@ Central Michigan (2/20)

[hammb]

And he got a great look at the buzzer and nothing but iron.

Kudos for fighting back, but brutal loss.

I don't know what you can do at this point. They're shooting so poorly that they're now afraid to take them, which is actually worse. Phillip, Thomas, Spurgin...they all had tons of space on the perimeter that they passed up the open threes to dribble into no man's land. Hill sucked down the stretch missing 4 shots at the rim (and a wide open 3).

You can not win basketball making 1 three pointer all game. It's disgusting.

[hammb]

Since the great win at BSU the past 5 games from beyond the arc:

CMU 7-33
UB 4-15
@LA 4-21
@EMU 6-26
@CMU 1-17

That's under 20% over 5 games. A testament to how awful Buffalo is that we managed to win one of those games. You flat cannot win this way. And passing up the shots isn't the solution, they simply have to start making some.

[BGSU33]

Damn man, another game where we should have beat CMU and can’t close out and then fall in OT. In both loses BG had the win right in its hand and couldn’t finish. Up two possessions tonight with :19 to go and can’t finish. That happened in the first meeting too. That’s 6 losses in the last 8 games (including 4 of the last 5). This team is in a free fall. After that 5-1 start in MAC play, BG is now 7-6 in the conference.

[guest44]

At this point let's just find a way to the 6 seed. Let Akron, Kent, Ohio all fall on one side and take our chances with Central Michigan a third time. It wont really matter unless they find something the next two weeks, but the best draw possible is still very available.

[Falconfreak90]

Gut punch of a loss tonight...and Bancroft High comes to town Friday night and beat Akron tonight.

[fanatic13]

Since the great win at BSU the past 5 games from beyond the arc:

CMU 7-33
UB 4-15
@LA 4-21
@EMU 6-26
@CMU 1-17

That's under 20% over 5 games. A testament to how awful Buffalo is that we managed to win one of those games. You flat cannot win this way. And passing up the shots isn't the solution, they simply have to start making some.

Passing up the shots is even worse. Cmu didn't even have to think about covering the 3 point line. Agee got doubled and everyone crashed when hill drove the lane. Brutal loss that perfectly summarizes mac play for us.

Hindsight but hill should have shot the ball as soon as he got it for the final play. The dribble allowed both defenders to have time to contest the shot

[mbenecke]

Obviously the coaching is better. Obviously the culture is changing. Obviously this is only year 1. I’m not criticizing Simon or the players when I say this, because I think it’s a likable bunch and the program is going to be better moving forward.

But I’m wondering a little bit how to figure out how much “better” we actually are compared to last year. The record is much improved, and we’re at least competitive in the MAC - or at least we were able to win games a month ago.

I’m wondering how much we’ve actually improved vs. how much we were riding (relatively, compared to now) hot shooting to start the year and now that we’ve cooled off, how much better are we, really? And at this point, I don’t think the poor shooting is just a slump, I just think that’s our level of ability right now. We really need to develop that part of the way we play the rest of this season and going into next year.

[guest44]

How much better are we than before?

-We haven’t made the MAC Tournament in two years, and the last time we stepped on that court Issac Elsasser actually played in that game.

-BGSU paid Michael Huger a severance of $483,108 in Fiscal 2023, after signing extensions in both 2019 and 2020 during Covid.

-Bob Moosbrugger was fired in August of 2022, two years after receiving a 4 year contract extension in 2020 during Covid. He was paid 6 months salary to go away. His kid still receives and takes free tuition from BGSU.

-If Central misses the banked in three the narrative today is how huge of a win that was when while still shooting and playing poorly. Tough loss in a game neither team played well. A matchup with Central in Cleveland would be perfect. A fortunate tournament draw is what happened in 2019.

-The coaching is 100% better and the roster is what is while flawed. BGSU isn’t capable of a quick clean up the dumpster fire of an athletic department it had from 2014 until Moosbrugger got fired. Robyn Fralick’s are talented enough to overcome that incompetence, but she was the minority. Does anyone think Simon took this job and had any actual NIL in place? I doubt they have hardly any. Toledo dominates BGSU in every major sport right now, and that took Moosbrugger years to allow. It will take years and some real leadership to fix. Leadership that is more than posting on X. Simon is a good coach who will get players. After giving so many incompetent people just using BGSU time, I'd suggest giving Simon as much as he needs.

[mbenecke]

-If Central misses the banked in three the narrative today is how huge of a win that was when while still shooting and playing poorly. Tough loss in a game neither team played well. A matchup with Central in Cleveland would be perfect. A fortunate tournament draw is what happened in 2019.

This is a genuinely good point. I would feel a lot better this morning had we found a way to win an ugly game.

[guest44]

[quote=guest44 post_id=460076 time=<a href="tel:1708515365">1708515365</a> user_id=909]
-If Central misses the banked in three the narrative today is how huge of a win that was when while still shooting and playing poorly. Tough loss in a game neither team played well. A matchup with Central in Cleveland would be perfect. A fortunate tournament draw is what happened in 2019.

