Men's Basketball Preview

So, with the football team on a little break this week, I thought it would be a good time to pop in on the Men's Basketball team as the season comes our way.

When last we left the Falcon hoopsters, things were looking poorly.  After having a decent season and facing the loss of only one player to graduation (Matt Fox), the Falcons lost their last 6 games and then, shortly after the season ended had 3 players transfer, including both PGs and a highly promising big man.

No secret here, that was a pretty disappointing way to end the year, one that had started with some promise and an indication that BG might finally be assembling the critical mass of talent to become at least consistently competitive.

And then, we seemed to be back at square one.

Here's the thing.  No one denies the dumpster fire that Coach Huger walked into.  Most fans, me included, think he did a notable job just keeping a team on the court for that transition period after Jans was let go.

Having said that, as time moves on you want to see things turn around.  Especially when Jack Owens shows up and Miami gets better right away...you'd just like to see the team be competitive, play at home in the tourney make it to Cleveland, win a game there, etc.  Last year it at least seemed like a .500 season, until the collapse came at the end.

I know, as it relates to the transfers, that at least one and maybe two of them might be listed as "addition by subtraction," which is fine.  Winning programs win with "addition by addition" and losing programs talk about addition by subtraction.

Since 2002, BG has had 3 winning seasons.  That's just a very disappointing run.  It also disabuses us of the notion that Anderson Arena was why BG was losing because it clearly wasn't the only issue.

BG did what you have to do when those three transfers left...they went out and got themselves some JUCO players to fill those roles.  Increasingly, there's no time in college basketball for player development and you can see why.  Develop a player and he graduate-transfers up.  Tell a player he isn't good enough and he doesn't work to get better, he transfers to DII.  In fact, 32 players transferred out of the MAC last year.  At the same time, MAC teams added 25 players via some kind of transfer INTO the MAC.

In particular, UT and Kent have been using transfers effectively, as has Buffalo and Groce is using them at Akron.  As an extreme example, you can look at Nevada, which made a run with an all-transfer starting line up.

So, BG went and got 2 JUCOs and maybe that's just the way of the world now.

Here's how the lineup looks for BG.

First, the returning players.

Frye
Lillard
Turner
Wiggins

These four are probably locked in to start.  We're pretty familiar with what we have.  Frye will play the point.  Turner is BG's most consistent scorer and best defender who we hope only gets better in year 2 (and year 3 in the program).  Lillard adds a strong dimension on the wing to score and defend and Wiggins was 2nd-team ALL-MAC and could continue to improve.

There are 3 other returnees.

Probably the key is Plowden.  He had an up and down year.  He played quite a bit early and then played on and off in the MAC schedule...like decent minutes or almost none.  He averaged 4.9 PPG and 2.8 RPG in 15 minutes and seemed to me to have upside in terms of athleticism and basketball chops.  Up and down isn't unusual for a freshman.  If he shoots better and plays better D, he's like a very solid 6-7 man on this team.

Uju is a big guy who can play inside and showed himself to be a role player.  He's also All-MAC Academic and is going to be a doctor, so be nice, he might operate on you someday.

Gadson is the other returnee.  He's 6'10" and played only 83 minutes.  When you have a guy with that size who doesn't get into games at this level, you're probably looking at a developmental opportunity. This (and Mattos below) both represent chances for our coaches to develop big men.  Wiggins, for example, has drastically improved during his time at BG and the same thing here would be a game changer.

Then the "new" players

There are two players here that I believe are key.

The first is Kulackovskis, who was on the squad last year but injured for the year.  He's a 6'9" stretch Euro type who is said to have a killer 3FG shot.  If so, he gives BG a matchup disruptor as well as an outside threat, something the Falcons have struggled with.  BG was #209 in 3FG% last season.  Coach said he was going to move him in slowly, but you'd like to think he'd be in the rotation.  He has put on significan weight over the off-season, according to Coach.

The other is Michael Laster.  I'd expect Laster to be a starter at 2.  A Manhattan native, Laster had a highly decorated JUCO career.  You have to watch JUCO numbers because they play up-tempo, typically, but he was a second-team All-American and all-region.  This guy is key as well.  He was a top assist man in JUCO and if he can create opportunities and take the pressure off Turner--and defend--than he can make a big difference for BG.

One thing is that we've had other JUCO guys come in and I think you have to manage your expectations on a guy like this in terms of exactly how full he stuffs the stat sheet until you see him do it.  It's a pretty big jump.

There are three other newcomers.

Marlon Sierra is the team's other JUCO transfer.  He's 6'7" and 225 and is intended to provide BG with some beef on the inside.  He is from Miami but went to JC in Nebraska.  In his 2nd year he scored 12 with 6.8 RPG.  He shot the 3 effectively, too.  This is one of the guys you're going to need to see to know what we have, but BG needs guys on the inside.

There are two freshmen.  One is Caleb Fields, from New Jersey.  He was a very successful HS player, third-team All-State, etc.  I'd think you'd see minutes from him at G and on paper I think he looks like someone who could be a contributor on a winning MAC team.  Will be interesting to see him develop.

The last new player is Tayler Mattos.  He's 6'11" and I would guess probably will need to develop a little bit.  He was ranked as the #15 recruit in New Hampshire.  But, you can't teach tall and he can be like Gadson in terms of getting bigger and developing skill on the inside.  He is barely 18.  With no inside info, I wouldn't be surprised to see a redshirt here.

So, if you're looking at an 8-man rotation, I'd say you go Frye, Turner, Lillard, Wiggins, Laster, Sierra, Plowden, Kulackovskis. 

Blue Ribbon picks BG to finish 5th in the East, ahead of only Akron.  The interesting thing that Coach said in his pre-season presser is that he isn't worried about BG scoring.  If so, that would be a first and a welcome one at that.  Since Dakich left, BG has only been in the top half of the nation in offensive efficiency 3 times and has not finished better than 231 under Huger.  I'd like to think that BG has the ability to score based on what I see on paper, but you'd need to see it to be sure.

A lot of BG's issues were on the other side of the ball.  BG has also not finished in the top 200 in defensive efficiency under Huger.  The team was pretty good defensively coming out of the Orr years and including Jans.  Huger would desperately like to get more stops.

They always say defense is an effort thing.  So, you knowm, maybe there were some issues with the holdover guys in the first couple years. 

Just like everything though, I think we're looking to see BG start to improve as the Jans debacle fades into the past.  I haven't lost faith in Coach Huger, but after last year there is some doubt.  It may be my orange-colored glasses, but I think this team has the ability to be better than expected, with some consistency out of the returnees and the production from Laster that it looks like you might get.

I hope so.  The program needs to stability and we'd definitely love to see some success.  I doubt if we're buying out any more coaches, so we need Huger to be the one.