Niagara Preview

Next up for MBB is Niagara, the Purple Eagles. 

They have made 3 NCAA tournament appearances, the last one in 2007. They made the Sweet Sixteen in 1970 with a team coached by legend Frank Leyden and led by Hall-of-Famer Calvin Murphy.

In the 1950s, they were regulars in the NIT when it was an important tournament.  Their early teams featured Larry Costello, who went on to be an NBA Champion as a player and coach and 2nd-team All-NBA and is in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

This is our 11th meeting.  Niagara leads the series 6-4.  The series actually started in the early 1950s when Larry Costello, Ed Fleming and Al Bianchi played in the Men's Gym, if you like to think about that with 3 future NBA players.  We split a home-and-home back then.  The Purple Eagles have won 4 out of 5 (dating back to 1968).  BG won the last meeting in Simon's first year at the Stroh.

Niagara plays in the Metro conference, which is the renamed MAAC.   They are picked #11 in the Metro--which would be outside the tournament, like last year. They were 12th in the conference's poll.

Things are rough.  They are coached by Greg Paulus, an All-ACC guard at Duke.  This is his 8th year, and they are 86-122 over that time.  He's had one season over .500.  Their kenpom has been below 300 for three years.

Last year, they were 8-22.  Everyone left from that team, which might be a blessing in disguise. 

They are 0-2 this year. They lost @WVU, which is no surprise.  But the home loss to #341 Morgan State would not have been expected.

Eight of their 13 players are foreign-born.

Their seven top players so far:

Ruey Ruey: A G from Ontario who went to a military academy last year.  Averaging 10 PPG, tied for leading scorer.

Logan Woods:  A 6'5" G who played the last four years with Wright State.  Scoring 10 PPG.

Bastien Rieber: He's a French player who played one year at Fresno State. 

Tae Blackshear: Sr. transfer G from Youngstown State.

Fidel Rotta:  6'9" Argentinian

Cole Farrell:  Transfer from Long Beach State

Samuele Miccoli:  Is Italian combo G.  

None of these guys were studs at their previous school.   They are small..#319 in height and one of the five worst offensive rebounding teams.

BG Beats Kent in Pure #Maction

So last night was pure #maction.  That game is what the term was built for.  Wild entertainment for football junkies.  Straight, mainlined, pure, uncut #maction.  At one point, it felt like a fever dream.  Guys are dancing with their shirts off, band members are kicking field goals, hip hop music filled the air and a sparse crowd danced.  This guy was handing out what might have been candy. It was wild.

It was crazy--BG made multiple game-losing mistakes...but did not actually lose the game, picking up the season's third win.

Important to note was that Austin Dendy, Jay Kastantin and Winn Sharp were all out for the game.  Austin Novosad started and had an outstanding game.  More on that later.

Where to start?  Not to neglect the FOUR possessions these offensive juggernauts shared during the last 2:31 of the half, but let's hit in the middle of the fever dream, with BG getting the ball up 17-14 to start the second half.  When you defer that opening kickoff, it's this moment you dream of.  BG had closed the first half with a FG, and then took the opening kickoff 60 yards in 10 plays to go up 24-14 and get everyone feeling pretty good.

On that drive, Leo Kemp, America's least likely kick returner, brought the kick out to the 40. BG ran the ball on 7 straight plays for 30 yards, converting 2 3rd downs and driving to the KSU 30.  Novosad hit Jacon-Duffy at the KSU 6, and on second down, Novosad and Blane Cleaver executed the play of the game when Novosad threw a picture perfect pass to Cleaver who caught it on tiptoes in the back corner, double covered, and it was 24-14.

BG got a three and out (sack by E. George) and then got the ball on their 28 yard line.  Novosad hid Ridley for 29, and Kemp ran for 10. BG was on the KSU 14 but stalled out, ending with a sack from the KSU 15.  Kenner nailed the FG and it was 27-14 with 2:59 left in the 3rd.  BG gets a 3 and out.  0:55 left in the third, BG has the ball and a two-score lead.

Feeling pretty good?  Have you even HEARD of #maction.

BG went 3 and out.  We're in the 4th.  Kent was 3rd and 6 on their own 30.  (Right?).  They hit 35 and 28 yard passes on consecutive plays to get to the BG 7.  They go incomplete on first and second down, and on third down were passing again.  Durham-Smith put pressure on DeShields, who looked for Harris in the front corner of the end zone.  Josira Andrews was there and picked the pass off just outside the end zone.