This is a genuinely good point. I would feel a lot better this morning had we found a way to win an ugly game.
[/quote]

We probably should have beat Central twice. On a neutral in Cleveland we would be favored. Find something in the these next 5 games and take your chances in Cleveland. The difference between the 3 seed and the 6 seed is what color jersey you wear.

[hammb]

I can be very frustrated and annoyed during games, especially when I think they're doing so many things well and simply can't make shots. But I have not lost faith in what Simon's trying to do at all. Expectations were muted this year entering the season, with an entirely new roster, and they probably got a bit too high with the early success. But we're middle of the MAC pack, and we still have a shot to make some noise in Cleveland. As I've said all year, if this team has a hot shooting day/week (been a long time since we have) they can really make hay. They do so many things right, and have no issues generating open looks. Just have to start making them. I am a bit troubled by seeing some guys passing up those shots though, with the pace and style we play we should be shooting 20-25 3pa every night, eventually you have to think we'd make at least 5-6 of those (still bad, but a lot more points than 1-17).

And yes, we shot 8-50 in the 2 CMU games combined, yet we still probably should have beaten them twice. I know they lead the league in 3p defense, but that's absurd. Especially since I know many of those were completely uncontested looks.

It will take several years of poor play before I could ever entertain the notion that we're not in a better place today than we were 1 year ago. 1 year ago I was pleading with the new AD how badly we needed a new direction in men's hoops. We have that direction, now let's see it play out.

[mbenecke]

I can be very frustrated and annoyed during games, especially when I think they're doing so many things well and simply can't make shots. But I have not lost faith in what Simon's trying to do at all. Expectations were muted this year entering the season, with an entirely new roster, and they probably got a bit too high with the early success. But we're middle of the MAC pack, and we still have a shot to make some noise in Cleveland. As I've said all year, if this team has a hot shooting day/week (been a long time since we have) they can really make hay. They do so many things right, and have no issues generating open looks. Just have to start making them. I am a bit troubled by seeing some guys passing up those shots though, with the pace and style we play we should be shooting 20-25 3pa every night, eventually you have to think we'd make at least 5-6 of those (still bad, but a lot more points than 1-17).

And yes, we shot 8-50 in the 2 CMU games combined, yet we still probably should have beaten them twice. I know they lead the league in 3p defense, but that's absurd. Especially since I know many of those were completely uncontested looks.

It will take several years of poor play before I could ever entertain the notion that we're not in a better place today than we were 1 year ago. 1 year ago I was pleading with the new AD how badly we needed a new direction in men's hoops. We have that direction, now let's see it play out.

I'm not losing faith in Simon either. I remain convinced he's the guy who will lead us back to the NCAA tournament.

I think my comment was more about wondering how big the gap between last year and this year actually is. I think your sentence that I highlighted above is where I find myself at the moment - my expectations for this year were low, and we started winning, and then I started daydreaming too much. Maybe I should've pumped the brakes and not gotten caught up in the success. Obviously, they are doing a lot of the little things right and the culture is improved and guys are competing hard every night.

We're closer to the middle than we are to the top, but it's a hell of a lot better than being at the bottom. And our trajectory remains positive, so I'm good. Finish strong, get to Cleveland, and give yourself a chance.

[BillyLP]

-The coaching is 100% better and the roster is what is while flawed. BGSU isn’t capable of a quick clean up the dumpster fire of an athletic department it had from 2014 until Moosbrugger got fired. Robyn Fralick’s are talented enough to overcome that incompetence, but she was the minority. Does anyone think Simon took this job and had any actual NIL in place? I doubt they have hardly any. Toledo dominates BGSU in every major sport right now, and that took Moosbrugger years to allow. It will take years and some real leadership to fix. Leadership that is more than posting on X. Simon is a good coach who will get players. After giving so many incompetent people just using BGSU time, I'd suggest giving Simon as much as he needs.

This is my take, as well. I already think we're so far ahead of where we'd be with Huger this season that we could lose out and I'd still feel we were in a better spot. It's house money at this point.

[BleedOrange]

Our primary problem is outside shooting. How much is it is psychological versus skill? Can the psychology change? Can Simon do something different with the offense?

[guest44]

Our primary problem is outside shooting. How much is it is psychological versus skill? Can the psychology change? Can Simon do something different with the offense?

I would think a 5 game sample size this poor is mostly psychological. Sooner than later they will drop even if it isn’t at some 40% mark. This is not a good shooting team, and Humphrey was one of the better shooters before disappearing recently. The challenge is that when nobody makes a shot it makes everything Agee and Hill do that much harder. They need to force things and get to the line because if not games like last night and Eastern become 20 point blowouts. The only time I questioned the battle in this team was Louisiana, but that game was truly pointless. Even at Eastern Michigan, they had fight in a lifeless arena playing like crap.