Coach Danny O’Banion said it like this in her radio interview after the Flashes’ 58-55 loss to New Orleans Tuesday:

“It’s not the first time we’ll see a press and not the first time we’ll see a zone defense.”

Pressure defenses and zones bring out the worst in Kent State, a team that has turnover with turnovers and shooting, especially outside shooting.

On Tuesday, New Orleans (2-7) pressed Kent State almost the entire game. The Flashes led 45-44 with 7:26 to go, but made seven turnovers in those last seven minutes. And over the course of the game, Kent State made five of 17 three-point shots, one of six in the second half.

In the second half, Larissa Lurken, the Flashes’ leading scorer, made one of five shots. Krista White, Kent State’s second leading scorer, made one of eight. For the game, Lurken led the Flashes with 14. Melanee Stubbs had 10.

Lurken is Kent State’s best three-point shooter and was closely guarded all half. Kent’s second three-point shooter, Madison Ridout, was one of four in the first have and didn’t take a shot in the second.

“We need to look for Madison to develop so we have two three-point shooters out there,” O’Banion said. “Her progression is a lot like Larissa’s last year. She snuck up on some teams, then they started to guard her. Madison is getting used to the speed of the college game and getting her shot off faster.”

Also worth noting from the game:

• McKenna Stephens, who become eligible this month after sitting out a transfer year, had seven rebounds in 14 minutes.
• Cici Shannon also had seven rebounds and was four for four in 16 minutes.
• Senior point guard Mikell Chinn missed her fifth straight game with a concussion. Freshman Naddiyah Cross played 32 minutes at point. She had a three pointer, two assists, three turnovers and a steal. White played point when she went out for a rest.
• Kent State committed 21 fouls, New Orleans only 11. Kent State was four of eight from the line, New Orleans nine of 17. For the season, Kent opponents have scored 81 more points on foul shots than Kent State.
• Kent out rebounded New Orleans 42-27.
• Kent State’s non-conference record of 2-7 is worst in the MAC. Last year KSU was 3-8 outside the conference.

Kent State opens MAC play at 2 p.m. Saturday against Central Michigan. The Chippewas are 5-5 but have played a very tough non conference schedule. They were pre-season favorites to win the MAC West and the league tournament.

Kent State had problems with turnovers and three-point shooting in the second half Tuesday and lost, 58-55, to New Orleans.

Kent ends its non-conference season at 2-9. New Orleans is 2-7.

The score was tied 27-27 at halftime.

Kent State was four of 11 in three-point shooting in the first half but only one of six in the second half. The Flashes had six turnovers at halftime but finished with 17. New Orleans scored five more points off turnovers. The Privateers also outscored Kent State by five at the foul line. Those numbers show the difference in the game. Niagara only committed 11 fouls for the game; Kent State shot just eight foul shots.

Larissa Lurken led Kent State with 14 points, 10 in the first half. Melanee Stubbs had 10 and Cici Shannon and Jordan Korinek eight each. Shannon and McKenna Stephens each had seven rebounds.

More, including quotes from coach Danny O’Banion, after KSU men’s game.

For the first time this season, Kent State plays a team with a worse record when it plays at the University of New Orleans Tuesday.

New Orleans is 1-7, with its only victory coming against Crowley’s Ridge, a Division 3 member of the National Christian College Athletic Association. The Privateers have played some good teams — No. 25 Mississippi State, No. 19 Oklahoma State and Alabama. Their schedule strength is 47th in the country, according to RealTimeRPI. Their overall RPI is 275; Kent’s is 298 with a schedule strength of 255.

The Flashes won their second game of the season 10 days ago at Colgate by a score of 62-61 when Melanee Stubbs hit a jumper with one second to go. Larissa Lurken led the Flashes in that game with 14 points after missing the previous game with the flu.

Coach Danny O’Banion says it’s unlikely starting point guard Mikell Chinn will be back in the line-up. Chinn suffered a concussion while Kent State was playing in a Thanksgiving tournament in California. Freshman Naddiyah Cross has started and played more than 35 minutes most games. But she was in foul trouble most of the Colgate game, and Krista White played at the point.

