DaytonDailyNews.com

OXFORD — The Miami University basketball team takes a break from the Mid-American Conference today, Feb. 21, when it plays Evansville in an ESPNU BracketBuster game.

More importantly, Michael Bramos will take a break from the MAC.

The rest of the conference has been ganging up on Miami's senior forward with double teams and other high pressure defense that ranges from a hand in the face to a slap to the jaw to a shove in the back.

And it's taken a toll on Bramos' 3-point shooting.

In non-MAC games, he is shooting 46.8 percent from the 3-point arc. In MAC games, it's 23.3 percent.

His low point came Wednesday in Miami's 53-44 loss at Akron when Bramos was 3-of-18 from the field and 1-of-9 from the arc.

"I am concerned a little bit," Miami senior guard Eric Pollitz said. "A lot of our offense is pointed toward Bramos and when we can't get him the ball or get it to him in a place where he's open, it's tough.

"I'm sure coach will figure out something good," he said.

Miami coach Charlie Coles can only hope Pollitz is right.

"Except for about three games, he hasn't shot the ball well all year," Coles said, exaggerating Bramos' woes a bit; he is always careful to emphasize the negative when he talks to the media on the road. "I don't know what it does to his confidence. I know what it does to my confidence.

"As long as they guard him like that, with the way our team's set up, we're going to struggle," Coles added. "We're just going to have to go back to the drawing board. It's getting tough."

Bramos isn't Miami's first blockbuster scorer to go through this. Four of the top 10 scorers in school history have seen their 3-point percentages drop sharply in their senior seasons.

Wally Szczerbiak made 49.2 percent on his 3-point shots as a junior, 35.6 percent as a senior. Damon Frierson's 3-point accuracy dropped from 33.9 percent to 26.0, Juby Johnson's dropped from 34.4 to 28.2, David Scott's dropped from 42.2 percent to 38.8.

Which might mean nothing more than that the coaches in the MAC know where to pin the bull's-eye.

And while Miami's MAC opponents might be winning the battle against Bramos, they might be losing the war.

Bramos has shot less than 50 percent from the field in 11 of Miami's 12 conference contests, yet the RedHawks are 8-3 in those games. The one time Bramos' shooting was dead on, when he drilled 3-of-5 shots from the 3-point arc and went 9-for-13 overall, Miami lost 57-55 at Central Michigan.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2197 or pconrad@coxohio.com.