• Conference play begins this weekend as Toledo takes on Eastern Michigan tonight (12/4), while Buffalo will travel to Bowling Green this Sunday (12/6).

• This season, the East & West Divisions have been eliminated & teams will play 20 conference games instead of 18. The top eight teams (determined by winning pct.) will advance directly to Cleveland for the MAC Men’s Basketball Tournament.

• Akron’s Loren Cristian Jackson, Ball State’s Ishmael El-Amin, Bowling Green’s Justin Turner, Ohio’s Jason Preston & Toledo’s Marreon Jackson were all named to the CollegeInsider.com Preseason Lou Henson Player of the Year Award Watch List this week.

• Bowling Green was selected to win the MAC regular season and tournament title in the 2020-21 Men’s Basketball Preseason Coaches Poll. Bowling Green received a total of eight first place votes to win the regular season championship, while grabbing four votes to win the Tournament title.

• The Falcons are ranked No. 19 in the latest CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 Poll. Others receiving votes include Ohio (51), Toledo (28), Akron (14) and. Buffalo (12)

• The Preseason All-MAC first team featured Akron’s Loren Cristian Jackson, Bowling Green’s Justin Turner, Buffalo’s Jayvon Graves, Ohio’s Jason Preston and Toledo’s Marreon Jackson. The Preseason All-MAC second team was comprised of Ball State’s Ishmael El-Amin, Bowling Green’s Daeqwon Plowden, Buffalo’s Josh Mballa, Kent State’s Danny Pippen & Ohio’s Ben Vander Plas. Both teams were selected by the league’s head coaches.

?• For the first time in 17 years, Western Michigan men’s basketball has a new coach roaming the sidelines as Clayton Bates was hired to lead the Bronco basketball program back in March. Bates is the 14th men’s basketball head coach in program history.