Orr Presser....State of Prayer Edition

Coach Orr held his presser today, and you can watch it over on BGSUfalcons.com.  It is about 11 minutes long, and has a couple interesting moments.

The first question is about free throw shooting, and it is a fair one.  There are 334 D1 teams, and as of today, we are #326 in free throw shooting, which is just downright poor.  (Not last in the MAC though.....THANK YOU NIU).

Anyway, Coach went on at some length about what he has tried to make it better in practice.  When asked if the players make the free throws in practice, he replied: "Not really."

He said something like "You feel like you should shoot them better.  It is a free shot, you know, no defense.  A free shot."  (At least we are clear on that). 

Coach Orr said he is in a "state of prayer" on every free throw.  Which appears to be warranted and not particularly effective.

Just kidding.  He knows we have to work through it.  He does point out that we are getting to the line more, that does help (shooting 55% of 25 free throws is better than 55% of 10).

Beyond that, he is happy with the field goal defense, which is improving, though he would like to see if under 40.

College Basketball Stats by StatSheet.com

Beyond that, he is in a state of prayer over finals week too (and we only hope that our grades are better than our FT shooting).

He was asked about the player rotation, and said that there is room for adjustment and the key things is how you practice. Specifically, he said that Au'ston Calhoun has his best week of practice. Coach doesn't like to play guys until he thinks they are confident enough to play and have it be a growing experience.

Finally, even though Scott Thomas continues to have some shooting woes, Coach feels his game is maturing in other ways, especially as he learns to attack the basket. Against Canisius, he had 10 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists with 2 steals, which is a pretty decent line. When his shots start to fall, I still believe he is poised to be a really good player.

Freddie Barnes....All American

Freddie Barnes was named FIRST TEAM All-America by the Football Writers Association of America.  He was one of only two non-BCS players on the team, the other being a player from Idaho, coincidentally.

BG's last All-American (1st team) was kicker Brian Leaver back in the 90s.

This a great recognition for Freddie and for our program.  He certainly had an All-American season.

Falcon Nation asked to participate in research that could change the course of human events....

OK.....Maybe not quite that great, but it is cool.  I have been contacted along with a number of sports bloggers to help Mr. Toby Hopp, who is a graduate student in California.  

If you have the time, I think it would be great if you clicked the link below and spent 10 minutes or so taking his survey.  His goal is to understand the creators of "user-generated content" which is a fancy word for "crap like this."  (See below for his own description of what his goals and methodology are.)

Anyway, whether you create anything or not (and I'll bet you post on azz.com), please consider taking a minute and helping Toby out.  It will help us understand more about this growing culture of content creation on the web.....

The life you save could be your own.

My name is Toby Hopp and I’m a longtime college sports blogger/blog reader. I’m also a graduate communications student at San Diego State University who is interested in studying how and why Internet users generate content online. What precisely, you may be asking, is “user-generated content?” Well, “user-generated content” includes comment sections at the end of news/blog articles, messageboards, diaries, polls, and the like.

To me, one of the great parts of the blogosphere is the interaction it enables between readers. As a community, we’re able to provide feedback and discuss issues in real time. However, the concept of “user-generated content” and its subsequent social applications has not, at this point, been thoroughly studied by communications researchers and is, in my estimation, completely misunderstood by the
mass media.


So, if you have 10-15 minutes to spare and support empirical media research (and the social sciences in general), please click the survey link below. Even if you NEVER create/read content on blog or newspaper websites, PLEASE consider taking the survey as your answers are as important to me as the answers supplied by individuals who DO regularly create content. Rest assured that all answers and provided information will be strictly anonymous and kept totally confidential.


Survey Link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WSQGPZ2


For those of you interested in statistics, all collected information will be scientifically analyzed and utilized to create an inherently unique structural equation model. To that end, I’ll send a report out
to each participating blog which details general trends and reader utilization issues of note.


Again, please consider taking this survey (Survey Link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WSQGPZ2) whether or not you ever create or read “user –generated content” on blogs or newspaper sites. The
survey itself will take 10 – 15 minutes and, I promise, will be quite painless. As stated above, research on the topic of “user-generated content” is incredibly sparse and your participation will go a long
way in understanding the environmental factors that encourage meaningful intra-community participation. And, of course, you’ll be doing me a great and immeasurable favor.


The survey will be active from Monday, December 14 through Friday, December 18. Please feel free to e-mail me at thopp@mail.sdsu.edu if you have any questions relating to the survey or my over-arching
methodology/conceptual framework (obviously, there’s a lot more to the study that can be reasonably described here).

Falcons Defense Stymies Canisius

I know it has been over 24 hours since the game ended, so here I am with my better late than never edition of the game review from Buffalo Saturday night.

In my preview, I noted that Canisius has been a poor shooting team thus far this season, and for that reason, they might be a really good match up for us, for the simple reason that we have the ability to lower that below the level where you can reasonably expect to lose.

And, as you can see below, BG held Canisius to 31% shooting, 37.5 effective field goal %, and less than .9 points per possession, all of which are very solid numbers from a defensive standpoint. As you can see, BG took care of the ball better than they have been, won the battle on the boards and only a disadvantage in free throws made it close. (Canisisus made 6 more FTs and had 3 more attempts).

