MBB News....and two football verbals

 So, some news this summer has trickled in....

Let's start with Men's Basketball.  BG has extended the contract of Todd Simon as the head coach of the program.  His contract now runs until March 31, 2030.

I think this was the right thing to do.  I think he's done well with the conditions that are given to him.  The team has a 1,000 APR (not sure how that gets measured today), and he's a good representative of the program.  I think his experience coaching prep ball is the best way to prepare BG for today's MAC game. 

I'm not sure he's going to get us to the Dance...but I don't know if anyone can.  We know about the haves and have nots in D1 sports, but I fear we are starting to see the same thing unveil itself in the MAC.  Specifically, Miami, who won the Reese trophy for all-around performance in men's sports and the Jacoby trophy for all-around performance in women's sports.  That's a back-to-back and three in the last five.

WMU--cited by MAC ADs as the best AD job in the MAC in David Briggs ' anonymous poll, was 2nd in women's and third in men's.  BG was 10th in women's and 12th in men's....thank you UMass.

It wasn't too long ago that our women's basketball, volleyball, women's soccer, baseball and softball programs were in the top tier of the conference.  Today, they are all struggling, combined with a middling MBB program, a recovering (we hope) football program, and a men's soccer program competing in the MVC.

And, FWIW, women's basketball, volleyball, women's soccer and softball were all successful under pre-Van Der Merwe hires and are now are sporting VDM hires.

Did you see that EMU bought a women's golf team and made the national semis?

Anyway, the future is far from certain.  I've wandered away from Coach Simon, who I think is the right choice for us and has as good a chance as anyone.  He will need to Coach lightning in a bottle for one year...you don't really build a program.

Now to football.  There were official visits this weekend, and football has snagged at least two verbals.  As always, for exhaustive coverage of BG's football recruiting, head over to The Talon Tribune.

The first was Robert Garcia, who is from Riverdale, FL, and attends Sumner HS.  He's a RB/CB/ATH who seems to project as a CB.  He's 6'0" and was offered by Louisville, USF, Pitt, EMU, FIU, FAU, Liberty and 5 FCS offers.

Sumner is a back-to-back state 7A champion in Florida. Garcia had a pick-six in the title game.

The other player is Bo Scheetz.  He's a 6'6", 300lb DT/OT.  He goes to Fairless HS, which is in Navarre, OH, which is in Stark County and part of Ohio's football belt.  

He had only one offer, from Ashland.  He was Defensive Player of the Year of something, with 78 tackles, 8 tfl’s, and 2 sacks on the season.

Fairless are the Falcons.

Robert and Bo, welcome to the Falcons.

Falcon MBB Adds a Guard

BG MBB has added a new guard for the team next year.  His name is Jayden Johnson, a 6'1" G orignally from Brooklyn.  He played at the Cushing Academy in Boston.  He did not appear to be heavily recruited.  However, he did end up at South Carolina State, a D1 HBCU.  He was all-rookie MEAC for his first year and then came back as the pre-season player of the year, ending up second-team all-MEAC.  In his sophomore year, he scored 13.4 PPG, shooting 46% and 37% from the field and 3.5 APG.  Interestingly, his coach told him to leave and get paid,  something I think a lot of coaches end up doing today.  That puts us at 15 with Dedivanaj.  Without him, we can add one more.

So here is what we have right now:

Confirmed back (5)

• Leach, G
• Shackelford, G
• Karel, F
• Goins, F
• Squire, F (Thanks to the commenter)

Incoming (9)

• Torbert, G
• Howell, G
• Simmons, G
• Cranbrook, G
• Beckford, F
• Johnson, G
• Ateny, C
• Essandako, C
• Staley, G

No News (1)

• Dedivanaj, G

Two More MBB Players Onboard

 BG MBB has two more player additions for this year.

It was clear, they needed a big man...and they got one.  A very big man.

NEWS: 2026 - 6’10 PF/C Leek Ateny of Danville Christian Academy (KY) has committed to Bowling Green.

