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I couldn't listen to the last couple minutes after Ball State got up 18 on 30-some free throws, so I don't know how many we actually committed tonight. Prior to tonight's game, BG had committed 277 fouls to our opponents' 219. The majority of this difference must have something to do with poor officiating , but some of it has to do with our desire to foul opponents' guards as opposed to actually playing solid D. The worst part of our foul problems is who is committing them. Steven Wright, Germain Fitch, and Perrick Robinson always seem to get 2 fouls within their first 5 minutes on the floor. We can bring in Soler and Floyd to replace Fitch and Robinson, respectively, but Wright's constant foul trouble is a problem for us. We don't have anybody that can replace his athleticism and he is constantly in foul trouble. Let's hope we can start playing solid D on Saturday and stop giving opponents 20 easy points a game from the line.

30 fouls tonight. Amazing. Almanson fouled out. Fitch, Wright, Soler and Robinson each had 4, and Floyd and Reimold with 3 each. Robinson played 7 minutes, Soler 15, Fitch 17. Four fouls in 7 minutes for Robinson. Ouch.

Without looking at the box score I'll make a prediction that GENERALLY holds true with most teams and has been the rule with this team thus far: Shoot well and we play great team defense. Shoot poorly and we breakdown on defense, when BG breaks down on defense, we foul as much as anyone in the league if not moreso, despite what our home fans think.

Last year, we fouled a lot more than our opponents because 1) we had to to prevent constant lay-ups 2) b/c we were athletically outmatched

This year, the athleticism surprisingly isn't as much of an issue (yet) but our defense tends to follow our shooting percentage.

I would be willing to wager a small fortune, especially if I had one, that we did not shoot particularly well tonight.

Right again, Option. 40.7%.

Surprisingly we shot 40% and that's not going to win you many games by itself, but it doesn't necessarily translate automatically into 24 point blowouts as well.

OptionQB wrote:Surprisingly we shot 40% and that's not going to win you many games by itself, but it doesn't necessarily translate automatically into 24 point blowouts as well.

That's what I was thinking as well. I really don't think you can count on a team 53% FG shooting. We have to learn how to win these games where the shots just aren't falling. Every team has poor shooting nights. Great teams learn to win anyway.

I think the 24 point margin was a result of our shot selection the last six minutes. We seem to start heaving up threes from all over if we are down and it is getting late. Once it is under a minute and your down a bunch, start chucking the three. With six minutes left and only down ten, still work for the best shot, even if it is a two. We didn't make any of those threes in the last six minutes and the lead ballooned because of it.

Same thing happened on Saturday. After Floyd's mental lapse and foul, we were still only down five with a minute to go. But would did we do? Throw up tough three pointers instead of getting a good shot off. We didn't make any of the threes in that game either and the margin ballooned to nine. Patience, until absolutely necessary

Another stat I noticed from last night...

BG has 19 turnovers....Ball State had 9.

Get backon track with a win over UT!! C ya'll there!