Like Kent State, New Orleans averages only about 55 points per game (though that’s somewhat screwed by the quality of competition). It doesn’t have a player averaging in double figures; top scorer is 5-7 guard Randi Brown, who averages nine but shoots only 29 percent from the field. Twelve Privateers average more than 9.6 minutes per game; no one averages more than 23.

Kent State, on the other hand, has only 11 scholarship players with two (Chinn and sophomore forward Janae Peterson) being hurt for the last month. Lurken averages 32 minutes per game, White 29 and Montia Johnson 25.

As a team, New Orleans is making only 37 percent of its field goal attempts and 23 percent of its three pointers. It shoots foul shots even worse that Kent State (53 percent to Kent’s 59 percent). It has a minus-7.4 rebounding margin and a minus-2.7 turnover margin.

The game is at 6:30 p.m. Kent time with broadcast starting at 6:20 on Golden Flash iHeart Radio. You can get video for $6.95 through the Privateers website.

As college basketball breaks from Christmas, it’s a good time to check on how Kent State’s opponents so far this year have done.

Overall, Kent’s schedule strength rated by the RealTimeRPI website is 251 of 349 teams. That’s third (to Miami and Ohio) in the MAC East. Every team in the MAC West, however, except Northern Illinois has played tougher competition.

(Quick asides: Akron, which is 10-0, and Bowling Green (6-3) have played the weakest competition in the conference. Central Michigan has played the toughest — 26th hardest in the country. The Chippewas (4-5) lost to 12-0 South Carolina and 11-1 Minnesota in Minnesota’s holiday tournament last weekend.)

So let’s look at the teams Kent State, (2-8) has played. Scores of the KSU games are in parenthesis. For comparison, KSU’s RPI is 296, second lowest in the MAC. (Northern Illinois is 307th.)

NORTH DAKOTA (74-68 loss on the road) — The Bison are 3-8, with their other victories coming against Northeastern and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (a Division I School). They lost to MAC opponent Western Michigan 74-59 on the road. Their RPI is 302; schedule strength is 300.

YOUNGSTOWN STATE (68-49 loss at Kent) — The Penguins (8-1) won their first eight games before losing to Pittsburgh (8-3) Sunday. The only teams with winning records they’ve beaten are Niagara (5-4) and Bucknell (7-3). Their RPI IS 54, schedule strength is 227. They play Akron at home Dec. 29 in what should be a very interesting game.

NORTHWESTERN (72-54 loss on the road) — The Wildcats (10-1) lost their first game Sunday to 9-2 Arizona State on the road. They’ve beaten Illinois Chicago (7-3), DePaul (8-4), Virginia Tech (8-4) and Gonzaga (7-4). Their defense statistically was among the nation’s best before they gave up 88 points in Arizona. Northwestern starts Big Ten play after Christmas; all but two Big Ten teams have RPIs in the top 75. Northwestern’s RPI is 41; its schedule strength is 215.

BELMONT (58-55 victory in Kent) — The Bruins (3-8) continue to have little success against rough opposition. RealTimeRPI ranks their schedule as 30th toughest in the country. They’ve lost to Vanderbilt (7-4), Louisville (11-1), Akron (10-0), Chattanooga (9-3), Kentucky (10-2), Cleveland State (6-4) and Georgia (12-0). Next they play Western Kentucky (10-2). Fortunately for them, only one team in the Ohio Valley Conference has a winning record (Jacksonville at 9-3). So Belmont may end up above .500, maybe well above .500.

TEXAS A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI (57-47 loss at San Luis Obispo tournament) — Kent State would like to have this tournament back. Corpus Christi is 3-7 and hasn’t even played a team with a winning record. Its RPI is 337 and schedule strength is 340.

DARTMOUTH (60-49 loss at San nLuis Obispo) — The Big Green are 5-6. Besides Kent, they’ve beaten Holy Cross (3-8), Cal Poly (4-7), Hartford (5-7) and Loyola Chicago (2-8). Their RPI is 217; their schedule strength 279.

