Falcons Get Additional New Verbal

It's Over !!!God is Good #nestsup17 💪💯🏈 pic.twitter.com/A25pEfmrOw

— Calvin Clater⚡ (@Clater911) January 23, 2017

BG has another verbal for this year's class.  This young man is Calvin Clater of South Hills HS in Fort Worth, TX.  247 has him ranked as a 2-star recruit.  They also report he had D1 offers from Texas State, UMass, and Nevada.   In fact, until a couple days ago he was committed to Texas State.  He de-committed and then he committed to BG.  Actually, before that he was committed to Stephen F. Austin.  Texas State was moving him to D-back.  No idea if we are thinking that way, but see below.

He's got good size.  He's 6'3" 1/2.  This coaching staff appears to have an interest in tall WRs.  There's more than one site out there that thought he would end up at Texas Tech for that reason.

Welcome to the Falcons, Calvin

New Football Verbals

Commitment...🔸🔶🔸 #nestlevel pic.twitter.com/gkkgYqrC6l

— Noah Harvey (@harveyn11) January 22, 2017

So, we are seeing two new verbals for the football team off the most recent official visit weekend.  There maybe be more....just follow what I see online....

Anyway, the first is Noah Harvey.  He's listed a 3-star recruit on 24/7.  He's 6'3" and 210, and ranked as the #10 player in Wisconsin, which is pretty good.  His only other reported offer was from Lance Leipold, MR WISCONSIN.

Noah is from Hartland, WI, (of course he is) where he attended Arrowhead HS.  Hartland is due west of Milwaukee a piece.  He was named second team all-area and also second-team AP All-state and made the Wisconsin Football Coaches All-state team.

The second is Matthew Guevremont, a Canadian-born  OL who is 6'4" and 300.  He had a serious knee injury in his first season at Chabot College in California. He red-shirted and then after his next year at JUCO he signed with Arkansas State.   No idea what happened, but he ended up back at Chabot, where he had a good enough year to be named first-team All-California.

Harvey steps onto a defense with only 6 or 7 scholarship LBS and with senior LBs Austin Valdez, Aaron Banks, and Nate Locke.  He has the chance to play a bunch of games if he turns into a player.

Guevremont might be able to help us right away.  BG had graduation losses at OL and he might be able to start right off the bat.  If he does start, 40% of our o-line will likely be Canadian-born.

Noah, Matthew...welcome to the Falcons.

If only we played Ball State every game

"Can you talk to Steinbrecher about us playing
Ball State more?"

So, BG picked up their second win of MAC play and their second win over Ball State.

If only we could play Ball State every week.

Because precisely ALL of BG's wins in the MAC have been against Ball State.

Last time we got a little bit over our skiis after the Ball State win and started to get a little optimistic.  This time, we're going to wait, oh, let's say until BG can win like 3 in a row before we start to think that we might be starting to gel.

For now, we'll take it.  BG is 2-4 and needed this win badly.  The Falcons nearly handed it back at the end, but got one last play and put it away, 79-74.  Things are still tough, but very tough without this win.

BG started the game with Dylan Frye in the starting lineup and Antwon Lillard on the bench.  Coach said they wanted another ball handler and creator on the floor.  And BG certainly got off to a good start.  BG was up 15 with 8 minutes left to go in the first half.  Ball State ticked it down to 6 but BG went to the locker room up 10.

That was a lead BG still held 6 minutes into the second half.  But BG went the next five minutes only scoring 1 point while BGSU got 9 to cut the lead to 2.  From there on in the game was on.  Ball State cut the lead to 1 numerous times but BG was able to bump it back up.

The key sequence began with about 1 minute left.  Wiggins picked up an offensive board and found Matt Fox in the chaos.  Fox drilled the 3 (second huge hoop of the year) to put BG up by 5.

You'd have to think you were in good shape at that point.  Alas....

With :55 Zack Denny fouled.  Ball State made 1 FT.  BG by 5.
With :34 left Fox gave up a steal but Ball State couldn't convert and Fox had the board.  Denny fouled.
With: 20 left, Denny splits the pair.  BG by 6.  (Should be good, right?).
With :15 Ball State drills a 3.  BG by 3.
With: 11 left, Denny fouled hits both.  BG by 5. (Feeling good?)
With :10 left and BSU without time outs, Ali fouls a guy 88 feet from the basket in which is an incredibly bad play.  Without, BSU has to take up half the game getting a shot off.
With :10 left BSU makes both FTs.  BG by 3.  (Still good?)
With :10 left BG inbounds the ball to Denny, their best FT shooter and SR and he literally fumbles the ball out of bounds.  Now, BSU has the ball in the frontcourt with a one possession game.

Finally, BG makes a play.  Matt Fox tips the inbound, it results in a turnover and Ali ices the game on the other end with a layup.

