clarkwgriswold

The wildly inconsistent BGSU Falcons come to the JAR Friday night to face the Zips. The Falcons were the pre-season favorite to win the MAC and currently stand at 12-9/8-7. They've won their last 2 (Toledo and Ball State) heading into Ypsilanti Tuesday night after dropping 6 in a row in the mid-season. The game is actually at a regular game time, 7:00 p.m., and will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network. Justin Turner continues to lead the Falcons in scoring at 20.5 ppg. Daeqwon Plowden is their second leading scorer at 13.2 ppg while leading rebounding at 7.7 rpg. They are coached by the most Covid careful coach in the MAC, Michael Huger, who goes full mask and gloves 24/7. The Zips beat BG 69-57 in Stroh Center on January 19th.

If they're going to get peeled I prefer they do it at a time I may not be able to watch! LOL.

I've been concerned with OU for the whole season so I'm not all that surprised with this result. With three very good players, a fairly decent supporting staff and good coaching, they can do some damage in the MAC. With the way that the Zips have played since halftime of the PCCC game, this result is really no surprise. On to the next one hoping that they can break out of this malaise.

I had a really crappy afternoon of work and completely missed it. Sounds like I had a better afternoon than those of you that had to watch it.

Good call. That's exactly who I thought of as a comparable. Then again, maybe that makes it a bad call!

3 to 5% seems like a small margin but it's more substantial than it appears. For example, last year's .303 in three point defense made them first in the MAC. Put in their .361 of this year, they would have been 11th. This team misses Riak on defense as he directed the defense and served as a safety net when guys were beat and misses Banks as a strong perimeter defender. Tribble is getting there with the perimeter defense but his shooting limits his time on the floor.

From what little I have seen of him he seems like more of a 2.

Curious to see how they defend Preston. Do they play him with the much smaller LCJ and try to pester him and beat him to spots or do they put a larger defender on him and body him up? Tribble seems to have become our guard defensive specialist so we could see him on Preston some. They also need to keep Wilson off of the boards as the did in the first game. The Zips can't afford to sleepwalk though a half and expect to have a second half run to pull away in this one as they did with Ball and NIU.

Old tournament wins get you a nice mural on the wall of the Stow Texas Roadhouse or a nice pic on the wall of some dive bar in the Hocking Valley but at some point the statute of limitations runs on you being able to use them to prop up your program. The players are gone, the coaches are gone and some of the fans are gone. Use it for a nice reunion after your legendary point guard gives birth, but move on. I'm glad they had that tournament success as it was a part of Groce leaving town and eventually ending up here.

The common high school distance is 19.75 feet which was the same as NCAA until around 2007 when the NCAA moved back a foot.

I think most of the MAC level schools are stuck with their coaches due to finances or be forced to resort to switching over to an assistant at a much reduced rate, like WMU. Lots of teams are down this year, including some blue bloods. Given the odd nature of the year I don't see much coach movement.

Can I just again say how much I hate 2:00 games. It's bad enough that we can't get a constant network feed and instead get this hodge podge of games on networks with a reach of 4 people, but then you throw games at a time working folks can't watch or listen. This last damn year has had enough difficulties, we could at least have some constants in our world like regular game times. The MAC needs to build and maintain relationships with its fans. I realize that this is an odd year but the league seems to not be much concerned with the impact of its decisions on the fans.

SVSM alum Lunden McDay is having a nice sophomore year for the Bobcats. 3rd on the team in minutes, averaging 10.2 ppg.

The radio guys indicated it might have been to avoid any issues between the players and referenced it happening at Miami. I assumed that there was a little hostility at the end of Ball State as evidenced by the two techs. Not sure what if anything may have happened at Miami.

Same thing at Miami with them sprinting off of the floor. I think the no handshake thing is Covid-19 based, the sprint off is based on wanting to get out without any shananigans.

The Zips head into the Hocking Valley Tuesday afternoon at 2:00 to face OU. OU stands at 11-6/6-4 and has not played a game since an 83-69 win at CMU on February 2nd. The Zips were scheduled to play OU in game 16 but the Covid got in the way. OU is led by MAC POY candidate Jason Preston who received all kinds of pre-season attention and accolades based upon his development from a little used high school player to top notch D1 guard. He is averaging 16.4 ppg, 7.4 apg and 7.2 rpg. James Madison transfer Dwight Wilson averages 15.6 ppg and 7.6 rpg while second team pre-season All-MAC second teamer Ben VanderPlas averages 12.8 ppg and 5.5 ppg. The Zips beat the Bobcats 90-70 at the JAR on December 22nd with Trimble and Jackson combining for 43. I've been expecting OU to make a run. Hopefully, Tuesday is not a part of that.

Big game in his home state.

I guess we should be happy we're still in it. Not being able to be at the JAR has made it tough to establish a real connection with this team like we had with last year's squad.. Their play since the halftime of the PCCC game also hasn't helped.

My idea, right or wrong, is that a beat writer's job is to convey information about the team and the games. A columnist's job is to give opinion. I'd prefer a beat writer that tells me what's going on with the team and occasionally provides me with info I haven't otherwise come across. GT gives me game and team info but veers off into the columnist opinion stuff. I also don't find much of anything new about the team in his articles. I get just as much or more info on here. Just to clarify, I wouldn't be any more or less pleased if he was a cheerleader/homer. Its a personal preference and maybe not a realistic one in today's journalistic format. Maybe his style appeals to some. My preference is Joe Friday's "just the facts."

I posted the link because I couldn't explain it. LOL. My though is that head to head is even. Winning percentage is even. You then go to winning percentage of ranked teams, which you could interpret as the 8 teams that make the tournament. That could be good for the Zips as their losses against EMU and NIU would not count in that calculation. How's that for some jibberish?

I was just thinking that. A little time helps I guess.

https://getsomemaction.com/sports/2015/3/4/MBB_0304150307.aspx

...and make Toledo with their 7 man rotation play as many as possible!

They couldn't find the Paul Pierce wheelchair?