BG was up 1 with 8:39 left to play in the game. Over the next 3 minutes or so, SD went on a 16-4 run to jack the lead up to 11 points. BG did battle and had the ball down 4 in the last minute but missed a jumper and then the Coyotes were good from the line to seal the victory.
In all, I am encouraged. Justin Turner showed what it means to be a freshman, making on 2 of 14 shots. Derek Koch double-doubled though and BG got good minutes from Cummings and Plowden and even four competitive minutes for Gadson. Frye played well, despite some phantom foul calls. This team has young talent and I think there's reason to think that BG is on the comeback trail, tonight's loss not withstanding.
The primary factor in the game was fouls. There were 51 fouls called, which is just crazy. Frye was the only player to foul out, but eight others had four fouls when the game finally ended.
The second factor is pace. This game was played at a very fast pace...in fact, the game had 80 possessions, a pace BG reached only four times last year. So, when you see the high score total, you have to take the pace into account. In fact, SD had 1.1 points per possession, which is good but not great and BG had .99, which is bad but not awful.
When you look at BG's offense, you can't get by that shooting. BG's 39.7% EFG (rounded to 40 in the chart) was a total that BG only did worse than twice last year....that awful EMU game early in the year and then the football player game against OU. BG made only 35% of its 2FG attempts, which also would have been their third lowest last season. With that poor shooting, you'd expect to have a really stinky offensive night, but BG took care of the ball, did well on the offensive boards and while they didn't get to the line as much as SD, BG made 78%.
On the defensive side, SD shot much better, obviously. It surely seemed that they had an easy time attacking the basket and often shredded BG on the inside. They made over 50% of their 2 FGs and 40% from beyond the arc after missing their first 8, meaning most of them came in their big run to finish the game. They took even better care of the ball and didn't rebound well. They got to the line a lot but only made 63%.
So, look. BG is a young team. SD is a veteran team that has a championship. THEY had 10 new guys last year. So, let's just hang with it. For this night, BG found it very difficult to make shots and SD didn't, and that was really the difference.
One thing is clear. The fans are going to have to be won back. BG drew only 1,200 for the season opener.
So, Florida Gulf Coast comes in Saturday in what should be an even tougher contest.
I had my doubts about where MBB stood following the last two years, however, I am encouraged. Watching this very young team play on espn 3 I find a lot of positives to this group. I really didn't appreciate how young this team is, but there is some real talent, still raw, but it's there. My biggest issue was in shot selection and movement away from the ball, but I do believe most of it is coachable and youth-related. This season will have its ups and downs, but I believe there will be more ups moving forward.
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