North Florida into NCAA Tournament for first time

[BGSU33]

North Florida spent four years transitioning to D-I from 2005-09 but now in just its 5th year as a fully eligible D-I team has already won its conference tournament and is NCAA Tournament bound. So unlike BG which has fielded a team for 100 years (this is BG's 100th season of men's basketball), we're in the midst of a 47-year NCAA Tournament drought. How in the world did the North Florida alums and fans manage to get through five, long, grueling years before their first bid??? The agony of waiting all those years must have been torture for them.....

[ZoombaFalcon]

William and Mary has been waiting for 322 years for their first NCAA bid......

[doughash]

Of the 11 D-1 teams who have waited as long or longer than BG to get to the Big Dance, 3 will be playing In championship games this week. William & Mary tonight, St. Francis(NY) tomorrow night, and Yale on Saturday.

[BGSU33]

Of the 11 D-1 teams who have waited as long or longer than BG to get to the Big Dance, 3 will be playing In championship games this week. William & Mary tonight, St. Francis(NY) tomorrow night, and Yale on Saturday.

W&M lost tonight so we're safe there. It's sad but I admit it, I don't want any of those teams to win. In the last decade we've seen a number of teams on that list fall off by getting over the hump. I still can't believe we're that far down the pecking order out of 350-something teams national. It's embarassing. I just don't want to see BG holding the dubious honor come another decade of being "the" team with the longest drought.

[Schadenfreude]

I admit it, I don't want any of those teams to win.

Oh, I do.

Each year, I wonder if the list of teams will get a little smaller and just how weird this thing is going to get before Bowling Green finally breaks the drought and makes it into the NCAA tournament.

(In fact, I feel a small sense of ownership; I'm pretty sure that I was the one who first dug through the NCAA tournament record book eight or ten years ago and assembled this list, which has become a bit of a March ritual around here.)

This drought is just bizarre. If you look at the list of schools, Bowling Green is by far the best program on the list. I mean, really: Maine? St. Francis (New York)? Columbia? How can we be struggling like these programs?

I'm pretty sure Bowling Green has won three or four MAC regular season titles and earned three or four MAC tournament final appearances without accidentally winning once. The Falcons even lost a tournament final at Anderson Arena.

That's just bad luck.

It's a strange, strange, thing, this streak.

Here is the full list as it stood last season:

Columbia: Division I since 1948. Last appeared in 1968.
Tennessee Tech: Division I since 1956. Last appeared in 1963.
Yale: Division I since 1948. Last appeared in 1962.
Maine: Division I since 1962.
New Hampshire: Division I since 1962.
Dartmouth: Division I since 1948. Last appeared in 1959.
Army: Division I since 1948.
Citadel: Division I since 1948.
Northwestern: Division I since 1948.
St. Francis (N.Y.): Division I since 1948.
William & Mary: Division I since 1948.

[doughash]

(In fact, I feel a small sense of ownership; I'm pretty sure that I was the one who first dug through the NCAA tournament record book eight or ten years ago and assembled this list, which has become a bit of a March ritual around here.)

Yes Schadenfreude you were definitely the one who came up with the info, must give you credit for that. I have been tracking it since then kind of out of a morbid sense of curiosity.

I was at that MAC championship game at Anderson Arena vs. Ohio U in '83. BG was so close to winning that game. I would have never imagined back then that today we would still be waiting.

[BGSU33]

(In fact, I feel a small sense of ownership; I'm pretty sure that I was the one who first dug through the NCAA tournament record book eight or ten years ago and assembled this list, which has become a bit of a March ritual around here.)

Yes Schadenfreude you were definitely the one who came up with the info, must give you credit for that. I have been tracking it since then kind of out of a morbid sense of curiosity.

I was at that MAC championship game at Anderson Arena vs. Ohio U in '83. BG was so close to winning that game. I would have never imagined back then that today we would still be waiting.

A few years ago I was in Norman, Oklahoma to visit the University of Oklahoma and I was going to the Oklahoma vs Kansas basketball game the following day. The hotel I was staying in that night was right beside an Outback Steakhouse so I went there for dinner. It was crowded inside and I spotted a seat at the bar and grabbed it. As I was sitting there I overheard two guys sitting to my right talking about college basketball. They were very knowledgable and after awhile I looked to see who they were and it was Fran Fraschilla and Bob Wischusen from ESPN. They were in Norman to call the KU/OU game. I introduced myself to them and Fran was sitting directly beside me. He asked where I went to college and I told him BG and he lit up and went on to tell me how familiar he was with the MAC and BG, especially from his coaching days as an assistant at Ohio. Fran was on the OU staff the year they beat BG in Anderson Arena for the MAC title. He talked about how BG was a very good team that year and how badly they had beaten Ohio that year as BG swept them. BG beat OU 72-55 in Athens then won 89-75 in BG. BG only had to beat Ball State to advance to the MAC finals where they were meeting OU for the third time - in Anderson Arena - for the MAC Championship and NCAA Tournament berth. BG had just beaten OU two weeks right there in Anderson Arena. But of course, in this one, Ohio upset BG 59-56. Fran talked about how it was a good game and how OU knew it had a really tough game on hand having to beat a team that had swept them and was back on their home floor for a MAC Championship and NCAA Tournament bid. But consistent with BG's nightmare of a time in the MAC Tournament, the Falcons found a way to lose a heartbreaker by three. And the heartbreak didn't end there for BG either as the Falcons lost to Michigan State by one point, 72-71, in the NIT the very next game to end their season. Long Live 1968.....

[Rollo83]

I was sitting in the student section for both those OU games that year. The MAC final absolutely devastated me. Danny Nee was the OU coach at the time and John Devereux was their big guy in the middle. THAT was the year we should have been dancing...

I also traveled to Jenison Fieldhouse to watch BG lose to MSU in the NIT. Keith Taylor missed the front end of a one-and-one and Kevin Willis for the Spartans came down and hit a baseline jumper to win the game. Scott Skiles was on that MSU team as well.

[BGSU33]

I was sitting in the student section for both those OU games that year. The MAC final absolutely devastated me. Danny Nee was the OU coach at the time and John Devereux was their big guy in the middle. THAT was the year we should have been dancing...

I also traveled to Jenison Fieldhouse to watch BG lose to MSU in the NIT. Keith Taylor missed the front end of a one-and-one and Kevin Willis for the Spartans came down and hit a baseline jumper to win the game. Scott Skiles was on that MSU team as well.

Think about it, now we talk about how important it was to get the byes this year to get us into the later rounds playing in Cleveland. In the 1983 tournament, BG only needed to win two games and was on its home floor and lost to a team it had swept in that one. It couldn't of had a better scenario and still couldn't break through.

We have so many negative things to talk about when it comes to BG in the MAC tournament, but every year I still hold out a slim ray of hope it'll be the year we break through. This year I keep thinking how great it would be if we could win it being it's our 100th year of basketball and how we recently lost Bill Frack. Winning the tournament based off of those two things would be a great story.

[Falconfreak90]

So let's win 4 more and end this effin streak....

[BGSU33]

So let's win 4 more and end this effin streak....

God I would love to see us do it!!!!