@ Kansas State (12/1)

[Hammer]

I just saw the score! Were those two bad games a shooting slump? So we were right when we thought it might be an exciting team? I can’t wait to see how this season plays out.

[kdog27]

I can’t remember the last time I was excited about Men’s BB. Even in our above average years I have found our brand of basketball boring and stiff. Usually at this point in the year we’ve already lost or struggled to a team below division 1, instead our 2 losses were competitive and against above average teams.

[guest44]

Extremely short bench. That's not sustainable. Need someone to grab the 8th and 9th spot at least.

Played 7 guys because all were playing well and matched up well. It’s situational based on the game. They won as a 12 point underdog and won by 16. In addition, very little foul trouble so for sure it was the right move to plays 7. It sure as s**t beats the days of Elsasser playing and losing. Don’t care who is the 8th or 9th guy, play your best players and win.

First P4 or P5 win in 20 years. Nearly 15 wasted years in that stretch with really bad coaches.

[jpfalcon09]

BG jumped to 108 in kenpom following the win. Team needs to harness this momentum and carry it forward for the remainder on non-conference play, then get off to a good start once the MAC slate begins. Hoping this season won't be another Lucy/Charlie Brown scenario.

[mbenecke]

BG jumped to 108 in kenpom following the win. Team needs to harness this momentum and carry it forward for the remainder on non-conference play, then get off to a good start once the MAC slate begins. Hoping this season won't be another Lucy/Charlie Brown scenario.

Up to 63rd in the NET, too.

[Flipper]

They shot 45% from 3 and turned the ball over only 8 times ..do that sort of thing consistently and you're likely to win

[hammb]

Extremely short bench. That's not sustainable. Need someone to grab the 8th and 9th spot at least.

Played 7 guys because all were playing well and matched up well. It’s situational based on the game. They won as a 12 point underdog and won by 16. In addition, very little foul trouble so for sure it was the right move to plays 7. It sure as s**t beats the days of Elsasser playing and losing. Don’t care who is the 8th or 9th guy, play your best players and win.

First P4 or P5 win in 20 years. Nearly 15 wasted years in that stretch with really bad coaches.

I can see both sides of the coin on the rotation, but in last night's game playing 7 is fine.

If we ever see another top flight team in a game that we badly want/need to win (MAC tourney, any other postseason) it's likely going to stay at 7. Sure, that number is likely not sustainable if it's only 7 guys playing 2 games every week, but this wasn't that. It's actually highly likely that this team only goes as far as these 7 can stay healthy and take us. I simply don't see any of the others contributing in any meaningful fashion; of the guys who have been hurt all year only Squire has any shot to break into the rotation, and I never saw anything I cared to see more of last year.

Like you mentioned fouls weren't an issue, and at no point did I think the 7 men playing were getting too tired to do the job. You couldn't put Goins/Karel on the court in that game. Just a point of reference, neither of them are as good as Marcus Johnson and you saw how he couldn't play in that game either... I think Kimbrough can play a bit, but I was asking for Campbell to get back on the court every time he rested, no way I want to go down to Kimbrough.

Leach has pretty consistently been the 8th guy, but defensively he wasn't going to stay in front of anybody on KSU. Offensively he's clearly feeling the massive leap from the NLL to D1. I watch a bit of NLL hoops, it's a really really low tier HS league, and it's pretty clear to this point Makhi isn't prepared to contribute on this level...dude is shooting like 30% from the field on the season.

[hammb]

They shot 45% from 3 and turned the ball over only 8 times ..do that sort of thing consistently and you're likely to win

Yeah, I don't think this group shoots north of 40% from three too often.

Wol & Ruffin can flat shoot the rock so I won't be shocked if they both finish the year north of 40%, but I don't think anybody else on the roster will. Maybe Towns, he's a pretty damned good shooter when he's coming off action and is open. Campbell isn't a good deep shooter, and I don't think Shackleford is good enough in shot selection to have a high percentage. Same for Leach/Kimbrough.

What was great last night was when the ball movement created wide open threes, we hit them. That's what we really need. We did hit 2-3 late shotclock YOLO threes (pushing that % up to 45%), and I don't think this group has the shooters to do that in very many games, but if they hit the open ones we've got enough down hill players to punish the defensive adjustments. The 2 losses we have are almost solely because we didn't hit the open ones, and never forced those teams to really defend us.

In this era of basketball I don't think you can win very many games at 20% three shooting...

[Falconwriter]

So glad to see Towns producing like this. I've carped forever on both the football and basketball forums about BG ignoring the greater Columbus area when recruiting, and watched as OU, Miami and Akron have reaped the rewards of bringing in top players from this area. Columbus has some very strong sports programs in just about every sport, but especially football and basketball. And it's continuing to grow. Hopefully, they keep trying to get Columbus kids to give BG a shot.

[BleedOrange]

It will he hard keeping the kempom up with our schedule coming up.

Looking around the MAC, the upper half of the conference looks legit. A lot of good wins over solid D1 programs.

[Matty B]

I just saw the score! Were those two bad games a shooting slump? So we were right when we thought it might be an exciting team? I can’t wait to see how this season plays out.

Davidson and W&M are both teams ranked close to us in KenPom (both in the 120s) where we didn't play our best and gave up a big run in each game that set us behind. In a 7 game series with either team it'd be a long series, we just came up short in each of those two games.

Super exciting win vs K State that shows the full potential of this team! MAC season is going to be fun.

[tiznow]

Andy Katz gave BG a call out last night during the Butler/EMU game. He mentioned EMU beating Cincinnati and BG beating K State

[guest44]

William & Mary has won 4 games since they beat BGSU Most by complete blowout and won at Duquesne last night. That loss looks more justified by the day and BGSU shot about as poorly as possible.

[BillyLP]

William & Mary has won 4 games since they beat BGSU Most by complete blowout and won at Duquesne last night. That loss looks more justified by the day and BGSU shot about as poorly as possible.

Maybe this can be the year we both break the tourney drought.

[tiznow]

Extremely short bench. That's not sustainable. Need someone to grab the 8th and 9th spot at least.

I can see shrinking to 7 in a big game like this with 4 days off before your next game but Simon historically doesn't play more than 8-9 going back to his SUU days. I'm ok with that as long as we stay healthy.

I am curious if the other guards are nursing something we don't know about? Leach has averaged over 10 mins per game, and Kimbrough can play a little too.

Coach Simon was on the Mid Major podcast yesterday. He said he feels comfortable with 11 players. The reason they played 7 against KSU was matchups. KSU played a lot of 4 guards and the pace was quick so the tv timeouts helped.