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At NIU, BG went down to defeat 88-47, tying last year's worst loss to Ball State under coach Roos. Falcons are now 0-9 in the MAC. Lambert did not play and it looks like the starters were on the bench at the end of the game.

Maddie Cole had 7 points and 9 rebounds, Morgan McMillen 17 points. Not much else to write home about.

Not wanting to pay $5 to watch the game, I had to follow on live stats.

HoopsFan

And BG had a 21-9 lead at one point. Scored 24 pts in the 1st quarter and 23 THE REST OF THE GAME? Just unreal.

Maybe we can get first MAC win Saturday along with Fralick bobblehead. Novel idea pass out a bobblehead of Fralick before she has even earned a MAC win.

There seems to be a pattern of fast starts followed by nosedives. I was talking to a BG fan at the UT game who stated what I said before-there is some talent but conditioning is suspect.

I agree with the conditioning aspect of the team. It really seems we run out of steam long before we're deep into the game, even with the frequent substitutions. When legs get tired and you're sucking air, shots are off and so is the mental aspect of the game. Lots of missed shots and turnovers usually result in ugly blow-outs. It appalls me, after looking at the shot charts, that we can only make between 35-40% of our layups. Why do we struggle so much offensively inside of five feet? I believe our layups are hurried and we constantly anticipate contact or being blocked. That is nothing more than a lack of tenacity and not being aggressive to the basket. WE MUST FINISH THE BUNNIES INSIDE!!! I also notice that we continually get burned on layups and behind the arc, defensively. I believe this is because our opponents are physically faster and quicker than we are, especially with their passing. We cannot anticipate and react quickly enough to the opposing team's offensive schemes. We had one spell in the 2nd and 3rd quarters last night where we went over ten minutes without scoring. That CANNOT continue, especially shooting under 30% from the field with twenty turnovers! As I've said previously, I believe we have a great coaching staff with a great system, but you cannot be successful unless your players are fundamentally sound on both ends of the court. We are far too slow to successfully play the 2-3 zone with this team. Against Ohio, Coach Fralick finally went man-to-man in the second half, and we clawed our way back because they weren't getting the open looks like they did earlier. For this team to be succesful, we need to:
1) Take care of the ball
2) Make shots (especially layups and threes)
3) Get defensive stops
4) Rebound
5) Play every second like there's no tomorrow (hustle, hustle, hustle)

Execute fundamentals and play with resolve! That's it!
And, as mentioned earlier, I believe our coaching staff needs to take a very hard look at our conditioning (or lack thereof). Come on, Falcons! It's not too late to get this thing together! We're still behind you! GO FALCONS!!!