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It's time, folks.

On Monday night, our Falcons will not be playing because of their 3rd-seeded bye that they earned for their performance throughout the regular season. However, there are 4 first-round games on the docket for Monday night.

#11 Ball State @ #6 Eastern Michigan 7:00pm ESPN+ (winner is BG's opponent on Thursday at 9:00pm)
#12 Western Michigan @ #5 Central Michigan 7:00pm ESPN+ (winner gets Kent State on Thursday at 2:30pm)
#9 Miami @ #8 Akron 8:00pm ESPN+ (winner gets Buffalo on Thursday at 12:00pm)
#10 Ohio vs. #7 NIU 9:00pm ESPN+ (winner gets Toledo on Thursday at 6:30pm)

I'm planning to kinda scoreboard-watch all of them, but I will be watching Eastern Michigan and Ball State, for sure. We have already beaten both teams this season, but they will certainly be coming into Cleveland with a lot of motivation to pay us back for that loss.

Our march to March:
Thursday 3/14 MAC Quarterfinals vs. Eastern Michigan/Ball State 9:00pm ESPN+
Friday 3/15 MAC Semifinals vs. ? 9:00pm Fox College Sports Atlantic (FSGo)
Saturday 3/16 MAC Finals vs. ? 7:30pm ESPN2

I feel like our Falcons can make a run, but they're going to have to play hard and play smart in order to get the job done. Here's hoping we see the "good" version of our team come Thursday night. Go Falcons!

For those interested in predictions, KenPom gives BG a pretty good chance to make the semis, but leans pretty heavily on it being a Buffalo/Toledo finals matchup. https://twitter.com/kenpomeroy/status/1 ... 7860580353

The All-MAC teams were announced today.

Justin Turner made the first team (while the other 4 selected were all seniors), and Demajeo Wiggins made the second team.

HALFTIME of the early games in Round 1:

#5 Central Michigan 35, #12 Western Michigan 33
#6 Eastern Michigan 29, #11 Ball State 23

#9 Miami @ #8 Akron is about to get underway at 8:00pm.

FINALS from the early games:

#5 Central Michigan 81, #12 Western Michigan 67

#5 CMU advances to play #4 Kent State at 2:30pm on Thursday afternoon.

#11 Ball State 61, #6 Eastern Michigan 43

Eastern Michigan's offense is horrible and they only scored 14 in the 2nd half, so Ball State blew them out while looking like a fairly average basketball team. #11 BSU will play #3 Bowling Green on Thursday at 9:00pm.

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Late Games:

At the half, #8 Akron leads #9 Miami, 38-23.

#10 Ohio and #7 NIU are getting underway as we speak.

mbenecke wrote:FINALS from the early games:

#5 Central Michigan 81, #12 Western Michigan 67

#5 CMU advances to play #4 Kent State at 2:30pm on Thursday afternoon.

#11 Ball State 61, #6 Eastern Michigan 43

Eastern Michigan's offense is horrible and they only scored 14 in the 2nd half, so Ball State blew them out while looking like a fairly average basketball team. #11 BSU will play #3 Bowling Green on Thursday at 9:00pm.

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Late Games:

At the half, #8 Akron leads #9 Miami, 38-23.

#10 Ohio and #7 NIU are getting underway as we speak.

Ball state had 13 assists, 17 turnovers, and won by 18 lol.

Eastern shot 30% for the game, 8-16 free throws, 5-21 from 3 (0-11 in the second half).

#8 Akron 80, #9 Miami 51.

The Zips controlled this one the whole way, and now they have a date with #1 Buffalo on Thursday at high noon.

Ball States PG is the least likable player I have ever seen. Fitting end to our season to have him beat us.

Since it didn't get its own thread, kudos to Juice and Damajeo on their all-MAC honors. Turner has a legit chance to become the greatest backcourt player in BGSU history if he keeps going the way he's been. I expect 22+ ppg with efficiency and a legit POY candidate next year. Exciting as all hell. He's gotten so much better this year...hell even as the rest of the team has crumbled around him he's the one who still usually seems to have his head in the game.

As for the tourney this will be a tough one. Ball State was one of the teams that, even in our win streak, we didn't dominate. We had the game won then almost gave it away late, but we never really pulled away from them for 40 minutes. Of course it was also one of our characteristic, hog the ball games. It IS one of the few MAC games that we dominated on the boards, so that's good. But you could also make the argument that the only reason we won was the insanely efficient free throw shooting that night, a feat we have not been able to replicate.

