All MAC-Last-20-Years 1st Team

This is it. This is what the entire world has been waiting for. Ok maybe not the entire world. But certainly this is what certain pockets of the American Midwest has been waiting for. If you haven’t looked at the 2nd and 3rd teams, take a look now. Some of our selections have been met with skepticism, which is totally understandable. If you think someone else should have been on the 1st team, please let us know in the comments below. Remember, this team is assembled based on talent in the player’s best season. This is the lineup we would want to put together if we were to enter a team made up of all MAC-Last-20ers into this year’s NCAA Tournament. The author is inclined to predict that this hypothetical team would be the favorite to win this year’s NCAA Tournament. But let’s get to the players.

PG: Earl Boykins (Eastern Michigan, Last Season: 1998)

In looking through these teams, one observation strikes me: the MAC was pretty loaded in 1998. Boykins and Dial led Eastern to a 4 seed in that season’s MAC Tournament, which the Eagles would win. Boykins won the Tournament MVP award before being knocked out of the NCAA Tournament by Michigan State. He would go undrafted by the NBA, but he signed as a free agent and averaged double digit scoring numbers in four different NBA seasons. Here at Vlad4MVP, we love few things more than short dudes who enjoy athletic success. Our Mount Rushmore of short dudes probably includes Boykins, Mugsy Bogues, David Eckstein, and Jose Altuve, but that’s a blog post for another day.

SG: Antonio Daniels (Bowling Green, Last Season: 1997)

During that beautiful 1998 MAC season, Daniels was enjoying his first year in the NBA. He played mostly point guard at Bowling Green, but we moved him to the two for the purposes of this team. During his senior season, Daniels averaged 24 points and 6.8 assists. After his senior season he was drafted 4th overall by the Vancouver Grizzlies. He enjoyed a long NBA career before retiring and then coming out of retirement to play for a hypothetic basketball team made up of the best players from the Mid-American Conference’s last 20 seasons.

SF: Wally Szczerbiak (Miami, Last Season: 1999)

If there has ever been a better basketball player named Wally, we do not know of him. As a junior, Wally averaged 24.4 points per game. That year his Miami team was a lowly 7 seed in the MAC Tournament, but they made it to the finals before losing to Boykins’ Eastern squad. The next season he led Miami to the Sweet Sixteen. He, too, enjoyed a long NBA career after being drafted 6th overall in 1999. This is weird, but he has like 5 pages worth of quotes on thinkexist.com. They’re not all that deep or insightful or anything, though. The best one is, “I was an All-Star in this league, and it seemed like people forgot that for whatever reason.” Which made us be like, “What? Seriously? He was an All-Star.” To which, Wally would probably reply, “Yeah. People forgot that for whatever reason.” Sorry for forgetting that.

PF: Gary Trent (Ohio, Last Season: 1995)

This was a pretty easy pick. The “Shaq of the MAC” played three seasons in the conference and won three Player of the Year awards. Click on his name above to observe what is known to many as “statporn.” He dominated the MAC in ways that most healthy adults probably could only do in rec-leagues for 4th graders. After his junior year, he went pro and was drafted 11th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks. He had a successful NBA career, and now he works as a “cultural intervention specialist” at an elementary school, which is genuinely heartwarming.

C: Chris Kaman (Central Michigan, Last Season: 2003)

According to Ray Mernagh’s masterpiece, 1 Chance 2 Dance (required reading for MAC fans,) when Jay Smith came to the Kaman residence to court Chris he found him perched atop his roof shooting a BB gun into his neighbor’s garage. Also, if memory serves, I’m pretty sure there was an ESPN the Magazine profile on Kaman that said he set up a laser tag course in his home. So by all accounts Kaman sounds, in terms of personality, like the mischievous 9-year-old who lives next door to you and might break your window someday. In terms of basketball skill, though, there’s nothing 9-year-old about him. He was as dominant as it gets in 2003 for the Chips, leading them to an NCAA Tournament win over Creighton before going 6th overall. After that, he was taken 6th overall and is currently enjoying a long NBA career. One year he averaged 18 and 9 for the Clippers by the way.

This team would be pretty great. Four of these guys were lottery picks. The other one (Boykins) had a long career in the Association. A lot of the comments on message boards was about 1st team snubs. We think the only guy with a case is Bonzi Wells. Read, comment, discuss, share, live, laugh, love, dance like nobody is watching.

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