The 2010-11 Mid-American Conference basketball season is winding down and the final two weeks of the season are loaded with extremely important games. When all the games are final and the First Energy MAC Championship Tournament seeds are set, they will toss the balls in the air and teams will do battle with the tournament championship, and automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, on the line.

With the teams going after each other on the floor the MAC season-ending individual awards will be determined. Over the next few days the top candidates for 2010-11 MAC Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Coach of the Year will be discussed here on STOhd.com, Ohio's home for MAC Basketball.

Here we will start with Player of the Year. Tomorrow the candidates for Freshman of the Year will be profiled. This weekend STO's contenders for Defensive Player of the Year and Coach of the Year will be discussed.

SportsTime Ohio's nominees for 2010-11 Mid-American Conference Player of the Year:

Xavier Silas (Northern Illinois), 6-foot-6, Senior, Combo Guard

Silas has the offensive game, ball-handling ability, size and quickness to play at the next level. Do not be surprised to hear his name called on NBA Draft day. This season, despite playing on a team that has struggled, Silas again proved that he is among the elite scorers in the nation, averaging 22.8 points per game. This leads the MAC and is good enough to place Silas eighth in the nation. Silas is a complete scorer, shooting from the perimeter as well as taking the ball to the rim. He has connected on 52 3-pointers this season (sixth in the conference) and is fifth in the league in 3-point percentage at 41.6.

Silas, who began his college career at Colorado before transferring to Northern Illinois after the 2007-08 season, has eclipsed the 1,500 career point plateau and has poured in 579 points this season.

He also is among the conference leaders in minutes per game (ninth at 32.3) and free-throw percentage (second at 85.1).

Silas scored a career-high 40 points at home against UIC on Dec. 14, and has scored 20 or more points 17 times this season.

Brandon Bowdry (Eastern Michigan), 6-foot-6, Senior, Small Forward

At 6-6, 235 pounds Bowdry is thin for a forward, but what he lacks in bulk, he more than makes up for in intensity. Playing 32.2 minutes per game Bowdry leads the Mid-American Conference in rebounding at 9.5 per contest. He always seems to be in great rebounding position and has the kind of knack for knowing how the ball is going to come off the rim, an instinct all great rebounders must possess.

Bowdry can put points on the board as well, and will most likely finish his Eagles career with more than 2,000 points. He currently sits second in the MAC in scoring at 20.3 points per game. He is second in the conference in field goal attempts with 386, and connects on 41.6 percent from the floor, leading the MAC with 176 field goals. Bowdry gets to the line often, second in the league with 197 attempts, but is just a marginal free-throw shooter at 68 percent.

Bowdry recently passed Brian Tolbert on the list of Eastern Michigan career scoring leaders. He now sits fourth, but has Derrick Dial's 1,891 career points in his sites to take over third. This is where he will probably end his career because unless the Eagles go on an amazing run through the MAC and NCAA Tournaments he probably will not have enough games to catch Boykins (second on the list at 2,211 career points).

D.J. Cooper (Ohio), 5-foot-11, Sophomore, Point Guard

Cooper is one of the most exciting MAC players to watch in a long time, a lightning-quick point guard with an outstanding feel for the game. He can play whatever role he has to. He can facilitate the Bobcats offense and make his teammates better, or he can take over the game offensively...scoring points in bunches. Though only a sophomore, Cooper is like a coach on the floor for Ohio coach John Groce because he rarely makes mistakes and knows how to get his teammates into the best position to score.

This season Cooper proved his electrifying freshman campaign was not a fluke, sitting third in the conference in scoring at 16.7 points per game while leading the MAC in assists, handing out 7.4 per contest. Cooper also throws in 5.1 rebounds per game, good enough to put him in the top 20 in the league in that category as well. Only Cooper and Miami's Julian Mavunga are in the top 20 in scoring, rebounding and assists.

Cooper's Bobcats have fallen out of the race for the MAC East championship. A recent home loss to Akron pretty much put the kibosh on their division title hopes. But if you remember last season, when Ohio entered the conference tournament, then went on an incredible run that brought them the tournament championship and automatic bid to the "Big Dance," the rest of the teams in the conference should know better than to take Ohio lightly when the do-or-die games heat up.

