BG - OHIO

[hammb]

wher did dsbney come from?

No idea. He has provided some nice depth this year. He's given some good minutes occasionally. Not as athletic as Oglesby, nor the potential of Black, but has been solid at times.

[gmartin]

22 second chance points for OU. Our rebounding is pathetic.

[gmartin]

They just showed BG as the #6 seed, however if we don't pull this out and lose we drop to #8 seed.

[gmartin]

In 3 weeks BG has gone from first place to last place. And if BG loses on Saturday at Miami and CMU wins, BG will drop to #9 seed and go on the road.

[bgsufalcon24]

I don't expect Central Michigan to beat Ball State, but the first half of that equation sure seems likely. Oxford is not an easy place to win.

Really Buffalo might be our only win the rest of the way. The next two games are TOUGH.

[JoeFalcon]

BGSU website says 12/10/1991 which is more believable since he's a true freshman.

[Drago]

The way the team is playing, they shouldn't win any of the last 3 games....there just isn't much intensity, and there isn't enough skill to beat decent teams without it. When is the last time, if ever, basketball, hockey, and football all finished in last place? BG athletics is quite difficult to follow right now.

[AyZiggy97]

The way the team is playing, they shouldn't win any of the last 3 games....there just isn't much intensity, and there isn't enough skill to beat decent teams without it. When is the last time, if ever, basketball, hockey, and football all finished in last place? BG athletics is quite difficult to follow right now.

To be fair, basketball will not be last place in the *MAC*. They could end up last in the division however. And if they win 1 of the last 3, which isn't out of the question, they'll be .500. Disappointing right now, but nobody on this board thought they could win one in December.

[guest44]

Wow, that 2nd half was pretty bad. Ogelsby must be in the dog house. He sat on the bench at beginning of year, BG went 1-8. Our winning streak happens with him making highlight reel dunks about every game. Orr fell in love with McElroy around Feb. 1, and we have been awful since. How does this team have no defined roles at this point of the season? What was that rotation in the 2nd half? Why wait so long to get Calhoun back into the game? Orr would be in serious trouble at BG, if not for Nate Miller. Nate Miller was the only personality this program has had in his 4 years. You can recruit all the talent in the world. He has not recruited 1 natural leader.

[hammb]

Wow, that 2nd half was pretty bad. Ogelsby must be in the dog house. He sat on the bench at beginning of year, BG went 1-8. Our winning streak happens with him making highlight reel dunks about every game. Orr fell in love with McElroy around Feb. 1, and we have been awful since. How does this team have no defined roles at this point of the season? What was that rotation in the 2nd half? Why wait so long to get Calhoun back into the game? Orr would be in serious trouble at BG, if not for Nate Miller. Nate Miller was the only personality this program has had in his 4 years. You can recruit all the talent in the world. He has not recruited 1 natural leader.

I don't see it as Orr falling in love with McElroy nearly as much as I see Oglesby being terribly ineffective and doing nothing to earn minutes over the course of this losing streak. He's not a natural rebounder, he's not a great defender, and his only offensive skill is the dunks. I love the intensity and attitude he brings to the game, but he hasn't been playing well of late.

I don't know if they are "natural leaders" but Calhoun & Crawford have shown that they can handle the ball in the key situations. The problem last night was Calhoun couldn't be in the game because he was racking up fouls at a pace that would make Erik Marschall blush. Did it matter when he got back in the game, considering he got his 5th foul about 10 seconds after he stepped back on the court? Tough to win when your best scorer takes himself off the court.

The team is certainly not playing well right now, but I think the biggest problem is they're so reliant on young guys that aren't quite ready to carry the team yet. Crawford is by far the best guard, but he's never played this much. Calhoun is the only legit scorer, but he's never played in the past either. Oglesby & Black are the best Centers and neither was on the team last year. Kraus is being asked to play far more than he did last year. The only players who played major roles last year and are doing so again this year are Scott Thomas and Dee Brown. Brown's play has been a disappointment this season, and Thomas is not the type of player who can take over a game. This team is talented, but this year was never supposed to be the year that they compete for the MAC title. I think the real issue is that our early streak of hot play really elevated our expectations for this year. NEXT year is where I'm expecting good things. A senior Scott Thomas & Oglesby. A year in the program for Sealey & Black. Crawford & Calhoun growing more comfortable in their roles as the go to guys on the team.