DUQUESNE (86-60 loss at Duquesne) — The Dukes are 7-5 and have won seven of nine after losing their first three. They beat Pittsburgh (8-3) and have lost to Princeton (13-0), Syracuse (8-3), Green Bay (9-2) and West Virginia (9-0). Their RPI is 112 and schedule strength 150.

CLEVELAND STATE (69-67 loss at Cleveland State) — The Vikings are 7-4. Their best wins have come at home against Toledo (6-4) and East Carolina (9-2). Their RPI is 135, schedule strength 198.

ARKANSAS (59-44 loss in Kent) — The Red Wolves are 5-4 against tough completion (77th in the country).They’ve losing to Mississippi State (13-0), Colorado (7-3), Chattanooga (9-3), Ohio State (7-4) and Kansas (8-3).)  Their RPI is 80.

COLGATE (62-61 win Sunday at Colgate) — The team KSU just beat is 1-9 with an RPI of 293 and schedule strength of 141. They’ve lost to Harvard (5-4), Cornell (5-4), Drexell (5-4), Georgia (11-0), Rutgers (9-2), St. Bonaventure (8-3) and Albany (7-4).

Melanie Stubbs hit a 15-foot jumper with one second to go as KSU beat Colgate on the road Sunday.

It’s the second win of the year for the Flashes, who are 2-8. Colgate is 1-9.

Larissa Lurken, who missed Kent’s Wednesday game with the flu, came off the bench to score 14 points. But Mikell Chinn missed her fourth straight game with a concussion.

That almost cost KSU the game as back-up point Naddiyah Cross fouled out with about four minutes to go 2:55 to go and Kent State leading 58-53. Colgate twice took a one-point lead, but Lurken answered the first time, then Stubbs hit her game winner. Lurken’s 14 led the Flashes. Stubbs had a career-high 12 and Krista White 10. Montia Johnson had 10 rebounds off the bench. Kent State shot 50 percent (25 for 50) but turned the ball over 22 times.

The Flashes run into a team that is struggling just as much as they are when they play at Colgate Sunday.

Like Kent, the Raiders are 1-8. Their RPI is 281; Kent’s is 312 (out of 349 Division I teams.) Colaage has lost badly to some good schools — No. 15 Georgia (11-0) by 31, St. Bonaventure (8-3) by 16 and No. 17 Rutgers (8-2) by 16. It has won at home against Binghamtn, which is 1-10. It lost to Cornell (4-4) and Albany (6-4) at home. It lost to 5-4 Monmouth by 20 on the road in its last game Dec. 13.

The Raiders are led by 5-10 senior forward Carole Harris, a pre-season second-team pick inn the Patriot Conference. She is eighth in the league in rebounding (7.1), ninth in blocked shots (0.9), 10th in scoring (11.9) and 12th in steals (1.2). Six-three forward Josie Stockill is second on the team with 11.3 points per game and is third in the league in blocked shots (1.8).

As a team, Colgate’s statistics are very similar to Kent’s. The Raiders are scoring 53 points a game and giving up 66. They’re shooting only 36 percent (25 percent on three-pointers) and allowing opponents to shoot 43 percent. Kent State is actually a little better in all three categories. Colgate is about even with their opponents in rebounding and are minus 2.9 in turnovers per game. Kent State plus 2.5 in rebounding and minus 4.7 in turnovers. At 69 percent, Colgate is a much better foul shooting team than Kent State, which is shooting 59 percent.

Kent State, however, may still be missing starting wing Larissa Lurken, their leading scorer. She missed Wednesday’s game with the flu. Starting point guard Mikell Chinn has missed three straight games with a concussion. Forward Janae Peterson has played only three minutes this season because of physical problems, and two other guards blew out knees before the season started. Coach Danny O’Banion continues to call Lurken, Chinn and Peterson “day to day.”

Without those three, Kent State has eight scholarship players and two walk-ons in uniform.

