Game 28- Bowling Green

[clarkwgriswold]

The Zips head into the Stroh Center Tuesday night to determine 1st place in the MAC East.  The Falcons narrowly escaped the Kittens on Saturday being a last second shot by Justin Turner.  They outscored the Kittens by 16 in the second half to stage the comeback. 

 

Dylan Frye returned to the Falcons last week after a 2-3 week personal reasons hiatus.  Turner continues to lead the Falcons at 19+ ppg.  Frye's scoring nearly 14 a game while leading the team in assists. Daeqwon Plowdden scores 13 while adding 8.2 rpg.   The Falcons are 12-1 in Stroh Center this season, with their only loss early in the MAC season to PCCC when Turner was settling back in.

 

Stroh Center is named for Kermit F. and Mary Lu Stroh of Wapakoneta in Auglaize County, Ohio. Mr. Stroh is a former member (1993-2002) and twice chairman of the BGSU Board of Trustees and an honorary alumnus. The Stroh Family provided the lead gift of $8 million.    It would have been more fun if it were named after the owners of Stroh's beer.

 

 

[NWAkron]

Championship teams win these games!  Falcon Road Kill.

[zippy5]

Let's tighten our grip on the East Tuesday. Go Zips!

[zippy5]

Well, conference, I should say.

[NWAkron]

https://www.beaconjournal.com/sports/20200223/zips-need-to-learn-to-keep-pedal-down-during-seasonrsquos-final-games

 

Zips did seem to coast a bit in the second half.  Allowing offensive rebounds, gave Miami 5 points in the last minute.

[Blue & Gold]

35 minutes ago, NWAkron said:

https://www.beaconjournal.com/sports/20200223/zips-need-to-learn-to-keep-pedal-down-during-seasonrsquos-final-games

 

Zips did seem to coast a bit in the second half.  Allowing offensive rebounds, gave Miami 5 points in the last minute.

Good article on a legitimate concern.

[clarkwgriswold]

Looks like Trey Diggs got the start against OU in place of an injured Caleb Fields.  Not sure the extent of Fields' injury.  Diggs looked good against OU.  22 points and high energy.  Frye came off of the bench.

[roopride]

Anyone have any info on students going to BG?  They had a  nice showing at Cant. 

[Z.I.P.]

What's the history in this series?  Is it still correct BeeGee has just one win overall (home & away) since 2005?  

[NWAkron]

6 hours ago, Z.I.P. said:

What's the history in this series?  Is it still correct BeeGee has just one win overall (home & away) since 2005?  

Zips lost a close one at BG last year and in KDs last year the Zips lost by 1 at BG.  Groce's first year Akron beat them twice.  Akron has dominated the series.

[kreed5120]

Akron is 37-25 all-time against Bowling Green. We've won 29 out of the last 32 match-ups. 

 

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/play-index/matchup_finder.cgi?request=1&year_min=1950&year_max=2020&comp_school=le&rank_school=ANY&comp_opp=le&rank_opp=ANY&school_id=akron&opp_id=bowling-green-state&game_type=A&order_by=date_game

[MDZip]

59 minutes ago, NWAkron said:

Zips lost a close one at BG last year and in KDs last year the Zips lost by 1 at BG.  Groce's first year Akron beat them twice.  Akron has dominated the series.

Correct, other than the two you just mentioned, the last time BUGS beat Akron was in the 08-09 season  (which was also the last time they beat us in Akron. We got a little revenge by knocking them out of the tournament that year when they were the one seed). Since 05-06 we are 25-3! against them and at one point had a 15 game winning streak against them. They went 19-6 against us from when we joined the MAC until the 04-05 season when this current run of dominance started. Let us hope that dominance continues on Tuesday.

Edited February 24, 2020 by MDZip

[clarkwgriswold]

BG was ripe for the picking during the Louis Orr era.  These are not Louis Orr's Falcons.  I'm not getting a good feeling about this one.

[NWAkron]

27 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

BG was ripe for the picking during the Louis Orr era.  These are not Louis Orr's Falcons.  I'm not getting a good feeling about this one.

This is helpful ?

You mean like all this letting teams hang around,  X's shooting slump, and rebounding issues could catch up with them at a sold out Stroh Center?

Edited February 24, 2020 by NWAkron

[zippy5]

Cream rises to the top. Zips by 10 tomorrow

[kreed5120]

It's not like we shot the ball all that particularly well when we beat them by 15 at the JAR. The key is to pressure the ball handler and force someone other than Turner to beat us. Frankly, I don't believe this BGSU team is all the great. They just seem to find themselves on the winning side of a lot of close ball games. In 1 possession games during MAC play their record is 7-0. For comparison we're 2-2. 