Surely, now, right?  12:11 to play, BG at their own 2.  On 3rd down, BG hit Scoby at the 5 and he made a great run out to the 15 for a critical first down.  BG picked up a personal foul a couple plays later and punted from our 12.

8:57 to play. KSU moves from our 48 and scores in 6 plays, converting the touchdown down pass on 4th and 7 to Walt Harris in the end zone.  He had 3 grabs on the six play drive.  27-21.

BG gets the ball with 6:33.  All we need is a couple first downs, right?  Unfortunately, BG moved from its 31 to its 18 on the drive and punting.  Worst of all, BG had dialed up a bomb on 2nd down, and Ridley was behind the D.  No one could have thrown the ball any better than Novosad did, but it glanced off Ridley's fingers.  He scores, it's over.

BG was trying to move the ball not run clock, so there was 5:05 left.  BG's defense responded.  Myles Bradley got sacks on 2nd and 3rd down and Kent was on their own 32 with 3:31 left. It was 4th and 19.  They punt...everything seems fine.  Then, the officials are acting funny.

There's a penalty. Roughing the snapper.  Automatic first down. Again, the game was probably over.  It's an incredibly dumb penalty.  See below.

You know what happens now.  KSU hits a 28 yard pass to the BG 25 and then DeShields runs a QB draw for the touchdown and with 2:00 left, BG is now behind 28-27.

You can feel the heartbreak.

But #maction.

BG gets another good return, this one from Jahai Johnson to the 36.  We need a FG and we have a good kicker and KSU has 2 timeouts left.  Get them to burn the timeouts and the FG wins it.  Novosad his Safford for 16 yards to the Kent 48 and then BG handed the ball off to Amarchee who ran wide into a crowded boundary side but burst through and went to the house, to go with his first half 72-yard TD reception.

2-pointer fails....BG up 33-28...with 1:51 left to play.

On the first play, BG fails to contain the QB in the pocket and DeShields goes for 27 yards.  From the BG 48, BG gets them to 4th down and 10, but they convert.  Now from the BG 35.  Andrews breaks up the first pass AND NEARLY picks it and would've scored.  Bradley and George sack DeShields on 2nd down and then on 3rd and 13, DeShields was in the pocket.  A huge gap opened to his left.  But this time, BG had their best tackler (Pringle) spying him and George got off his block to help. DeShields was forced to throw with George right on him and Nick Sawyer picked it in the end zone.

Over.  Finally.  

Some individual performances.  With two games left, Myles Bradley has to at least be in the conversation for DPOY.  His dad was an honorary captain last night.  As Coach Carney said after the game, "he's a problem."  To the point where he said the best way to minimize him was to be able to run the ball.  They replaced a couple guys on the line...it made no difference.  Oh...five sacks, 9 tackles, one forced fumble, two pass breakups and 1 QBH.  If that works for you.

Dorian Pringle had 10 tackles, one TFL, one breakup and one hurry.

Eriq George had 6 tackles, 1.5 sacks, 2 TFL, 1 breakup and two hurries.

Overall, BG sacks DeShields 8 times and hurried him 10 times.  That's 18 in 46 pass attempts and doesn't count at least 3 balls batted down at the line.  

And then Nakai Amarchee.  BG ran the ball poorly, as did Kent.  But Amarchee had a 70 yard TD reception and that game-winning 48 yard TD run.  That's 118 yards of BG's 347 in total offense.  BG is not blessed with a lot of playmakers, but he's one for sure.

And Austin Novosad.  Highly recruited HS player out of Texas.  Goes to Oregon and gets essentially no action.  Comes to BG and loses the job to Jay Kastantin.  (Who has performed well for us).  Gibby said after the game that his family rents a suite at the Doyt and has been to every game.  He saw Austin's mom after the game in tears...this was the game where her son finally made it.

He was 15 of 25 for 229.  3 TDs, no INT, sacked 3 times.  Accurate.  Cool in the pocket.  After not playing a competitive game in four years.  Let's think about that for a second.

It's all more #Maction.

Carney said something odd after the game.  First, Novosad played against them last year.  And then Carney said: "#17, their starter, is a really good player.  I'm not sure...we've heard things..exactly what's going on with him."

OK.  #mactrigue.