Julian Mavunga (Miami), 6-foot-8, Junior, Power Forward

When Julian Mavunga's team needed him the most, he threw them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the MAC East standings. That's how this season has played out for the 6-foot-8 RedHawks forward, who went on a tear after Miami's leading scorer, Antonio Ballard, went down for the rest of the season with a wrist injury on Jan. 27. Miami lost the first game following Ballard's injury, but followed that up by winning five straight conference games to climb into a tie with Kent State for the MAC East lead. In those games Mavunga averaged 16.4 points and 11.2 rebounds per game while shooting 52.1 percent from the floor (24-of-46).

Mavunga, this season, is shooting 47 percent from the floor (117-of-249) and has shown a deft touch from beyond the 3-point arc, shooting 37.2 percent from distance (29-of-78). He is 10th in the MAC in scoring (14.6 ppg), fourth in rebounding (7.4 rpg) and 14th in assists (2.78 apg). Mavunga and Ohio's point guard D.J. Cooper are the only MAC players in the top 20 in those three categories.

After the five game conference winning streak the RedHawks have lost two straight (one non-conference at James Madison and a blowout loss on the road at Akron). But the RedHawks still sit second in the East, one game behind Kent.

Byron Mulkey (Buffalo), 6-foot, Senior, Point Guard

Mulkey does not have the bulky scoring numbers, he rebounds well for a guard but his rebounding stats aren't eye-popping and his 4.9 assists are strong, but not earth-shattering for the guy running the point on a team loaded with shooters. But Mulkey does have something that can't be measured with numbers alone...outstanding leadership and a winning mentality that has carried his Bulls into the thick of the conference championship chase.

Mulkey is the floor general for a very efficient basketball team. Buffalo is at or near the top of the conference rankings in a number of categories, and Mulkey is the player that runs the show. The Bulls are first in the conference in scoring margin (+8.7), field goal percentage (49.2 percent), 3-point percentage (39.7 percent), defensive rebounds (31 per game), rebounding margin (+3.6) and blocks (5.48 per game). Buffalo is also near the top of the league standings in scoring (second at 73.4 points per game), points allowed (third at 64.7 points allowed per game), field goal percentage allowed (third at 41.5 percent), assists (second at 15.16 per game) and steals (second at 8.08 steals per game).

Personally, Mulkey leads the MAC in steals with 2.64 per game, is third in the league in assists with 4.9 per contest and is fourth in the conference in assist/turnover ratio at 1.89.

Mulkey has the quickness and strength to play at the next level, and has proven to be one of the most important MAC players this season.

Tomorrow the candidates for MAC Freshman of the Year will be discussed.

Every basketball season all Mid-American Conference basketball teams take a brief break from their conference season to either host or travel to a team from a similar conference for a one-game showdown.

Why?

In this writer’s opinion ESPN’s annual BracketBuster schedule, a slate of games that pits so-called mid-major teams against other so-called mid-major teams to give them a chance to bolster their out-of-conference resume, is nothing but a colossal waste of time, energy and money. A more pointless annual event, other than annual property tax assessments, is hard to find.

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Near the beginning of the movie The Godfather, when supplicants are visiting with the Don and asking him for his help with their problems, singer/actor Johnny Fontaine cries to the Don, "What should I do?" Don Corleone answers him by slapping him across his face and telling him to "Be a man!"

That is the advice I have for certain Mid-American Conference basketball officials.

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Forget that Miami shot 22 more free-throws than Kent State in its 86-80 overtime win over Kent State at Millett Hall in Oxford. Forget all about the RedHawks shooting a paltry 40 percent from the floor, including just four-of-16 from 3-point range. Don’t worry about Miami falling behind by 13 points midway through the second half, turning the ball over 12 times and playing with all the intensity of a wet shoe, despite the wild home crowd, early in the game.

Throw all that out the window.

What matters is that the RedHawks, who lost starters Antonio Ballard and Quinten Rollins to season-ending injury earlier this season, have battled, fought and scraped their way to the top of the MAC East standings.

Ballard went down with a left wrist injury on Jan. 27 during Miami’s 68-58 road victory over Central Michigan. At that point the RedHawks were 9-11 overall, 4-2 in Mid-American Conference play. Since that fateful day Miami has won four of five conference games and now, at 9-3 in the league, sit a half-game in front of 17-8, 8-3 Kent.

Though the Golden Flashes shot just 13 free throws to Miami’s 35, Kent coach Geno Ford stopped short of blaming the officiating.

“It's tough. All five starters had at least four fouls, and we couldn't play as much trapping defense as we usually do,” Ford said. “They made enough big plays down the stretch that they deserved to win. It was a battle of two evenly matched teams, but Williams and Windbush each hit clutch shots when they needed them.”

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