FalconBlog--Triumphs and Trials in the BGSU Falcon Nation

Falcons Lose to Central Arkansas

The Falcons dropped a home game to a team in its first year of D1 competition yesterday, losing by 14 before a miniscule crowd of about 1,100. It certainly wasn't a good day, but I also am not in the school that compares it to losing to Temple, the apocalypse, etc.

It was, however, their first D1 win as a D1 team. Here's the headline in The Blade.

Can anyone beat BG?
Yep, Central Arkansas notches first D-I win

Here are some quick thoughts:

• We lost because we flat out shot awful. We shot 32% from the field, and 28.6% from 3. That means that even our 2FGs were about 35%. We simply could not buy a bucket. I thought, furthermore, that we got pretty good looks. It just wouldn't go in the hole.
• We missed Eric Marschall. That's not an excuse, but we missed him. Otis Polk (4 minutes), Marc Larson (7 minutes), and Lionel Sullivan (9 minutes) did not have produce in his spot--and I don't think that's to their blame. None of them has seen a lot of game action, and they are all in their first year of eligibility.
• Matt Lefeld was 2-7 from the field.
• Martin (8-25) and Hamblet (2-14) both shot terribly.
• We took care of the ball in the aggregate, but made some bad turnovers in key points. My perception was that the team was lacking a QB for much of the game. I thought Ryan Sims played well--he clearly made some good shots. But when Guerin and Hamblet were at the point, we had trouble getting things moving.
• Coach was, to say the least, NOT happy. We left the arena, walked to the car, went to our old house and checked in, drove to Kroger's to get gas, and then as we hit the city limit, Todd Walker said coach was STILL in the locker room (Blade says 40 minutes).
• I think this is a young team. We won a couple decent games, and now we lost one we should have won, at least on paper. I guess I think that we got good looks and they didn't fall, and sometimes that happens.
• We only fouled 22 times, and that includes a lot of fouling at the end. Central Arkansas did shoot 1o more FTs, but again, there was the fouling at the end.

Next up is Wright State, a good team that beat us last season (this is the return visit for the Bracket Buster). They won @Miami, against Detroit at home and @St. Bonaventure. Bradley blew them out in Peoria. We're going to be up against it down there.

By the way, Nate Miller, our transfer from UNC-Wilmington, will play in the Northern Colorado game. He was eligible for Wright State, but is being sanctioned by the NCAA for playing in an intramural game or some shit like that.