State hoops: Big Ten scheduling news is fantastic news for Michigan's mid-majors

The mid-majors have been feeling the squeeze for quite some time, amid the recent trend toward the building of mega conferences.

But the Big Ten gave their little brothers some rare good news this week, when the Power Six conference announced it would stick with its 20-game conference schedule in men's basketball and 18 games in women's basketball next season, even while expanding to 18 teams, with the additions of Washington, Oregon, Southern Cal and UCLA.

Remaining at 20 and 18 conference games leaves more flexibility to continue to schedule the buy games that are so critical to the mid-majors, who pay their athletic department's bills, in large part, by collecting those checks in basketball and, more importantly, football. (The Big Ten is sticking with a nine-game football conference schedule.)

"Very," Oakland men's coach Greg Kampe said, when asked how good the Big Ten news is for mid-majors.

Mid-major men's basketball teams can collect upward of $100,000 for going on the road to play a power-conference foe. Do several a season, and that means big money for mid-major schools, where every nickel matters.

Kampe was particularly concerned about what the Big Ten would do, fearing expanding the conference schedule to 22 or even 24 games could eventually phase out the annual rivalry game with Michigan State — even though Michigan State's Tom Izzo pledged last year to continue playing Kampe and Oakland for as long as he's on the job.

Oakland played three Big Ten teams this year, including Ohio State and Illinois. Detroit Mercy played Northwestern, while Central Michigan played Ohio State, Eastern Michigan played Michigan, and Western Michigan played Northwestern and Ohio State.

On the women's side — where the buy-game checks aren't as big but still are important — Oakland played at Michigan and Michigan State, Detroit Mercy played at Michigan State, Central Michigan played at Michigan State, Eastern Michigan played at Michigan, and Western Michigan didn't play a Big Ten opponent this season but did play at Michigan and Michigan State last season.

The mid-majors already got slapped big time recently with the news that the postseason NIT was changing its format for 2024, allowing only 12 automatic bids for the power-conference schools and filling out the field with the next-best 20 teams, based on formulas. It used to be that the NIT reserved several automatic bids for mid-majors, but no more, so now we might get to see perhaps the 10th-best school from a power conference rather than the best team from a mid-major league.

That announcement from the NCAA made mid-major coaches, athletic directors and commissioners absolutely irate back in October, when the news came out without as much as a warning to the mid-major conferences.

"Our own commissioner didn't even know," Western Michigan athletic director Dan Bartholomae said, of Mid-American Conference commissioner Jon Steinbrecher.

"The lack of transparency alone is a complete injustice."

Chips on fire

In this era of the transfer portal, you just never know what you're going to get. Just look at the preseason conference polls, which seem to be as wrong as ever.

It's because you never know how a team of new guys is going to get along. Look at Detroit Mercy, which is filled with transfers, and was 0-22 entering Thursday night. Then look at Central Michigan, which also is transfer-heavy after losing its starting backcourt to the portal this offseason, and finds itself in third place in the MAC.

The Chippewas are 12-9 and 7-2 in the MAC entering a pivotal stretch of games.

Central Michigan was picked last, or 12th, in the preseason poll.

"We thought it was laughable where we were picked in the league," said Tony Barbee, who's in his third season as head coach at CMU. "People don't know. They just look at who you lost.

"We felt pretty good about what we had."

Last season, CMU dealt with injuries to a pair of star players, guards Kevin Miller and Jesse Zarzuela, and both transferred after the season, Miller to Wake Forest and Zarzuela to Oregon. Both got decent NIL money. But CMU had more coming back than most people thought, most notably graduate-student guard Brian Taylor (Detroit Edison, 12.2 points, 7.5 rebounds) and junior big man Markus Harding (10.6 points, 4.9 rebounds), and added to the mix guard Anthony Pritchard from Tulsa, who leads the team in scoring at 14.6 points, and also averages 5.0 rebounds.

The results have been impressive, as CMU is riding a four-game winning streak, including a 62-55 win at rival Western Michigan and an 84-77 double-overtime win at home against Northern Illinois.