Eesh.  But, hey...a win.  You build the big lead and made FTs and ultimately made a bad turnover but then got it back.

These are the stats of a close game.  In fact, they are even in 3 of the first four categories.  The biggest issue is the fact that Ball State, which had been scoring like crazy in the last weeks, found themselves being stopped by the BG defense.  This was the key.  BG had .97 points per possession, which is below their normal average, but held BSU to .91, which is their lowest in MAC play.

Their shooting% is the second lowest of the year for them.  The previous lowest was when they played BG.  Anyway, BG also kept them off the boards, which had been a big issue for the Falcons in MAC play.  Ball State hasn't had that low a result since November.

Denny scored 17 on a tough shooting night with 4-10 shooting and 7 of 8 from the line and 1 nearly disastrous turnover. Wiggins had 14 on 6 of 9 shooting and 14 rebounds.  Ali had 13 points on 4 of 9 shooting and only 2 assists over 4 turnovers.  Alcegaire had 10 points on 3 of 8 shooting on what seemed like an uneven day, including 3 turnovers.  Dylan Frye, making the start, played 32 minutes without a field goal, missing all 7 shots.  He did make 5 rebounds a 2 assists. Off the bench, Lillard had 6 points in 23 minutes.  Coach was also complimentary of the play of Rasheed Worrell's play, with 5 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals in only 11 minutes of play.

FWIW, Todd Walker said Jeffrey Uju might be back in a couple weeks.

So, the Falcons have a shot now to get a 2nd in a row.  They travel to Mt. Pleasant to play CMU. The Chips are beatable, though the game is at home.  Having said that, Keene went off for a D1-high 50 today.

Football Opponents Released

So, as the football coaches work toward another official visit weekend, which is key, the MAC announced the opponents for 2017.  Dates and game times are still forthcoming.

The idea is that it is the same people we played last year in the MAC, just flipped.  This is actually good for BG, who get UT, NIU, Akron and OU at home.  That's a good schedule for fans and it is a good schedule for our team having a shot to win the East.

Meanwhile, we go to Buffalo, Kent, Miami and EMU.  You need road wins to win (even) the East and a couple of those are going to be tough.  Especially Miami and EMU, who appear to be on the rise.

If you are thinking about winning the East and need to construct 6 wins, and even with this schedule it looks tough.  Not sure what the outlook is for NIU....but OU will be a tough game even at the Doyt.  Let's say you win 3 home games.  You need 3 road games.  Even with Buffalo and Kent, you will need to win at Miami or EMU.  Or run the table at home.  Which would be great because that would mean we beat Toledo.

I've said on twitter that I don't think we can really compete until 2018.  I just see a lack of playmakers on defense and offense.  If we do win in 2017, then we will have answered questions about our coaching.  Even in the East, I don't see this clicking out.

The non-conference schedule is really tough.  Yes, we play South Dakota, who were 4-7 last year.  However, BG plays @MSU, @Northwestern and @Middle Tennessee State. That's tough and likely 3 losses.

So, if you're looking for a .500 season and a bowl game, you might see South Dakota, Kent, Buffalo, OU, Akron, NIU.

Anyway, fodder for January.

Falcon Football Spring Roster Reveals Departures

So BG released the latest version of the spring roster and there are a couple significant omissions when you compare it to the previous roster.

We also have no idea what happened and a lot of times we don't hear anything.  Usually, players just decide college football isn't for them anymore, they are a long way from home, etc.  But other things could be at play too.

So, the following players are no longer listed on the roster who were expected back. (There are a couple more who were walk-on types).

• CB CJ Pickrom--This one is most significant.  A lack of depth forced him into action but once that happens, things are usually picking up and you benefit from them being on the field.  At a positon of continuing need as well.
• WR Vanel Dossous--He had 9 catches and made 2 starts.  Was JUCO coming in, transferring to a DII school.  Obviously didn't get a lot of run, but was at a position of need.
• DL Grant Coffey--California JUCO D-lineman, battled injuries, played in 1 game.  Was expected to contribute.
• RB Charles Lamar--R-FR year, DNP.  Was recruited from Florida.
• DL De'Angelo Ware--Played some in '15.

For those of you keeping score on the blame game, 3 of the 5 were Jinks guys.  Lamar was in Babers only full-year recruiting class and Ware was a Babers recruit from his first class, which didn't start until late December.

These things do happen and, actually, given the instability in the program, it could have been worse, in my opinion.  Still, BG has numbers issues and these departures put stress on the system.  At this point, I honestly think BG is looking at a 2018 return to competitiveness, but that could change.

Forget Muncie

So, you know in the movie Forget Paris, where Billy Crystal is trying to rekindle the honeymoon phase of his relationship with Debra Winger which was in Paris and she's like,"Forget Paris."?

