Still unranked in Mid-Major poll

Men's basketball

For those of you expecting Akron (8-3, 2-0) to leap into the top 25 in TheCollegeInsider.com's Mid-Major poll, like I was, you were wrong. The Zips actually lost votes since last week, going from 41 to 39 total votes, as David posted in a topic below. However, the Zips leapfrogged a few teams, most notably Toledo.

I won't put too much emphasis on this poll until late February. It's just a bunch of under-informed college coaches voting on teams who they haven't seen play all year.

The Zippers return to action tonight at Western Michigan (4-8, 1-1). Yes, the same team that knocked Akron out of the MAC Tournament quarterfinals last year in overtime. The Broncos lost to Buffalo in the semifinals, but still earned a berth in the NIT, where they beat Marquette and lost to TCU.

But this is a different Western Michigan team -- a team that has lost to Illinois State, Detroit and South Alabama. They had to squeak out home wins versus IUPUI and Loyola-Marymount.

Still, a MAC road game is nothing to be taken lightly. Western Michigan has a talented big man, sophomore Joe Reitz, who is leading the team in scoring (13.9 ppg) and rebounding (8 rpg).

OK. Back to watching James Bond marathon.