 34-33. #pumphrey , #sdst RB and a dark horse Heisman contender, did not score and rushed for 76 yards.