But let's not get carried away.
For the second straight game, BG came out and laid a complete egg against a team that our previous results would suggest we should beat. It ended up with a blow out win for Miami, who celebrated in the Stroh Center locker room like they had won the MAC title.
It was frustrating and very disappointing. I know Coach felt the same way...his post-game interview was straight out DOWN. You could barely hear him.
And yes, I know we ended up last year with a long losing streak. And I know that we have a tough three-game stretch to finish the season out. If it plays out that way, yeah, that would be really disappointing. But, let's wait until it happens.
And we could still get hot in Cleveland.
I'm not giving up on the team though. When you see that a team has the ability to win, then you believe they can win. The converse is true too. I give you the football team.
I'm not even going to throw out that BG was picked to finish last in the MAC. That's fine but we have probably advanced past that. But they were 11-2--something no BG team had ever done. They hit a cold patch, which happens in a long season.
They've had a great year. They are having a great year. I still believe they can finish strong.
It won't happen with BG playing as they have the last two games. No doubt about that. Coach took the blame for the loss, which is interesting. Sometimes coaches do that, so hopefully, it works.
Even worse, Wiggins said post-game he had seen a return of the guys not staying together and blaming each other. I will say that I saw a couple things like that from our seats in the second half.
That needs to be addressed. Beyond that, the defense has to get solved. Both of those are things coach can fix. The last time we lost two in a row, Coach reached deep and rallied the team and it needs to happen again. Hopefully, he gets some leadership from the team.
In summary: Tuesday was no fun. If BG rallies Friday, it will be fun.
I said after the OU game that if BG played the same level of defense that they did in Athens, they would not beat anyone. In fact, against Miami they played worse defense. And you still can't beat anyone like that. OU scored 1.14 points per possession. Miami scored 1.19. It was BG's worst defensive performance of the season.
Again, if that doesn't get fixed, we're going out in a sad way. I just think we will do better.
On offense, BG actually had a decent, winnable game at OU. That didn't happen here. BG had only 1 point per possession, which is a level they have not won at this year.
The key was shooting. BG had an EFG% of 44%, their worst since the UT game. BG shot 46% from 2FG...which isn't great...and then was 8 of 28 for 29% from 3FG. That's bad on a couple measures. The % is awful, but the number shot just make it worse. Coach noted that BG is shooting too many 3FGs, and that would certainly be true. A lot of no-movement possessions followed by a 3...as opposed to ball movement/penetration sets that lead to 3s.
Miami shot great. They made 61% EFG, with 52% from 2FG and 46% from 3FG on 33 attempts. It was BG's worst volume game against the 3 since the Cleveland State game. Shudder.
BG narrowly won the turnover battle, though I would have sworn that wasn't true in real-time. BG narrowly won the rebounding battle and definitely got to the line more. BG shot 19 FTs and Miami shot only 10. However, Miami made 9 of those 10 and BG made only 13 of 19.
The individual numbers are pretty grim, too. Turner scored 14, but on 5 of 15 and 2 of 8 shooting. That's a lot of shots for 14 points. He also had 4 turnovers. Wiggins also had 14, but it was on 6 of 12 shooting, which is OK but not great. He had 11 rebounds and 1 turnover. Frye scored 13, on 4 of 10 and 3 of 7 shooting, which is also rough. Plowden had 11 on 4 of 10 and 2 of 7 shooting and blocked four shots.
BG is also not getting the bench scoring it was previously.
Just, a very rough patch. It can be like last year, or the team can rally and play like they did for the first 13 games. Let's hope they can turn it around.
Here's the way it stands right now. BG no longer controls its own destiny. Even if BG won out, it would need either Miami or OU to beat UB to give BG the title. BG leads CMU and Kent by just 2 games. A BG win would put the bye issue to bed, as would a CMU loss to UT in Mt. Pleasant.
It's not as good as it has been this year, but it's pretty much better than anything we have seen since the 2002 team. Let's not overlook the year we've had. And let's root for the boys to turn the bus around Friday.
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