Ateny is one of the top forward prospects in KY. Big addition for the Falcons. pic.twitter.com/soBKT9iGDU

— NextUpRecruits (@NextUpRecruits) May 13, 2026

Leek played at Danville Christian in KY.   He was third-team All-State.  He was a regional player of the year. Ateny was ranked as the eleventh best player and the number one center in the state of Kentucky according to Next Up Recruits.  

He averaged 18.5 PPG, 10 RPG and 5.5 BPG.  In HS, at that size, guys are going to score.  But the blocks you don't always see.  And everyone is talking rim protection now...look at his length.  He also made 41% from 3FG.  

There appears to be huge upside here.  

The other player is Talan Staley, a 6'3" G from Blythewood, SC.  His HS team won state three years in a row. He was named Region 5 5A All-Region, SBCA Top 5 Senior and a North Carolina-South Carolina Carolina Classic All Star. This came following a season where he averaged 14.1 points, 61 assists, 3.4 rebounds and 2.1 steals per game. On top of the averages, Staley shot 52-percent from the field and 39-percent from behind the arc. 

At 6'3", he has size for the position, something our coach's like.  He was not highly recruited, but this is sometimes where you find the gritty guys who can still contribute.  

Talan,  Leek....welcome to the Falcons.

Happy Mother's Day to the Falcon Nation

 

Giveth Again

So we have been noting the lack of big men on the MBB roster, and today there was an announcement about a truly BIG man coming to BG.  A giant man.  His name is Christ Essandoko, and he is 7'0" and 280 pounds. He is an interesting young man.

He is French... played a couple of years of HS there, then came to a school in the US.  He was a 3-star recruit with offers from St. Joe out of HS, along with Maryland, Providence, Illinois, NC State, Nebraska, Pitt, Rutgers, South Carolina, A&M, Wake Forest, South Florida, SEMO, NM, San Diego State, Wisconsin, DePaul, Seton Hall.

He announced he was going to Providence, but he ended up at St. Joseph's.  He had to redshirt due to being ineligible, and then played a year at St. Joe's.  Then he went back to Providence, where really big things were expected and did not happen.  He took responsibility for that and then went to South Carolina, where the results were even worse.

Everywhere he has gone, there has been praise for him before the season started.

Here is the coach at St. Joe's...

“He’s highly intellectual. He’s got great instincts. His feel for team basketball is outstanding, and that’s really the European way. He has an insatiable competitiveness. It’s off the charts...Then you throw on top of that a great personality, a connective personality, an amazing teammate, and the upside of him is really high.”

Here is what they said at Providence...

“Christ is seven foot, 280 — he’s an absolute load. He just moves people naturally with his girth and his strength, but he’s also our kind of player because he’s very skilled. He has a great feel for the game, he’s a great passer. We run our offense through our bigs a lot. They are almost like point guards to a degree. Josh was perfect for that, Christ is too, he’s just bigger, and he’s also a three-point shooter.”

And yet...

He had a good year at St. Joe's.  After a two-year layoff, he scored 8.5 per game and added 5.7 RPG and a block a game in 21 minutes.

At Providence, he played 12 minutes a game, 4.3 PPG and 3.9 RPG and about .75 blocks per game.

At South Carolina...for a bad team, he averaged 7.4 minutes a game, 2 PPG and 1.6 RPG. He was DNP for 10 of the last 20 games.  

He shot 29% from 2FG for SC last year. He made 65% for St. Joe's.  He can shoot 3's...34% for his career, 38% in two of his three years.  He's a 59% career FT shooter, but considerably lower than that the last two years.

He was called for 5.4 fouls per 40 last season. He was #11 in block% his first year at St. Joe, and nothing particularly special after that.

I don't mean to be negative.  These are just facts.  Here's another one...obviously, there's something there. The NFL draft is coming...he's all upside.  If he gets out of his head and puts it together, we have a guy who's dominating in this conference.  We have player-friendly coaches...why not now?

Also, for a little rabbit hole on your Monday night, click here and read about a man from the same town.