So, here's the matchup.  No one ran the ball. Kent had a lower completion percentage but a bunch of big passes.  BG won the special teams battle...Kingston had his best game, Kenner made a long-FG, and we had two solid KORs.  Only the roughed snapper held us back.  BG won the turnover battle--and add in that both Kent turnovers were from our goal line back.  And BG tied the explosive play battle.  One thing is when your offense is not great, it's hard to "matriculate" down the field.  Too many chances for a driving killing mistake.  Anyway, BG also had an uncharacteristic number of penalties.

Next up?

Falcon MBB enjoys historic night

 There's an old movie called Private Benjamin.  Goldie Hawn plays the lead...she sees an ad that seems to indicate the US Army is like a resort vacation.   So she she joins.  One day after crawling through the mud, being screamed at, etc, she tells her CO that there has been a mistake.  "I joined the other Army," she says.

I thought of that last night.  When Todd Simon came to BG, he said we were going to score.  He wanted to score 100, 125 a game.  Southern Utah was third in the nation in scoring or something like that.  We were going to run and shoot.

What we got was crawling through the mud, a severe lack of shooters, Hugerish offense, an inability to finish at the rim...well, last night, we got the resort version we had been promised.  And it was glorious.

BG led nearly wire to wire, leading for over 37 minutes, by as much as 18, never closer than 5 and over 10 for the last 9 minutes of the game.

BG had an historic offensive night.  They shot 70% from 2FG, 50% from 3FG (and over half our shots from 3FG) and 15-17 at the line.  That's 1.51 points per possession, which is the highest BG has had since kenpom started in 1997 (D1 games only).  It's the 3rd best effective FG% and the #8 2FG%.

It was a great night.  Outstanding opening crowd of 3,000....I think they will be back.

I know...we're going to play better teams than Cleveland State.  It's just a feeling watching them play.  CSU scored, too, if you want to focus on that.

Here is a new stat I'm running this year.  I have been interesting in liveball turnovers (ie steals) and how teams capitalize them.  This is incredible.  BG scored 2.8 points per live ball steal, of which there were five. That's an amazing number.  Generally 3 would be the maximum, (I guess you could get 4-point plays), and BG had 2.8.

Individually, there's a lot to tell.  Makhi Leach is a problem.  Moved to PG, he is a lot to handle.  He had 22 points on 6 of 9 and 1 of 4 shooting, 7-8 at the line, 8 assists over 2 turnovers, 3 steals and 4 rebounds and +16.  If a line like that is of interest to you.

Josiah Shackleford continues to emerge at a star producer as well. He had 25 of 5 of 9 and 6 of 9 shooting, team-high six rebounds, and 3 assists with +9.

Tristan Beckford had 12 in 21 minutes.  He made all five of this 2FGs, including two dunks that brought the house down.  And me made 2-3 at the line.  He was +18 in those limited minutes, but did have 3 TO and 3 fouls.

Zach Howell had 12...1 of 2 and 3 of 6.  +12 in 30 minutes. Cranford had 9 on 3-4 from 3FG. Preston Squire is a different player...30 minutes, +8, 5 rebounds.  KJ Torbert had a steal-dunk.  And Jayden Johnson got in for the first time.

Christ Essandoko, the big man, was in a boot and on crutches.  It did not look day-to-day.

Next up is Thursday with the Niagara Purple Eagles at the Stroh.

Golden Flashes Preview

10 days is a long time in a football season.  Hope everyone had a chance to get healthy, talk to their agent (kidding, maybe.)

Kent is one of the normally struggling teams in the MAC. In recent years, Darrell Hazell had big success one year, and Sean Lewis had some good years.  Then they have complete disasters like the Kenni Burns hiring.  Mark Carney, like Lewis a former BG assistant, took over last year as interim and won the job.  He is 6-7 in MAC play.

Like BG, Kent plays 2 P4 teams to pay the bills.  This year it was Ohio State and South Carolina.  They won their FCS game, but lost 29-2 to South Florida.

In the MAC, they beat BSU and Akron, and lost (narrowly) to OU, and were blown out by WMU and Sacramento State (on the road).

Having said that, Kent has won 6 of the last 10 against BG.  Lewis was 5-0 vs. BG, then Burns was 0-2, and Kent beat BG 24-21 last year in Kent. Lewis hung 60 on Loeffler twice.  BG is a 5.5-point favorite.

