The 2008 Mid-American Conference men's basketball tournament was won by the #1 seed Kent State Golden Flashes

Kent State Golden Flashes men's basketball

The Kent State Golden Flashes men's basketball team represents Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. The Golden Flashes compete in the Mid-American Conference East Division and last played in the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament in 2008...

, who defeated their arch-rival and #3 seed Akron Zips

Akron Zips men's basketball

The Akron Zips Men's Basketball team represents the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio. The team currently competes in the Mid-American Conference East division. The team first played in the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament in 1986 when Bob Huggins was their coach. The Zips are currently...

 74–55 in front of 12,942 fans. Kent State center Haminn Quaintance led all scorers with 16 points and was named the tournament MVP.

The tournament took place March 12 through March 15 at Quicken Loans Arena

Quicken Loans Arena

Quicken Loans Arena , is a multi-purpose arena, in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States....

 in Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

. FSN Ohio televised the quarterfinals and semifinals while ESPN2

ESPN2

ESPN2 is an American sports cable television network owned by ESPN. The channel debuted on October 1, 1993.Originally nicknamed "the deuce," ESPN2 was initially branded as a network for a younger generation of sports fans featuring edgier graphics as well as extreme sports like motocross,...

 broadcast the tournament championship nationally.

Format

Each of the 12 men's basketball teams in the MAC received a berth in the conference tournament. Teams were seeded by conference record with the following tie-breakers:

• Head-to-head competition
• Winning percentage vs. ranked conference teams (top to bottom, regardless of division, vs. common opponents regardless of the number of times played)
• Coin flip

The top four seeds received byes into the quarterfinals. The winners of each division were awarded the #1 and #2 seeds. The team with the best record of the two received the #1 seed.

Bracket

All-tournament team

• Al Fisher (Kent State)
• Haminn Quaintance (Kent State)
• Joe Reitz
  Joe Reitz
  Joseph David Reitz is an American football offensive tackle for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League. He was signed by the Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted free agent in 2008...
  
  (Western Michigan)
• Mike Scott (Kent State)
• Jeremiah Wood (Akron)

External links

• MAC Tournament Central