Real MAC Standings....

CMU falls into the basement, as the Falcons are in 5th.  Two big road wins in a row really help...EMU loss will be looked back upon as a lost opportunity.

Falcons Take Care of Business, Beat Ball State

On a night when the MAC West hosted all six cross over games and still only won 2, the BG Falcons were heading in a road game you almost had to have.  You know things are going to get tougher in the coming weeks, and the teams you are racing with are winning like crazy right now, so you had to have it.

And they got it.  It represents the Falcon's first 3-game winning streak since last season's cross-over stretch.  (UT, EMU, NIU).  But, with two road wins against the putative best teams in the West are nice to have.  Last night's game was a good victory.  It was a tight game the whole way, neither team had a huge advantage, and yet BG was the team that made the plays in the final few minutes to win the game.

For example....after BG had held the lead for 3-4 minutes, BSU tied the game with about 3 minutes left in the game.  (48-48).  Dee Brown came down and hit a 3.  On the other hand, Cam Black got a block on Jarrod Jones (Todd Walker called it as two blocks, though that did not show up in the stats) and then BG came down and Brown drained another 3.  In 1:05 of elapsed time, BG had opened a 6-point lead on 2 shots and a stop.

That's how teams win games that are close.  In fact, Ball State never again had the ball with a chance to tie the game on one possession.  BG ground it out, made 7 out of 8 free throws in the last minute, and left with a 7 point win, 61-54.

College Basketball

With that, the Falcons move into 5th in the MAC.  Certainly, the teams from the West get an advantage--they get to play each other over the last 6 games--but even having said that, BG needs to take a small advantage in the standings.

The key for BG has been defense.  BG held Ball State to .86 points per possession, which is the 4th best MAC defensive performance of the season, with the only better ones being OU, NIU and WMU.  BG has only lost one game when it defended at least that well all season (WKU).  In this particular game, that breaks out to BG having a big advantage in forcing turnovers.

The shooting was pretty even, rebounding slightly better for Ball State, and Free Throws were even for most of the game until the end...really, BG's defensive efficiency rested on getting the turnover, which is a possession where almost always the offense has no chance to score.  Essentially, that gave BG five extra possessions at .97 points per possession.

Speaking of which, BG had a good but not great offensive game.  We're typically over a point a possession. We shot a little bit worse than we normally do, especially during a cold stretch in the early second half.  Having said that, the key thing about basketball is if you are defending well, then you are always in position for Dee Brown to win the game late with two shots....and if you allow yourself to be guarded, you are always in the position for the other team to win the game late with two shots.

College Basketball

Anyway, the big individual night belonged to A'uston Calhoun who went off for 27 points on 52% shooting and 9 rebounds.  I will say this, you just always sense that Calhoun has this kind of game in him every night (not a 27 point night, but an 18/8 game) and sometimes he is feeling it and sometimes he is not.  There is no doubt that he is getting serious double coverage--in fact, Coach Orr gave Calhoun credited for creating the space for one of Brown's game-deciding 3s.

One thing is that Calhoun seems to be better at the line.  If we can get the ball inside to him, he will get fouled if nothing else, and at 75% free throws, he becomes an offensive force just by that.  I honestly don't know if we just aren't good at getting the ball in there or whether there are some games he is much better than he is in other games....but I do think that if we are going to make a run through the East, we need 18/8 numbers out of him consistently.  I think it is too hard for us to win games on the perimeter.

Dee Brown had 12 and 5 assists.  Crawford only scored 5 and had 6 assists and 4 turnovers.  Scott Thomas is in a shooting slump, though he did contribute 3 assists and 4 steals.  This happens, he will find the touch again.

And, Cam Black played 29 minutes, a season high.  As you can see, after troughing through December he is seeing more minutes.  His stats line is never overwhelming, but there are things you can do in basketball that you can't count, and I'm guessing he was doing them last night.

NCAA Basketball Stats

So, with a 3-game winning streak, BG now girds itself for the first visit of the hated Rockets to the Stroh Center. A couple things...they beat OU at Savage last night, and I think they are improving.  (BG beat OU in BG, too, FWIW).  They are the only West team to win 2 cross-over games.  Rian Pearson is OMG!  And they are the Rockets.

First, on the heels of this winning streak, it would be great to set an early Stroh Center standard with a big, loud crowd...our guys deserve it and so do the Rockets.  And, it would be great for the Falcons to make that winning streak 4.  We are really on a knife's edge, which is what makes the conference season so compelling.

Here we go...BEAT THE ROCKETS

A Tempo-Free Appreciation of Dee Brown

I know that some people are a little frustrated with Dee Brown...he isn't flashy, and never seems to be a huge contributor....has a big game once in a while, but is just sort of there.

I'm not an Xs and Os guy, so I might not catch contributions guys make that don't end up on the stats sheet.  Having said that, I do think Brown is a good player and makes a contribution to the team and it might be bigger than people think.

