Falcon MBB: "Old-Fashioned Butt Whipping"

 So, it was ugly against Wright State yesterday.  BG was simply dismantled by the Raiders from the opening tip to a point in the second half when BG rallied to cut the final deficit to 18.  For most of the time, it was way worse.  BG never led and the game was tied for about :30.

This was supposed to be a strong matchup between two teams predicted to win mid-major conferences.  In reality, it was, in the Coach's words, "an old-fashioned butt whipping."  It was, too.  BG had nothing...no defense in the paint followed by outstanding ball movement by the Raiders and wide open outside looks, terrible rotation by our defense and then nothing on the offensive end at all.  The Raiders did exactly what they wanted to whenever they wanted.  They are a very good team--skilled, well-coached and hard to beat.

They burst out to a 13-2 lead before the first media time out.  In fact, BG needed to call a timeout before the media timeout.  Over the next 3 minutes, Wright State went 10-6 over BG to lead by 15. The lead was 20 with 10 minutes left and 26 with 6 minutes left and then 31 with 3 minutes left and 33 at the half.

Sometimes a team makes a quick run out and then it all comes back together.  Not this time.

WSU came out and scored the first 5 points of the second half to push the lead to 38.  It didn't get worse. The lead was over 30 with 13 minutes left in the game and was at 29 with seven minutes left.  Over the last 7 minutes BG went 23-12 to get it back to 18, which felt more respectable, but actually is not.

In the first half, Wright State had 1.54 points per possession.  They shot 67%.  They were 17 of 21 on 2FGs and 5 of 12 on 3FGs.  They only missed 11 shots, and got the offensive rebound 6 times.  

Loudon Love was 7 of 10 with 11 rebounds...in the first half.  He pretty much had free rein under the basket.  He's a good player--very good--but he's not Tim Duncan.

BG, meanwhile, was 8 of 34 shooting for 24%.  That's 8 of 25 on 2FGs and 0-9 from 3FG.  BG missed 28 shots and Wright State got the rebound 23 times.

Butt-whipping is correct.

You can see it here with final numbers softened up by those last 7 minues.

BG allowed 78% on 2FGs for the game, their worst since a game at the JAR in 2015 (Chris Jans).

Last note...the Raiders protected the rim.  They blocked 7 shots.

Individually, there were no true highlights.  Kaden Metheny is a warrior.  True freshmen had  15 points on 5 of 14 shooting, which isn't great but he's a "punch back" guy.  Plowden had 14 and BG was +3 while he was in the game.  Steve Hawkins said that WSU had to make Turner either a shoot guy or a pass guy.  They did the latter, mostly.  JT was 4 of 13 shooting but had 6 assists.  Even so, I felt like there were lots of times they doubled Juice and we didn't find someone open.  Eventually, there were some pick and pops with Plowden, but it took us forever to get there.

BG was torched on the inside.  I don't like to call people out, but our center was -23 in 11 minutes.

So, the good news is that Wright State isn't in our conference.  This game can be a bad memory and it can wake the Falcons up.  Whether it does or not remains to be seen.  You'd hope it would, but you'd hope it never happened in the first place too.

BG's next currently game is scheduled for Dec. 30 against Kent.  Coach said he is looking to add 2 games before them.  One will be Defiance once a date is worked out and I have no idea what the other one is.