The 2022–23 Mid-American Conference men's basketball season is the season for

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Its members co ...

men's

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

teams. It began with practices in October 2022, followed by the start of the

2022–23 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2022–23 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 7, 2022. The regular season ended on March 12, 2023, with the 2023 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament beginning with the First Four on March 14 and ending with th ...

in November. Conference play began in January 2023 and concluded in March 2023. The 2023 MAC tournament was held at

Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse Rocket Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Cleveland, Ohio. The building is the home of the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League (AHL). It also serves as a sec ...

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

for the 24th consecutive season.

Toledo Toledo most commonly refers to: * Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain * Province of Toledo, Spain * Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States Toledo may also refer to: Places Belize * Toledo District * Toledo Settlement Bolivia * Toledo, Or ...

won their third straight regular season championship with a 16-2 record in MAC Play.

RayJ Dennis Raymond "RayJ" Patterson Dennis (born March 30, 2001) is an American professional basketball player for the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), on a two-way contract with the Noblesville Boom of the NBA G League. He playe ...

was named player of the year. Second seed

Kent State Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio located in Ashtabula, Burton, East Liverpool, Jackson Township, New Philadelphia, ...

defeated

Northern Illinois Northern Illinois is a region generally covering the northern third of the U.S. state of Illinois. The region is by far the most populous of Illinois, with nearly 9.7 million residents as of 2010. Economics Northern Illinois is dominated by ...

Akron Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 census. The Akron metropolitan area, covering Summit and Portage counties, had ...

, and top seeded

to win the MAC tournament.

Head coaches

Coaching changes

Ball State

On March 14, 2022,

Ball State Ball State University (Ball State or BSU) is a public university, public research university in Muncie, Indiana, United States. The university has three off-campus centers in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Fort Wayne, and Fishers, Indiana. T ...

fired James Whitford after nine seasons with a 131–148 record at the school. Ball State hired

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

assistant coach

Michael Lewis Michael Monroe Lewis (born October 15, 1960) Gale Biography In Context. is an American author and financial journalist. He has also been a contributing editor to '' Vanity Fair'' since 2009, writing mostly on business, finance, and economics. ...

on March 25, 2022.

Miami

After the season

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

fired head coach Jack Owens after five years and a 70–83 record. On April 1, 2022, Miami hired

Travis Steele Travis Andrew Steele (born November 12, 1981) is an American college basketball coach, and current head basketball coach at Miami (OH). He recently served as the head coach at Xavier. Coaching career Steele began coaching as an undergraduate a ...

, who had been let go by Xavier at the end of the 2022 season.

Western Michigan

Clayton Bates resigned on On March 7, 2022 as the head coach of

Western Michigan West Michigan and Western Michigan are terms for a region in the U.S. state of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Generally, it refers to the Grand Rapids- Muskegon-Holland area, and more broadly to most of the region along the Lower Peninsula's Lake ...

after posting a two-year record of 13–39. On April 5,

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the ...

associate head coach

Dwayne Stephens Dwayne Jerome Stephens (born July 19, 1971) is an American basketball coach who is currently the men's head coach for the Western Michigan Broncos. Previously, he was an assistant and associate head coach at Michigan State for 19 years. Playing ...

was named the new head coach.

Coaches

''Notes:'' * Appearances, titles, etc. are from time with current school only. * Years at school includes 2022–23 season. * MAC records are from time at current school only. * All records are through the beginning of the season.

Preseason

The preseason coaches' poll and league awards were announced by the league office on October 26, 2022. Kent State was named as a slight MAC favorite over 2021–22 regular season champion Toledo and 2022 MAC tournament champion Akron.

Preseason men's basketball coaches poll

MAC Preseason All-Conference

Regular season

Rankings

Conference matrix

All-MAC awards

Mid-American men's basketball weekly awards

Postseason

Mid–American Tournament

defeated

in the final to earn the conference's automatic bid to the 2023 NCAA tournament.

Sincere Carry Sincere Carry (born September 15, 1999) is an American basketball player for Phoenix Hagen of the ProA. He played college basketball for the Kent State Golden Flashes and the Duquesne Dukes. Early life Carry grew up in Hermitage, Pennsylvania ...

was the MVP.

NCAA tournament

Kent State was placed as the 13th seed in the Midwest Regional where they lost to

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

National Invitation tournament

Toledo received an automatic bid to the

National Invitation tournament The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) is an annual men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Since 2023, all rounds of the tournament are played at various sites across the country whi ...

where they lost to

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

in the first round.

Postseason awards

RayJ Dennis was the unanimous selection for player of the year. #Coach of the Year:

Tod Kowalczyk Tod Edward Kowalczyk (born June 19, 1966) is an American college basketball coach and current head men's basketball coach at the University of Toledo. He was the head coach at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay A university () is an ins ...

, Toledo #Player of the Year: RayJ Dennis, Toledo #Freshman of the Year: Reggie Bass, Central Michigan #Defensive Player of the Year: Malique Jacobs, Kent State #Sixth Man of the Year: Jalen Sullinger, Kent State

Honors

References

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