Muncie, IN -- With the end of the non-conference season coming to a close Cardinal Talk thought it would be interesting to take a look at the numbers inside the Mid-American conference. It's not as complicated as the NFL playoff picture or the Florida recount, so stick with us.
After leading his team to a 5-1 mark in the MAC east Marshall's Tamar Slay is leading the MAC in scoring with 19.2 per game. Ball State places three players in the top 25 starting with sophomore Theron Smith, who is averaging 18.0. Patrick Jackson (14th) is averaging 15.1 and Josh Murray (23rd) is averaging 11.9.
Leading the way in the rebounding category is Eastern Michigan's Tyson Radney, who is averaging 12.2 rpg. Cardinal frontmen Murray (4th), Smith (5th) and Lonnie Jones (12th) crack the top 25. Murray is averaging 9.6, Smith 9.5 and Jones adds 6.5 respectively.
Latece Williams, from Marshall, is the conference's leader in field goal percentage with an average of .605. Despite being tied with Jones for the team's top spot Rob Robbins is not listed but is still hitting .556 of his shots.
In the free throw shooting battle Miami's Doug Davis owns a perfect record this year after hitting 17-17 shots from the charity stripe. Cardinal shooting guard Jackson is listed in 21st place with an average of .742. Once again Robbins got denied in this category after shooting 1-1, a perfect 1.000. (We need to get this guy on the line more!)
The backcourt duo of former high school teammates highlights the assist category for the Cardinals. Jackson, averaging 4.3 apg, is listed 8th and Billy Lynch, 3.6 apg, is listed 11th. Bowling Green's Brandon Pardon leads the category with 7.1 apg.
Despite causing terror on the defensive end Lonnie Jones, 2.3 bpg, is not leading the conference in blocks per game. That honor goes to Patrick Flomo of Ohio, who is avrgaing 3.4 swats a game.
Anthony Jones (Ohio), leads the MAC in steals with 2.1 spg. Ball State's Jackson is averaging 1.9 takeaways per game.
And in the final individual category Eastern Michigan's Ryan Hopkins tops the MAC in 3-point field goal percentage with a .600 average after hitting 6 of 10 shots from behnd the arc. No Cardinal shooters were even listed in this category. After all, the team is shooting .273 percent from downtown.
The Cardinal offense is ranked 9th in the conference with an average of 68.6, but they are letting their opponents get away with 70.5 ppg.
The Cardinals are shooting at an average of .454 (215-474). The Cards rank 11 of 13 teams in the free throw percentage category with an average of .594.
Bowling Green ranks first in scoring with 82.9 ppg, while Miami may have the best defense in the MAC, allowing opponents to score only 57.1 ppg.
Top team records goes to previously mentioned Marshall (5-1) in the East and Western Michigan (1-7) in the West. Western only manages to be atop the West because they won their only MAC game against Ohio and the other MAC teams have not played a conference game yet. Ball State ranks 4th in the West at 4-4.
With the beginning of the MAC season about two weeks away be prepared to see some changes at the top of the leader boards. The inserion of Cedric Moodie back into the Ball State lineup is certainly going to change the scheme of things for the Cardinals. Less scoring will be needed from Jackson and the scoring average itself will probably see a boost.
