2009 MAC men's basketball tournament

The 2009 Mid-American Conference men's basketball tournament was the post-season men's basketball tournament for the Mid-American Conference (MAC) 2008–2009 season. The winner of the tournament receives the MAC's automatic bid into the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship tournament. Fifth-seeded Akron defeated Buffalo in the final. In the NCAA tournament they lost in the first round to Gonzaga.^[1][2]

2009 MAC men's basketball tournament
Logo for the 2009 Mid-American Conference tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	2008–09
Teams	12
Site	Quicken Loans Arena Cleveland, Ohio
Champions	Akron Zips (1st title)
Winning coach	Keith Dambrot (1st title)
MVP	Nate Linhart (Akron)
Television	ESPN2, Fox Sports Net
MAC men's basketball tournaments ← 2008 2010 →

Format

Each of the 12 men's basketball teams in the MAC receives a berth in the conference tournament. Teams are seeded by conference record with the following tie-breakers:

• Head-to-head competition
• Winning percentage vs. ranked conference teams (top to bottom, regardless of division, vs. common opponents regardless of the number of times played)
• Coin flip

The top four seeds receive byes into the quarterfinals. The winners of each division are awarded the #1 and #2 seeds. The team with the best record of the two receives the #1 seed.

Bracket

2008–09 Mid-American Conference men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
East
Bowling Green	11	–	5		.688			19	–	14		.576
Buffalo	11	–	5		.688			21	–	12		.636
Miami	10	–	6		.625			17	–	13		.567
Akron †	10	–	6		.625			23	–	13		.639
Kent State	10	–	6		.625			19	–	15		.559
Ohio	7	–	9		.438			15	–	17		.469
West
Ball State	7	–	9		.438			14	–	17		.452
Central Michigan	7	–	9		.438			12	–	19		.387
Western Michigan	7	–	9		.438			10	–	21		.323
Eastern Michigan	6	–	10		.375			8	–	24		.250
Northern Illinois	5	–	11		.313			10	–	20		.333
Toledo	5	–	11		.313			7	–	25		.219
† Conference tournament winner Rankings from AP Poll

	First round Tuesday, March 10					Quarterfinals Thursday, March 12					Semifinals Friday, March 13					Final Saturday, March 14
						1	Bowling Green	74
						9	Ohio	61
	8	Western Michigan	55
	9	Ohio	62
											1	Bowling Green	55
											5	Akron	63
						4	Miami (OH)	63
						5	Akron	73
	5	Akron	93*
	12	Toledo	92
																5	Akron	65
																3	Buffalo	53
						2	Ball State	64*
						7	Central Michigan	61
	7	Central Michigan	62
	10	Eastern Michigan	49
											2	Ball State	52
											3	Buffalo	64
						3	Buffalo	65
						6	Kent State	62
	6	Kent State	64
	11	Northern Illinois	61

* Overtime

Tiebreakers

Seeds

Seed	Team	Record	Tiebreaker #1	Tiebreaker #2	Tiebreaker #3	Tiebreaker #4	Tiebreaker #5
1	Bowling Green	11–5	2–0 head-to-head	–	–	–	–
2	Ball State	7–9	Division champ	–	–	–	–
3	Buffalo	11–5	0–2 head-to-head	–	–	–	–
4	Miami	10–6	3–1 head-to-head	–	–	–	–
5	Akron	10–6	2–2 head-to-head	–	–	–	–
6	Kent State	10–6	1–3 head-to-head	–	–	–	–
7	Central Michigan	7–9	2–1 head-to-head	1–1 head-to-head	0–1 vs. #1 BGSU	0–1 vs. #2 Buffalo	1–0 vs. #3 Miami
8	Western Michigan	7–9	2–1 head-to-head	1–1 head-to-head	0–1 vs. #1 BGSU	0–1 vs. #2 Buffalo	0–1 vs. #3 Miami
9	Ohio	7–9	0–2 head-to-head	–	–	–	–
10	Eastern Michigan	6–10	1–1 head-to-head	1–0 vs. #1 BGSU	–	–	–
11	Northern Illinois	6–10	1–1 head-to-head	0–1 vs. #1 BGSU	–	–	–
12	Toledo	1–15	–	–	–	–	–

West Division

Team	Record	Tiebreaker #1	Tiebreaker #2	Tiebreaker #3
Ball State	7–9	2–2 head-to-head	0–1 vs. #1 BGSU	1–0 vs. #2 Buffalo
Central Michigan	7–9	2–2 head-to-head	0–1 vs. #1 BGSU	0–1 vs. #2 Buffalo
Western Michigan	7–9	2–2 head-to-head	0–1 vs. #1 BGSU	0–1 vs. #2 Buffalo

All-Tournament Team

Tournament MVP – Nate Linhart, Akron^[3]

Player	Team
Nate Linhart	Akron
Brett McKnight	Akron
Steve McNees	Akron
Max Boudreau	Buffalo
Nate Miller	Bowling Green

References

1. "Freshman guard Hitchens sparks Akron to its first NCAA tourney berth since 1986". ESPN. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
2. "Akron challenges, but Zags establish dominance with rally in second". ESPN.com. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
3. "ZIPS CLAIM FIRST MAC CHAMPIONSHIP". Mid-American Conference. Retrieved June 5, 2022.