EMU Hoops Finishes Regular Season at Toledo Friday on National TV

Men's Basketball at Toledo
Date	Friday, March 2 \| 6 p.m.
Venue	Toledo, Ohio \| Savage Arena (7,014)
Preview Info	EMU Notes
Live Stats	Fan Stats \| Media Stats
Watch	ESPN3
Listen	WEMU (89.1 WEMU-FM) \| TuneIn Radio
Twitter	@EMUHoops \| @EMUAthletics

YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) -- The Eastern Michigan University men's basketball team wraps up the regular season Friday, March 2, as the Eagles travel to the Glass City to take on the University of Toledo. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Savage Arena.
    EMU (19-11, 10-7 MAC) clinched a first round bye in the Mid-American Conference Tournament with its 16-point road win at Western Michigan, Tuesday, Feb. 27. Toledo (21-9, 13-4 MAC) is coming off a 30-point road win in DeKalb, Ill., as they took down Northern Illinois 97-67.
   Chad Bush will have the call on WEMU (89.1 FM), with Kyler Ludlow joining as the analyst. The game will be the second nationally televised game of the season for Eastern, as the CBS Sports Network has coverage of Friday night's contest. Dave Ryan will have the play-by-play and Steve Wolf will provide the analysis.

SEE YOU IN #THE LAND: With its win over Western Michigan Tuesday night, Eastern officially punched its ticket to Cleveland with a first round bye. The Eagles, who could still be either the No. 3 or No. 4 seed, hold the tie-break advantage over any team they may tie with in the final standings. The No. 4 seed is the highest for an EMU squad since the 1998 season, and the first round bye is the first in program history.
   Eastern's 10 wins in MAC play match its best in the Rob Murphy era, when the Green and White finished 10-8 in 2013-14. It was also the first win for the Eagles in Kalamazoo since Feb. 29, 2012.

STREAKING: Redshirt junior Elijah Minnie has hit a hot streak over the last four games, averaging 20.8 points and 8.2 rebounds while shooting 48.1 percent from the floor and 37.8 percent from beyond the three-point line during that stretch. The Pittsburgh, Pa. native added his third double-double of the season with a 13-point, 10-rebound performance against Central Michigan, Feb. 17, and has also averaged two blocks and two steals per game in that timeframe.
    As Minnie's game jumped to another level, the Eagles have played some of their best ball of the season in that same stretch. Eastern is currently on a five-game winning streak, its longest of the year, and has won seven of its last eight games.

ACTION JACKSON AT IT AGAIN: Redshirt junior Paul Jackson has turned in his best five-game run as an Eagle during EMU's win streak. The Stone Mountain, Ga. native has averaged 15.6 points per game on 43.5 percent shooting, while also averaging an 5.8 assists per contest. Perhaps most impressive, however, is that in the last five games he's averaged just 1.4 turnovers per game, for an impressive 5-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
   The point guard recorded his first career double-double in the Eagles' 85-79 win over Toledo, Feb. 20, and also set a career-high in assists with 10. Jackson has now notched double-digit points 25 times this season, and has scored 20+ points on seven occasions.

BACK-TO-BACK PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: Redshirt junior Elijah Minnie was named MAC Co-Player of the Week, Feb. 26, sharing the accolade with Western Michigan's Thomas Wilder. It is the first time this season that the redshirt junior has won the award, joining junior James Thompson IV as the only Eagles to win the honor this season.
   Minnie scored 23 points and grabbed six boards in the Eagles' victory over MAC-West leading Toledo, and also poured in 26 points and pulled down seven boards in Eastern's victory over Northern Illinois.

OFFENSIVE EXPLOSION: Heading into its Feb. 17 matchup against Central Michigan, EMU was averaging 64.7 points per game on 44.1 percent shooting in Mid-American Conference play.
    In the four games since, the Eagles have put up 78.2 points per contest on an eye-popping 52.1 field goal percentage. The Green and White has also upped its game at the charity stripe, shooting 79.2 percent in the last three games, compared to its MAC average of 63.6 percent previously.

LOCK DOWN D: Over the course of the last eight games, Eastern's already stingy defense has gone to another level. The Eagles are allowing just 61.5 points per game and holding opponents to a 38.6 shooting percentage from the floor during that stretch, and they've also forced 110 turnovers, had 43 steals, and swatted 23 shots.
   EMU has had especially tough defense in the opening half of its games. The Green and White have allowed fewer than 25 points in four of the eight games, and have held opponents to under 30 points in all but one matchup.

THE MILESTONE MAN: Senior Tim Bond became the Eastern Michigan all-time leader in steals AND joined the 1,000 point club on the same play, Saturday, Feb. 24 against Northern Illinois. The Baltimore, Md. native's tip away for steal number 221 started a fast break to the other end, and after a nifty feed from Malik Ellison, Bond flushed a slam to become the 31st member of the 1,000 point club.

