2015-16 MAC East predicted order to finish (Number of coaches' votes)
1 - Ohio (12)
2 - Akron
3 - Bowling Green
4 - Miami
T5 - Buffalo
T5 - Kent State
2015-16 MAC West predicted order to finish (Number of coaches' votes)
1 - Eastern Michigan (4)
2 - Ball State (8)
3 - Western Michigan
4 - Toledo
5 - Central Michigan
6 - Northern Illinois
After finishing atop the Mid-American Conference West Division standings last season with a 13-5 conference record (17-14 overall), the preseason MAC coaches’ poll projects the Ball State women's basketball team to finish in second.
Ball State earned more first place votes (eight) than West Division preseason favorite Eastern Michigan (four), who knocked Ball State out of last season’s conference tournament in the semifinals. Both teams will have their work cut out for them, the conference coaches said, 10 of whom picked the East Division’s Ohio University to repeat its regular season conference crown. Ball State and Eastern Michigan split the other two votes.
Two Cardinals, senior Nathalie Fontaine and junior Jill Morrison, were named to the Preseason All-MAC West team.
Fontaine finished the 2014-15 season fifth in the MAC in points per game (16.4) and field goal percentage (49.3 percent), as well as 11th in rebounds per game (7.1). Fontaine also has 1,506 career points in three seasons and has an opportunity to become the second Ball State women’s basketball player to score 2,000 career points if she maintains her career average of 502 points per season.
Morrison had a successful season as well. She was the fourth-most accurate three-point shooter in the conference, sinking 38.0 percent of her shots from behind the arc. Her 82.9 percent mark from the free-throw line was also the third-best rate in the conference and the highest among players returning in 2015-16.
Fontaine and Morrison are two major reasons why three coaches predict Ball State will win the MAC tournament and the resulting bid to the NCAA tournament. Eastern Michigan also earned three votes, and five coaches picked Ohio as repeat conference champions.
Although the Cardinals have not won the MAC since 2009, the conference has been wide-open with a different champion in each of the last five seasons, and Ball State won the division last year after being projected to finish second. Meanwhile, Central Michigan finished last in the division after 11 predictions to win the West and 10 to win the conference tournament. In 2013-14, Akron won the MAC tournament with after just one coach predicted them to win.
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