We all know and love MACtion, and we are very disappointed with Northern Illinois’s recent decision to leave the MAC and join the lamest conference in FBS football, weakening a sacred institution in the process. In the spirit of doing our part to support the MAC, then:
Let’s talk Toledo hoops.
Loyal NIT fan that you are, you know these Rockets well. You know how they made the NIT in 2021, 2022, and 2023, and how they would have made it in 2024 had Fox Sports’s massing of troops on its eastern border not pushed the NCAA to change the NIT’s automatic bid system. You know all about the storied Toledo programs of 1942 and 1943, and you remember that 2001 overtime classic against South Alabama which first made you aware of South Alabama hoops. (The haters criticize you for not remembering the ’81 Jaguars, but everybody forgets the ’81 Jaguars. Tulsa’s magic overshadows just about everything that happened in 1981. For example: You’ve probably never heard of a guy named John Hinckley Jr.)
You also know that for all Toledo’s skill within the MAC, single-elimination play has not been kind to the Rockets. The last time they won an NIT game? 2001. It was the one against USA. No, no. Not the United States of America. Rockets were on America’s side in 2001, as Kunduz Province learned emphatically. We’re still talking about South Alabama.
Anyway, the scouting report on Toledo lately is this: They win the MAC. They lose the MAC Tournament. If allowed into the NIT, they lose in the first round. Todd Kowalczyk’s been there forever, and somehow his kid got his hands on an NIT championship watch and sold it on eBay? Long story, but it ended up in my possession. You know how they let cops steal cash from people they pull over? Civil Asset Forfeiture? This is nothing like that. This is simply multiple people finding NIT championship watches on eBay and gifting them to me.
What’s changing? Why are we talking about the Rockets tonight?
Well, they’re not supposed to win the MAC this year.
They’re supposed to lose the MAC.
If you trust kenpom (and we do—he doesn’t know this, but Ken Pomeroy is always our emergency contact when we go to urgent care), this is the worst Toledo team since Kowalczyk’s debut season in Ohio’s fourth-most populous city. Thankfully, the MAC as a whole is really bad this year, so Toledo still has a chance, but still. Worst in 14 winters! Nevertheless, our beloved Rockets are off to a 2–0 MAC start, and tonight they go for the Directional Michigan sweep, welcoming the Chippewas to Savage Arena (that sounds racist in this context) after beating the Broncos and Eagles over the last six days.
A loss, of course, would spell disaster. You cannot win the MAC without sweeping the Directional Michigan schools in your first set of meetings. The last team to do that was Toledo, way back in 2024. Yes, if the Rockets lose tonight, it might be time to start preparing our eulogies for their conference championship streak.
If the Rockets win tonight…where do we go from there? That’s the question. The answer is Akron. On Tuesday, Toledo plays the Zips. And that, my friends, will be the big one, because the Zips are the current MAC favorites. It’s right in their name. How many conference games have they lost? Zip!
Hopefully this has you so fired up about MAC basketball that you’re ready to stand up at church on Sunday when they ask who has prayer requests and tell everyone about Ugnius Jarusevicius, then look really confused when they ask what your prayer is. Are we not all MAC fans in the eyes of the Lord?
