COLUMN: Consistency on the road will be key for women's basketball
The Central Michigan women's basketball team hasn't done much wrong since the beginning of Mid-American Conference play.
On Saturday, Buffalo gave CMU its first conference loss — snapping a six-game MAC win streak.
In most scenarios, you would imagine a 6-1 conference record being good enough to be the top of your division.
Not for the MAC West Division.
CMU played its best basketball of the season during that win streak, yet the Chippewas find themselves in a three-way tie with Northern Illinois and Ball State for first place in their division.
Not to mention Western Michigan isn't far behind them at 5-2 for fourth place.
When you look at the MAC East Division, the competition seems to be beating itself up. Ohio’s 5-2 record has it sitting alone in first place, while the other five teams have three or more losses.
It’s evident the MAC West is better than the MAC East — no matter how you want to put it.
The conference as a whole will be a grind for any team to survive, as CMU knows after losing to Buffalo. Any team can beat you any given day.
Through seven conference games, I still believe CMU is one of the best teams in the MAC and could easily run the table in March at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland during the MAC Tournament.
While the Chippewas have many adjustments they could make as the season moves along, there is one issue they need settled — finding consistency away from McGuirk Arena.
Junior guard Cassie Breen said it earlier this year, “We like to shoot in our gym. It’s where we knock the most shots down.” Breen is more than right.
The Chippewas are averaging just 65 points in away games while averaging 81 points in home games. CMU is 10-1 at home and 2-4 on the road.
Those numbers really say it all.
The team needs to find itself on the road, and put more balls through the net to build confidence, or it won’t be able to win the MAC West. Whatever team wins the most road games will win the West Division.
In their most recent road game, the Chippewas went 1-for-15 from 3-point range and allowed 24 points off of 14 turnovers. Those are two components that will never lead to a win — especially away from your own gym.
Head Coach Sue Guevara shared that sentiment.
“If you have no outside shooting it will be hard to win any game in this conference,” she said. “Between that and allowing points off of turnovers, it’s a mix that you can’t have to win a conference.”
At the end of the day, the Chippewas (14-5 Overall, 6-1 MAC) have lost just one game in conference play. By no means is it time to start panicking, but this team does need some improvements and they need them soon.
If CMU wants to stay atop the loaded MAC West, it will need to start winning more road games. Finding ways to win away from home will go a long way for the Chippewas come March.
