vs. Le Moyne College (11/9)

[mbenecke]

On Sunday, November 9, our Falcons (2-0) will again be in action at the Stroh Center a they take on the Le Moyne College Dolphins (1-1). The game will begin at 2:00pm and will be available to stream on ESPN+.

Le Moyne enters following a close 5 point loss to Xavier on Thursday night, so they will potentially provide much more of a challenge than many would have guessed coming into the year. We'll have to bring our A-game for this one to avoid an early non-conference setback. Here's hoping we're up for it.

Go Falcons!

[BillyLP]

On Sunday, November 9, our Falcons (2-0) will again be in action at the Stroh Center a they take on the Le Moyne College Dolphins (1-1). The game will begin at 2:00pm and will be available to stream on ESPN+.

Le Moyne enters following a close 5 point loss to Xavier on Thursday night, so they will potentially provide much more of a challenge than many would have guessed coming into the year. We'll have to bring our A-game for this one to avoid an early non-conference setback. Here's hoping we're up for it.

Go Falcons!

A game we should win, but Le Moyne is much better this year. Decent transfer portal haul and competing at a much higher level than last year. They also have one of my favorite names in college basketball, Tennessee Rainwater.

[mbenecke]

Both teams battling hard.

BG leads 23-22 with 8:20 to go in the first half.

[mbenecke]

BG leading 37-36 at halftime. This has been a very tight game, neither team has led by more than 5 points.

[fanatic13]

We're winning turnovers 10-2 and offensive rebounds 6-4. If we hit a few shots in the second half we'll be fine

[mbenecke]

15:42 to play in the 2nd half, BG leads 50-41. Falcons will shoot 2 after the media timeout.

Strong start to the half.

[mbenecke]

11:16 to go, BG leads 57-48.

[mbenecke]

With 6:50 to go, BG continues to lead 69-53.

[mbenecke]

BG wins 83-60. This team is legit.

[fanatic13]

Hit our shots, locked them down and gave them a slow death in the second half.

Campbell tied the program record with 8 steals. Couldn't get the 9th in the last 6 minutes or so

Defense is a lot of fun to watch when they get into a zone and turn up the pressure. Forced two 5 second calls in the second half

[guest44]

Currently at 128 in the KenPom rankings which is the best I can remember it being maybe ever. Sitting only behind just Akron and Miami (OH) in the MAC. Have to stay healthy, but this team plays some serious defense. Will learn a lot next Saturday at Davidson.

[jpfalcon09]

Beating teams you should beat rather handily is a nice change. Big litmus test Saturday on the road.

[hammb]

Currently at 128 in the KenPom rankings which is the best I can remember it being maybe ever. Sitting only behind just Akron and Miami (OH) in the MAC. Have to stay healthy, but this team plays some serious defense. Will learn a lot next Saturday at Davidson.

This team is the 100% polar opposite of last years. Last years group sorta followed the lead of Marcus Johnson who never gave a damn on defense. This year's group seems to instead take on the lead of Campbell who plays his ever loving ass off on that side of the court.

It helps to finally have a bunch of long athletes too

[mbenecke]

Hoops account tweeted that this 3-0 start is our best since 2014 and only the 2nd time since 1999 that we have started 3-0.

The schedule hasn’t been overly brutal by any means, but that’s still incredible to me.

[hammb]

Hoops account tweeted that this 3-0 start is our best since 2014 and only the 2nd time since 1999 that we have started 3-0.

The schedule hasn’t been overly brutal by any means, but that’s still incredible to me.

It is a bit more believable when you looked at who we played. We would start off with some losses in games like @VCU, @LSU, @UM, @OSU, etc.

But over the past couple years we haven't challenged ourselves to that level and instead have lost to Oakland, SMU, Davidson, etc.

Beating Tx. St. & LeMoyne handily is a good way to start the season. I'm not really giving any credit for the Bethany game, so if they really want to notch a 3-0 start go out and beat Davidson on the road. Even then it's not beating the upper levels of college hoops, but it's respectable opposition. I wish we'd get to the point where we don't schedule a Bethany at all and have a conceivable chance of competing with the top end mid-majors or low end majors.

Truth be told looking back at the previous years schedules has me more irritated with Simon (and late era Huger) than anything. We played big name schools early season almost every year. And now our marquee schedule matchup for the preseason is a single Kansas St. game. I know the game has changed, but I find it hard to believe we have to just "accept" playing 2-3 lower division schools and scraping the mid/bottom of D1 for our entire OOC schedule.

This year's squad highlights my issues. This team looks talented. They're playing balls out defense, and look like it could be a legit team in the MAC. But they're going to roll into conference season with less than ideal worthwhile experience. Our current kenpom is a good start, but the only teams on our schedule that are close are Utah Valley & Davidson, with KSU ranking in the 50ish. The entire rest of our preseason schedule is guys ranked 240+ and the handful of lower division teams. That's not the best way to get ready for the MAC grind. Obviously the MAC isn't a worldbeating conference, but there are still 5 teams (other than us) currently in the top 200... that's almost half the conference being better than all but 3 of our OOC games.