The Mid American Conference came out with their annual pre-season All-MAC teams as well as their pre-season poll. No surprise to Buffalo fans, were towards the bottom again. Buffalo was picked to finish 5th in the MAC East this year, just in front of the team we can never seem to beat Bowling Green. As usual, Kent State and Akron were picked to finish 1 and 2, being the only 2 teams that got any first place votes. Possible mid-major darling was picked to finish 3rd in the MAC East, with Miami(OH) just behind them. I wont waste my time explaining who was picked to finish where in the MAC West since they are consistently the weaker half of the Mid American Conference.
I used to get really excited about finding out where the 24 members of the MAC Media News Panel picked Buffalo to place, but there always seems to be a slight bias towards the team from Ohio. Yes, I do agree that Kent State is the favorite to win it all this year, but Buffalo always seems to be undervalued. Maybe we all spend too much time watching the Bulls, and have a personal bias towards them, but I think a completely neutral person would have them either 4th or 3rd this year. Regardless, they're called Pre-season Polls for a reason, and the Bulls will just have to prove themselves on the court. Last time I thoroughly disagreed with where Buffalo was picked to finish was 3 seasons ago when the Bulls were picked to finish dead last. Just by seeing what we were bringing back that year, along with the talent of the 2 incoming freshman forwards, I knew there was no way Buffalo was going to finish that low. Lets see if the Bulls can bring back that 08-09 magic that almost won them the conference title.
Bulls fans were a little upset by the fact that Javon McCrea wasn't picked to the preseason All-MAC team, I personally didn't have a problem with it. Pre-season All-conference teams are usually based off of the previous seasons stats. Javon's stats were very good, but I think what we all see is the potential, and we miss interpreted that for outstanding stats. 12 points, and 6.5 rebounds is nothing to be upset about at all, but those aren't the numbers you need to make these "subjective" lists. He was however named to the pre-season All MAC East team, so I think it is clear that people are aware of his talent.