WTOL: Hluchoweckyj and Worrell to Leave Program

Source tells me that Malik Hluchoweckyj & Rasheed Worrell will both be leaving the BGSU Men's Basketball program.

— Jordan Strack (@JordanStrack) March 14, 2017

Well, some not great news from the men's basketball front, as reported by Jordan Strack of WTOL.

Hluchoweckyj is not a huge surprise.  He was hardly playing at all, made some starts following the suspension for the OU game.  Then, his minutes slowly dwindled until he did not play in 4 of the last 5 games.  He was the only Jans recruit who stayed with the program and he scored 39 career points.  He is from Nebraska.

Rasheed Worrell is a little more disappointing.  He red-shirted during the Jans year and then played during the Huger years.  He's 6'8" and gave the team important depth on the inside.  He started 28 games last year and then none this year, averaging 5.8 ppg and 4.2 RPG in 17 average minutes.  I always felt he had the ability to be, at least, a strong reserve for a team that is starved for inside players, but apparently it didn't work out.  He is from North Carolina.

Anyway, that leaves the men's basketball team with 5 returning scholarship players...Wiggins, Fox, Frye, Caldwell, and Lillard to go with the recruits and redshirts who are returning.  Fox will be the only senior.  Even before, next year was setting up to be a tough year and this will only make it more difficult.

There is time for Coach Huger to bring in even more new players or at least a player.  The key thing you would point to would be a graduate transfer, if available.  One of the reasons that this year's team was looking to be tough was that the recruiting had stopped kicking the can down the road with JUCO players.  Maybe that will change now.

Anyway, best to Rasheed and Malik.

MAC Post-Season Line Up

Kent #14 playing UCLA in Sacramento.

This is a tough assignment.  Kent has the potential to be a tough out, but I think UCLA has a shot to win it all.  Kent has a good defense, but that's going to be a tough night but the Bruins are #3 in the nation in offensive efficiency and in the top 80 in defense.  Also, they have to go a long way to play that game.  To their benefit, the game will be the last one played in the first round.

Akron is a 7-seed in the NIT, playing @Houston (#2) on Wednesday.  Houston is ranked #49 in the country on kenpom and will be a big favorite on home floor against the Zips.  That said, Akron is a tough out.  Also, depends on how much each team feels like playing.

Ball State is going to keep playing.  They will play @IPFW on Wednesday in the CIT.   IPFW is #145 in kenpom.com and Ball State is in the 170s.  That's a good in-state matchup and remember that IPFW beat Indiana earlier this year.

UT is in the post-season.  They are playing in the CBI @ George Washington on Wednesday.  That could be a good matchup, with GW at #125 and UT at #129.  GW fired their coach during the season and is still working with an interim coach.

For their part, Buffalo has opted out of the post-season field.  I think it makes sense.  I hope the players weren't denied a chance to play together one last time if that's what they wanted, but these are incredibly minor events and that UB team is senior laden and so it isn't really a developmental opportunity.  If I recall correctly, this is not the first time Buffalo has done this.

Finally, the late report is that Ohio U. did not get an invite anywhere.  I suspect they did and chased it off, but I could be wrong.  Anyway, at this hour, it appears that OU's season is over.

List of Shame to 10

Now 49 elapsed years since BG has been in the NCAA tournament.  Northwestern has stepped off the list, bringing it down to 9, not including BG.  Here is the company we live with now.  Next year will be a half-century.

Columbia: Last appeared in 1968
Tennessee Tech: Last appeared in 1963
Maine: Division I since 1962
New Hampshire: Division I since 1962
Dartmouth: Last appeared in 1959
Army: Division I since 1948
Citadel: Division I since 1948
Northwestern: Division I since 1948
St. Francis (N.Y.): Division I since 1948
William & Mary: Division I since 1948

MAC Update

So, the season ended last night for MAC MBB, as Kent pulled the big "upset" and defeated Akron to win the MAC and head to the Big Dance.  I say "upset" because based on the last weeks of the season, it wasn't as shocking as the seeding might indicate.  After losing to BG and UT in mid-February and being 5-7, the Flashes won 9 of 10 coming home, beating Akron, Ohio and Buffalo twice each.  They were playing the best ball in the MAC.  Then, they won the tournament playing a bye game on Monday, which isn't "four games in four days." as the ESPN announcer was fond of saying, but was still impressive.

