Sadness Accrues: BG MBB Loses to WMU

 The sad thing is that the situation with BG MBB is as bad as we thought it was.

Just a very disappointing season.  Coming in, we felt like we had the best team we have had for the last 20 years.  On the court, we have a team much like the 2010-2017 teams.  Very disappointing.

Of course, it can still reverse itself, given the right opportunity.  But, after Wednesday's game, it is much harder to see it happening.

I covered it in the preview...WMU was just a struggling team.  Just to make the point, they were 11th in the MAC in 3-FG shooting and they made 46% against BG.  And it was at the Stroh.  (By the way, home teams in the MAC are up to 58% winning %, which is what it was in 2019 and higher than 2017).

Just very disappointing.  This team with one D1 win led BG for 39:31. The lead was as high as 14 points.  And they closed coming down the home stretch.

WMU was up 10 with 5:41 left.  BG made a run, 10-3, to cut the lead to with under 2 minutes to play.  You'd expect the home team and the better team to take this momentum and win the game.  That's not what happened.

BG never had the ball with the game within one possession.  After BG cut it to 3, WMU ran the clock into the single digits and drew a foul and nailed both free throws to go up 5 with 1:06 left.  BG came down, Fields got blocked a 3FG attempt and then following the inbound Turner hit just an unconscious 3 to make it a 2-point lead with :48 to play.  

So here it is.  Get a stop and you have a shot to win.  Instead, WMU got the ball to Greg Lee, isolated him on Plowden and he drove into the side of the lane and hit a runner to make it a four point lead.  From there, WMU played out the string with 4 made FTs and had a 6-point win.

The game was played at a relatively slow pace--69 possessions.  BG had a poor offensive game but not awful--1 point per possession.  BG shot about their season average at 46%...10th in the MAC, but salvaged the whole thing by taking excellent care of the ball and getting more possessions.  On the other hand, though, WMU shot the lights out.  They had 1.1 points per possession, shooting 50% from 2 and 46% from 3.  That was enough to make up for the turnovers, especially when their rebounding edge is factored in.  It was BG's second worst offensive rebounding game of the season.  BG is definitely not getting to the line like they did before...BG shot 14 and only made 8 of those.

Justin Turner had a very strong game offensively.   He had 25 points on 6 of 12 2fG and 3 of 5 3FG shooting.  He added 6 rebounds and 4 steals.  Daeqwon Plowden had 18 points on 6 of 10 and 2 of 7 shooting.  He was also the only BG player with a positive plus-minus, at +4.

 No one else was in double figures.  Caleb Fields had 5 assists over 1 TO.  Trey Diggs had 6 rebounds. 

Justin Turner became our all-time leading scorer for our program.  More to come on Justin, but he's a special player and we have been blessed to be able to see him play. 

Beyond that, the year is just a huge disappointment to date.  BG 6-6 in the MAC.  While unlikely, BG is not out of the woods in terms of making the tournament.  If they win two coming home--and that's not a gimee--they'd only be 1 game ahead of the last team out.  It's going to be tough for two of those teams--NIU and EMU--to do much given they have to play 12 games between now and the end.  

But who knows.  Anything could happen.  Even no tourney, in theory.

As for our team, Coach focused after the game on BG getting better starts and not waiting until they get "punched" but punching the other team back.

I mean, I guess that would be a good thing.  They just seem lost to me.   And there does not seem to be any idea on how to turn it around. The offense is too fast and doesn't work for good shots--we have the 3rd shortest average possession length in the MAC--and on defense we just give up a ton of open looks.

I have no inside information but I can't help but thing there's something wrong with the team--either missing a team leader or an assistant or something.  I don't think this is just a slump.  But I could be wrong.  That's just a gut impression.