The game is at 2 p.m. Audio is on Golden Flash iHeart Radio. Video and live stats are through the Colgate website.

After this game, Kent State is off for nine days for Christmas.

Are the Flashes really a “young team,” as coach Danny O’Banion likes to say? “Burden,” one of the top commenters on the Flash Fanatics bulletin board, points out that in the team’s top nine include three seniors (center Cici Shannon, forward Montia Johnson and point guard Mikell Chinn), a junior (guard-wing Melanie Stubbs) and two sophomores (guard Krista White and wing Larissa Lurken).

What O’Baniion says she means is that the players lack both Division I experience land Kent State experience. No player has more than three semesters of games in O’Banion’s system. Shannon has the most experience — two years at Southern Illinois, a transfer year she sat out at Kent State, last year and this semester. Johnson and Chinn are junior college transfers, starting at Kent State last fall.

Stubbs played as a freshman under Bob Lindsay and as a sophomore under O’Banion. She sat out last year with a knee injury. During her sophomore season, she started 10 of 28 games.

Lurken was the top recruit in O’Banion’s first true freshman class (more on that later) and started every game last year when she wasn’t injured. White wasn’t a big star in high school and started six of 30 games last season.

So here’s what we end up with in terms of Division I experience:

• Shannon: 39 games, 35 starts,  averaging 26 minutes at Kent State. At Southern Illinois, she appeared in 60 games, starting 25. She had one season of practice at Kent State when she was ineligible because of transfer rules.
• Johnson: 39 games, 24 starts, averaging 26 minutes. Junior college transfer from Cowley College in Kansas, where she was a J.C. All-American honorable mention.
• Chinn:  36 games, 20 starts,, averaging 24 minutes.
• Stubbs: 55 games, 11 starts. She’s averaged 15 minutes a game this year. I don’t have minutes from her first two years, but they’d average out less than that.
• Lurken: 32 games, 28 starts, averaging about 29 minutes.
• White: 37 games, 13 starts, averaging 30 minutes this year and 13 last year.

So far this year’s four freshmen have a total of 28 games, 10 starts and are averaging a total of about 19 minutes per game each. And we need to add in sophomore Janae Peterson, who’s been sick and hurt and played only three minutes this year. Last year she played 26 games, started six, averaging 13 minutes.

That leaves us with a team that has (not counting Shannon’s SIU games):

• 292 games, 131 starts, and about 6,727 game minutes

Let’s compare that to Akron, the defending MAC tournament champion. The Zips are 9-0 but lost three starters, including their leading two scorers, from that season. It’s also a young team in the classic sense — it has only one senior (leading scorer Sina King). Here are the Akron totals:

• 485 games, 155 starts, 7,296 game minutes.

One last one: Central Michigan, probably the best team in the MAC. Here’s a team with five seniors (though one is a transfer).

• 556 games, 304 starts, 11,569 game minutes.

So I think we can definitely say that yes, Kent State is a young team, based on game experience.

How did this happen?

There were essentially two lost years when Bob Lindsay was fired. Lindsay’s last good year game in 2010-11, when the Flashes started five seniors and went 20-10. In 2011-12, Lindsay went 6-21. He had brought in five freshmen; only Stubbs is still on the team. The best freshman went back to France when her father got cancer. A freshman started every game at point guard but never clicked with O’Banion and transferred. The other two freshmen had health and injury problems and never worked out.

O’Banion arrived in mid-April, and the recruiting season was long over. Lindsay’s best recruit, Miriam Justinger, asked to be released from her commitment to Kent and went to Bowling Green, where she has started 56 games on two championship teams. A second verbal commitment backed out right before the fall signing period (long before Lindsay was fired) and went to Ohio State. A third never was academically eligible. A fourth came for her freshman year, played as a reserve, got hurt the next fall, and transferred back to a college in Minnesota. There was talk of another who got tired of waiting for a new coach to be named.

In that first month, O’Banion recruited Ashley Evans and Amber Dunlap, two junior college players. They anchored the team for two years, but you know that if a J.C. player is still around in April, she’s not blue chip. That same spring, Shannon transferred in but wasn’t eligible for O’Banion’s first year.

