BG Loses At Home to Norfolk State

Woof.  Thank goodness BG has soccer...and volleyball...and hockey..because right now things are really tough in the football and men's basketball world.

BG dropped its home opener Friday night against Norfolk State...a game they should expect to win, especially at home.  Yes, as Coach pointed out after the game, Norfolk State is a tournament team, but they're a play-in team.  On the other hand, they have now beaten us twice in a row.

Coach says he "loves the direction" we are headed...says we competed hard, except for 8 minutes...we have to remember it's a 40-minute game, etc.  He's hopeful we will get Metheny back soon.  (Didn't mention Fields).

I guess I understood that we might have some coalescing to do.  I thought we would be a team that would still be able to beat Western Carolina and Norfolk State while coalescing, but apparently that isn't how it is.  Whether the team grows into a competitive team in our conference remains to be seen but it wasn't out there last night.

There was one period in the second half that cost BG the game.  The first half was close--it was tied with 6 minutes left.  BG went up 6 with about 4 left, led by 5 with 2 minutes left and then Norfolk State scored the last 3 to go to the locker room down a bucket.

BG scored the first two baskets of the second half and led by 6 with 18 to play. Norfolk called timeout and that's where the wheels fell off.  

The Spartans got a hoop and then pressured Gordon into a turnover bringing the ball up, which turned into another basket.  In total, they went on a 18-2 run over the next 3:30...yes, that's 18 points in 3:30...and led the game by 10.  There were three turnovers and a ton of missed jumpers on the BG side.

The game was never close again.  Struggling against a zone (as they often do) BG got it to 5 once and then gave up the next 6 points.  Norfolk led by 15 with 2:28 left to play.  BG did come back in the last minute, had it down to 5 with :26 left to play (without the ball), but Norfolk nailed 2 key FTs and led by 9 before BG hit a meaningless 3 to end the game and finalize the margin at 6.

Offensively, you can't talk about the game without talking about 3FG shooting.  BG took 61% of the field goal attempts from 3FG.  That's the highest percentage since an early January 2015 (Jans) game against Chicago State and in bulk numbers it is the highest in school history.

The problem is that BG made 30%.  That was 25% in the first half and 33% in the second half.  The D1 average is 32.7% this year. (Interestingly, it was 35% before the line moved back and has fallen just a bit since then).

BG has been trying more 3FGs so far this season--not THIS many, but more. It's 47% of FGA up from 39% last year.  The overall concept is clearly toward the position-less basketball you see more and more.  BG has no traditional 5 and even when Matiss is back, they will have a stretch 4 in that slot.  Nothing wrong with that, just needs to get turned into wins.  Position-less or not, BG needed to be tougher under the basket last night.

Overall, BG's offense was productive.  The game had 76 possessions, which is on the fast side of normal.  BG scored 84 points...BG had 1.11 points per possession which is a winning number.  Have to say it never felt like a winning offense.  Part of it is watching those offensive sets ending up with a jacked-up 3...it was a zone, of course.  BG made 50% of their 2FGs, which is slightly above the D1 average.  Together, BG ended up with an EFG of 47%, which is below the national average.  However, that was matched with an overall strong turnover rate, good offensive rebounding, good rate of getting to the line and 76% makes to end up with a good offensive game.

One reason it felt different was that while BG made only 10 turnovers, 4 of them were very poorly timed.  Three came in Norfolk's decisive run--decisive runs are built on stops--and one was in the late first half when BG looked to be ready for a decisive run of its own.

It was BG's best post-Turner offensive game, FWIW.

On the defensive side...while that was less good.  Norfolk ended up with 1.19 points per possession.  Since 2018, BG has 1 win with that kind of defensive struggle.  It's only a little less than OSU did.

Norfolk tried only 25% of their FGs from 3FG, while making 56%.  They also made 48% of their 2FGs to end up with 57% EFG, which is really good.  Usually, shooting wins the game.  They were also a little better on turnovers, equal on offensive rebounds and comparable on getting to the line, though they made only 65%.

Individually, BG settled into a slightly more normal rotation.  Yes, 10 guys got 10 minutes, but 3 of them played 30.  Having said that, I don't understand how Reece only got 18 minutes.  He had 10 points, 4-5 shooting and 7 rebounds in those 18 minutes.

Myron Gordon led BG in scoring, with 19 points on 5 of 10 shooting overall and 3 of 6 3FG...4 assists over 2 TOs.  Diggs had 17 on 5 of 12 shooting from 3FG.  Plowden's shooting woes continue, but he made 9 of 10 FTs to go with 5 rebds and 3 blocks and 14 points.  Fulcher had 11 points on 4 of 7 shooting and 7 rebounds in 21 minutes.  Can't quite understand why he isn't seeing more minutes, either.

So, BG is 1-3 and 0-3 in D1.  BG has Milwaukee up next on Tuesday.  That's no joke...Milwaukee has a 5-star recruit, Patrick Baldwin, who is 6'9" and at Milwaukee because he is the coach's kid.  He has double-doubled twice in the young season.