We can win this game. Damajeo will be the biggest guy on the court by 3-5" most of the game. We need him to dominate the glass, and if that happens I like our chances.

Rob Murphy and his "wonderful zone defense" will probably be shown the door up at Eastern.

#7 NIU 80, #10 Ohio 61


2nd Round is set!

Thursday 3/14
#8 Akron vs. #1 Buffalo 12:00pm ESPN+
#5 Central Michigan vs. #4 Kent State 2:30pm ESPN+
#7 NIU vs. #2 Toledo 6:30pm ESPN+
#11 Ball State vs. #3 Bowling Green 9:00pm ESPN+

Go Falcons!

mbenecke wrote:#7 NIU 80, #10 Ohio 61


2nd Round is set!

Thursday 3/14
#8 Akron vs. #1 Buffalo 12:00pm ESPN+
#5 Central Michigan vs. #4 Kent State 2:30pm ESPN+
#7 NIU vs. #2 Toledo 6:30pm ESPN+
#11 Ball State vs. #3 Bowling Green 9:00pm ESPN+

Go Falcons!

I expected Akron and CMU to win, but I thought EMU and Ohio (I really thought OU would put together a little MAC tourney run, based on absolutely nothing) would win in round 1, and frankly, I would have rather BG played EMU. That Persons from Ball State is my least favorite guy in the MAC to face. Sometimes he can inexplicably light it up no matter how tough you guard him.

hammb wrote:Since it didn't get its own thread, kudos to Juice and Damajeo on their all-MAC honors. Turner has a legit chance to become the greatest backcourt player in BGSU history if he keeps going the way he's been. I expect 22+ ppg with efficiency and a legit POY candidate next year. Exciting as all hell. He's gotten so much better this year...hell even as the rest of the team has crumbled around him he's the one who still usually seems to have his head in the game.

As for the tourney this will be a tough one. Ball State was one of the teams that, even in our win streak, we didn't dominate. We had the game won then almost gave it away late, but we never really pulled away from them for 40 minutes. Of course it was also one of our characteristic, hog the ball games. It IS one of the few MAC games that we dominated on the boards, so that's good. But you could also make the argument that the only reason we won was the insanely efficient free throw shooting that night, a feat we have not been able to replicate.

We can win this game. Damajeo will be the biggest guy on the court by 3-5" most of the game. We need him to dominate the glass, and if that happens I like our chances.

I like that. We should be honoring Turner despite the mess around him.

As far as Damajeo goes. I bet that he plays 11 minutes as we set our lineup to match theirs.

Globetrotter wrote:

hammb wrote:Since it didn't get its own thread, kudos to Juice and Damajeo on their all-MAC honors. Turner has a legit chance to become the greatest backcourt player in BGSU history if he keeps going the way he's been. I expect 22+ ppg with efficiency and a legit POY candidate next year. Exciting as all hell. He's gotten so much better this year...hell even as the rest of the team has crumbled around him he's the one who still usually seems to have his head in the game.

As for the tourney this will be a tough one. Ball State was one of the teams that, even in our win streak, we didn't dominate. We had the game won then almost gave it away late, but we never really pulled away from them for 40 minutes. Of course it was also one of our characteristic, hog the ball games. It IS one of the few MAC games that we dominated on the boards, so that's good. But you could also make the argument that the only reason we won was the insanely efficient free throw shooting that night, a feat we have not been able to replicate.

We can win this game. Damajeo will be the biggest guy on the court by 3-5" most of the game. We need him to dominate the glass, and if that happens I like our chances.

I like that. We should be honoring Turner despite the mess around him.

As far as Damajeo goes. I bet that he plays 11 minutes as we set our lineup to match theirs.

I don't hate that, you know how I detest dumping the ball into the post. But I'd strongly consider coming out in this game to try and bully them with size. They have none.

Of course the big problem with that is, typically, when teams have hit Wiggins with a double (which can stop scoring even with the size advantage) he's been unable to find the right pass to get out of the double team.

I still think we can (should!) win this game. And while Toledo is really good, they're not that much better than us if we play GOOD BG basketball.

hammb wrote:I still think we can (should!) win this game. And while Toledo is really good, they're not that much better than us if we play GOOD BG basketball.

I completely agree with this. If we play to our potential, this team has a shot to win the whole thing, or at least make it to Saturday.