Oh the Humanity

Oh, the humanity.

Just over 1,000 days since BG played in the MAC Final and looked to return most of the players from that team, we are watching the MBB program completely crater.

Most of us understood the early struggles of the Huger years.  The Jans debacle had left the program in rough shape.  This occurred in year 7.

UB came onto BG's floor and absolutely embarrassed the Falcons.  They scored 112 points, the most ever allowed by a Falcon MBB team.  We allowed 111 to Murray State in 1955, 110 to Loyola in the 1960s and 109 to Clemson in the early 80s.  But this was the most...and on our home floor and to a team in our conference.

The game was played at an incredibly high pace...85 possessions, the most in a Falcon game going back as far as 2002.  On a points per possession basis, in fact, it was the second-worst game this season.  But as much as I like the analytics, that buries the lead in this situation.  Supposedly a fast pace suits us...but we were completely dismantled on our home floor by a team in our conference.  For the second time this season.

UB made 67% of their 2FG attempts, which is almost exactly what they did in the first meeting.  The difference was on the offensive boards, with Mballa back.  BG had no answer here.  UB got 55% of the available offensive rebounds, tied for the most allowed by BG since 2002.

Meanwhile, BG had 1 point per possession.  When scoring 1 or less, BG has no MAC wins.  We just don't defend well enough to win with that amount of scoring.

But the disaster is on the defensive end.  And it has been.  UB drove to the basket at will and owned the offensive boards.  I don't have anything to compare this to, but UB shot 78% inside the charge arc and BG shot 59%.

BG is last in the MAC in defense.  We are #328 in the county, out of 357 teams.

We are last in defending the shot, #307 in the country.

We are last in the MAC in defending the 2FG, #303 in the country.

You can certainly see that last one with the eye test.  We don't keep guys out of the paint, we don't help effectively and when there is help the rotations aren't there.  UB moved the ball really effectively in the paint for easy baskets.

This is just not where we should be in year 7.  Yes, I understand that the team is playing without 2 starters they would have expected to have.  That has to be included in any assessment.  But it just seems inescapable that something way more fundamental is broken.