2009 MAC men's basketball tournament explained

Year:	2009
Conference:	MAC
Division:	I
Gender:	Men's
Teams:	12
Arena:	Quicken Loans Arena
City:	Cleveland, Ohio
Champions:	Akron Zips
Titlecount:	1st
Coach:	Keith Dambrot
Coachcount:	1st
Mvp:	Nate Linhart
Mvpteam:	Akron
Television:	ESPN2, Fox Sports Net

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]

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

* Overtime

Tiebreakers

Seeds

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

West Division

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

Notes and References

Web site: Freshman guard Hitchens sparks Akron to its first NCAA tourney berth since 1986. ESPN. en. 2022-05-24.
Web site: Akron challenges, but Zags establish dominance with rally in second. https://web.archive.org/web/20220524160238/https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/recap?gameId=294000036. dead. May 24, 2022. ESPN.com. 2022-05-24.
Web site: ZIPS CLAIM FIRST MAC CHAMPIONSHIP. Mid-American Conference. June 5, 2022.