National Signing Day Recap

OK, so the dust has settled and National Signing Day is now done.  Let's recap....

First, I think BG did as well as they could do given the coaching change.  They kept 11 of the Babers recruits and picked up some players who appear to be good in the short time they had to work with.  The rankings were among the lower in the MAC (that I have seen), but I don't worry about that too much.  Recruit classes sort themselves out in years, not today.

You can read the official release here.

I watched the Coach Jinks presser.  He said he wasn't going to reach in this time frame, which I applaud. There's always time to get the right guys next year once we get acclimated.  In the meantime, there isn't much Jinks can say.  Every coach in America is going to say he is high on his class, got playmakers and good character guys...

Coach said that there could be some more JUCO guys, though I thought he sounded cautious on the idea.  He recognizes the possible downside, especially since the more qualified JUCO guys sign mid-year like Skattebo did.

He talked about how recruiting as a Head Coach was different than as a position coach.  That's something that has concerned a lot of us, but that's the course we've charted, top to bottom.

He also said that we went to our older haunts to get the guys we did get, which is obvious when you look.  That's Florida and Texas.  However, Jinks is committed to building relationships in our backyard.  This will be his first big test, given that he starts from nearly ground zero.  The goal is to get Ohio and Michigan guys in the future.

I keep hearing how all you have to do is listen to him talk and you'll be impressed, I haven't actually seen anything as impressive as that.  Seems like he's a pretty average talker.  Anyway, I don't really care if he can talk, but other people keep bringing it up.

We went heavy on o-lineman, picking up 4 of them.  The only other position with more was at WR, where BG picked up 5....no surprise there.  The one position I feel like we are kind of upper classmen-heavy on is RB.

One late guy we hadn't heard about or talked about was Marquis Zimmerman from Lakeland FL.  He was all-state in his division.

The day's biggest disappointment was Jordan Williams.  He was originally a UT recruit from Texas...and BG felt that they had flipped him.  It was in The Blade, there was veiled Twitter gloating, and then he went back to UT.  That's obviously not great but the young man can go where he wants.

Anyway, for today, I think things are as good as could have been expected.  Look forward to seeing what we have in the Fall!

BG Stops Making Baskets, Loses at Home Again

And the beat goes on...the home floor disadvantage continues to haunt the Falcons, who lost their fourth straight at home in what (as we will see later) was maybe the most disappointing of all.

This is unusual.  In the 2000's, BG has only had a losing record at home twice.  We're not there yet...BG is 6-5 right now, but Akron is next....anyway.

This one stings because BG has been struggling to make shots...and came out 54% in the first half...and BG put itself in a position to win the game against a team they should beat at home...the Falcons led by 14 with 15:00 left to play in the game.

You lead by 14, you'd want to win that game.

Everything that happened after that was back to being the team we were trying to avoid.  BG scored 17 points in the last 15 minutes.  That includes THREE field goals.  BG's last FG came with more than 6 minutes left to play.  BG did not score at all over the last 2:51.

That's just a disaster.  In the post-game, Coach Huger said he felt like we were getting open looks and just not making them.  That was true outside and inside...BG missed a ton of close-in looks, especially on second chances. It was just so fast...BG was shooting well and then in one second they couldn't make anything.

You can see it right here.  Ball State shot 50% from 2FG and 3FG which left them with an eye-popping 64% EFG, while BG was 38% and 38%.  Not good.  The shooting difference was so severe that it allowed Ball State to make up for being badly out-rebounded and the fact that BG was +10 on FTs,  Yes, BG lost a game by 8 points and they were +10 a the line.  The rebounding is a good example...Ball isn't great on the boards and BG was able to get rebounds but only had 7 second chance points, which isn't much to show for all that.

The sole offensive bright spot for the game for BG was Zack Denny, who broke out of a shooting slump and scored 20 points on 6 of 13 and 4 of 9 shooting.  He also had a career-high 13 rebounds.  Alcegaire scored 12, but on 3 of 8 shooting.  Spencer Parker had an especially long night, shooting 2 of 12 with 5 turnovers.  In fact, not counting his shots, BG shot 44%.

BG has a chance to get well on the road against Miami and they need it. As you can see here, BG right now would be on the road for the MAC tourney and still has two games with Akron and Buffalo, the top two teams in the MAC right now.  (I know we might be better off on the road for the tourney, but let's not shoot for that!)

