Preseason Poll Dead Last

[hammb]

Just wanted to clear up a couple of misconceptions about the Bill Frack Gift. BGSU Athletics and the BGSU Foundation works closely with the Findlay Hancock County Community Foundation and the Bill Frack Estate to determine how the gift can be used on a yearly basis to best fund BGSU men's basketball for success. This outside oversight ensures that the gift is used in the ways Bill Frack intended. Part of this agreement includes the fact that BGSU Athletics must maintain a designated operational budget for men's basketball (in other words, we can not move operational budget money from men's basketball to other sports and then back-fill with this gift). We fully understand Bill's desire for the program and that a big emphasis for him was attracting quality home opponents and we are continuing to work to develop the program into one in which quality opponents view a trip to Bowling Green as one that will bolster their NCAA Tournament resume.

That explains a lot. For those of you frustrated with the schedule, the last sentence explains it all. Until BGSU becomes a team viewed in the national spotlight as worthy of playing, we won't be able to encourage those big teams to come here no matter the dollar amount. If Duke were to travel to BGSU, our RPI would be so low that it wasn't worth the risk. In fact, the gripe that guest44 mentioned about us playing Findlay with basically no upside but plenty of risk is EXACTLY how the top tier programs currently view a home game in BG. Until we can raise our program to a level that has us not viewed as simply a risk, we can't pay those teams to show up.

So, first step is start bringing in the wins. Unfortunately, playing teams like Tiffin and Findlay should at least give us wins. Second step is competing in the conference. Once we can make it to Cleveland on a regular basis, then we can start thinking about buying games against big teams.

I don’t think anyone is expecting the Duke’s to come to BG. No one is expecting the big boys to walk through the front doors of the Stroh. But what people do expect with Frack's generous donation is some quality opponents. Middle of the road teams and competition. Substitute Lourdes for Cleveland State. Substitute Lake Erie for Wright State. Substitute Findlay for Detroit. With the Frack money, we should be able to entice these types of teams to come to BG. But then again, when you are as terrible as we are, maybe they don’t want to schedule those types of teams. There’s nothing worse than getting embarrassed on your home floor, which would probably happen.

Oh, and by the way, Step 1 is fire Michael Huger………

This.

Beating up on Lourdes, Findlay, and Lake Erie serves NO purpose other than to artificially inflate your overall record. IT does not help you prepare for MAC season, it doesn't help your players develop, and it doesn't even help you lure better opponents in the future. It is a total waste unless you want to feel better about saying we finished the year 18-18 instead of 14-22.

To be quite blunt, barring an insane turnaround year that none of us watching the team would see coming this season absolutely should be Michael Huger's farewall tour. HE should have been fired following last season.

[AyZiggy97]

Just wanted to clear up a couple of misconceptions about the Bill Frack Gift. BGSU Athletics and the BGSU Foundation works closely with the Findlay Hancock County Community Foundation and the Bill Frack Estate to determine how the gift can be used on a yearly basis to best fund BGSU men's basketball for success. This outside oversight ensures that the gift is used in the ways Bill Frack intended. Part of this agreement includes the fact that BGSU Athletics must maintain a designated operational budget for men's basketball (in other words, we can not move operational budget money from men's basketball to other sports and then back-fill with this gift). We fully understand Bill's desire for the program and that a big emphasis for him was attracting quality home opponents and we are continuing to work to develop the program into one in which quality opponents view a trip to Bowling Green as one that will bolster their NCAA Tournament resume.

That explains a lot. For those of you frustrated with the schedule, the last sentence explains it all. Until BGSU becomes a team viewed in the national spotlight as worthy of playing, we won't be able to encourage those big teams to come here no matter the dollar amount. If Duke were to travel to BGSU, our RPI would be so low that it wasn't worth the risk. In fact, the gripe that guest44 mentioned about us playing Findlay with basically no upside but plenty of risk is EXACTLY how the top tier programs currently view a home game in BG. Until we can raise our program to a level that has us not viewed as simply a risk, we can't pay those teams to show up.

So, first step is start bringing in the wins. Unfortunately, playing teams like Tiffin and Findlay should at least give us wins. Second step is competing in the conference. Once we can make it to Cleveland on a regular basis, then we can start thinking about buying games against big teams.

I don’t think anyone is expecting the Duke’s to come to BG. No one is expecting the big boys to walk through the front doors of the Stroh. But what people do expect with Frack's generous donation is some quality opponents. Middle of the road teams and competition. Substitute Lourdes for Cleveland State. Substitute Lake Erie for Wright State. Substitute Findlay for Detroit. With the Frack money, we should be able to entice these types of teams to come to BG. But then again, when you are as terrible as we are, maybe they don’t want to schedule those types of teams. There’s nothing worse than getting embarrassed on your home floor, which would probably happen.

Oh, and by the way, Step 1 is fire Michael Huger………

This.

Beating up on Lourdes, Findlay, and Lake Erie serves NO purpose other than to artificially inflate your overall record. IT does not help you prepare for MAC season, it doesn't help your players develop, and it doesn't even help you lure better opponents in the future. It is a total waste unless you want to feel better about saying we finished the year 18-18 instead of 14-22.

To be quite blunt, barring an insane turnaround year that none of us watching the team would see coming this season absolutely should be Michael Huger's farewall tour. HE should have been fired following last season.