ALL-TIME VERSUS TOLEDO: Eastern narrowly trails Toledo in the all-time series, with the Rockets holding the 52-51 edge. The Eagles last defeated the Rockets just eight days ago when the Green and White came out on top 85-79 in the friendly confines of the Convocation Center.
EMU last won in Savage Arena March 4, 2016 when it topped UT 79-75.

DOMINATING DEFENSE: Eastern Michigan has the Mid-American Conference's best defense, allowing opponents just 67.1 points per game on the season, and holding them to a conference-best 40.6 shooting percentage. The Eagles have been even better since league play began, allowing just 65.2 points per game while holding opponents to a 39.8 mark from the floor.
    Eastern has held opponents to 69 points-or-less in a game 15 times this season. EMU is 14-1 in those games, having added four more in its last five games against Western Michigan (W, 74-58), Miami (W, 58-57), Central Michigan (W, 72-67), and Northern Illinois (W, 82-53). The Eagles had a season-low 41 point effort, Feb. 3, against Ball State to go along with impressive performances against Spring Arbor (60), Arkansas State (59), South Florida (47), Rochester (48), Miami (48), and Akron (49).

WELCOME TO THE BLOCK PARTY: Eastern's 13-block performance against Ball State, Feb. 3, etched a new place in the EMU record book, tying three other occasions in which the Eagles had 13 rejections. It also catapulted the Green and White into the NCAA elite when it comes to shot blocking. Eastern Michigan's 6.2 blocks per game leads the MAC and ranks fifth in Division I, while their block total of 187 also leads the league and is third nationally. The Eagles lead the conference in swats by a 66-block margin, with the next closest to EMU's 187 sitting at 121.

THOMPSON IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS: Junior James Thompson IV is among the upper-echelon of big men in all of college basketball. Not only does he rank third nationally in offensive rebounds per game (4.2) and field goal percentage (68.6), but he's also fourth in double-doubles (19) and fifth in rebounds per game (11.6).
    The Baton Rouge, La. native is the NCAA Division I active career leader in rebound average at 11.2 caroms per game, while he is fifth in career rebounds (1,059), trailing four seniors.

ELITE COMPANY FOR MR. BOND: With Tim Bond's first steal against Ohio, Jan. 20, he became just the second player in EMU history to tally 200 steals in their career.
    The Baltimore, Md. native currently has 73 steals on the year with an average of 2.4 per game, which ranks second in the conference. The tally also puts him on pace for 77 in the season, just behind the all-time single-season record of 78, set by Lorenzo Neely, in the 1988-89 season.

AMONG THE LEAGUE'S LEADERS: EMU leads the Mid-American Conference in steals per game (8.7) and blocks per game (6.2). Eastern ranks eighth in the NCAA in steals, fifth in blocks, and is the only team in the country ranked in both top eights. The Eagles also lead the league in defensive field goal percentage (40.6), and scoring defense (67.1).
    Individually, James Thompson IV leads five categories (double-doubles, defensive rebounds, offensive rebounds, total rebounds, and field goal percentage), while also being tied for second in blocks per game and sitting 12th in scoring (15.3). Redshirt junior Elijah Minnie currently ranks eighth in scoring with an average of 16.5 per game, tied for second in blocked shots per game with a 1.8 average, and sixth in free throw shooting at 83.5 percent. Fellow redshirt junior Paul Jackson is second in assists per game (4.6) and 15th in scoring (14.9). Eastern Michigan and Buffalo are the only two schools in the conference to have three players ranked in the top 15 in scoring average.

DOUBLE-DOUBLE MACHINE: Junior James Thompson IV recorded his 58th career double-double with his 22-point, 14-rebound performance against Central Michigan, Feb. 17. Thompson, who is ranked second nationally in active career double-doubles, still trails Kennedy McIntosh by 20 on EMU's all-time list.

I'LL TAKE THAT: After leading the Mid-American Conference in steals per game (9.6) last year, Eastern has continued that trend, currently averaging a conference-high 8.6 steals per game. Led by Tim Bond's 2.4 steal per game average, the Eagles have three players ranked within the conference's top eight in average steals per game, totaling 262 thefts thus far.

ON THE HORIZON: EMU is guaranteed a first round bye at the MAC Tournament in Cleveland, Ohio, but is still unsure of its final seeding. With a win over Toledo, they'd play as the tournament's No. 3 seed, but a loss would make things more unclear.
   At this point the Eagles know that they play Thursday, March 8, at Quicken Loans Arena. The time and possible opponents will be determined after Friday night's #MACtion.

EMU Hoops Finishes Regular Season at Toledo Friday on National TV

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Players Mentioned

Tim Bond

Malik Ellison

Paul Jackson

Elijah Minnie

James Thompson IV

Eastern Michigan Athletics