All in
All in
Now that I have some time I can get into the reasoning.
First of all I have seen every team in the MAC quarters play live with the exception of Western Mich. I have watched Kent St and OU on multiple occasions.
Last Friday I saw Kent play as good of an all around game that I have watched all season. They took a decent team in Akron and flat out made them look silly. Smothering defense and well executed offensive sets, it was all there. So I feel that Kent State is peaking and playing their best ball of the season.
The flashes have beat OU twice this year and both games were tightly contested but Kent is playing much better now. OU does not travel that well and has and needed to go to OT to get by Ball St and a horrific Toledo team of late. They have zero quality wins on the road all season.
Kent has a deeper bench, they can go 9 deep and not lose much. Their 6th man, A Simpson, poured in 21 on the Zips. OU only goes 7 deep with any quality at all. and after their starting backcourt there is not much quality at all, period.
Kent has a huge advantage down on the block. The Flashes are much stronger so they should control the glass and eliminate any put backs on the OU end of the floor.
Kent has never lost a MAC tourney game as the #1 seed.
OU does have a terrific freshman guard named Cooper. He is the best freshman guard that I recall coming into the MAC going way back. Kent will counter with Singletary and crew with great perimeter defense. Cooper is also coming off of one of his worse games. it is possible that he has hit the "freshman wall"
I heard from a pretty reliable source at OU that they will not be traveling to this game with as many fans as they have had in years past. The Q is in Kent's back yard and they will have a mob of fans on hand. It should play out like a home game for them.
As far as buying the hook, I agree with you. I don't do it all the time but have dropped a few by the hook this year so with as big as I am playing this, I just felt that I should do it. I do think the number may go up a point or so.
MC, I agree with that play, Akron is very deliberate in their offensive sets right now. I really think that Eastern is a live dog as well.