Based on MAC games this year, Brown is:

• 6th in FT%.
• 9th in Assist/TO ratio.
• 13th in Offensive rating (a measure of shooting and assists divided by the possessions you use).
• 9th in Plus/Minus.  BG averages +6 points per game when he is in as opposed to out of the game.
• He's 15th in scoring and 48th in possessions used.

I think that tells a pretty good story.  He's a very solid player who scores without taking a ton of shots, converts free throws, doesn't turn the ball over and still gets 2 assists a game....and the team plays better when he is in the game.  His numbers have steadily risen in these areas every year and he is having his best season as a Falcon.  He's not an all-time great on any statistical measures, but he is a 4-year player, a 3-year contributor who is having the kind of senior season that is contributing and making the team better.

Anyway, just some thoughts.

BG Travels to Middletown, USA, Looks to Exceed Mean

So, the Falcons head to Muncie, IN, to play the Ball State Cardinals.  In addition to being the home of Ball State, Muncie has the distinction of once being named the most average town in America---America's Middletown.

It fits, if you have been there.  I mean, I'm not sure it is any more in the middle than 100 other places, and it had to be somebody, and this is who it was.

This will be a very interesting game.  Ball State has a 12-9 record, but they are 4-5 in the MAC and the out-of-conference wins were racked up against the #331 ranked schedule in D1 (out of 345).  They have 5 wins against teams with RPIs over 300 (honestly, even making that work from a scheduling standpoint is a challenge) and won non-D1 win.  Then add in IUPUI, Texas Southern and Toledo (all between 250 and 300) and you get an idea what I am talking about.

They did beat Butler in Muncie.  They also lost to IUPUI as well as beat them.

They ran through the first West portion of their schedule with only one loss (EMU at home), and now they are 0 for the East, losing at home to Akron (not surprising) but also Miami, in a game that must give BG some hope.  They have lost 4 in a row.

Now, on one hand, they are clearly not playing well.  On the other hand, teams on four game losing streaks playing at home can be very difficult to beat...they have their backs to the wall and will really want to win.

Having said that, this is a game a team needs to win if they are making a serious run.  On the road this is certainly not easy or a gimmee, but good teams can do things that are not easy.  Coming off the road win at WMU and with UT down the road, it would give BG a realistic shot at a 5-1 run through the West, which is pretty much what are the cool kids are doing anyway.

On the plus side, the Cardinals feature one of the best players in the MAC---Jarrod Jones.  He's leading them in scoring and rebounds (15/9).  We've seen this before on struggling teams, but Jones is actually a pretty good player.  He is only using 25% of their possessions (15th in MAC).  Interestingly, he was 7th in the MAC in offensive rating for all games and 29th for conference games, so I am assuming he is working harder to score in MAC play (as the level of the competition got tougher).

Randy Davis is their next best player.  He's a PG getting 8 points and 4 assists per game (9th in the MAC) but with only about 1 turnover, a ratio that is first in the MAC and 16th in the country.

They are both seniors, so I think that adds pressure to the Cardinal's position.

They have three other guys scoring 8 points a game.

Their team stats are about what you expect for MAC games, which is in the middle of the pack.  They are 7th in EFG% and offensive efficiency, 8th in FT Rate, 6th in offensive rebound % and 4th in turnover percentage, all of which fits together very nicely.  They are 4th in most 3s attempted and 11th in making them, so that bodes well for us.  Unless they are falling, in which case it will be a rainy night in Lyndhurst.

They are 6th in defensive efficiency but 9th in effective FG% allowed.  They do keep you off the line--only 3 teams allow a lower free throw rate--and the are 6th in forcing turnovers.  They are also good on the defensive boards--also 4th in the MAC.  So, not great shot defense, but they upgrade by limiting second shots and free throws.

NCAA Basketball

Ball State has beaten BG 6 of the last 8 times in Muncie.  One of the 2 was a 2003 MAC tournament win that was a nice lift for BG at the time.  (Ron Lewis hung 28/8 up for BG and Netter dropped 19.  The game featured 61 fouls and 78 free throws.  Good times).

Anyway, in Middletown, this is a pretty even game.  It would be great to see BG generate its first 3-game winning streak since well into last year, and pick up another key road win, both as a tiebreaker and as a buffer against another trip through the East.

MAC Online News Association Players of the Week

East: Jordan Crawford, BGSU
West: Rian Pearson, Toledo

Which is exactly how I voted. Great week, Jordan!

Interesting Blade Account of Signing Day...

The Blade ran an interesting account of signing day in BG and at Toledo.  Much of it is kind of predictable (is the fax working?  It it?)  But, first, the reporters had to be down there at the ass-crack of dawn...so I admire that.

For BG, there was one interesting bit....when Mikhail Dubose decided to sign with WMU, the Falcons turned to Anthony Farinella, the K they signed.  So that was (if you will) an audible when they got to the line of scrimmage.

Other note:  I'd like to meet Nick Monroe.  That guy is all-in.