CMU has won four straight and its 7-2 start in MAC play is its best since the 2000-01 season. It's one game behind Toledo, which it's already beaten, and Akron, which it plays Tuesday. Before that, CMU plays Saturday at Bowling Green, which is one game behind CMU in the MAC standings.

The double-OT win over Northern Illinois was a battle, and it saw Pritchard and Harding leave because of injuries. They are day-to-day, Barbee said. "The next 24-48 hours will kind of dictate that," he said.

Sophomore guard Paul McMillan IV, a transfer from NJIT, gutted out a leg injury in the overtime periods out of necessity, and scored a season-high 21 in the victory.

Slam dunks

▶ She's only in Year 2 as Detroit Mercy's women's head coach, but Kate Achter already could be looking at an extension. Athletic director Robert Vowels approached Achter back around Christmas about starting talks, and Vowels said he expects to have discussions with Achter's agent sometime this week. Smart move, given there has been interest in Achter — she was contacted this offseason about the open job at Bowling Green, her alma mater, and she would seem to be an obvious target for Eastern Michigan, which fired Fred Castro this season — and will likely to continue be, as the Titans keep impressing.

Detroit Mercy is 14-9, a remarkably fast turnaround, given where the program was at when Achter took over, with a revolving door at head coach, and few wins to speak of. Detroit Mercy is tied for third place in the Horizon League.

▶ I wrote this week about the struggles with the Detroit Mercy men, who are 0-22 and have just 10 games left to get a win — nine in the regular season, and at least one in the Horizon League tournament, from which all teams qualify. There wasn't much positive to say, as there's an obvious disconnect between veteran head coach Mike Davis and most of his players. But one player stands out to me, and that's sophomore guard Marcus Tankersley, who seemingly is always staying after practice to shoot, often by himself. I asked him why he's still motivated.

"I love basketball, and I love the game," Tankersley said. "I just feel like as the leader of this team, if the guys see me doing extra after practice and me just caring and giving it my all, maybe that will rub off on them."

▶ Speaking of Detroit Mercy, Titans legend Antoine Davis, the NCAA's second-all-time leading scorer, is returning to town Tuesday, playing for the NBA G League's Rip City Remix in a game against the Motor City Cruise on the campus of Wayne State. The Cruise is marketing it as Detroit Mercy Day, and Davis and another Detroit Mercy legend, Earl Cureton, will host a meet-and-greet with fans after the game. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. and tickets start at $7 for general-admission seating, through Ticketmaster. Davis is averaging 18.5 points through 13 games.

Games of the week

MEN

▶ Cleveland State at Oakland, 1 Saturday (ESPN+)

▶ Central Michigan at Bowling Green, 5 Saturday (ESPN+)

▶ Maryland at Michigan State, 5:30 Saturday (Fox)

▶ Central Michigan at Akron, 7 Tuesday (ESPN+)

▶ Michigan State at Minnesota, 9 Tuesday (Peacock)

▶ Wisconsin at Michigan, 7 Wednesday (BTN)

WOMEN

▶ Detroit Mercy at Wright State, 7 Friday (ESPN+)

▶ Michigan at Penn State, 6 Saturday (ESPN+)

▶ Minnesota at Michigan State, 6 Monday (BTN)

▶ Nebraska at Michigan, 7 Tuesday (no TV)

▶ Western Michigan at Kent State, 7 Wednesday (ESPN+)

State power rankings

MEN

1. Michigan State (last: 1), 13-8

2. Oakland (2), 13-9

3. Central Michigan (5), 12-9

4. Michigan (3), 7-14

5. Western Michigan (4), 8-13

6. Eastern Michigan (6), 9-12

7. Detroit Mercy (7), 0-22

WOMEN

1. Michigan State (1), 16-5

2. Michigan (2), 14-8

3. Detroit Mercy (3), 14-9

4. Western Michigan (5), 9-10

5. Oakland (4), 9-11

6. Central Michigan (7), 5-14

7. Eastern Michigan (6), 5-14

tpaul@detroitnews.com

@tonypaul1984