O’Banion did find guard Rachel Mendelsohn, who had gotten out of her commitment to St. Louis when the coach there was fired. Mendelsohn was an all-state point guard in Oregon. She started seven games as a freshman and was the first guard off of the bench last year. This year she blew out her knee in late fall and will miss the year.

In O’Banion’s second year, she brought in Lurken, a high-scoring guard from Minnesota; White, a defensive specialist from Dayton; Emily Leonard, a 6-2 forward from Dayton, and Peterson, a 6-foot center-forward from California. Leonard was a project and left the team after her freshman year. Peterson, who put up big numbers on a weak high school team, was the first post player off the bench last year but has been sick and hurt this year. In short, it was not a particularly strong class.

This year’s freshman class was supposed to be special and may yet be. It lost one member — 6-3 post player Lydia Poe — to homesicknesses before the school year started. Guard-wing Tyra James, who was a big scorer her senior year in high school, was hurt in pre-season and won’t play until next year. Madison Ridout was a big scorer in high school and has shown flashes in 15 minutes a game. Korinek, who was supposed to be the best post player in Ohio Division II, has started six games and Cross has started two.

O’Banion has a five-member freshman class coming in that looks good on paper. Megan Carter, a 5-7 guard from North Farmington High School in Michigan, has just been named one of the top 30 players in the state. Merissa Berber-Smith is a 6-3 center who has been rated one of the top 50 players in Wisconsin. Kent has commitments from another 6-3 post player and two other guards.

The problem with all this:

More youth.

Kent graduates three seniors. It has only one junior. It will be a young team for at least another two years.

The 15-point defeat was about what you might expect against a team like Arkansas State, which is picked to win the Sun Belt.

How Kent State got there was sort of strange.

The Flashes jumped to a 9-0 lead, easily their best start of the year. The big reason in that was Melanie Stubbs’ hitting her first three shows in her first start of the year. (Her being in the line-up came because Larissa Lurken was out with the flu, but more on that later.)

Then for the rest of the half, Arkansas State outscored Kent State by 18. Kent State got it to six after about seven minutes of the second half, but then Arkansas State pulled away until it cleared its bench with two minutes to go and a 23-point lead.

Playing against Arkansas State, a team with an RPI of 126 (KSU is 305) and a schedule strength of 25, would be hard in any circumstances. Playing without Lurken, Kent’s leading scorer, and Mikell Chinn, Kent’s starting point guard, made it even harder. Chinn is still out with a concussion.

In her post-game interview on Golden Flash iHeart Radio, coach Danny O’Banion said she saw a good defensive effort at times, including some early success with a zone.

Worth noting:

• Kent’s biggest problems — shooting and turnovers — were still there. The Flashes had 27 turnovers and shot 37 percent. Without Lurken, their main three-point shooter, they took only four long-range shots. The one that went in — by Jordan Korinek — came with 21 seconds to go.
• Arkansas State didn’t shoot three-pointers particularly well — 29 percent — but shot 21 of them. That dimension of their office made a difference.
• Cici Shannon was 6 for 8 for 12 points and blocked four shots in 19 minutes. O’Banion said Shannon was limited when Arkansas State went to a four-guard offense.
• Korinek had her second straight double-figure game with 11 points in 35 minutes.
• Kent had only six assists on 17 baskets, among its lowest of the season. The Flashes had trouble running their offense against Arkansas State, which has held power conference schools below their scoring averages.
• Freshman Naddiyah Cross, filling in at point guard again, played 37 minutes with three assists, six turnovers and two points. She was zero for seven shooting.
• Stubbs finished with 11 points, equalling her high for the year, and seven rebounds.
• Redshirt freshman McKenna Stephens played eight minutes and didn’t score in her first game after transferring from Michigan State. In her post-game interview, O’Banion said Stephens had a “great athletic body, with length and size” and that Stephens would be strong at the high post. Stephens, who is from Uniontown, was a third-team all stater and district player of the year at Lake High School.
• Kent goes to Colgate Saturday. The Raiders, like Kent, are 1-8. Then KSU is off for Christmas and goes to the University of New Orleans for its final non-conference game Dec. 30. The Privateers are 1-5.

