2021 MAC men's basketball tournament

The 2021 Mid-American Conference men's basketball tournament was the postseason men's basketball tournament for the Mid-American Conference (MAC). Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the entire tournament was held at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, in Cleveland, Ohio, from March 11–13, 2021. For the 2021 tournament, only the top eight teams qualified. The winner of the tournament received the MAC's automatic bid to the 2021 NCAA tournament. Ohio defeated Buffalo in the final. Jason Preston of Ohio was named the tournament MVP. In the NCAA tournament Ohio defeated No. 4-seeded Virginia in the First Round before falling to No. 5-seeded Creighton in the Second Round.

Seeds 8 out of the 12 MAC teams qualified for the tournament. Teams were seeded by record within the conference, with a tiebreaker system to seed teams with identical conference records. Seed School Conferencerecord Tiebreaker 1 Toledo 15–4 2 Buffalo 12–5 3 Akron 12–6 2–0 vs. KSU 4 Kent State 12–6 0–2 vs. Akron 5 Ohio 9–5 6 Bowling Green 10–8 7 Miami (OH) 9–8 8 Ball State 8–9DNQ Western Michigan 4–12DNQ Eastern Michigan 3–11DNQ Central Michigan 3–13DNQ Northern Illinois 2–12

Schedule Game Time Matchup Score Television Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 11 – Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Cleveland, OH 1 11:00 am No. 8 Ball State vs. No. 1 Toledo 89–91OTESPN+ 2 2:05 pm No. 5 Ohio vs. No. 4 Kent State 85–63 3 4:30 pm No. 7 Miami (OH) vs. No. 2 Buffalo 63–74 4 7:00 pm No. 6 Bowling Green vs. No. 3 Akron 67–74 Semifinals – Friday, March 12 – Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Cleveland, OH 5 5:00 pm No. 5 Ohio vs. No. 1 Toledo 87–80 CBSSN 6 approx. 7:30 pm No. 3 Akron vs. No. 2 Buffalo 74–81OT Championship – Saturday, March 13 – Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Cleveland, OH 7 7:30 pm No. 5 Ohio vs. No. 2 Buffalo 84–69 ESPN2 Game times in ET. Rankings denote tournament seed

Bracket

* denotes overtime period

All-Tournament Team Tournament MVP – Jason Preston, Ohio Player TeamMarreon JacksonToledoJosh MballaBuffaloJeenathan WilliamsBuffaloJason PrestonOhioBen Vander PlasOhio

References