Orr vs. Isiah---battle moves to South Beach

The Falcons are in Miami to play Florida International in game 3 of the Falcons 5 game road swing.  I just looked.  The temperature this morning was 80 degrees.

Anyway, we've talked in previous years about two things, one that FIU was essentially founded by Bowling Green people, and second, that this is a coaching matchup between two former NBA players--Orr and Isiah Thomas.

The two teams have played twice, and BG has won both times, although both games were in Bowling Green.

There is no way to say it other than that Thomas' tenure in Miami has not been successful to date.  I thought it was kind of a joke when he took the job, and he hasn't done much to dispel that, both by winning 28% of his games, and by meddling in the affairs of the Knicks. Last year, they finished with an RPI of 282.

Their last winning season was in 1999-2000.

This year, on paper, seems to be more of the same.  They are 3-8.  However, they have played one of the 100 (ish) toughest schedules in the country and their RPI is actually better than BG's, although those things can be notoriously dodgy early in the year.

Their three wins are over George Mason, Coastal Carolina (a nice win for them) and Stephen F. Austin.  They lost to very good Virginia Tech, Oral Roberts, Maryland and Dayton teams.  They also lost to not very good Georgia State, Alabama State, UA-Pine Bluff, and non D1 Texas Wesleyan.  This is only their 3rd home game....the Alabama State loss was on FIU's floor.

So, it is hard to tell what you are getting.  They did play Maryland tough, but for every game like that there is a 26 point loss to Georgia State.

BG has yet to win on the road this year.

I saw the Maryland game, and they appeared to be a very athletic team, which is what you would expect.  I was surprised to see that their games are generating only 63 possessions per game, which is one of the 30 slowest paces in D1 basketball.  They score only .95 points per possession, which is not very good.  This is because they don't shoot especially well and they turn the ball over.  They help themselves with good offensive rebounding and they are about average at getting to the free throw line.  Here's how they compare to BG...

NCAA Basketball

On defense, they are allowing 1.05 points per possession, which is 290th in the country.  (This is a good ad for tempo-free stats....their points per game is 160th in the country, but they aren't playing as many possessions).  Teams have an effective FG% of 52 against them, which is 300th in the country.  They do force some turnovers but they also foul a lot--their free throw rate is actually higher than BG's.

Individually, they are led by DeJuan Wright, who is their leading scorer and rebounder.  At 15.9 points and 6.9 rebounds, he is a true threat, and although he doesn't shoot the 3 often, when he does he hits 52%.  He is a 6'4" senior.

They also are led by sophomore PG Phil Taylor, who is scoring 14 points and notching 4 assists per game.  Finally, 6'4" G Jeremy Allen is scoring 12 points per game and hitting 37% of his 3s.

They are not a big team.  They have a seven footer who plays 15 minutes a game, but their most used big man is 6'9" Dominique Ferguson, who is scoring 8 points and getting 6.6 rebounds per game.

This actually has all the trappings of an interesting game.  You have BG who has played well in spots but not on the road, against FIU, who has played well in spots and then awful in spots.  I think BG feels like they are better than their ranking might be at this time, and FIU might be a lot worse than theirs.  You don't know which FIU team will show up.  Also, we will be watching to see if Coach Orr shifts his player rotation any more based on the game at MSU...

As always, we work through the non-conference season trying to project how results would translate into MAC games.  Winning on the road is tough, but this is a winnable road game....just as some will be in the MAC.  This is a great time to see our guys bring their best game on the road, because I think the game is very winnable.