Eastern Michigan Athletics
Men's Basketball Travels to Western Michigan for MAC Tournament Opener
3/6/2006 10:49:59 AM | Men's Basketball
Eagles and Broncos to tangle Monday, March 6, at 7 p.m.
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MAC Tournament Central.
LOOKING AHEAD TO THE TOURNEY:
The 2006 FirstEnergy Mid-American Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament is set to begin Monday, March 6, with the teams seeded five through eight hosting the squads seeded 9-12. The top four seeds: No. 1 Kent State, No. 2 Northern Illinois, No. 3 Akron and No. 4 Miami will all receive byes in the first round and advance directly to Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio for games set for March 9.The March 6 campus site matchups are: No. 11 Eastern Michigan playing at No. 6 Western Michigan, No. 9 Ball State at No. 8 Buffalo, No. 12 Central Michigan at No. 5 Ohio, and No. 10 Bowling Green at No. 7 Toledo. All Monday’s games are set for 7 p.m. The winner of the EMU-WMU game will play Akron Thursday, March 9, at 2 p.m. in Cleveland. A complete bracket for the FirstEnergy MAC Tournament can be found on page six of this release.
EMU ON ROAD FOR MAC TOURNEY:
The Eastern Michigan University men’s basketball team will take the No. 11 seed into the 2006 Mid-American Conference First Energy Tournament Monday, March 6. The Eagles will travel to Kalamazoo to play No. 6 seed Western Michigan University in a 7 p.m. game in University Arena. Both teams are coming off losses in their regular-season finales Saturday, March 4. EMU let an eight-point lead slip away late in the game and dropped an 89-77 overtime decision to Ball State while Western was falling to Northern Illinois, 74-59.THIRD TIME: EMU and WMU will be meeting for the third time this season when they square off Monday. Western won both 2005-06 matchups, taking a 68-62 win, Jan. 24, in Ypsilanti, and posting a 67-64 victory, Feb. 11, in Kalamazoo.
EMU GETS SOME HELP: The EMU lineup will receive a boost for the FirstEnergy MAC Tournament with the return to action of freshman Gino Smith (Milwaukee, Wisc.-Harmony Comm.) and junior-college transfer Chris Knaub (South Bend, Ind.-St. Joseph’s-Jacksonville (TX) J.C.). The two players have been suspended since the Eastern Illinois game (Feb. 18), a total of five games for each player.Smith has played in 22 games and started 19 times. He is averaging 7.5 points and 3.0 rebounds a game. Knaub, a junior-college transfer from Jacksonville (TX), has played in 21 games and started 11 times. He is averaging 1.8 points and 1.1 rebounds a game.
ANOTHER OT DECISION: EMU turned in its second overtime decision of the year when Ball State came back late in the game to force the extra session Saturday, March 4. The Eagles are 0-2 in overtimes this year after dropping a 64-59 decision at Miami, Jan. 7.
BOWLER HITS SIGNIFICANT LEVELS: Senior John Bowler (Chicago, Ill.-Notre Dame H.S.) has reached several significant plateaus through 27 regular-season games of the 2005-06 season. Bowler is just the fourth player in EMU history to score more than 1,300 points and grab more than 700 rebounds. Bowler has played in 111 games for the Eagles and started 82 times. He has scored 1,409 points and hauled down 786 rebounds during his four-year career to rank 12th in scoring and sixth in rebounding. His 441 career free throws is good for the third position. His next target on the scoring chart is Markus Austin who scored 1,425 points from 2001-05. Bowler has also recorded 31 double-double scoring-rebounding efforts during his career.
DANNY MAKES THREE-POINT LISTS: Senior Danny McElhinny (Hermitage, Penn.-Kenndy Catholic) has been one of the top three-point shooters in the Mid-American Conference for the last four years and he is near the top this season, hitting 71-of-166 for 42.8 percent. Those 71 triples puts McElhinny into ninth on the EMU single-season list, one behind Brad Soucie who had 72 in 1986-87. The single-season triple leader is current EMU Assistant Coach Carl Thomas who poured in 89 in 1990-91. McElhinny’s 170 career threes is ranked fifth. Derrick Dial (1995-98) is the career three-point leader at 214. McElhinny has played in 109 games for the Eagles and started 22 times. He has scored 618 points and has a 43.0 career three-point shooting percentage (170-of-395).
CHECKING THE STARTERS: EMU’s starting lineups this season have included 28 by seniors, 13 by juniors, 35 by sophomores and 59 by freshmen.
MEDLOCK NAMED TO ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM: Eastern Michigan University freshman point guard Carlos Medlock (Detroit, Mich.-Murray Wright) has been named to the 2005-06 Mid-American Conference All-Freshman team in a vote of the 12 league head coaches.
Joining Medlock on the first team are Maurice Acker (Ball State), Nate Linhart (Akron), Chris Kellerman (Central Michigan) and Jerome Tillman (Ohio).
The 6-foot, 170-pound Medlock has played in all 27 games this season and started 26 times. He is second on the team in minutes played (823), is the second-leading scorer at 11.5, and tops the team in assists, at 3.3 per game, and in steals with 50. In addition, Medlock is second on the squad in three-point shooting, connecting on 42-of-102 for 41.2 percent.
Medlock has also made his mark in the MAC this season. Entering the 2005-06 FirstEnergy MAC Tournament, Medlock is the only freshman in the top 30 MAC scorers, ranked 20th. He is also the only freshman in the league to rank in three-point shooting, ranked fifth in percentage (41.2 percent) and 12th in three-point field goals made (1.56 per game).
