BG vs. San Jose State

[gmartin]

85-79

Turner with 27

[Falconwriter]

And again we blow a big lead!!! Common theme coming out of halftime.

I managed to catch this game on my ESPN app and was pleasantly surprised with how well BG was shooting -- but then after half, they got a bit complacent on defense. They weren't guarding the SJ players who rotated to the top of the key and took long 3s, and of course, they got hot and made a number to make it a close game.

This team is very talented offensively, and if Huger can get any type of consistent defense from them, they WILL be a player in the MaC East.

Perhaps the most pleasant part of tonight's game was how well BG did from the free throw line. So many college teams are fortunate to hit even 70 percent, and at one time BG was above 80 percent for the game. That's truly outstanding, and it gave them a victory, instead of a defeat.

[hammb]

This team is so young, I'm not stunned that we continue to get complacent defensively and give up big runs. I'm afraid it's eventually going to bite us in the ass with a loss, but that's life. It may even be what we need. We've been doing a good job building first half leads then seeing our lax defense let the opponent back in, then we still find a way to win at the end. Maybe we need to finally lose one or two of those for the lesson to stick?

Still love watching this group play. Far more talented than anything we've had in a long time. Seems like every game we get a 20 point scorer, and just don't know if it's gonna be Wiggins, Caldwell, Frye, or Turner. I know we do need some player to step up to be "the guy" for us to truly become a contender, but it's kinda nice having multiple players that can light up the scoreboard on any given night.

We currently have 4 guys averaging > 14.5 ppg, with 3 of them over 15.

For perspective we haven't had a guy average > 14.5 ppg since Richaun's senior season. We haven't had a 15 ppg scorer since A'uston Calhoun & Jordon Crawford did it in '12-13.

We're currently averaging 15 assists per game, which we have not done for a season since '06-07.

I expect some of these statistics to take a step backward as we move into the MAC schedule and start playing some stiffer competition, but still these are very encouraging signs. I'd like to see Frye & Turner get more efficient as they all get used to playing together. I'm not generally a fan of seeing my leading scorers shooting < 40% from the field. Still, given that we don't have that one guy that you can count on to shoot well every night, it's great that we have so many guys that can possibly get hot on any given night.

[gmartin]

I think Cummings and Koch will continue to develop as the season moves on. Curious to see what happens when Lillard comes back next game. Will Lillard return to the starting line up eventually? If so will he replace Koch? Or do you keep 2 big guys and have Lillard play the wing and have Turner come off the bench. Lots of possibilities and if we could ever get the Lillard from the 15/16 MAC Tournament we would have a very tough lineup and matchup problems.

We could also go this route:

Team A
Frye
Caldwell
Turner
Wiggins
Koch

Team B
Cummings
Fox
Lillard
Plowden/Uju
Gadson

Team A goes all out for the 1st 8 min. At the second media time out swap out with team B. They play 4 min and then go back with Team A for last 8 minutes. See who are the hot guys and then go with them down the stretch.

[Siborg]

It has been fun watching them this year. Part of that is understanding they are young so I forgive some mistakes but also because they show talent and promise. Initially I was hoping for year long improvement and a winning record. Now I'm hoping 20+ wins.

It will be interesting to see who Lillard takes minutes from..........I'm far from a BBall expert but I'd guess Lillard is a 2-3 guy so maybe Fox, Turner, Frye, Plowden and indirectly Cummings could all lose minutes when he returns. I only say Turner & Frye because they are averaging a lot of minutes and Huger may not want to play them quite that much every game all season.

Some good recruiting classes for Huger. Last year with Frye, Caldwell, Turner and Uju, then the 5 for this year. Has BG ever recruited 3 guards as good as we did last year?

When Gadson was not playing, I thought maybe they would redshirt him and perhaps Folkertsma could help them out with a big body in case of foul trouble or injury to a big. Guess that's not going to happen. Gadson looks athletic but pretty raw. Wiggins may have to mentor him in offseason FT shooting practice. He's thrown up a couple bricks. Plowden's stroke looks better but he's not made many.

[transfer2BGSU]

So far this season has been a very pleasant surprise. That victory against Florida Gulf Coast opened up my eyes.

How is this team? I honestly don't know. I like what I'm seeing but I don't think I'll know exactly where we are at until MAC play begins.

Things I know we have to work on -

1. Playing a FULL 40 minutes (that includes the first 10 minutes of the second half)
2. Make our free throws
3. Don't commit stupid fouls like the football team did this past season

But they are learning how to win those tight games where in the past, we would have lost most of those.

The new guys brought their game.

[BleedOrange]

Lillard can play 2 and 3 and fill the 4 spot in small-ball sets bc of his rebounding. I'm hoping to see better shooting %s from him...because this team won't be placing him in forced-shot situations, that may happen, and he'll hopefully get more of his shots in the rhythm of the offense instead.

I think Gadson is gonna be a big key. If he can push Wiggins to player tougher by challenging him for minutes, that will be huge for us. Also, he brings a different skillset to the post, so he plugs holes. I CANNOT WAIT until he's developed enough trust from Hugar to get more minutes.

Take this team, add Lillard and a more ready Gadson, and you have a bunch of guys that will challenge the entire conference.