37 years and counting....

BGSU33 · Post by **BGSU33** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 2:36 pm

.......since our last NCAA appearance. Un-Falcon-Believable! I'm beginning to wonder if any of us will ever see BG in the NCAA Tournament again in our lifetime? That might sound silly to say, but if someone would have made that bet over the last 35 years, it would have stood up. So, as they've been saying for the last 37 years, there's always next year, and the year after that, and the year after that, etc., etc. etc.

UK Peregrine · Post by **UK Peregrine** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 2:57 pm

We're the Cubbies of the NCAA basketball world. Smile, there's alwyas next year.[/img]

BGSU33 · Post by **BGSU33** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 3:02 pm

No doubt UK.....no doubt.

FALCON FLIER · Post by **FALCON FLIER** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 3:23 pm

I know it has been an awful long time, but BG should have been in the NCAA's a number of times since 1968 if there was any justice. A 23-9 record back in 2001-02 with wins over Michigan and Mississippi among others was not enough to get BG into the Big Dance. We lost to Kent in the MAC tournament finals the year they went to the Elite 8. Just because we have not been there does not mean we haven't deserved to be. You either win the MAC conference title or go NITing. Sad to say.

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 3:33 pm

FALCON FLIER wrote:I know it has been an awful long time, but BG should have been in the NCAA's a number of times since 1968 if there was any justice. A 23-9 record back in 2001-02 with wins over Michigan and Mississippi among others was not enough to get BG into the Big Dance. We lost to Kent in the MAC tournament finals the year they went to the Elite 8. Just because we have not been there does not mean we haven't deserved to be. You either win the MAC conference title or go NITing. Sad to say.

Okay, so we know that the only way we're going to the NCAA is to win the MAC tourney. SO DO IT!

I'm sorry, but I don't buy into this we deserved this or that crap. Were we among the top 64 that year? Yeah, most likely. However, we knew what we had to do in order to get into that tournament. We have known exactly what it takes to get in the tourney every year. We have continually failed to do what is necessary to get into the big dance. Look back at that season and you'll see that Butler had just as good of a case for the big dance as we did. What happened next? We got dialed by Butler in the NIT.

Isn't it a little sad that we haven't managed to win the MAC tourney once in that time period? If you want something go out and take it. If you keep leaving it in the hands of the selection committee then you're going to get left behind.

I'm tired of not making the dance, but I'm just as tired of hearing everyone say, "We would've been in if there was any justice"

Schadenfreude · Post by **Schadenfreude** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 12:13 pm

hammb wrote:
FALCON FLIER wrote:I know it has been an awful long time, but BG should have been in the NCAA's a number of times since 1968 if there was any justice. A 23-9 record back in 2001-02 with wins over Michigan and Mississippi among others was not enough to get BG into the Big Dance. We lost to Kent in the MAC tournament finals the year they went to the Elite 8. Just because we have not been there does not mean we haven't deserved to be. You either win the MAC conference title or go NITing. Sad to say.
Okay, so we know that the only way we're going to the NCAA is to win the MAC tourney. SO DO IT!

I'm sorry, but I don't buy into this we deserved this or that crap. Were we among the top 64 that year? Yeah, most likely. However, we knew what we had to do in order to get into that tournament. We have known exactly what it takes to get in the tourney every year. We have continually failed to do what is necessary to get into the big dance. Look back at that season and you'll see that Butler had just as good of a case for the big dance as we did. What happened next? We got dialed by Butler in the NIT.

Isn't it a little sad that we haven't managed to win the MAC tourney once in that time period? If you want something go out and take it. If you keep leaving it in the hands of the selection committee then you're going to get left behind.

I'm tired of not making the dance, but I'm just as tired of hearing everyone say, "We would've been in if there was any justice"

If the MAC had never started the tourney, Bowling Green would have been in the NCAAs three or four times since 1980.

That rankles me. I know, for financial and marketing reasons, we need to have the tournament -- but Bowling Green has been best in the MAC several times, and it didn't matter.

orangeandbrown · Post by **orangeandbrown** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 12:30 pm

Also, now that you don't have a true round robin schedule, it is very difficult to determine a true champion based on the regular season because varying schedules would play into it too much.

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 1:12 pm

If we were truly the best team those seasons we should've won the tournament.

