Central Michigan University Athletics
CMU Men Eye Outright Crown, Top Seed
3/5/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - Party's over.
Back to work.
The Central Michigan men's basketball team punched its ticket to Cleveland with its 85-77 victory Tuesday over Toledo. The aroma of that memorable win lingers as it gave the Chippewas at least a share of the Mid-American Conference regular-season championship, their first since 2002-03.
The Chippewas (22-6) play at rival Western Michigan on Friday, and a win would mean an outright title and the No. 1 seed for the conference tournament next week in Cleveland.
CMU is 12-5 in league play and, if it loses to Western, could be seeded as low as third for the league tourney. Seeding is critical, particularly below the top two, because the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds receive a double bye to Friday's semifinals.
If the Chippewas are seeded third, they will have to play a quarterfinal game on Thursday in Cleveland. Any one (or possibly two) of four other teams - Buffalo, Bowling Green, Kent State and Toledo - could move ahead of CMU if the Chippewas stumble at Western (18-12, 9-8).
And, forget about seeding possibilities and championship implications, it's Central-Western.
"It doesn't matter if there's a team in first and a team in last in this matchup," said CMU coach Keno Davis. "It doesn't surprise anybody, in a rivalry game, for an upset to happen. And I don't think it would be an upset (either way). We're going to have to execute and bring great energy to have a chance to win this one on the road. I know our guys are looking forward to that opportunity."
That the Chippewas have played meaningful games - they're all meaningful when you're in the championship hunt - helps to keep a mental edge, Davis said. Friday's game with Western falls right in line with that.
"I think usually you want to challenge yourself as much as you can in that last game to prepare for the conference tournament," Davis said. "However I think this year you could play the last-place team and know you're going to get a great effort against you and a tough opponent.
"There's not much you can do about who you play at the end, you just try to make sure you're playing your best basketball and you have guys as healthy as you can get them and as fresh as you can get them coming into the conference tournament."
The obvious concern for the Chippewas is the emotion coming off of Tuesday's home win over Toledo.
"You always worry about that as a coach coming off of a big win," Davis said. "Usually off of a tough loss you don't have to do much to get your guys refocused, like we did after the loss (last week) at Northern Illinois. Guys were anxious to get on the court and anxious for another game (after NIU).
"But we put ourselves in a good position so that after our last regular-season game we will have some time before the conference tournament, so there shouldn't be any looking ahead. We're going to have plenty of time to prepare for Cleveland. All of our thought and focus should be about our last regular-season game and playing against a really quality opponent and the MAC's representative (last year) in the NCAA tournament."
The Chippewas won the first meeting with Western, 70-65, a month ago at McGuirk. The Broncos are coming off a 65-63 loss at Northern Illinois.
