2,588.........

Western Michigan has beaten us 9 straight times with several ass-kickings mixed in. Four of those games have been at Anderson Arena. In fact, we have not beaten the Broncos since 2002---more than 2,500 days ago.

So, WMU has kind of owned us for quite a while. During that time, they have been one of the most consistent, high quality programs in the MAC.

This seems like a pretty good chance to break the string, though, for the following reasons.

• The game is at home.
• Western is having a tough season.
• They are 7-13, with four of their wins coming at the expense of the MAC West. (I know I keep jabbering about this, but EMU and NIU are ranked among the lowest 10 teams in Division I, and the Rockets are in the bottom 10%. Central is pretty poor, too).
• They have lost both their games against the East.

Of course, when you think Western, you think David Kool first. The Junior was All-MAC last year, and is a very productive offensive player. He is scoring this year at about the same rate that he did last year, and there has been some indication that he has struggled with a less talented supporting class this season. He had a pretty big slump in January, but might have picked it up a little in the past couple games.

Stats by StatSheet.com

In general, the Broncos play defense about at our level, but do not score as well. They are less effective shooting, and don't rebound as well as BG does, either. (They went for 12 minutes without scoring against Kent). They take care of the ball about as well as BG does, which is to say, not that well. (They have had a couple of bad nights with turnovers that resulted in losses).

And they foul even more than we do.

So, you can see what it seems like this is as good a time as any to reverse the trend and get back to winning against the Broncos. We can expect that they will be as hungry to win as we are, and a fourth straight win would be a nice accomplishment on its own for the Falcons. We should be able to win this game by playing our game....it doesn't look to me like anything extraordnary will be required.