UT has shot at winning 'MAC Least'

Being the best men's basketball team in the MAC West Division is probably a little like being the healthiest specimen in the leper colony.

The first-place team, Eastern Michigan, survived a buzzer shot by last-place Northern Illinois Wednesday night to win 48-45, improving to 7-6 in league play and to move within four wins of being .500 overall. Ditto the second-place team, Western Michigan, also 12-16 in all games as we speak.

Ball State has lost seven of eight, Central Michigan 11 of 12, and NIU 23 of 26 which, incidentally, takes in the Huskies' whole season. Entering play Wednesday, Western Michigan had an RPI of 187 and the other five West teams ranged from 225 to 334.

This is a college basketball wasteland.

The best team in the division at this particular point in time, winners of three straight and four of their last five, might very well be your Toledo Rockets.

UT dispatched of Central Michigan 72-67 Wednesday at Savage Arena, overcoming a 33-point night by Chips star Trey Zeigler and surviving a sloppy stretch after opening a double-digit lead late in the second half.

No, the Rockets weren't perfect, but who can remember the last time they were? Five years ago? Ten? Twenty?

Toledo is 14-14 now and that's more wins than in any season since 2006-07.

One more victory, believe it or not, will equal the total number of wins for the previous three years combined.

The Rockets have their sights set on more than that, though.

The schedule falls in such a manner that UT gets the only teams ahead of them in the division -- Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan -- at home the next two Saturdays. In between is a trip to Northern Illinois, which the Rockets stroked by 30 points earlier this season.

In other words, the MAC West -- or what the folks in the MAC East like to call the MAC Least -- is all there in front of them.

It might not sound like much, but with what this program has been through the last few years any kind of banner dropped from the rafters -- even a spray-painted bed sheet -- would be celebrated.

The Rockets were 2-7 in MAC play and now they are 5-8 and anything seems possible, even running the table to a possible division title.

"One hundred twenty minutes," said UT coach Tod Kowalczyk. "We have 120 minutes to that goal and don't think our players don't know it. It starts with playing 40 minutes on Saturday, and tonight we didn't come close to playing 40 minutes. We're not beating Western Michigan with the effort we put forth tonight."

Curtis Dennis, who has developed into one of the league's better sixth men, scored 18 points against Central and called Saturday's date with Western personal.

"We went up there and got blown out (74-52). They punked us," Dennis said. "But we're a different team. We're more mature. We're buying in. We know what's at stake the rest of the way. We're coming together."

Against CMU, the Rockets came together behind point guard Juice Brown, who made 10 of 11 shots from the field, 8 of 10 from the line, and tied his career high with 29 points.

The Rockets finally have some talent. They have a coach with a clue. They play hard, are entertaining, and have learned to grind out wins on nights when they don't play their very best.

Maybe something interesting is about to happen.

Contending for the MAC West title in 2011-12 may not be all that big of a deal.

It's a gaping hole in the college basketball landscape.

But it beats the pit of irrelevance into which Toledo basketball had fallen.

Contact Blade sports columnist Dave Hackenberg at: dhack@theblade.com or 419-724-6398.