Box Score

Kent State will have one new player and may have two old ones back when it returns to action against Arkansas State Wednesday at the MAC Center.

Playing in her first game will be McKenna Stephens, a redshirt freshman transfer from Michigan State. Stephens was recruited to play softball at MSU, but a shoulder injury brought her back to play basketball closer to home. She’s from Uniontown and played at Lake High School.

Stephens was third-team all-state and district player of the year during her senior year, when she averaged 13.6 points, six rebounds and 2.3 assists. She has been practicing with the Kent team since she transferred second semester last year.

Also possible the line-up is Mikell Chinn, the team’s starting point guard before she suffered a concussion while Kent State played in a Thanksgiving tournament in California. Chinn leads the MAC in assists at 5.5 per game (though she averages only one point a game). When she was out, freshman Naddiyah Cross started at point and played more than 35 minutes a game. The team has no other point guard; Krista White filled in there for the minutes Cross wasn’t playing.

Sophomore forward Janae Peterson also may be back. Peterson was the first post player off of the bench last season, averaging 3.3 points and 2.3 rebounds in 25 games with six starts. She’s struggled with health problems since the end of summer and has played only three minutes this season. Peterson averaged 20 points and 15 rebounds a game at Temescal Canyon High School in California.

Coach Danny O’Banion calls both Chinn and Peterson”day to day.”

Kent State is 1-7. In its last game before finals 10 days ago, It lost by two points in the final minutes at Cleveland  State. One reason for that loss was that Cross fouled out with two minutes to go and the Flashes had four turnovers in the last minutes.

To understand Arkansas State, you need to look at the teams it has lost to (all on the road):

• No. 21 Mississippi State (10-0) by 10 points.
• Colorado (6-1) by 11 points.
• Ohio State (7-4) by 15 points.
• Kansas (8-3) by 14 points.

The Red Wolves have beaten a good Mid Major (Chattanooga, now 6-2) and a weak one (Jackson State, now 1-7). They’ve also beaten Division II Christian Brothers. All three wins were at home. They’ve consistently gotten votes in the Mid Major Top 25 poll.

A-State, as the university calls itself, is led by 5-9 junior guard Audrea Gamble, last year’s Sun Belt Conference player of the year. She finished in the the top-10 in eight statistical categories in the league. So far this year she’s averaging 19.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game. She isn’t a big three-point shooter — 4 of 18 so far this season. Five-foot-11 junionr guard  Khadia Brown-Haywood averages 12.3 points and 4.8 rebounds. As a team, the Red Wolves average 72 points a game and give up 65. They have a plus 1.7 rebound average and are plus 3.5 in turnovers. They’ve taken only 10 three-point shots per game. (Some of those statistics are screwed by the Red Wolves’ 39-39 win over Christian Brothers.)

The game is at 7 p.m. Audio is on Golden Flash iHeart Radio. Video and live stats are through the KSU website.

(Updated through Tuesday games)

MAC teams are coming out of their break for exams. As Kent State prepares to resume play Wednesday, it’s worth taking a minute to see how the MAC is shaping up.

Seven of the conference’s 12 teams have winning records. Three more are at .500. The conference is 21st among 33 Division I conferences in RPI rating, and the overall conference schedule strength is only 26th.

Akron (91st) and Western Michigan (97th) are the only MAC team in the top 100. Central Michigan (106) Ohio (135),  Toledo (101),  and Eastern Michigan (181(are between 100 and 200. Aa total of 349 teams are ranked. (RPI is according to a site called RealTimeRPI, some of which is public.) Kent State is 302nd.

Akron is the only undefeated conference team at 8-0. Central Michigan, pre-season pick to win the western division and the tournament, is 4-3 but has played a very tough schedule. Surprise team is Ohio, which tied with Kent and Miami for last place last year. The Bobcats are 6-2.

