BG v WMU

[musicman2343]

66-55 WMU. What is going on?

[Falcon Commander]

66 - 55 western

[Falconfreak90]

Thanks...not that I really needed to know. lol. Just a baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad game all around.

WMU lost to ut in OT by 3 last week and was on a 3 game losing streak. This one is gonna sting on the way home...the bus will be pretty quiet.

BG back on the road Tuesday night at NIU...

GO BG!

[gmartin]

Not that it matters anymore but WMU RPI was over 250. That loss will drop us down about 30 spots!! Time to regroup and get ready for a run and play our best ball heading into MAC tournament. Worst game of LP's career. But better now than in March

[Falconfreak90]

Not that it matters anymore but WMU RPI was over 250. That loss will drop us down about 30 spots!! Time to regroup and get ready for a run and play our best ball heading into MAC tournament. Worst game of LP's career. But better now than in March

Thanks for providing the silver lining, gmartin! It's been a rough week but we'll see how the ladies respond now.

GO FALCONS!!!!

[Rightupinthere]

Personally, I would rather have bad games during the year than tourney. Plenty of time to turn it around.

[2001FalconAlum]

One sure can be very positive and look at it like..."well, just another bad game."
Well, how many "bad games" will we have?

To me we aren't as good as we thought, and it's very clear now.

Bad losses at Evansville....bad bad bad loss today at WMU. Toledo and Kent are games we can't get back either.

The win over Vandy isn't that big of a deal looking at their team this year.

I want to believe we are still the best in the conf, but glaring evidence says otherwise.

[Rollo83]

I think we are still a very good basketball team and given our experience and pedigree we should be even money at least to win the MAC Tournament.

Having said that, I never saw the killer instinct in this senior class that I did with the Ali Mann led group. The seniors on that squad just willed the team to victories at times over their careers. As good as Lauren has been I think Ali had that somethig extra that Lauren might be missing. Or, is just that Ali had a little better cast around her?

[gmartin]

I was thinking the same thing Rollo but I am going to go in a little different direction. As much as I like TP and I know she is nursing a knee injury but TP needs to be more vocal. You see the energy, fist pumping and excitement when Jessica Slagle comes into the game. I think TP needs to be more vocal. That is the one thing about Kate Achter, she was basically a coach out on the floor and that is something we are lacking.

[Rollo83]

I was thinking the same thing Rollo but I am going to go in a little different direction. As much as I like TP and I know she is nursing a knee injury but TP needs to be more vocal. You see the energy, fist pumping and excitement when Jessica Slagle comes into the game. I think TP needs to be more vocal. That is the one thing about Kate Achter, she was basically a coach out on the floor and that is something we are lacking.

That's a great point "G". I thought TP had turned the corner her sophmore year in the MAC Tournament went she broke out with that 30-point game. She never semed to provide the consistent "Robin" to Lauren's "Batman." I know she has battled some injuries but I think Kate spoiled us a little from the point guard position.

[bgsufalcon24]

Having said that, I never saw the killer instinct in this senior class that I did with the Ali Mann led group.

You're absolutely right Rollo. The Mann/Honneger/Horne/Achter group hardly ever lost the close games. They never lost focus, never lost their edge, and never missed on an opportunity to step on the throat of an opponent, be it by creating turnovers, suffocating defense, or hitting clutch shots. They were just much more mentally tough than the Prochaska/Pontius/Uhl/et al group that we have now. This group, for whatever reason, seems to have a hard time getting up for games at times. They often fall way behind early and can't catch up, we saw that at Evansville and again against Toledo, not to mention several games last season. That hardly ever happened to the Sweet Sixteen bunch. And then the real difference between the two classes was this, with 5 minutes left in the game and the game tied, the Mann/Honneger/Achter bunch put their noses to the grindstone and almost always came out with the W. This group, for whatever reason, call it luck, call it mental toughness, call it sheer motivation of the opposition, just can't seem to make the one or two big plays they need to finish games. I can only recall one time in the past two years in which BG, while losing or tied in the final 2-3 minutes, was able to pull out a tough win, and that was the 2010 MAC final against Toledo. I thought the women had collectively turned the corner that day, but perhaps I was wrong.

It's actually rather infuriating to be talking about this, because this team has every bit the talent of the 2004-2007 team, they just don't have that "it" factor that makes a team deadly.

[gmartin]

24!! Is it March already?? Anyways, in your 3000 plus points I think that is the first one where everyone will agree with you. Welcome back to the board with great comments!

[falconchick2010]

Another difference to note about this year's team is a lack of depth. I believe earlier in the year Curt Miller pointed it out in a press conference - there is essentially no "sixth-man" on this team who can provide the spark when the starters are exhausted. Slagle is fierce and provides energy, no doubt. But she doesn't have the scoring touch of the starters. And besides her, we have no back-up PG, since Halfhill rarely sees minutes. Havel has the ability to play multiple positions and seems to have strong defense, but again lacks the scoring spark. Papenfuss, Albert, Zuercher are all strong post players who can score, but they just aren't that dominant post presence that so many other MAC teams have. This year we simply don't have that bench player that we can rely on to get the team out of a slump. So much different from the Sweet Sixteen year, when I believe we had the MAC "Sixth man of the year." If any of our starters get hurt (or continue to get hurt like Tracy) I will be very very worried... our bench has talent and depth, but there is no "go-to" bench player.

I also agree that we lack that vocal presence on the court, and that's another thing Curt has constantly complained about with this bunch. We can run the plays fine, but there's no "floor general" so to speak... That's why I do enjoy when Slagle comes in, because she at least provides the vocal leadership the starters sometimes lack.,

However, I'm still confident we can turn around from this slump. The seniors will not give up this last chance, just as Tamika was not going to give up her chance to go to the NCAA's in her final year. They'll bring it together, and come MAC tournament we will dominate GO FALCONS!

[vwfalcon]

One thing that has to be taken into consideration though is the fact that now, unlike in years past, other teams in this conference are closer in talent to BG than they have been in the past. The sweet 16 year it was pretty clear that there wasn't a team in the conference that really could match up with BG. It isn't that this team lacks a killer instinct or anything of that nature, it is the fact that the other teams in the conference have finally gotten to the same level of talent that BG has. We don't really have a true "big" that we can rely on to clean up the glass. The fact that LP sometimes leads us in boards says something. We need someone with some size like an Amber Flynn that is physical and can bang with people. That is a glaring weakness with this team. Not that our team isn't aggressive enough, they just don't have the same physical build that Amber or Liz had. Those two could impose their will on opponents and they wouldn't get pushed around in the process. I like that we have athleticism on our side, but we need a physical presence to go along with that.

[gmartin]

Maybe this will make Falcon fans feel better!! OSU lost again! They already lost their 5th conference game and 8th overall. Doesn't matter how we play now. We just need to regroup and play our best ball in March