Now, for this men's basketball season, it has turned into "Forget Muncie."  At the time--following exceeded expectations in Akron and then the road win over Ball State--it felt like things might be coming together.  It has not been a good two weeks.  Since that, BG has lost all 3 games by 10+ points, with two of those games at home and the players were called selfish by the Coach.  No good at all. And for a team that was pinning its hope on some close losses in the non-MAC season, losing by 28, 17 and 12 in consecutive non-competitive CONFERENCE games was sobering.

As this rematch will be if BG doesn't get things squared around.  This game is literally two weeks since the last one, so here's the first preview, which still should suffice. 

Whats happened since then?  Well, we've covered that story for BG.  Ball State is 3-0 since we played them.  The beat Miami at home, Buffalo on the road and CMU at home.  In that stretch, they are scoring like crazy.  No fewer than 85 points in any game.  Offensive efficiencies of 1.17, 1.24 and 1.26 per game. BG's highest is 1.17, which was Akron.  The Cardinals are hot.  They are shooting 42% from 3FG over those 3 games and 61% from 2FG.  They remain the best FT shooting team in the MAC at 78%.

So, here's the thing about the win in Muncie.  They didn't make shots and they didn't get to the line.  Whether it was BG's defense or cold shooting....and BG is 10th in the MAC in conference play at defending the shot, including this game....but Ball State didn't put the ball into the basket and only had .99 points per possession.  Also, they turned the ball over a lot, something that also plagued them in their next day against Miami but they cleaned up for the next 2.

Now, maybe Ball State has been hot for the last 3 games.  And, to be sure, they are unlikely to continue shooting like that, even if just considering regression to the mean.  But, they are also unlikely to be down around .99 points per possession again.  And BG is the worst offensive team in the MAC in conference play, so either we get really hot (unlikely) or we have to keep them within reach.

Tayler Persons had a huge game last time for BSU.  He scored 21.  Franko House had 16 and 10.

 Sellers, Kiaway, Weber and Tyler all had very long shooting nights from beyond the arc.  Those guys have heated up since then.

For BG, the Falcons had a strong game from the starters, something that has not been typical, based on Coach Huger's comments from post-games.

So, it is a new day.  Forget Muncie.  Both teams will need to change their trendlines for BG to win this one.

Falcon MBB Skids Continue

BG lost 85-73 to the Toledo Rockets at Savage.

That's 6 straight to the Rockets and 3 straight this season....not to the Rockets, just in general.

There's not a good feeling that comes from losing to UT.  They are the better team and have been for a few years, really since Kowalcyk got things going after the Gene Cross debacle. And this year's first matchup was really more of the same.

BG had a run in the first half to take the lead 32-30, with 4 minutes left, but UT went on a 13-0 run to close the half out.  UT led the rest of the way...they used an 11-0 to stretch the lead over 20 and though BG kept playing, they couldn't get closer than 9 and that only happened once.  Essentially, for the last 24 minutes of the game it was no contest as the Rockets cruised to the win.

So, at least on this night, they remain the better team.

And there is nothing good about that.

Coach Huger is unlikely to be too happy with his defense after this game.  It was a tough assignment going in.  UT, as noted in the preview, is a highly efficient offensive team.  They were here as well.  UT scored 1.16 points per possession, the 3rd outsized offensive game BG has allowed in 5 MAC games.  UT got there by shooting 61% from 2FG and 45% from 3FG, both of which are really good numbers.  They also got to the line 31 times--BG was fouling a lot at the end.  UT was 18-31 at the line...but players not named Stevie Taylor were 18-23.  Taylor dropped a bagel on 8 FT attempts.

Anyway, BG end up with 1 point per possession, which is below the current D1 average.  BG shot OK on 2FGS (52%) but really gagged it up on the 3FG, making only 3-19.  Denny missed all 5 of his attempts.  BG had a big game on the offensive boards--which helps that 2FG% as well--but only shot 12 FTs, making 8.  Overall, BG was -10 at the line.

Coach Huger called out the Falcon starters after the NIU game.  I'd say he got a much stronger performance offensively from them, though he may still not be happy with the defense.  Wiggins double-doubled with 17 points on 6 of 9 shooting and 11 rebounds.  Alcegaire had 14 on 6 of 15 shooting, 7 rebounds and 4 turnovers.  Denny had 12 but it took him 5 of 15 shooting to get there.  He also had 7 boards.  Ish Ali had 9 on 4 of 12 shooting, but added 8 assists over 3 turnovers.  Dylan Frye scored 9 points off the bench.  BG played a much shorter rotation.  The top 6 players went 175 of the game's minutes.

So, back to the Stroh with a return engagement against Ball State, against whom BG experienced their best moment of the season.  at 1-4 in MAC play, things have rapidly sunk to a bad place.