One thing that MUST get better for next year is the rebounding. Calhoun & Thomas are decent rebounders, but our centers need to start putting bodies on guys...they're getting destroyed on the glass and it's what is killing this team during this poor stretch of play.

[orangeandbrown]

Here's what was said about Dabney in the pre-season

Mike Dabney is a 6-foot-8 senior who played as a freshman at Concordia University in Ann Arbor, Mich. Dabney, a native of Detroit, averaged 9.0 points and 4.7 rebounds per game for the Cardinals and had 56 blocked shots, the third-highest total in school history.

[CrazyFan]

I am getting so sick off ALL the excuses. "Were young"; that excuse has been used for the last 3 of the last 5 years - that's coaching and inability to tranform your players. "To many fouls" - that's coaching. "Our rebounding sucks" - that's why we brought Orr in - THATS HIS SPECIALTY, and it sucks! - Thats coaching. When is this board gonna wake up and end this obsession and scareness of negatively commenting on Louis Orr and his staffs performance? Their HORRIBLE! Instead every year we stick with the "There gonna be really good next year" excuse instead of putting the blame where it belongs! You dont get ran by an Akron team, who is lower in the standings to you, AT HOME, BY 40 POINTS. And then after the game in his postgame presser, Orr laughs and pins the outcome of the game on God! How about you round up your staff, miss the presser, and get to the film room! You just got embarrassed by 40 points at home to the team that keeps running you at home! Thats ridiculous and yet another sign to me that this staff needs to go. This team has been horrible under Orr, except for 1 year where we rode Nate Millers shoulders and ABSOLUTELY FELL into a MAC Championship (Tie). That's it. Lets use our newfound cash to get rid of this coaching staff and bring in a staff that can transform this program into the next Gonzaga, like the money was donated for, instead of overpaying mediocrity. My rant is over. Go Falcons.

[Class of 61]

After watching this game, and seeing a game first hand (W.Mich), it seems to me that, while our rebounding has been terribly weak, we also lack a solid, dependable SHOOTER.... OU's kid was bombing from 25-30 ft. and hitting nothing but net...we don't have anyone who consistently can score from the outside. Couple these two things together, and it spells T R O U B L E....
Hopefully, with Henderson and the Timken kid coming on board next year, we'll see an improvement in the shooting areas.

[hammb]

I am getting so sick off ALL the excuses. "Were young"; that excuse has been used for the last 3 of the last 5 years - that's coaching and inability to tranform your players. "To many fouls" - that's coaching. "Our rebounding sucks" - that's why we brought Orr in - THATS HIS SPECIALTY, and it sucks! - Thats coaching. When is this board gonna wake up and end this obsession and scareness of negatively commenting on Louis Orr and his staffs performance. Their HORRIBLE! Instead every year we stick with the "There gonna be really good next year" excuse instead of putting the blame where it belongs! You dont get ran by an Akron team, who is lower in the standings to you, AT HOME, BY 40 POINTS. Thats ridiculous and yet another sign to me that this staff needs to go. This team has been horrible under Orr, except for 1 year where we rode Nate Millers shoulders and ABSOLUTELY FELL into a MAC Championship (Tie). That's it. Lets use our newfound cash to get rid of this coaching staff and bring in a staff that can transform this program into the next Gonzaga, like the money was donated for, instead of overpaying mediocrity. My rant is over. Go Falcons.

Well for starters, as I have said earlier in this thread, I don't love or hate Coach Orr & company. I don't think they're a great staff destined to have us become the next Gonzaga, but I also don't think they're terrible. I know I would take Orr over Dan Dakich any day of the week, so Orr gets a lot of leeway in that regard.