 

I don't want to say we can't lose as anyone can beat anyone on any given night in the MAC. I do think in order for BG to beat us we'd need to have a poor shooting night combined with 1 or more of their role players going off. I can't see Groce letting Turner beat us. 

[clarkwgriswold]

In the first game, they started off by having Fields deny LCJ the ball all over the court, then they went away from it and defended him straight up.  I suspect they'll do it Tuesday and stick with it longer.   

[Captain Kangaroo]

The Zips have not played a bad game all season. I find that to be an amazing fact.  They've had some dry spells here and there, but they've yet to flat-out not show up. If you look around the MAC, or college basketball in general, that's pretty rare.

 

The Zips are a seasoned team, with 4 players capable of going for 20+ on a given night. And the Zips bench is making an incrementally more impactful presence with each and every game.

 

BG is a strong, athletic team. At home, with some motivation to avenge their earlier loss to the Zips, they should prevail in a tight one.

 

Two wildcards that could sway the outcome?

 

1.) Has the Dylan Frye episode messed with the Falcon's chemistry? If so, it favors the Zips. 

 

2.) How is X's help defense? When X is fully engaged on the defensive side of the ball, the Zips are at their best. If he helps Reese and Riak defend at the rim, and nabs double-digit boards, that would be enough to give the Zips the season sweep.

 

Tuesday night will be fun! 

[NWAkron]

https://getsomemaction.com/news/2020/2/24/mac-announced-mens-basketball-players-of-the-week.aspx

 

Tyler Cheese is MAC co-player of the week.

Agree with a much of what Captain has to say.  Although, I think the Zips didn't "show up" v. Tulane, Liberty, and EMU.  X saved the Zips from disaster in two of those three.  

Looking at the stats, BG doesn't excel in any category.  They are tied for first place yet are negative in the margin of victory stat where as the Zips are in first with 9.2.  Such a huge game for the Zips.  Of the two games this week, this is the one I'm more confident about.

 

And this:

https://www.beaconjournal.com/sports/20200224/university-of-akron-menrsquos-basketball-zips-will-have-to-split-focus-against-falcons

 

 

Edited February 24, 2020 by NWAkron

[NWAkron]

https://www.toledoblade.com/sports/bgsu/2020/02/24/postseason-scenarios-for-bgsu-vs-akron/stories/20200224095

[Captain Kangaroo]

42 minutes ago, NWAkron said:

Agree with a much of what Captain has to say.  Although, I think the Zips didn't "show up" v. Tulane, Liberty, and EMU.  X saved the Zips from disaster in two of those three.  

If you can get past the ugly style of play, EMU was playing some good basketball in February. We were lucky to win, but I can't say we laid an egg in that one. I'd give EMU some credit.

 

Tulane's at the bottom of the AAC, but that is a tough basketball conference. Wichita State is 20-7, and sitting in 6th place. It was a nice win for the Zips.

 

I thought Liberty was just a really good team that kicked our butt. Sort of like the Toledo game (one of the rare occasions where Toledo played to their potential).

 

[NWAkron]

8 minutes ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

If you can get past the ugly style of play, EMU was playing some good basketball in February. We were lucky to win, but I can't say we laid an egg in that one. I'd give EMU some credit.

 

Tulane's at the bottom of the AAC, but that is a tough basketball conference. Wichita State is 20-7, and sitting in 6th place. It was a nice win for the Zips.

 

I thought Liberty was just a really good team that kicked our butt. Sort of like the Toledo game (one of the rare occasions where Toledo played to their potential).

 

You can look at it that way, too.  Lots of nervous energy today.  Feels like the Saturday morning before a MAC Championship.

[clarkwgriswold]

28 minutes ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

If you can get past the ugly style of play, EMU was playing some good basketball in February. We were lucky to win, but I can't say we laid an egg in that one. I'd give EMU some credit.

 

 

Agreed.  The EMU zone was really working around that time.  They'd won two in a row coming in, lost to the Zips by 1, then won their next three.  As painful as that game was for us to watch, EMU's effort had something to do with it.

[zippy5]

I think EMU was playing well but we got ourselves a lot of open looks in the first half and could not get anything to drop. 

[kreed5120]

It just becomes really tough to beat the Boeheim zone when you can't knock down your open 3s. In years past we have had some decent quality bigs, like Big Dog, that we could post up at the top of the key and have him pick the defense apart. We just really don't have that player this year.