National Signing Day!! Follow it here....

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Falcon De-Commit

Excited to say I'm going to continue my academic and football career at The Air Force Academy. ✈️✈️ pic.twitter.com/uzsmFKtG7u

— Josh Stoner (@Josh_stoner20) February 2, 2016

Never feel bad losing a young man to the service academies.  Go get 'em Josh.

Blade Reports 8 BG Commits

John Wagner of the Blade has the news on commits to BG over the weekend, with a total of 8.  I don't want to steal his thunder, so hop on over and check it out.  Some of them we had here and some I had heard about but this provides confirmation.

Look, I always say that we can't really tell about a recruiting class until they get to their senior year.  Having said that, I do think there are signs that these guys might turn into good players.  Recruiting like this after a coaching change is tough...you lose guys and meanwhile you are starting from the beginning with new guys and a lot of the players are committed.  As our staff's first test, I'd say the early scores are good.  More tests to come.

All will be revealed tomorrow.  Wagner says to expect 20 signees tomorrow.

MBB! Ball State Preview....

Tuesday will bring the Falcons and the Ball State Cardinals together, two teams who are 4-4 to date.  Like BG, BSU bolted out to a 3-1 record before losing 3 of their last 4 to end up at 4-4.  They are 2-2 in the conference on the road--winning @WMU and @EMU (both of which BG did as well) and losing @Buffalo and @OU (which BG did not).  At home, they have beaten Miami (as BG did) and Toledo (which BG did not), and lost to Akron and Kent.

The Cardinal program has been in a historic doldrum for the last couple of years.  In the previous two seasons, they were 12-48 and 4-33 in MAC play.  I have always liked James Whitford, their Coach, and they have given him time to rebuild what was a true mess.  This year they are making some progress.

They are pretty much what you would expect overall, about average with the ball and without it and pretty much where BG is as well.  One note, they like to play at a very slow pace...66 possessions, which is 11th in the MAC.

On offense, their strategy is very clear.  They are the best shooting team in the MAC and this is due to them being the top 3-shooting team in the MAC.  They lead the MAC in making 3FGs (41%) and are 2nd in taking them as a portion of FG attempts overall.  They are 2nd in percentage of points coming from the 3.  They are also good at shooting the 2 (3rd as well).  The reason they aren't better offensively is they don't help themselves out in any other way.  They are 11th in taking care of the ball, 10th in offensive rebounds and 11th in getting to the line.  In addition, they are last in the MAC in allowing steals.

Flipping things around, we have a team that is pretty good defending the shot and getting turnovers--4th in both--average on the offensive boards (6th) and really only show a weakness at the foul line, where the Falcons have been inconsistent at best this season.

Three Cardinals score in double figures.  Their leading scorer (MAC Games only) is Ryan Weber, a transfer from Youngstown State who is 6'6" and scoring 11.9 PPG.  SO G Jeremie Tyler is is scoring 10.6 PPG on 39% shooting.  Bo Calhoun is scoring 10.4 on 45% shooting and leading the team with 8.6 rebounds per game.  Francis Kiapway, of Hamilton, ONT, is their leading 3FG shooter, hitting 46%.  Their assist leader is  Franko House with fewer than 3 assists per game.

BG is 1-3 right now at home in MAC play with the only win coming over Miami.  This is one on your home floor that you need to win.  If they let BSU shoot like CMU did in the first Stroh game, there's not going to be anything better happen.

BG Gets Safety Verbal From Florida

Six-foot-4 Lakeland (Fla.) safety Torrian Hampton has committed to Bowling Green: https://t.co/X9FDnm7KRF@StarFlight13 @AllenTrieu

— Corey Bender (@Corey_Bender) February 1, 2016

There's another football commit to BGSU...this one is Torrian Hampton, a safety from Florida.  He's got good size at 6'4".  He had an offer from Middle Tennessee, Liberty and Florida A&M.  He is from Lakeland (nickname:  Dreadnaughts, which is bad ass).   There are also reports that South Carolina was in to see him.

He was class 7-A Honorable Mention all-state in Florida.  He made 85 tackles and had 7 pass breakups.

Welcome to the Falcons, Torrian.