Giveth

The MBB team has picked up 2 more players...at least one a small forward.  The portal closes on the 21st, and you can still sign guys after that and there's JUCO too.  BTW, a Simon post indicates 3 players were acquired, but I'm not aware of who it is.

One is Tristan Beckford, who is transferring from South Florida.  He's from Ontario.  He played internationally with Canada--where they are increasingly competitive--during the U18 AmeriCup, where they finished 3rd.  He led the team in scoring and rebounding.

He's a small forward at 6'5".  He played for a Prep Team in Phoenix.  He was a 3-star recruit (247) from there, and was offered by Minnesota, Boise, Arizona State, Arkansas State, Iowa, Mississippi State, Oregon, Grand Canyon, Pepperdine, and Seton Hall. He went to South Florida, where Bryan Hodgson was, but he moved on to Providence.

He did not do much for South Florida, playing 7 minutes a game for a good team.  It's interesting...he played four games in December...Charleson, Alabama, UMBC and Georgia College...even excluding the non D1 game, he played 61 minutes, scored 30 points and had 13 rebounds.  That was while Wes Enis was injured.  But it does show some production.  After that, he went to the bench and played very little after that.

So, you have a guy who was widely evaluated as having talent who did not play much for an #11 seed in the Tourney.  FWIW, Hodgson used his bench sparingly, at 27% of overall minutes.

The other is Juan Cranford, Jr, a 6'4 G who played last at EKU.  He played at St. Francis (PA) before that.  At EKU, he scored 12 PPG on 49% and 36% shooting.  Also, 79% at the line.  

At. St. Francis, he was All-Rookie in the nEC and was the tournament MVP, where he led them to the NCAA Tourney. 

HS-wise, he went to Wayne High School in Dayton. He was conference player of the year his senior year and was 3-time all-conference. He was unrated and St. Francis was his only recorded offer at 247.

The roster limit is 15.  FWIW, I am counting Spurgin as not on the roster since he was in Senior Day and listed as a senior.  We remain G-heavy and without a rim-protector.

  Confirmed back (5)

• Leach, G
• Shackelford, G
• Karel, F
• Goins, F
• Squire, F (Thanks to the commenter)

Incoming (5)

• Torbert, G
• Howell, G
• Simmons, G
• Cranbrook, G
• Beckford, F

No News (2)

• Dedivanaj, G
• Adem, G

Football Verbal and Basketball Roster News

First news is a football verbal.  His name is John Johnson, and he comes from Archbishop Hoban in Akron. He's the 2nd Hoban player to commit to BG in the first four.  Sometimes that happens....this would be a great program to develop a pipeline with.  Their coach, Tim Tyrell, has won 5 state titles and has a 141-25 record.  He also won 3 national championships at Youngstown State, playing for...Jim Tressel.  So that could be a connection.

Johnson is a good one.  Too early for him to be rated, but he plays both ways and is listed as a WR. He had offers from Kentucky, James Madison, Kent, Liberty, Miami, Toledo and WMU....so three of the usual MAC powers, a P4, and two top-level G5.

He was second-team all-state for their basketball team that reached the state semifinals, and he had some big games along the way.

BG's four verbals to date are a QB and three playmakers.  I think anyone would agree that we have been short of playmakers for a long time...we've had one or two...but UT (for example) brings them in waves.

Welcome John.

Next is some basketball news.  Kimbrough, Goins, Karel, and Leach have all announced that they are returning to the team.  This is not nothing.  We have had players like Karel, who maybe didn't play much, blow the coup after one year.  Getting guys back really matters.....a full off-season of weight training....

We have 10 guys.  As I understand it, the scholarship limit has been replaced with a roster limit of 15. No surprise we are guard-heavy, but we have spaces for front-court guys.

Confirmed back (4)

• Leach, G
• Shackelford, G
• Karel, F
• Goins, F
• Squire, F (Thanks to the commenter)

Incoming (3)

• Torbert, G
• Howell, G
• Simmons, G

No News (3)

• Dedivanaj, G
• Adem, G