Crossroads for Men's Basketball

Well, rough couple of days for the men's basketball program.  Ouch.

From the perspective of a fan, it is just very disappointing to see this happen.  No criticism of any individual player.  They're entitled to go where ever they want, just like I was.  And, clearly, this is a growing trend in college basketball that's making it even more difficult to truly build a program.  It isn't just happening at Bowling Green.

But, here at Bowling Green, this was a particularly tough dose of it.  In context...you had Coach Huger come in as the third coach in 3 years.  There's issues with the transition and the legacy players and you have a couple of really tough years.  You can understand, though.  He walked into a bad situation.

So, year 3.  You have a recruiting class you can get behind.  Coach says it is the best in Ohio.  You don't think this year is going to be great yet, but you can think maybe things turn around next year.  You can see potential in the players on the court on a very young team.  Even with the low expectations, there were troublesome issues with the team...notably losing their last 6 games and (and this one is a little different), eventually getting passed by Miami, a team that has a coach in his first year who wasn't recruiting until this time last year.

And even with all that you don't think anything is for sure.  Akron is reloading, Buffalo's not going anywhere.  It isn't going to be easy, under any circumstances. 

But, you are losing only one guy, and there's a scholarship yet to give.  You hope you can build on it.

And then this.  Things are almost back to square one.  As of this morning, BG sports 8 scholarship players plus one incoming recruit.  So, there are four spots to fill, (Matiss).  Still, BG will promise to be among the youngest teams in the country again.  And we're losing Huger guys.  Not legacy players.

And there's no guarantee that this is the end of the transfers.

Which means lower expectations for next year and maybe a shot to compete the year after that.  Depending on the recruits that can be brought in.  And kept.

Which is year five for Coach Huger.  He's on a six-year deal.  With the momentum/atmosphere of "stuck" in the Stroh, this is really a crossroads for the program under Coach Huger.  Dramatic and nearly heroic action is required.

I have no idea what happened with the players leaving.  I don't know how much of it might have to do with him.  But to get this thing back onto the right track, time is no longer on our side.  Eventually, the end of his deal makes it hard to recruit.  He needs to get some players in here that can play next year.

And contribute.  Start games.  Etc.

Here's one thing you can see.  Successful MAC teams use transfers.  You could tick them off, but successful MAC teams are combining high school players with collegiate, JUCO and graduate transfers.  I would point to Fletcher and Harris as examples of guys who came in and made a huge impact, right away.  BG is only getting one part of the transfer epidemic.

BG needs a quicker reboot than HS players is going to allow.  That means graduate transfers and JUCO players.  And, without disrespect to the JUCO players we have gotten, we need people on the Jeremy Harris or Mike Williams side of the equation, not the role player type that has normally come this way.  One of them needs to be a PG (such as Ringo).

If an impact FR is still out there who can play right away, fine.  But time is not on our side and the margin for error is slipping away.