The Mid-American Conference may not carry as much weight as some ‘mid-major’ leagues, but there are always stars worth knowing in the northern Midwest. This year has proven no exception. This league is home to a force of nature on the glass, terrific guards, and old rivalries which always make for great hoops action in earliest spring. Time to catch up on everyone who’s trying to earn the top honor from this year’s MACtion!
Ra’Heim Moss – Toledo
16.4 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 2.9 apg, 1.8 spg – 47.1% FG, 55.8% TS – 26.7% Usage Rate
Toledo fans are probably tired of hearing it mentioned by now, but watching Ra’Heim Moss play basketball, it’s easy to see why he was once a quality prospect in the gridiron as well. On a team full of guards, the Rockets need someone like Moss, who brings great defense, a nose for the lane, and plenty of physicality to head coach Todd Kowalcyk’s lineup. More measurably than all of that, Moss also brings all-conference skill to stuff the whole stat sheet. The big numbers Moss has posted seemed Herculean early in the year, given that the Rockets lost more than 50 points per game from last year’s squad with the departures of three star veterans. Moss and Dante Maddox – the team’s top outside shooter – were the only returning starters from that NCAA Tournament squad, and they haven’t let the Rockets skip a beat.
Moss, the team’s leader in scoring and assists, has headed the charge straight back towards the top of the MAC standings, where Toledo is currently fighting to reclaim a share of first place. As ever, Moss was up to his do-everything ways to earn that spot; he put up 16 points, grabbed seven boards, and handed out four assists against the Zips.That has been fairly standard for Moss this winter. He has scored at least 15 points in 21 of Toledo’s 27 contests, snagged a half dozen rebounds 14 times, and Moss has tallied at least four helpers on 11 occasions. His glass work is vital to the undersized Rockets, and since Moss does so much of his scoring right near the rim, it’s no surprise that he is consistently in good position to hit the boards. More than 61% of the shots Moss has tried this year have come from deep in the paint, per Bart Torvik. Along the way, Moss – a solid 75% career free throw shooter – has earned nearly six trios to the charity stripe. His tough and aggressive style translates to the defensive side, as well. The former linebacker leads by example in putting tremendous pressure on opponents; Moss ranks second only to teammate Tyler Cochran in the league in steals. Given that Toledo isn’t huge and tends to be most effective in a zone, aggressively denying feeds inside where possible and trapping ballhandlers, Moss has only grown better at what he does well this year. He’s kept Toledo a dangerous contender, and the noise Moss brings each game will surely be heard well into the MAC tournament.
Marcus Hill – Bowling Green State
21.6 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 2.5 apg, 0.9 spg – 45.0% FG, 52.1% TS – 31.7% Usage Rate
This fall, Marcus Hill showed up on campus in Bowling Green…and sort of just started blasting. After spending two years potting big numbers in junior college, Hill transferred up to the NAC and has immediately proven that he can hang. More than that – he’s quickly becoming one of the most dangerous scorers outside of the power conferences. Hill may be what they call a volume scorer, but he scores at tremendous volume. For a Falcons team which had seen a quite significant overhaul during the offseason, Hill’s steady and scintillating productivity have provided a prime option for the newcomers to lean upon. BGSU has played 27 games this year, and Hill has scored at least 22 points in 15 of those contests. Hill’s average of 21.6 points per game is the 10th-best mark in all the land, and he does more than just chuck in buckets. Though he’s the team’s clear top option, Hill also leads the Falcons in assists for the season.
A hard-charging guard who is an effective rebounder as well as being a key distributor, Hill loves to drive the lane and get things done among the bigs. Though Hill doesn’t shoot the best of percentages in close – he’s at 52.5% near the rim, per Bart Torvik – he is undaunted and consistently outworks defenders to make difficult shots. Additionally, Hill feasts at the charity stripe. He gets there nearly seven times each game, shoots 73.9%, and as a result Hill has earned fully five points per game at the line this year. Though Bowling Green State doesn’t have an abundance of deep threats to space out the opposing defense, Hill knows how to create opportunities, whether for himself or his friends. That bucket-getting DNA has made Hill the Falcons’ star, and has quickly landed him among the MAC’S best players.
Jaylin Hunter – Ohio
14.4 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 5.0 apg, 1.5 spg – 43.6% FG, 54.1% TS – 25.5% Usage Rate
Since arriving in Athens as a proven, experienced playmaker, Jaylin Hunter has truly hit his stride. Last year, he got to play off of a terrific big man. This time around, Ohio’s attack has been headed by Hunter and fellow transfer guard Shereef Mitchell. The main takeaway, regardless of lineup, is that Hunter provides the spark which drives the Bobcats – and that he has emerged as one of the league’s best players. Ohio got off to a tough start this season. Sophomore scorer AJ Brown’s eagerly-anticipated breakout season was cut short due to injury after just nine contests, and the Bobcats found themselves with a frustrating 7-9 overall record early in the conference season.
Since then, though, Hunter has helped the team get right. Now Ohio is 11-3 in the MAC and looking like a potential problem for the league tournament – and Hunter’s individual statistics are all over the conference leaderboards. He leads the league in assists, is fifth in steals, and Hunter ranks tenth in scoring average. Each year of his career, Hunter has been strong at both ends of the floor, and has raised his game in accordance with being the guy this team looks to in its biggest moments. Over the Bobcats’ last ten games, Hunter is averaging 17.4 points and 5.7 assists on 63.5% true shooting, and the team has gone 7-3. His 32 points and five assists were huge in a hard-fought overtime win at Ball State last week, and Mitchell’s development beside him has provided Ohio with a potent duo. His three-point percentage has dipped this year, but Hunter is a dangerous scorer whose biggest performances may still be ahead of him.
