The Broncos Are in Town.....

The Falcon's journey through the West heads back to Anderson Arena, as BG squares up with the Western Michigan Broncos in a late afternoon tilt.  BG is now 3-0 in its games against the West, although each game has been a nail biter.  Let's take a look at the Broncos.

WMU is 11-9 against the nation's #276 schedule.  Their RPI is #217.  They have a decent win @Milwaukee and they beat Detroit in K-zoo and quality losses @Xavier and @Illinois.  They have high RPI losses @Troy and @Towson.

In the MAC, they are 4-3.  They beat CMU, EMU, NIU, and @Miami against a team reeling with injury. They are the team that lost to Toledo.  WMU is 3-5 on the road this year and 1-2 in MAC play on the road.

On offense, the Bronocs are much like the Falcons.  They are 3rd in the MAC in terms of how much of their scoring comes from field goals, and they are among the two-worst 3-shooting teams in the conference.  They are 9th in effective field goal% yet score 1.03 points per possession, a trick they achieve by being the best offensive rebounding team in the MAC, getting 2 of the 5 available offensive rebounds, though they are in the bottom of the conference in defensive rebounding.

On defense, the similarity ends with BG (or so we hope).  They give up 1.03 points per possession, and an effective field goal % of almost 50%.   They have given up a lot of 3s and they don't force a lot of turnovers.

Stats above are conference games only...this chart is all games.

College Basketball Stats

Individually, WMU has 3 pretty good players.  Guard Demetrious Ward is scoring about 13 points a game, and F Flenard Whitfield is scoring 12 points and also leading the team with 6 rebounds a game.  (He is 6'7").  PG Mike Douglas gets 8 points and 6 assists and is one of the better players in the MAC at his position.

WMU also has the probably MAC freshman of the year, 6'10" Matt Stainbrook.  He is scoring 9 points and getting almost 6 rebounds in only 22 minutes per game.

This appears to be a game of matching style.  I am always surprised that Western does not do better with the players they have, but here we are. BG may have an opportunity to hit some 3s, but I think they game will be decided on whether WMU can answer our zone without perimeter shooting and whether BG can keep them off the offensive glass.  Being at home, it would be great to see the Falcons get hot offensively and hit some baskets.