Eastern Michigan Athletics
A Walk Through History: The MAC Season
4/3/2026 9:57:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By T.C. Cameron
"The MAC road games were crazy," Theron Wilson said. "At CMU, they'd sell out and would scream, 'F you, Wilson!' or tell Earl Boykins he was a 'high school midget!' We'd go to Miami, and Ohio, and Bowling Green, and they'd have a sellout waiting for us, and they're screaming crazy stuff at us every time down the floor. You learn quickly what Ohio schools think of Michigan."
The Ann Arbor News' Amy Whitesall described the start of the MAC schedule as having arrived with, "all the stealth of an 18-wheeler driven through a wall" when Eastern opened MAC play at home with Toledo.
The opener featured 14 lead changes and six ties, and UT's Craig Thames forced overtime when he sank a buzzer-beating half-court heave. But Tolbert exploded for 31 points, and Wilson set a school record with eight blocked shots in a game, and EMU survived in double overtime, 91-87.
The Eagles posted four more wins over Akron, Western Michigan, Central Michigan, and Bowling Green before returning home for a rare televised game with Ball State. Eastern led most of the game, but down two and in desperate need of a miracle in the final seconds, Boykins fearlessly drove the lane and found the narrowest angle possible, knocking down a double-pump 10-foot jumper at the buzzer. It sent the crowd into a frenzy and the game into overtime, tied at 93.
Denying Ball State a victory in regulation, EMU dropped 16 points on the exhausted Cardinals in overtime for a 109-102 win. Tolbert dropped a team-high 27 points — game-high honors went to Ball State's Bonzi Wells with 36 — while Boykins added 26. Wilson and Mills each had 15, and James Head scored 11.
Next, the Eagles visited Miami's Millett Hall, another historically difficult place to play. Eastern posted an impressive 73-60 win, followed by a dominant 96-81 win over Kent State. Eastern was now 15-1 overall and 8-0 in the MAC, easily the best start in program history.
Two days later, college basketball's pollsters finally noticed EMU, with the Associated Press ranking Eastern No. 23, the program's first national ranking. The luster did not last long. The following Wednesday, Eastern walked into Ohio University and a sold-out arena abuzz with the chance to smash a ranked opponent, and took an 82-73 loss.
EMU bounced back with a 62-53 win over Akron, but three days later, traveled to another hostile arena at Western Michigan. The Broncos rattled off a 21-7 run and had EMU down 11 in the second half, but another dramatic comeback ended WMU's upset hopes in an 89-83 win.
"Tolbert and Boykins took over the last eight minutes of that game and willed us to that victory," Wilson remembers. "They crushed Western's soul that night."
After another win over Central Michigan, the Eagles' third-consecutive sweep of a conference rival, Eastern was 12-2 in the MAC and looked secure to win the regular season crown. Then the season took a grim turn, as EMU lost three of their next four games.
EMU's annual trip to Bowling Green produced a frustrating 72-70 loss in front of another sold-out arena. Next up was a trip to Ball State, which had whittled Eastern's MAC lead to just two games, and where the Cardinals had not lost at home in 23 games.
Before the game, Boykins and Tolbert took control, as described by the Ann Arbor News' Amy Whitesall:
"In all of his 19 seasons as a head coach, Eastern Michigan's Ben Braun had never been kicked out of the locker room before a game. But on Saturday, in the minutes before EMU's game with Ball State, guards Brian Tolbert and Earl Boykins asked Braun to leave so they could address the team alone.
Bovkins reminded his teammates of how far they had come and pointed out that their NCAA tournament status — which looks good now, even if they don't win the MAC tournament — might not survive a flat performance at Ball State."
The meeting worked. Eastern manhandled the Cardinals in a 91-75 win, sweeping the defending MAC champions and earning their first win at Ball State since 1992.
With a three-game and just four games to play, Eastern's good vibes suddenly plummeted. Miami came to Bowen and knocked Eastern out of the media polls with a 75-68 win. Next was a trip to Kent State, where EMU was smashed, 91-73.
Staggered, Eastern hosted a final home game against Ohio and guard Geno Ford, Earl Boykins' kryptonite. And another issue for EMU loomed: the intramural basketball schedule at the REC-IM threatened to significantly cut into the game's attendance.
Learning of this at noon on the day of the game, Athletic Director Tim Weiser hustled back to his office and dialed Facility Director Bob England and Intramural Director Jack Moffatt. Weiser brokered a deal to postpone the intramural games so students could attend the game at Bowen.
A sold-out arena stood witness as Eastern struggled to clinch the MAC regular-season title. Eastern trailed 31-13 in the first half and needed a 12-1 run to close the half, then rattled off a 13-5 run after the intermission.
The game went to overtime. Dial's dramatic three from the right arc forced a second overtime. Finally, Tolbert's basket with 22 seconds left put the Bobcats down for good, 81-77. Fans stormed the court in celebration at the buzzer. After playing 49 minutes and scoring a game-high 39 points, Tolbert sliced the final piece of netting off the rim from a ladder as fans chanted his name beneath him.
"When we were down almost 20, our crowd never quit on us, and we weathered the storm," Tolbert remembered. "By the end, they were driving us to the win … I'll never forget that night."
The MAC Tournament came next, and with it the pressure of having to win out or face the possibility of the entire season's success being washed away without an NCAA invite.
"That seems crazy to say MAC schools would be tougher than programs like Rutgers and Texas Tech, but a MAC coaching staff knows everything about your program and the matchups to avoid and exploit," Braun said. "The grind required for those wins had prepared us for the MAC and NCAA tournament."
Author T.C. Cameron is a 1995 graduate of Eastern Michigan University. As EMU's preeminent athletics historian, he has crafted the definitive record of the people and moments that have shaped EMU athletics over the past 50 years. A native of Royal Oak, MI, Cameron now lives in Lowes Island, Va., after 16 years in Annapolis, Md.