MAC Leaders:

• WR Wayne Harris leads the MAC with 102 receiving yards a game.  He's a big playmaker, with a YPC over 17.
• QB Dru DeShields is #2 in total offense.
• Hayden Dawahare is #5 in sacks.

Looking at the stats comparison, what jumps out is:

• Kent is terrible on offense.  BG's defense has to assert control early in this one. If you see Kent running the ball effectively, we are in trouble.  They need to keep DeShields in the pocket.BG's offense is nothing to write home about, but it ranks better than Kent's.  Just for example, KSU scored 3 against SacSTATE.  Kent does play decent defense on the whole.  Hopefully, BG can convert on 3rd down, keep the ball and the defense will play complementary football and provide some short fields.  Note, also, that Kent has a solid pass rush.
• Both teams play poor special teams.  BG has a good FG kicker at least, which Kent does not.

So, nothing on the line.  As Clawson says, we find out who loves football in these games.  No offense to our long-time opponent, but losses to Kent don't sit well with our fanbase.

 

Non-Skol Viking Preview

BG has its home opener for MBB tomorrow as Cleveland State heads into town.  This is a tough one to preview, given that it is so early in the season and the teams are so new.  Here are a few notes.

Cleveland State has had success.  Mouse McFadden took them to the Sweet 16 in 1986.  They have been to the NCAAs two other times.

Starting in 2020, they won at least 19 games in five straight years.  That spanned Dennis Gates through the entire tenure of Daiyal Robinson. Gates coaches Missouri now (3 Big Dance appearances) and Robinson is at North Texas.

Rob Summers is the new coach.  He once coached against BG when he was at Urbana. He is from the Dennis Gates coaching tree, serving as an assistant with him at Cleveland State and Missouri.

Last year was not great---they went 11-22.  This year's roster is a complete turnover.

They are 1-1.  They lost 111-50 to Missouri and beat Michigan-Dearborn 103-79, so we can't tell much there.

BG and Cleveland State have played 20 times.  BG has won 11.  BG has won 5 of the last 7 and the last 2 at home.

They were picked 10th (out of 12) by Blue Ribbon and 11th in the league poll. (Behind NIU).

Last year, they struggled on defense.  They were #362 out of 365 in defensive efficiency. They were especially easy to shoot against and poor on the defensive boards.

Rayvon Griffith is their leading scorer.  He's 6'8" and was a top 100 recruit, he played at UC and Kent before landing with the Vikings.  He's scoring 23.5 PPG.  He'll be a good matchup with Beckford.

Dre Jones has started both games.  He's 6'9" and also played at Kent.  He only played 7 games last year.  He's averaging 7 RPG.

Their PG is Jordan Lowery, a former all-FR guard in the WAC (Arlington).  And their 5th starter is Curtis Stinson, a former Iowa HS POTY who transferred from North Texas.

Micah Bays is coming off the bench.  He was a big scorer at Central State.

Kenpom gives BG a 78% chance of winning.  

Falcon MBB Gets Road Win in Opener

 BG's visit to Atlanta ended up with a victory.  As it always seems to, we ended up with some heart-wrenching minutes, but a win is a win, especially in an opener on the road.

The first half was competitive the entire way.  Seven minutes in, BG was down 1.   Key note...that's a minute after Christ Essandoko injured his ankle, not to return.  It shifted BG's rotation.  BG took the lead back with 9 to play and led by 4 with 8 to play (on an amazing dunk by Tristan Beckford, a Maple Leaf Special).

BG got the lead up to 5 with 5 minutes left, but then GSU rallied to tie the game.  The teams swapped baskets over the last two minutes, and then Josiah Shackleford stuck back on OREB to tie the game at the half.

BG bolted out to a 15-point lead on a 19-4 run with 14 to play.  With 8:57 minutes to play, BG had the lead up to 19... and a 98.7% chance of victory. (Which they did.)

Anyway, mark that.  From that point on, GSU outscored BG 27-11.  BG made one basket over that time...a nice Zach Howell baseline cut that Squire found.  BG missed six free throws in that span.  It was agonizing as the lead almost melted away.

It was agonizing within Agonizing.  With 1:21, BG was up 6.  Meyer was fouled and missed the second.  Beckford nailed the board, but they smartly fouled Beckford with 1:03 left and BG up 5.