I guess you might think it isn't fair to win the regular season and not get the bid, but titles are decided on the field.  There's always a playoff.  I can't think of a sport that decides its title based on regular season standings (in the United States).  It is cruel, but Kent did also beat Akron 2 of 3 times.  (Oddly, BG also beat both teams, with 2 of 7 wins against the top teams in the  MAC).

Due to their previous struggles, they are set to be a #15 seed, based on Lunardi.  The last time a >4 seed won the tourney was in 2011 when Akron beat...Kent.

Anyway.  More tonight as the tournament pairings shake out as well as the other "minor" tourneys.  Seven MAC teams were .500 or above overall.

In the other news, John Cooper was fired at Miami, to no one's surprise.  They should hire carefully, because that program is a sleeping giant.  (John Groce?)  They are a historic MAC power and could get back there again.  This is a great job for the same reasons Chuck Martin thought it was a great job on the football side.

I'd guess that will be it.  His contract was up anyway, so it is more a non-renewal.  I actually thought Senderhof might be in trouble, but clearly not.  Others I wonder about would include Hawkins, Murphy and Montgomery, with no idea on their contract status.

Huger Rips Selfish Team, Inherited Guys

VIDEO: BGSU Men's Basketball Coach Michael Huger offered some sharp criticism of his team after a season-ending loss to Toledo last night: pic.twitter.com/spxZtl46ra

— Jordan Strack (@JordanStrack) March 7, 2017

This video was posted by Jordan Strack at WTOL.  This is a pretty big WOW, if you ask me.

You should definitely take a couple of minutes and watch it.  Coach Huger gives a pretty bleak look at his program as it stands today.

• Guys with one foot in and one foot out.
• You question how tough your team is.  Mentally and physically.
• We played selfish basketball.  Offensively and defensively.
• Once it started to go bad, we couldn't stick together.
• It's like it's the last go-round and you are going to show everybody what you can do and you show everybody what you can't do.
• When you inherit guys, it is hard to get them to change.  It's hard to change a guy who has been doing it this way for so long and we're trying to change him and it's hard.
• We had the same thing last year with the same issues, and now hopefully we can move forward.

Ouch.  Oh, and when he says now, he means that now that all of the players from previous regimes have moved through the program.  Those are the guys he inherited.  (It actually isn't quite true.  He also inherited Worrell and Fox).

Anyway, in yesterday's game, the only "inherited players" who played were Denny, Worrell and Fox.  The other seniors were Alcegaire and Ali, both of whom Huger recruited and were not "inherited."

So, I guess I understand what's being said.  Denny did shoot 3 of 7.  And, he played only 17 minutes.  (Worrell had 5 points and 4 rebounds in 20 minutes).

Ultimately, though, they can't possibly be all of the problem that we saw out there last night.  A significant part of the issue has to be guys who Huger didn't inherit, because that was who played most of the minutes and the whole team was getting skunked.

Anyway, it was a disappointing way to end the year.  BG was playing them relatively tough and with 15:42 left, BG was down only 4.  Over the next 8 minutes, BG was outscored 25-5 as UT blew the game wide open and never looked back.

I'm a supporter of Coach Huger and I definitely think he came into a difficult situation.  There will be a season review coming up, but in the meantime the team was a little better in conference play and about the same overall in year 2 when compared to year 1.  Next year is going to be rough, but starting with next year and extending onward, if guys are "one foot in and one foot out" then there's going to be no doubt where the accountability for it lies.

Erratum:  Mailk H. also was committed to BG before Huger took over.  We regret the error.

That's it. It's Over.

That's it.  There will be no run in the MAC tournament this year.  UT took a moderately close game at halftime and then blew BG off the hardwood in the second half, leading by more than 20 most of the way and walking to the win, 77-62, in a game that wasn't actually that close.

More to come on the game and the season.  BG finishes 13-19.  For now, the streak continues.  1968.

Denny and Frye Get MAC Honors

Nice honors for two Falcons today.

First, Zack Denny received honorable mention all-MAC honors as well as being named to the all-defensive team.  It is his first time to get an all-MAC honor.  His primary defensive stat is steals.  He averaged 2 steals a game, which was 3rd in the MAC and he was 2nd in steal%.

The other honoree was Dylan Frye on the all-freshman team.  For the year, he also shot 9.0 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.2 assists. His 40.0 three-point percentage ranks 10th in the conference. Frye is also shooting 44.8 percent from the field for the season.

The last Falcon to make All-Freshman was Joe Jakubowski in 2008, something made even weirder by the fact he and Frye could be twins.

Congrats to Zack and Dylan.  Great job!