Enrique Freeman – Akron
18.3 ppg, 13.0 rpg, 1.7 apg, 1.4 bpg – 58.5% FG, 64.2% TS – 26.9% Usage Rate
For years now, Enrique Freeman has been one of the best and most inspiring stories in all of college sports. Akron’s entrant into the running for the MAC’S top honor has firmly established himself as one of the nation’s best rebounders and toughest matchups in the lane. What’s every bit as remarkable about Freeman as his productivity and grit is that he was an entirely unranked prospect coming out of high school, and began his career with the Zips after walking onto the team and warning absolutely every moment that he played.That aspect of his story has been deservedly well-publicized, and Freeman has only turned up the spotlight on his legend this winter. He very well may be the most dominant rebounder in all of college basketball; the numbers certainly support Freeman’s claim. Akron has played 27 games this year, and Freeman has only failed to record double digit rebounds three times. In 19 of the Zips’ tilts, Freeman has snagged a dozen or more boards, and he has come down with at least five offensive rebounds ten different times – consistently providing reload opportunities and back-breaking extra shot attempts for himself and his fellow Roos. Freeman is a physical presence whose relentless attitude and ability to rack up second and third shot, tip, and putback stabs on the same possession can demoralize the other team. What’s more, Freeman has grown into a feature role on offense over the past couple of seasons. For a Zips program which lost first Xavier Castañeda and then Ali Ali (who has since transferred back into the program), Freeman’s increasing reliability as a scorer has been transformative – and provided a genuine rallying point for Akron at both ends of the court. This season, he has posted terrific shooting percentages from all over the floor; per Bart Torvik, Freeman is making 66.5% of his shot attempts near the rim, a solid 44.6% from mid-range, and even has a 37.8% mark from the land of trey. Freeman’s constant effort and great skill inside have earned him more and more trips to the foul stripe each year of his career. Coming into this season, though, he had converted 63.5% of those opportunities – a number which Freeman stated he wished to improve upon during the offseason. That is an objective which Freeman has delivered upon: Freeman has taken nearly seven foul shots per game this winter, and he’s making 72.5% of them. With Freeman starring around the basket, Akron has been a top contender throughout conference play, and is dreaming big as the regular season comes to its end.
Tyson Acuff – Eastern Michigan
21.9 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 2.8 apg, 1.1 spg – 43.4% FG, 52.2% TS – 31.3% Usage Rate
After two pretty nondescript seasons at Duquesne, Tyson Acuff transferred to Eastern Michigan prior to last year. And he was good last year – but he wasn’t as good as he’s been this year. Now in his senior season, Acuff has transformed from a solid scorer to one of the most dangerous top options in the nation. Now, Acuff isn’t just the Eagles’ top scorer or the MAC’S #1 bucket-getter; he ranks fifth in the whole country in points per game. There has been a whole bunch of roster turnover in Ypsilanti the past couple of years, and this winter injuries and inexperience around him have forced Acuff to be a one-man show at times. Though wins have not been easy to come by, Acuff has shone time and time again in willing the Eagles towards victory. He has scored double figures in each of the 26 games he’s played, and Acuff has gone for 20+ in 15 of those contests.
As befits one of the nation’s top-ranked scorers, Acuff hasn’t just filled the role of go-to guy: he’s been flat-out heroic. Five times, Acuff has gone off for a 30-piece, and the Detroit product has been on the floor for more than 38 minutes per contest – third-most among all Division I players. Despite the honus upon Acuff to score the ball, he also leads the Eagles in helpers, and has managed to maintain both a positive assist to turnover ratio and to keep consistently out of foil trouble. With a confident handle and the smarts to keep on making the correct reads and plays despite constant, intensive defensive pressure, Acuff is fully playing the role of a prime-time player. The improvements he’s made are now obvious to see, and it’s just as clear that Acuff deserves a spot among the MAC’S biggest stars.
Current Favorite: Enrique Freeman
With his surpassing board work and increasing inside-out skill, Enrique Freeman has become the most dominant player in the MAC. Each season of his career, Freeman has observably improved a different aspect of his game. As a freshman, Freeman demonstrated that he brought tremendous energy and could handle 20+ minutes each game. His sophomore year, Freeman became a double-double threat who could do more than just stuff a dunk. As a junior, Freeman developed some genuine post moves and really started cashing in on the attention expended by Akron’s opponents by making them at the free throw line. And this year, after having shown that he could be counted on in and around the paint, Freeman has legitimately extended his repertoire out to the three point arc. He ranks among the nation’s top 50 most impactful individual players in Bart Torvik’s ‘Porpagatu’ statistic, and Freeman has been named a finalist for the Karl Malone Award, which is given to the nation’s best power forward. It would be yet another trophy to add to his case; Freeman has already been named 1st Team All-MAC, conference Defensive Player of the Year, and MAC Tournament MVP over the last two seasons.
Though not blessed with the brawn or prototype size of a typical intimidator in the middle, there is no tougher a customer on any roster in the country than Freeman. Head coach John Groce knows exactly what he’s going to get from Freeman every time the Zips play, and his teammates can rely upon Freeman more surely than almost any player in the nation. He has improved himself to become an all-conference star, and Freeman has a chance also to be named an All-American this spring. Additionally, Freeman has kept the Zips atop the MAC right the way through conference play. In fact, though the Player of the Year is not a career achievement award, Freeman has been a leading man for Zips teams which have gone a combined 66-28 over the past three years. This March, he hopes to guide the program to its second MAC tournament title – and first regular season crown – over that span. Freeman has had the sort of season which the league will remember for decades, and come the postseason, he will have the opportunity to give Zips fans even more to celebrate.
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