To address your points, I certainly don't think I've been using the youth excuse for the past few years. We weren't young in those years. This year we most certainly ARE young, or at least inexperienced. Maybe Orr hasn't done a good job developing his youth, but that doesn't mean that we're not young THIS year, because we're certainly relying on a lot of players that either weren't here last year or didn't play much if they were.

As for too many fouls, I don't think that's been a consistent complaint at all. If it is I don't really think it's warranted. One of the best things I've loved about Orr is how the zone defense has allowed us to keep most of our players on the court. Unlike Dan's insistence on man defense which had us consistently racking up massive foul troubles. During conference play we're averaging about 2 fouls per game more than our opposition...that doesn't really bother me that much. Not enough that I'd say fouling is a major reason why we're struggling. My only point was last night Calhoun's fouls really hurt us, but I wouldn't say that's an ongoing theme for this team.

As for the rebounding, yeah it blows, but you put it squarely on the coaches, because that is supposedly Orr's specialty? What about last year? And the year before that? Both seasons we outrebounded our opposition. 3 years ago we were outrebounded by less than 1 a game, so about even. This is the first year that our rebounding has really been a major issue. Now do you think that is because Orr sucks as a coach, or do you think it could be that all of our front court minutes are going to guys that have never really played? Calhoun & McElroy barely played last year and are playing all of the PF this year. Dabney, Oglesby, and Black are our only centers and none of them were even on the team last year. Our rebounding blows, but I don't think that's purely an indictment on the coaching staff as much as it is the pure inexperience of our front court. No coaching staff can wave a magic wand and make players change, it takes time in the system.

I'll gladly agree that some of the losses have been an absolute embarrassment. You should never lose by 40 to a team in your conference...especially at home. I'll also even agree that even the lone MAC Championship in Orr's tenure wasn't exactly a dominant team. I'm not afraid of talking negative about coach Orr...I definitely think this team could use a fire lit under their ass at times. I think they're too talented to play so poorly for such long stretches, and too oftentimes come out totally flat to start games. I also think the rotation patterns are ludicrous at times. No way Jakubowski should be starting for this team...it's time Crawford learns how to start, he will be doing so next year. I also think Black should be playing more if he's healthy. Sealey deserves more minutes as well. I've also never been a fan of our offense under Orr...it still has never developed into the inside/out offense that we were told we'd get.

The only reason I'm not ready to say Orr should be fired is that this team has a lot of young talent. I think Orr's done a good job recruiting the past few years. I remember all too well the Dakich days of being the slowest least athletic team in the MAC, so I'm not ready to cast Orr aside. That being said, I would certainly not cry if Orr were fired this year, and I certainly don't think he's done enough to earn an extension. Personally I think Orr's recruiting the past few years has earned him the right to go at least one more year and see how those players develop under him. If they are no better next season then you can bet your ass I'll be ready to ride Orr out of town, but right now I think he deserves a shot to play with his better recruits...although I do think you could reasonably question why his first classes were so weak...

[hammb]

After watching this game, and seeing a game first hand (W.Mich), it seems to me that, while our rebounding has been terribly weak, we also lack a solid, dependable SHOOTER.... OU's kid was bombing from 25-30 ft. and hitting nothing but net...we don't have anyone who consistently can score from the outside. Couple these two things together, and it spells T R O U B L E....
Hopefully, with Henderson and the Timken kid coming on board next year, we'll see an improvement in the shooting areas.

This has been a major issue all season long. Our scoring from the wing has been abysmal most of the season. Thomas and Brown are expected to be scorers from outside, and neither has been good shooting the ball this season. Crawford is not a great 3 pt shooter either. This team definitely struggles to create offense on the perimeter. Kraus is a good defensive guard but he brings almost nothing on offense.

Crawford's value is as a penetrate and kick guy, but we don't have anybody that can actually convert those chances.

We really need Henderson or the incoming Freshman to show the ability to hit some outside shots. That or we need Thomas & Brown to return to previous shooting form. Last year Dee Brown was one of the best shooters in the conference, and this year he's been terrible.