Kent Preview

 So, BG gets a rematch with the Kent State Golden Flashes tonight at the Stroh.  The current trajectory is well known, BG has lost 5 straight and 6 of 7, one of them to Kent.  Coach said in The Blade that the team is still "dangerous" and that once they put a win or two behind them, then they will find themselves competitive again.

Let us hope so.  

Kent is 2-1 since the Bowling Green game.  They beat CMU and Miami and then lost to Akron by 11.  The biggest change for Kent has been the last of Michael Nuga, who was playing at a high level.  He came into the first BG game as the most efficient offensive player in the MAC.  He's injured now and probably gone for the season.

In their first full game without Nuga, they had their worst offensive game of the season.

Justyn Hamilton also missed the last game with an injury he has been fighting in other games.  I don't have any idea what his status is for the game on Tuesday.

So, in the first game BG had its only decent shooting game of the 7-game downward streak.  Unfortunately, Kent shot even better.  They also made 81% of their FTs and ended up +6 at the line over BG.

Overall, Kent is #4 in offense and defense.  They are the best offensive rebounding team in the MAC but in general they are neither great nor awful at any specific element.  

In the first game, their clear star was Danny Pippen, who just went off against BG.  He scored 34 points on 6 of 10 shooting at 2FG and 5 of 9 from 3FG.  Also, 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocked shots.

He's making a real play for MAC POY.  He's #1 in scoring, #2 in rebounds, #15 in FTs, #1 in blocked shots, He's the #2 most efficient player in offensive rating, and 2nd in the MAC in drawing fouls.  He's certainly have a player of the year quality season.

With Nuga out (he was averaging 17.5 highly efficient points), their only double figure scorer is Tervell Beck, scoring 10 PPG on 58% shooting.  Giovanni Santiago who also had 14 in the first BG game on 4 of 5 3FG shooting.

BG has 8 games left, only five of which are on the schedule, which is chaos due to teams being forced to postpone games due to not having enough players.  Three more games were postponed today, two for CMU and one for WMU.

BG had a game postponed Saturday so maybe the time off was helpful.  This game, at home, would be a great time to take the first step toward a turnaround, with the WMU debacle as a springboard.