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Zeigler: MAC dropped the ball with scheduling
CMU hosts rival Western Michigan on Tuesday of break
By: Daniel Monson
Issue date: 2/27/08 Section: Sports
Spring break usually means the beginning of the Mid-American Conference Tournament for the men's basketball team.
But this year, Central will host its biggest rival - Western Michigan - at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Rose Arena, most likely with the student section noticeably absent.
Men's basketball coach Ernie Zeigler said the conflict with spring break was not brought to his attention beforehand and called it a miscommunication.
"It's really frustrating for us. Quite honestly, our league dropped the ball on this one," Zeigler said. "For me personally, it's just another thing within our conference and within our program that as a basketball coach, you have to micro-manage everything."
CMU also hosts Toledo on March 9.
The MAC schedule was approved last summer, said Athletics Director Dave Heeke.
"It certainly doesn't give us an opportunity to have a strong student home-court advantage," Heeke said. "The arena won't be quite as hostile, and that's disappointing, but it is somewhat how the calendar falls."
In 2007, spring break took place in the second week of March, when the men's basketball MAC Tournament is typically scheduled.
"We make sure the conference office knows the dates of our academic calendar, but they can't really guarantee anything in terms of where games fall," Heeke said.
The only MAC game scheduled for this week is today's WMU-Northern Illinois matchup, a make-up game rescheduled after the Feb. 14 shootings on NIU's campus.
Rick Boyages, the MAC's associate commissioner and director of men's basketball operations, oversees the scheduling process, which he said undergoes at least 60 revisions. He said the bye week is designed to give the six MAC teams that traveled during the weekend for ESPN BracketBusters time to regroup and is not related to midterm exams.
"I think the bottom line is your team has to go out on the court and win the game," Boyages said. "We would prefer to have the best game environments we can, we just can't always guarantee that ... I don't want to say it's not important - I want the students at every game."
But this year, Central will host its biggest rival - Western Michigan - at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Rose Arena, most likely with the student section noticeably absent.
Men's basketball coach Ernie Zeigler said the conflict with spring break was not brought to his attention beforehand and called it a miscommunication.
"It's really frustrating for us. Quite honestly, our league dropped the ball on this one," Zeigler said. "For me personally, it's just another thing within our conference and within our program that as a basketball coach, you have to micro-manage everything."
CMU also hosts Toledo on March 9.
The MAC schedule was approved last summer, said Athletics Director Dave Heeke.
"It certainly doesn't give us an opportunity to have a strong student home-court advantage," Heeke said. "The arena won't be quite as hostile, and that's disappointing, but it is somewhat how the calendar falls."
In 2007, spring break took place in the second week of March, when the men's basketball MAC Tournament is typically scheduled.
"We make sure the conference office knows the dates of our academic calendar, but they can't really guarantee anything in terms of where games fall," Heeke said.
The only MAC game scheduled for this week is today's WMU-Northern Illinois matchup, a make-up game rescheduled after the Feb. 14 shootings on NIU's campus.
Rick Boyages, the MAC's associate commissioner and director of men's basketball operations, oversees the scheduling process, which he said undergoes at least 60 revisions. He said the bye week is designed to give the six MAC teams that traveled during the weekend for ESPN BracketBusters time to regroup and is not related to midterm exams.
"I think the bottom line is your team has to go out on the court and win the game," Boyages said. "We would prefer to have the best game environments we can, we just can't always guarantee that ... I don't want to say it's not important - I want the students at every game."
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