Beckford adds a huge amount to our team.  He's unbelievably athletic, a great rebounder, and a finisher at the rim.  What he doesn't do is shoot....and that includes at the line.  Unless that improves, I don't see how he stays on the floor in late-game situations.  BG doesn't have an obvious replacement—no surprise there—and probably has to go small.

He missed both FTs. Meyer scored, and it was a 3-point lead with :46 to play.  Beckford is fouled...this time he split the pair to make it +4, and then the Panthers nailed a 3, and it was a 1-point lead with :18. GSU fouled Zack Howell, who hit both FTs to put BG up 3 with :13. BG fouled rather than allow a 3.  Meyer cut the lead to 1.  Shackleford hit 2 FTs, and BG was up 3, and the last shot missed.

In the end, BG ended up with 1.07 PPP, which is below the D1 average last year of 1.09.  They allowed 1.03, which is a solid defensive effort.  One thing I am going to track this year is scoring after live-ball turnovers.  BG had a decent night as did Georgia State.  I think you will see BG get up nearer to 2 in other games.  This just underscores the importance of live ball turnovers, especially when your half-court offense can struggle.  And you can see what happens with the rest of the possessions.

BG won three of the four categories.  BG made 56% from 2FG and 38% from 3FG, both really solid numbers, with 38% of their shots from 3FG.  GSU hit 38% from 2FG (not good) and 43% from 3FG with 55% of their shots from 3FG.

Slight turnover edge to GSU, but BG dominated on the offensive boards and getting to the line...the advantage was not as good as you might expect...BG was 14 of 26, and Georgia State was 6-12, so BG +8 at the line, including four down the stretch.

Individually....uh, Zach Howell.  DII transfer, first D1 game.  Scored 28, 4-4 on 2FG and 6-10 on 3FG, 2-2 at the line, and 8 rebounds.  This dude is someone we can use.  He reminds me of Jackson Paveltzke, reads as a gym rat, can shoot 3FG, and also has a mean back door cut.  

Shackleford (3-10 and 1-5, 3-4 at the line, 9 rebounds, 3 assists) and Leach (3-8, 0-1, 6 of 9 at the line) both had 12.  So did Tristan Beckord, who shot 5-5 from 2FG, 0-1 from 3FG, 2 of 9 at the line, 7 rebounds but 6 turnovers.  And four fouls.

Some other observations.  Preston Squire had 8 and 4 in 25 minutes, but did look like a different player and was +12.  Trey Simmons, a prolific scorer in DII, finished 0-2 shooting and -14 in 9 minutes.  Look for upside here. KJ Torbert played 1 minute. Cam Karel got minutes with Essandoko down, but was -10 in 10 minutes.

Jayden Johnson, Talan Staley, Goins and Atey DNP.

A win is a win.  Especially on the road. Next week, Cleveland State will head to the Stroh for the home opener.

Georgia State Up First for MBB

 Some quick notes:

• This is the MAC-Sun Belt Challenge. BG is 3-3 in the challenge, and Georgia State is 4-2.  The SBC has never lost the challenge, with 2 victories and 1 tie.
• They are the Panthers.
• BG beat Georgia State in their only meeting in 2008 at a tourney in Minnesota.  It was the first game of Orr's second season.
• Georgia State's new coach is Jon Cremins, the nephew of longtime coaching great Bobby Cremins.  It is his first D1 head coaching gig.
• He has 1 returning player, 11 transfers and 3 FR.
• They are picked 10th in the media poll and 13th (out of 14) in Blue Ribbon.
• Georgia State is a 3.5-point favorite.
• Jacob Meyer is their lead player.  He's 1st team all-SBC pre-season.  He is a UAB transfer, where he scored 12PPG on 41% (!!) shooting and 30 assists.
• Jaden Jackson transferred from South Dakota State.  He scored 12.3 PPG on 40% shooting and 81 assists.
• Eric Parnell transferred from Farleigh-Dickenson, and averaged 10.7 PPG.
• Their other projected starters are Jacon Fedson-Cole, who averaged 5.5 last year, and Mason Nichelson (6'10"), who came from Vanderbilt, where Cremins was an assistant.
• Others include AJ Smith, who was playing well at Temple before he got injured for the year.
• Terrance Dixon, Jr. transferred from Southern, where he scored 9 PPG.
• Georgia State has appeared in the NCAA Tourney 6 times since 1991. :(