After 14 games across four days, the Mid-American Conference (MAC) Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments are complete.
Falcon Media Sports Network’s Tyler Kavalecz and Lucas Kleimeyer recapped the two championship games, reflected on the tournament and gave their Falcon Four takeaways from action at Rocket Arena in Cleveland.
Glenn Box is the real deal
Box has transformed Miami (OH) women’s basketball from a team in the dumps to a champion in just three seasons.
In the four years prior to Box taking the head coaching job in Oxford, the RedHawks went a combined 35-80 under DeUnna Hendrix. After a 9-20 record in his first year, Miami has gone 47-18 over the past two seasons, capping the dominant run off with a MAC Tournament Championship win over Toledo, their first in 18 years and just the second in program history.
The reigning MAC Coach of the Year has cemented himself as one of the best leaders in the MAC in just three years in southwest Ohio.
MAC basketball deserves more respect
For years, the MAC has been overlooked by many in men’s college basketball due to advanced metrics and stigmas around mid-major collegiate basketball.
However, this tournament proved the MAC is a strong basketball conference that deserves more respect.
Akron continues to be one of the best mid-major programs in the country. Miami (OH) had a historic run. Toledo and Kent State continue to be some of the most consistent programs in the country.
But for some reason, the conference has not received two bids to March Madness since 1999. That should change this year, and hopefully, it will become more common and the conference will receive the respect it deserves.
The crowds in Cleveland showed up
Over 36,000 fans watched the tournament in Cleveland across four days.
The turnout was highlighted by 11,072 fans packing Rocket Arena for the men’s championship game, the largest crowd for a championship matchup at the tournament since 2013.
The fans were loud, energetic, excited and engaged the entire tournament, creating an atmosphere that you can only wish and hope for.
Toledo men’s basketball and Tod Kowalczyk still can’t win the big game
The Rockets still have not won a MAC Tournament Championship since the first tournament in 1980.
Toledo has finished runner-up for the championship seven times since (1991, 1996, 2006, 2014, 2018, 2023 and 2026), including four times under Kowalczyk, who has won everything, including five MAC Regular Season Championships, except for the tournament.
At this point, there is no one particular thing keeping Toledo from March Madness. It could be crumbling under pressure, poor decisions or just simply bad luck.
Either way, Saturday was the closest the Rockets have come to going dancing since 1991—when they lost by one points to Eastern Michigan—as Shammah Scott, the hometown kid from Cleveland, hit a game-winning 3-pointer to give Akron a three-peat for the first time in the tournament’s history. This loss will haunt Kowalczyk and Toledo for years.
