Cleveland and 20 for Falcon Men

For the first time since 2011, the BG men will be heading to Cleveland.  Next up, EMU, who beat Miami.  I was OK with that because Miami plays a high pressure style that tends to give BG trouble.

For the first time since 2002, the BG men have won 20 games. That, of course, was the year of the WVU debacle that has marked before and after for the program.  In the 13 years since then, BG has had only 3 winning seasons, including this year.

So for those two things, we are happy.

BG had lost 3 straight first-round MAC tourney games, two of them at home, but did what they had to do last night without Richaun Holmes.  Coach Jans gave Ball State credit after the game and he is right.  They have now lost 17 in a row, and are 4-34 over the last two seasons in MAC play.  It is the worst non-Gene Cross-caused decline I can recall.  Anyway, those guys are still fighting and playing hard and you have to admire that.  Not many people would be.

Case in point.  After a tight first 5 minutes, BG gradually extended a lead that hit 10 with under 7 minutes left in the first half and then ended up at 16 at halftime after a late run by the Falcons.  But the Cards came out of the locker room firing and cracked the lead down to 8 in about two minutes.  BG got it back to 10 and the game was stuck on 57-47 for almost four minutes.  Ball State cut it to 6 and then to 3 with 9 minutes left and I think it is fair to say the Cards had succeeded in getting the Falcon fans sweating.

BG then did what the better team should do, which is absorb the run and reassert control of the game, which they did with a 9-2 run to go back up 10.  Ball State still was not done and had the lead down to 6 with about 3 minutes left when Zack Denny drilled a dagger 3 to put BG up by 9 and from there it was just formalities.

NCAA Basketball Stats

It was BG's best offensive game of the season and it isn't close.  BG scored 1.42 points per possession which is astounding.  Their next highest was 1.32 against USF.  Here's the skinny...BG shot 55% from the field (season high) and 50% from 3FG (second best) and made 85% of its free throws (third best) while maximizing possessions with only 7 turnovers (11% of possessions, 3rd best on the year).  They also had a good evening on the offensive boards, getting 36% of the available boards.  It is hard to do much better than that.

BG had a less than great day on defense.  Ball State shot 50% overall, but 60% on 2FG and only 36% on 3FG.  Ball State scored 1.21 points per possession, which is the second-worst game of the year for the BG defense.  They also only turned the ball over only 7 times, but had almost no offensive rebounding presence and while they made 71% of the FTS, they had an overall -8 on made free throws.

NCAA Basketball Stats

Individually, again, BG played without Richaun Holmes.  BG's senior guards are really picking up the pace.  Anthony Henderson had 20 points on 8 of 10 shooting and 1 of 1 from beyond the arc, and that's simply a great offensive day.  Also, a tied for team high 4 rebounds.

Jehvon Clarke also had 19 on 6 of 14 shooting but made all 6 of this FTs.  Zack Denny, who loves playing Ball State, had 16 on 6 of 8 shooting and 4 of 6 from beyond the arc.  Delvin Dickerson added 12 in 12 minutes.

One interesting thing was PG.  Pep Joseph had 5 assists over 1 turnover, which is pretty good by any measure.  I have written quite a bit about BG's struggles with pressure defenses and there was a little bit of that last night.  BG had a couple turnovers, but settled in and handled the press well.  What was interesting is that they did so with both of the PGs on the bench.  Henderson, Clarke and Denny were on the floor and doing the ball handling.  They are a steady presence and Clarke has the ability to advance the ball on the dribble.

So, a good win for the Falcons and a trip to Cleveland and the 20-win milestone.  Coach said in the post-game that he is happy with how the team is playing heading into the tournament.  It is a game by game thing, but it will be very interesting to see how the Falcons fare.