Notes from the OU Wreckage

As expected, OU demolished BG 96-72, as the Falcons played with 6 scholarship players and 2 football players due to the suspension of four players.  The players will be back for Miami on Tuesday.  In the meantime, there's no point in dragging out the stats for this one, which was completely one-sided most of the way.

Here, however, are a few observations.

Folkerstma had 6 points and Redding 5.  Both men played 5 minutes.  Coach said after the game that he had to protect them a little bit, which he felt like he owed them.  Anyway, not that both players were productive and then note this quote:

“That shows that if you do the right thing and you’re able to score when you’ve got guys who don’t know anything about your offense and what you’re running,” Huger said of the contributions of Folkertsma and Redding.

“I just asked those guys to roll to the front of the rim every single time,” he said. “Hunter did and scored six points in five minutes. So, what does that say about our guys that we have on the court and have been practicing that the whole time and we still have some that can’t do it?”

So, that's pretty interesting.  No need to belabor the point, but it is not the first time Coach has made an observation like this.

Anyway, thanks to Hunter and Teo for pitching in.  This was a one-game thing, so they're headed back to the weight room.

Dylan Frye had a big game, scoring a career-high 24 points.  He shot 9 of 17 and 3 of 10.  He also added 6 rebounds.  I continue to think that he's going to be a very good player for us.  You just see "ballplayer" when you watch him.

Now the rest of the starters?  Yeah.  Wiggins is slumping offensively. He shot 1 of 5 from the field and 5 of 12 from the line.  He did add 12 rebounds.  And he played 26 minutes, which means BG played 14 minutes without a true big man on the floor.

Wes Alcegaire shot 2 of 14 and 0 for 4 with 5 rebonds and 3 assists.  Rod Caldwell shot 3 of 12 and 1 of 7 and no assists.

Matt Fox also shot 0-6.

That's a struggle right now the line.

Malik Hluckhoweckyj played 29 minutes, by far his longest stretch as a Falcon.  (He was a Jans recruit who stayed with the program once Coach Huger stepped in.)  He had 9 points and 9 rebounds, shooting 3 of 6 and 2 of 5.

Coach said after the game that he would be comfortable playing Hluckhoweckyj in a game situation.  It will be interesting to see if he gets more minutes.  To date, he has had very few.

So, that's over.  BG has a pretty big week coming up.  First, on Tuesday they play Miami at Stroh.  The RedHawks are the only team in the MAC ranked lower than BG.  The Falcons have a kenpom of 265 and Miami is 276, and both teams are 2-6 in MAC play and tied for last with WMU.  In a season where wins are hard to come by, you just have to get this one.  Then, next Saturday, UT comes to town.

The big question is whether anything is going to change on the court.  BG has played Ball State effectively twice.  On the other hand, 4 of their 6 losses in the MAC have been in double digits and 3 of the 6 have been 17 or above.  These are teams in our conference.

You'd like to see the team come together and bring a strong effort out there Tuesday and Saturday.  We shall see what actually happens.