It may sound trite, but we KNOW what it takes to make the big dance. They have failed in it every year.

I LIKE the tournament, heck I LOVE it. I've been up there for a lot of games the past few years and it is a great weekend of basketball. It puts everything out there on the line for that 3 day stretch. BG has put themselves into a favorable position to win the thing multiple times, as you mentioned Schad, and we've failed each of those times.

I'm not much into moral victories, nor am I into the "boohoo we should've made it" sentiment. Do I think we were probably good enough to be in the big dance a couple times in that stretch? Certainly. However, that is our fault for putting ourselves into that position in the first place. When you put your fate into the hands of the selection committee you're playing with fire.

FALCON FLIER · Post by **FALCON FLIER** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 2:43 pm

It seems to me the regular season is what determines who is the best team in the conference. The tournament can be won by a team that is hot at the right time. It is the level of excellence over an entire season against all the teams in the conference that is the best gauge of who is actually the best. For the power conferences the tournaments are simply an event to determine seedings. For the one bid conferences like the MAC the pressure to win is far greater as the NIT beckons the 20 win losers.

But why BG has not been able to win the MAC tourney is a mystery. I just don't want fans to believe the Falcons have not had a NCAA worthy team since 1968. Schadenenfreude is right, without the tournament this is not an issue and BG would have had multiple trips since 1968. Now if we were in the MEAC we would have been a fixture in the "big dance".

orangeandbrown · Post by **orangeandbrown** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 3:28 pm

We may have had tourney worthy teams, but we haven't had any tourney teams.

BGSU33 · Post by **BGSU33** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 5:53 pm

I agree if we were the best team in the MAC, we should have won a MAC Tournament by now. We had some great teams in 1997, 2000 and 2002 and should have gotten the job done. But, my arguement with that is, you can make a case about 34 times a year for every at-large bid that is handed out to teams who didn't get the automatic bid for winning a conference tournament. Year after year there are 30-plus teams who get in because they had good seasons and didn't win a conference tournament. There are upsets in the conference tournament all the time, every single year, time and time again. Heck, look at Georgia Tech last year....they couldn't win the ACC Tournament but almost won the NCAA Tournament after losing in the NCAA Finals. This year in the mAC, it's a #7 seed vs. #4 championship. Upsets are what make conference tournaments.

The fact of the matter is, yes, we probably should have won a MAC Tournament and that would have gotten us in. But some of our recent teams "should" have gotten in just like all the other at-large bids did that year. Take 2002 for example, a year we lost I believe six games prior to our NIT loss (three to Kent State who went to the Elite Eight and one to Ball State who beat Kansas and UCLA) and we advances all the way to the MAC Championship. Mississippi, a team that went 18-13 and lost in the SEC Quarterfinals, got in over us with an at-large bid and we beat them head-to-head on a neutral floor in Alaska. Ole Miss also lost to George Mason at home that year. That was a case of the NCAA Selection Committee rewarding a team for a decent season and punsihing a team with a great season. Yes the SEC is tougher than the MAC, but we excelled in our conference and they chugged along in theirs.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda....I know.....but until at-large bids are no longer handed out....I will forever say we deserved a bid in some or all of those seasons. Because conference tournament will forever and will always produce upsets, and at-large bids will continue to go to "major" schools over "mid-major" schools time and time again for the most part. BG should have won a MAC Title....but it should have also been in an NCAA Tournament since 1968.

golfertk14 · Post by **golfertk14** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 5:13 pm

maybe im nieve or im still fairly new to the BG world, but our team has a good chance to go dancin' in the next couple years. Just look at this line-up! We're gonna be there soon-quote me on that.

kdog27 · Post by **kdog27** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 6:07 pm

golfertk14 wrote:maybe im nieve or im still fairly new to the BG world, but our team has a good chance to go dancin' in the next couple years. Just look at this line-up! We're gonna be there soon-quote me on that.

I will go with naive.

transfer2BGSU · Post by **transfer2BGSU** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 6:29 pm

hammb wrote:I'm not much into moral victories, nor am I into the "boohoo we should've made it" sentiment. Do I think we were probably good enough to be in the big dance a couple times in that stretch? Certainly. However, that is our fault for putting ourselves into that position in the first place. When you put your fate into the hands of the selection committee you're playing with fire.

Well said.