Ugly Game Draws Huger Ire

It was ugly, my friends.  I didn't see the game--I had the Todd Walker feed--but you play a 40 minutes game and there are 53 fouls called?  That's just not what anyone wants to see.  As Walker kept saying, the game had no flow.

It went a little farther than that.  BG had 30 of the 53 called against them.  Coach Huger was relatively frustrated and outspoken in the post-game...and in a way that I suspect will get him a letter from the MAC office.  He felt that the calls against BG were bad but also not being called evenly.  "If you are going to make a bad call, make it both ways," he said.

BG played most of the game with players in foul trouble.  Ali, Caldwell and Alcegaire all fouled out, Frye had 4 and Denny 3.

It wasn't the only factor.  He also said that BG missed open shots in the 2nd half, and did a poor job on the defensive boards.  And that's pretty much what you see below.

The shooting was pretty even and neither team took good care of the ball.  However, WMU had 11 offensive rebounds on 28 opportunities--and almost all of those in the 2nd half--and BG had 8 of 35.  And, WMU had an incredible 31 of 37 at the line and BG was 17 of 25.  Thomas Wilder was 15 for 15.

So, you're 14 down on FTs and you lose by 10...that's your problem right there.  I didn't see the game so I don't have any real comment on the officiating, except to say that Huger isn't a perpetual whiner about officiating (cough cough Dan Dakich) so it carries some weight that he was upset about this.

If you are curious, WMU had this kind of FT rate last year when the teams played, but BG won.  Maybe if Hawkins is fired we can get away from games like this.  The last time BG allowed a higher FT rate was in December 2012 at Valpo.

Individually, Rod Caldwell led BG with 15 points.  That's 3-8 shooting (3-7 from 3FG) and 6-6 from the line.  He also had 3 assists and 1 turnover.  Frye had 13 on 5 of 10 shooting and 4 assists over 1 turnover.  Denny had a very efficient 13...4 of 6 shooting...and Alcegaire had 11 on 4 of 8 shooting.  Wiggins led the team with 7 rebounds (but shot only 3 of 7) and Worrell had 6.  Ali had 1 assist and 3 TOs in 15 minutes.

So, here is where things stand now.  BG is right where they were predicted to be, which is ahead of Miami with only East games left to go and only 2 home games.  However, the last home spot (#8) is only one game away, but that's a complicated story that won't be answered in the positive for BG until they can win some more games.  If they beat Miami and Kent, they'd finish 7-11.