Here’s a look at each team:

THE EAST

AKRON (8-0) — Five of Akron’s victories have come at home; two of its other three wins were at a neutral site, and its schedule strength is among the weakest in the conference. It hasn’t beat a team that currently has a winning record. Still, the Zips lost their top two scorers from last year and were picked to finish only third in the East. Akron beat Belmont, the only team Kent has defeated this year, 73-58 at a neutral site in a Thanksgiving tournament. An interesting upcoming match-up will come Dec. 29 against Youngstown State, which beat Kent at Kent and is still undefeated. (We’ll look at how Kent’s opponents have fared another time.)

OHIO (6-2) — Like Akron, OU hasn’t beaten a team with a winning record, and six of its eight games have been at home. But five of its six victories were by at least 13 points. Best win was against Detroit (4-5) by three, in Athens. Its only losses were by seven points to  James Madison (8-1), the No. 1 team in Mid Major rankingby eight points  to Eastern Kentucky, which is 6-2. The Bobcats have been boosted by a transfer from Michigan State and a star freshman; they’re still doing far better than anyone predicted.

BOWLING GREEN (5-2) — The Falcons were 30-6 last year but lost three starters to graduation. They too haven’t beaten anyone with a winning record. But BG’s two losses game by a total of only four points — 53-52 in its opener at home against Bucknell (now 5-3) and 51-48 at Loyola Marymount (now 2-6).

BUFFALO (5-3) — The Bulls were picked to win the eastern division. After losing two of their first their (both at home, they’ve won three in a row and came up with a big win Tuesday, beating St. Boneventure (then 7-2) 51-44 at home.

MIAMI (2-5) — The Redhawks have beaten only Cincinnati Christian, a non-Division I school, and Valparaiso, which is 3-7. Both wins were at home. Miami came close to University of Illinois at Chicago (now 7-1), losing by three points in Oxford.

THE WEST

Western division records aren’t as good but the quality of competition is much greater.

EASTERN MICHIGAN (6-3) — The Eagles have beaten some real cupcakes — Hillsdale, Madonna and — try this — Kent State-Tuscarawas. But the Eagles also lost to No. 14 Michigan State by only eight at MSU. They beat Cleveland State (now 5-3) by three at home. Kent State lost to CSU by two in Cleveland.

WESTERN MICHIGAN (4-3) — The Broncos have lost to three very good teams on the road — Michigan (by 27), Green Bay (by 15) and Ohio State (by 37). At home, they’ve beaten North Dakota State at home by 15 (Kent lost to NDSU by 10 in its opener). They’ve also beaten Massachusetts (now 5-4).

CENTRAL MICHIGAN (4-3) — The Chippewas return a strong team and scheduled some very tough teams. They came within five points of No. 8 Kentucky (now 10-1) at home and lost to Memphis (5-5) by two and Dayton (6-3) by 10 on the road. They play No. 1 South Carolina at a tournament later this month.

TOLEDO (4-4) — The Rockets have played the MAC’s toughest schedule (62nd in the country according to Real Time RPI) and beaten the biggest name opponents. They beat Virginia (now 6-2) and Arizona (now 6-3) at a holiday tournament in Miami. They beat St. Bonaventure (now 7-3) and Idaho (now 5-5) at home. They lost at Cleveland State (5-3), No. 24 Purdue (4-4), Dayton (6-3) and Detroit (4-5).

BALL STATE (4-4) — The Cardinals lost their home opener to Purdue (4-4) by just six and at No. 10 Louisville by 12. They’ve beaten Evansville (4-4), Murray State (3-6) and Oakland (3-4) at home. They lost by 20 points in Muncie to Duquesne, a team that beat Kent State by 26 in Pittsburgh.

NORTHERN ILLINOIS (2-5) — The Huskies have beaten only Chicago State (0-7) and Delaware State (1-7). They did almost upset Missouri (8-2) at Missouri Sunday, losing 47-44.

Current MAC standings.