NCAA Basketball Stats

Speaking of free throws, though, it wasn't all negative. With :32 left, BG was up only 2 and had the ball. Dee Brown was fouled and sunk both free throws. It goes without saying that those clutch shots are huge, pumping the lead to two-possessions that late in a game.

Just how important was made clear shortly, as the GGs hit a trey, and it was still only a 1-point game. With :13 left, they fouled Brown again, and he hit both free throws again. Canisius missed a three, and Brown was fouled again, making 1-2 and BG won, but Brown's clutch free throws were vital to the victory. With the free throw shooting we have had down the stretch in the past, this game could easily have been a loss.

Looked at another way, BG was 9-16 for the game. Before Brown went to work in the final minute, BG was 4-10. Just sayin.

Anyway, the game was close the whole way, which is exactly the kind of contest I like to see our guys in.

NCAA Basketball Stats

One last thing. Coach Orr went with a really tight player rotation in this game--more or less six men. Only the starters and Marschall got more than ten minutes. It will be interesting to see how this goes as the season unfolds, but I thought it was interesting to see.

In the end, that's a second straight road win, and this Canisius team does not appear to be good bad. It is a nice to win for our guys to get. My perception is that the team actually is improving, and with continued improvement has an excellent chance to compete in the MAC East.

Dee Brown, who led us in scoring again, is easily the most improved player on this team. As he warms to his role, I just think it makes the team all the more productive.

Great Black Family Profile

Cameron Black II has signed a LOI to play basketball at Bowling Green.  He is from Kent, where he plays for his father (Cameron Black I), who has been a coach for more than two decades.  There is a great profile of the two of them in a local paper.  For example:

When Cameron Black II was only a toddler, he was the halftime entertainment for Kent Roosevelt basketball games because he could dribble a basketball that was nearly bigger than he was.

Or:

Black II said when the family is watching basketball games on TV, his dad will push the stop button on the DVR and rewind so he can explain how the Rough Riders should be executing the same play.

“Other kids just go home and forget about it, but after the game we’re still getting it,” Black II joked.

It is no secret that Coaches love to recruit the son's of other coaches.  They know what it takes to win, and just grew up around the culture of a specific sport. Witness, the immersion in basketball mentioned above--something not every player is going to get.

Of course, there is more to life than basketball...here's what Cameron's Mom has to say....

“We’ve always taught them basketball can get you places in life and it can be a means for whatever you want to be in life,” Casondra said. “If they get to the NBA that’s great, but being able to pay for college with it and make a life is great too. That’s their father’s success story.”

Well put.  I look forward to seeing Black in Orange and Brown next season.

Dear Tennessee Fan:

Thank you for keeping in touch over the summer.  We do appreciate your correspondence concerning the incredibly complicated and impossible to execute offense (or, as you so cleverly named it "Clawfense") that Dave Clawson brought to you as your offensive coordinator.  We do appreciate your warnings that a team of nuclear physicists was required to execute the playbook.

At this point, the Falcon Nation would like to suggest to you that perhaps you might have gotten this wrong.  We have smart players, though none of them are nuclear physicists (yet).  And you know what, they seemed to adapt pretty well to the Clawfense.  We had almost 400 yards in total offense a game, a 10% (rough) increase in yardage over last year, and had a receiver up for the Biletnikoff Award last year. 

We'd also like to suggest that you might have had some problems with your program that weren't Dave Clawson.  Now, we're too adult to mention these wholesome young ladies....though we did think that Orange Pride was part of the Southern California LGBT community. 

But, perhaps, just perhaps, you had a coach on his way out and a team that quit on the coach, and then that coach--who wants to coach again, found a convenient scapegoat in his offensive coordinator.

You know, seems like Coach Clawson knows how to put together a winning football team.  I wouldn't trade him for the a-hole you have now, that's for sure.

With Love

FalconBlog

Gesundheit II

So, last year, when I found out we were playing Canisius in the Bracket Buster, all I could think was "Gesundheit."

10 months later, I still have the same juvenile sense of humor...so...

"Gesundheit."  Again.

I have said before that I like the Bracket Buster.  The part I like best is the required return trip.  It just gets some variety in our schedule that, for a long time, was sorely lacking.  And, I see in the official game notes that BG is 5-1 in Bracket Buster return games.  Dominance.

Last year, the Golden Griffins (Gesunndheit) were the only non-MAC team to win a game at Anderson Arena, as they headed in on a snowy February day and beat BG 71-66 in OT.  BG had a furious rally to force OT in the first place, but ultimately BG's inability to keep them off the offensive boards or the free throw line cost the Falcons the game.

That team now returns all its starters and it six top scorers.  In particular, little (not Jordan Crawford little, but little) Frank Turner appears to be a really special player.  They are 4-3 to date, with a win over Buffalo and a loss to an EMU team that might really surprise some people this year.  They are a small team that also does not shoot the 3 well.  In fact, they do not shoot especially well at all, and allow over 50% shooting (effective field goal percentage) against them.

College Basketball Stats by StatSheet.com

College Basketball Stats by StatSheet.com

Based on that, I just think that if BG can play its fundamental defense and make a poor shooting team even worse, and then do enough on the offensive end, we could grind this win out.  It is on the road, and they still are strong at the free throw line, so we will need to watch our fouls, but on paper this appears to be a good matchup for us.