BG is among 8 MAC teams playing two non D1 teams. So they'll all be on equal footing then, apparently. Should the remaining four teams who play 1 non D1 opponent each should be the clear favorites?

Findlay is #23 in the D2 poll. Playing them is better than playing a certain percentage of D1 teams.
Tiffin is 0.03% of the 31 game schedule.

The Lourdes game was much discussed as a stopgap when two different opponents backed out, including one a few weeks before the schedule release last August.

The Lake Erie game was odd.

I'm not defending Michael Huger. There are legitimate problems that need to be turned around at some point because it's not fun to go .500 consistently. But a large number of complaints about the program are beyond petty.

[guest44]

How is playing Findlay better than playing a D1 opponent? If you win you get nothing. If you lose you lost to Findlay. Why would you want to play a good D2 team? Especially when it’s a coin flip that you will beat them.

[hammb]

Findlay being a good D2 team does not mean we should play them. And I don't particularly CARE that there are 7 other MAC teams stupidly playing multiple games against D2 opposition. I've been quite vocal that my issues with BG basketball are not reserved solely for BG basketball. The entirety of the MAC is complicit in taking a high quality mid-major basketball conference and casting it by the wayside in a fruitless effort to keep throwing money at D1 football.

But the rest of the MAC's scheduling habits have nothing to do with Bowling Green's. The rest of the MAC does not have an endowment that should be bringing in north of $600k/yr that was left with the sole purpose of improving the program, specifically by bringing in better competition.

I know scheduling is hard for MAC teams. With the resources we have, I expect us to be the class of the MAC in that regard, not falling in line with all the other crap that the rest of the conference is doing. Unlike every other sport we compete in, for basketball we have greater resources than our conference brethren thanks to Bill Frack's generosity. And those resources, thus far, have been wasted as we have continued to be at or near the bottom of the conference.

It starts with finding a championship caliber coach, and I hope like hell Moose is ready to undertake that search. But scheduling needs a major improvement as well; I don't at all think it's "petty" to bitch about playing crap schedules year after year.

[BGFalconfromCincy]

How is playing Findlay better than playing a D1 opponent? If you win you get nothing. If you lose you lost to Findlay. Why would you want to play a good D2 team? Especially when it’s a coin flip that you will beat them.

I'm guessing his point was Findlay is better competition than some D1 opponents. Yeah they aren't D1, but they are better than plenty of D1 programs, and while beating them gets you nothing, does beating the bottom of the barrel programs in D1 really get you anything either? I agree with earlier posts that I would rather see the local Horizon League schools on the schedule than D2 schools like Findlay, but I guess it could be argued that Findlay is better than the South Carolina Upstate, Alabama A&M and Morgan State's of the world.

I'm more perplexed on why people think we are going to beat up on Findlay. With how bad everyone thinks our team is, and how Huger should be fired, I won't be shocked if we got ran out of our own building similar to what Ferris State did to Jans' team

[Siborg]

On our own, BG could set up a yearly home-n-homes with regional schools like Detroit, Oakland, Wright State, Cleveland St etc….. Play them every year and build some rivalries and make our scheduling easier.

I’d like to see the MAC set up some league vs league games that would happen every year. For example pick a week and have 6 MAC teams play horizon league teams, the other 6 Mac teams play MVC teams (each 3 home, 3 away). I didn’t check how many teams the MVC or Horizon have, maybe we do 4 teams instead of 6 if that works better. Then later that week do the same thing with two other regional leagues or maybe the same two leagues.

Any participating teams would get 2 home and 2 away games scheduled each year. That is 4 less games to try and schedule each year. It might help build some league vs league regional rivalries as well. This could benefit all the participating conferences. This could also be useful to the tournament committees for at large bids and seeding. We might also be able to get some regional TV coverage.

Pick a week, preferably a little later in the year when the teams are a bit more mature. Perhaps start the conference schedules a week earlier and plug this in midway thru the conference schedule. I randomly chose the MVC and Horizon. It could be others. The point is to set up long term schedule relationships with regional leagues.

Wednesday, Thursday
3 MAC teams host 3 Horizon teams
3 Horizon teams host 3 MAC teams
3 MAC teams host 3 MVC teams
3 MVC teams host 3 MAC teams
3 MVC teams host 3 Horizon teams
3 Horizon teams host 3 MVC teams

Friday, Saturday
3 MAC teams host 3 Horizon teams
3 Horizon teams host 3 MAC teams
3 MAC teams host 3 MVC teams
3 MVC teams host 3 MAC teams
3 MVC teams host 3 Horizon teams
3 Horizon teams host 3 MVC teams

[BleedOrange]

Just wanted to clear up a couple of misconceptions about the Bill Frack Gift. BGSU Athletics and the BGSU Foundation works closely with the Findlay Hancock County Community Foundation and the Bill Frack Estate to determine how the gift can be used on a yearly basis to best fund BGSU men's basketball for success. This outside oversight ensures that the gift is used in the ways Bill Frack intended. Part of this agreement includes the fact that BGSU Athletics must maintain a designated operational budget for men's basketball (in other words, we can not move operational budget money from men's basketball to other sports and then back-fill with this gift). We fully understand Bill's desire for the program and that a big emphasis for him was attracting quality home opponents and we are continuing to work to develop the program into one in which quality opponents view a trip to Bowling Green as one that will bolster their NCAA Tournament resume.

Thank you!