Miami University coach Charlie Coles has called the Mid-American Conference basketball tournament a banquet with 12 hungry teams grabbing for one piece of chicken.
That piece, which goes to the champion, is the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
The MAC hasn't gotten an at-large bid since 1999, when Miami join conference-tournament winner Kent State. The MAC has had more than one team in the NCAA Tournament only five times.
The yearly snubs perturb Kent State coach Geno Ford. His team won the regular-season conference championship and has a 23-8 record, an RPI of 42 and a strength of schedule of 20.
Yet Ford realizes that the Flashes will be playing in the NIT if they don't win the MAC tournament. Their first opponent is Ohio University (18-14) in a quarterfinal game in Quicken Loans Arena at 7p.m. Thursday.
"It has been somewhat frustrating to watch the ESPN shows about this team being in and this team being out," Ford said. "I use St. Mary's as an example. That's a great team, and I want them to get in. But with St. Mary's, our RPI is higher, and our strength of schedule is higher. We should be in that discussion, and we haven't been. We're like everybody else (in the MAC). We're fighting for our lives."
No one knows how to prepare a team for the conference tournament better than Coles. He won championships in 1997 and 2007 and set a MAC record with five straight appearances in the championship game, from 1997 to 2001.
Coles said the MAC can do nothing to sway the NCAA selection committee to pick a second team. The RedHawks (13-17) are seeded fourth and play Buffalo (18-11) at 9:30p.m.
"That was a tragedy when Akron won 26 games in 2007 and didn't even get into the NIT," Coles said. "Akron and Kent should be in the conversation this year. But it's a thing we don't need to chase anymore. We're not going to get any breaks. Let the big boys do what they do. They end up beating each other, and somebody else gets in. That's a shame. We just have to enjoy each other and beat each other up."
So how do you go about winning three games in three days for the right to hold up the MAC trophy?
"The best thing to do - and it will sound a little silly and corny - is you've got to be rested, and you've got to be having fun," Coles said. "You can't be uptight or the least bit unhappy. You play the hell out of every possession. We don't worry about the X's and the O's. Just get out there, smile, and everybody hug each other."
Ohio has won four of its past six games, including an 85-77 victory in overtime at Ball State on Sunday in what amounted to a play-in game to get to Cleveland.
"I couldn't be more proud of our guys," coach John Groce said. "Every coach's goal is to be playing its best basketball at this time of the year. We've weathered some things. For most of the year, I've been hard on them to mature and to value possessions. We've finished close games a lot better lately."
Akron (22-9) must overcome losing out on a share of the regular-season championship to Kent State in the final game. The Zips play Eastern Michigan, who won the regular-season matchup at Akron's Rhodes Arena, in the quarterfinals at 2:30 p.m.
"The game Friday is over with," Akron coach Keith Dambrot said of the loss to Kent State. "We can't get that back. We've gone back to meat and potatoes, and that's playing tough defense and sharing the ball. You can game-plan all you want, but if you don't shoot well, you're not going to win. You've got to be smarter (with the shot clock). We know we're capable of winning; we just have to play a good game.''
mznidar@dispatch.com