2017 MAC men's basketball tournament

The 2017 Mid-American Conference men's basketball tournament is a post-season basketball tournament for the Mid-American Conference (MAC). Tournament first-round games were held on campus sites at the higher seed on March 6. The remaining rounds here held at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio between March 9–11, 2017. The sixth-seeded Kent State Golden Flashes won the tournament and the conference's automatic bid to the 2017 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament with a 70–65 win over the top-seeded Akron Zips. It is Kent State's sixth tournament title overall and first since 2008. Kent State lost to UCLA in the First Round.^[1]

2017 MAC men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	2016–17
Teams	12
Site	Quicken Loans Arena Cleveland, Ohio
First round site	Campus sites
Champions	Kent State (6th title)
Winning coach	Rob Senderoff (1st title)
MVP	Jaylin Walker (Kent State)
Attendance	10,376
Television	BCSN, CBSSN, ESPN2
MAC men's basketball tournaments ← 2016 2018 →

2016–17 Mid-American Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
East
Akron	14	–	4		.778			27	–	9		.750
Ohio	11	–	7		.611			20	–	11		.645
Buffalo	11	–	7		.611			17	–	15		.531
Kent State †	10	–	8		.556			22	–	14		.611
Bowling Green	7	–	11		.389			13	–	19		.406
Miami (OH)	4	–	14		.222			11	–	21		.344
West
Ball State	11	–	7		.611			21	–	13		.618
Western Michigan	11	–	7		.611			16	–	16		.500
Toledo	9	–	9		.500			17	–	17		.500
Eastern Michigan	7	–	11		.389			16	–	17		.485
Northern Illinois	7	–	11		.389			15	–	17		.469
Central Michigan	6	–	12		.333			16	–	16		.500
† 2017 MAC tournament winner

Seeds

All 12 MAC teams participated in the tournament. Teams were seeded by record within the conference, with a tiebreaker system to seed teams with identical conference records.^[2] The top four teams received a bye to quarterfinals.

Seed	School	Conference record	Division	Tiebreaker 1	Tiebreaker 2	Tiebreaker 3
1	Akron	14–4	East
2	Ohio	11–7	East	3–2 vs. tied teams (1–0 vs. BSU, 1–1 vs. UB, 1–1 vs. WMU)	1–1 vs. Buffalo	.500 (1–1) vs. No. 1 Akron
3	Buffalo	11–7	East	3–2 vs. tied teams (1–1 vs. BSU, 1–1 vs. Ohio, 0–1 vs. WMU)	1–1 vs. Ohio	.000 (0–2) vs. No. 1 Akron
4	Ball State	11–7	West	2–3 vs. tied teams (1–1 vs. Buffalo, 0–1 vs. Ohio, 1–1 vs. WMU)	1–1 vs. WMU	9–1 vs. West Division
5	Western Michigan	11–7	West	2–3 vs. tied teams (1–1 vs. BSU, 0–1 vs. Buffalo, 1–1 vs. Ohio)	1–1 vs. BSU	7–3 vs. West Division
6	Kent State	10–8	East
7	Toledo	9–9	West
8	Eastern Michigan	7–11	West	2–1 vs. tied teams (1–0 vs. BGSU, 1–1 vs. NIU)	1–1 vs. NIU	.000 (0–2) vs. No. 1 Akron, .500 (1–1) vs. No. 2 Ohio
9	Northern Illinois	7–11	West	2–1 vs. tied teams (1–0 vs. BGSU, 1–1 vs. EMU)	1–1 vs. EMU	.000 (0–1) vs. No. 1 Akron, .000 (0–1) vs. No. 2 Ohio
10	Bowling Green	7–11	East	0–2 vs. tied teams (0–1 vs. NIU, 0–1 vs. EMU)
11	Central Michigan	6–12	West
12	Miami (OH)	4–14	East

Schedule

^[3]

Game	Time	Matchup	Score	Television
First round – Monday March 6 – Campus sites
1	7:00 pm	No. 9 Northern Illinois at No. 8 Eastern Michigan	69–72	ESPN3
2	7:30 pm	No. 12 Miami (OH) at No. 5 Western Michigan	61–65	ESPN3
3	8:00 pm	No. 10 Bowling Green at No. 7 Toledo	62–77	ESPN3
4	7:00 pm	No. 11 Central Michigan at No. 6 Kent State	106–116^OT	ESPN3
Quarterfinals – Thursday March 9 – Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH
5	Noon	No. 8 Eastern Michigan vs. No. 1 Akron	62–79	BCSN ESPN3
6	2:30 pm	No. 5 Western Michigan vs. No. 4 Ball State	63–66
7	6:30 pm	No. 7 Toledo vs. No. 2 Ohio	66–67
8	9:00 pm	No. 6 Kent State vs. No. 3 Buffalo	68–65
Semifinals – Friday March 10 – Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH
9	5:30 pm	No. 1 Akron vs. No. 4 Ball State	74–70	CBSSN
10	8:00 pm	No. 2 Ohio vs. No. 6 Kent State	68–66
Championship – Saturday March 11 – Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH
11	7:30 pm	No. 1 Akron vs. No. 6 Kent State	70–65	ESPN2
* Game times in ET. Rankings denote tournament seed

Bracket

	First round Monday, March 6					Quarterfinals Thursday, March 9					Semifinals Friday, March 10					Championship Saturday, March 11
						1	Akron	79
						8	Eastern Michigan	62
	8	Eastern Michigan	72
	9	Northern Illinois	69
											1	Akron	74
											4	Ball State	70
						4	Ball State	66
						5	Western Michigan	63
	5	Western Michigan	65
	12	Miami (OH)	61
																1	Akron	65
																6	Kent State	70
						2	Ohio	67
						7	Toledo	66
	7	Toledo	77
	10	Bowling Green	62
											2	Ohio	66
											6	Kent State	68
						3	Buffalo	65
						6	Kent State	68
	6	Kent State	116*
	11	Central Michigan	106

* denotes overtime period

All-Tournament Team

Tournament MVP – Jason Preston, Kent State^[4]

Player	Team
Jaaron Simmons	Ohio
Antino Jackson	Akron
Isaiah Johnson	Akron
Jimmy Hall	Kent State
Jaylin Walker	Kent State

See also

• 2017 MAC women's basketball tournament

References

1. "TJ Leaf scores 23 points in UCLA victory over Kent State". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
2. "MAC Tiebreakers". MAC-Sports. MAC-Sports. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
3. "Official Site of the Mid-American Conference". MACSports. MAC. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
4. "KENT STATE WINS 2017 MAC MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP". Mid-American Conference. Retrieved June 5, 2022.