CBI Quarterfinals vs. Stetson (3/22)

[mbenecke]

On Monday, March 22, our Falcons (14-11) will take on the Stetson Hatters (11-14) in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational. The game will be played at 11:30am, and it’ll be available to stream through FloHoops. The whole tournament will be played over 3 days in Daytona Beach, FL.

With a win, we’d play the winner of the Coastal Carolina vs. Bryant game the following day. Potential championship game opponents include Pepperdine, Longwood, Army, and Bellarmine.

I have no idea if we’ll be at full strength for this thing, but I think it’s good for the program to get another opportunity to play postseason basketball. It’s our first post-MAC tournament action since 2015.

[Siborg]

Didn't we turn down a similar post season invite a couple years ago.....after we lost to UB in the finals?

[mbenecke]

Didn't we turn down a similar post season invite a couple years ago.....after we lost to UB in the finals?

Yes. But this team sounds like they wanted to keep playing - like they don’t want to be “remembered” for the early MAC tournament loss, and they have something to prove.

[BGSU33]

Didn't we turn down a similar post season invite a couple years ago.....after we lost to UB in the finals?

I thought the exact same thing when I read that. Being BG has only won one postseason game in the last 40 years or so (the CIT game vs St Francis in 2015), I don't see how BG basketball turns down ANY postseason tournament we are invited to. This program needs more postseason experience than almost any program in the nation. I have to expect there's no way Justin Turner is playing in this event based on how he could barely play the other day in the MAC Tournament. Which, as we saw, greatly limited our chances at any hopes of a win. Add to that this is a postseason game in the month of March, and that in itself is an insurmountable obstacle for BG to overcome. I do wish them the best in it though.

[OSUFALCON]

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team has accepted a bid to compete in the 2021 College Basketball Invitational (CBI). The eight-team field will compete in a bracket-style tournament over March 22-24 in the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Florida. The Falcons will be competing in a postseason tournament for the 22nd time in program history, and first time since 2015.

The Falcons will be competing in the CBI for the first time. The tournament began in 2008, and with the exception of 2020 (canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic), has been held every season since its inception. South Florida won the last tournament in 2019.

Bowling Green opens the tournament with an 11:30 a.m. game against Stetson on Monday, March 22. The winner advances to play either Coastal Carolina or Bryant at 5:30 p.m. on March 23. The CBI Championship Game is set for 8 p.m. on March 24. All games in the tournament will be streamed live on FloHoops.

Bowling Green went 14-11 on the season. Head Coach Michael Huger led the Falcons to a 10-8 record in conference play. BGSU has won 10-plus league games in three-straight seasons for just the third time in school history. The Falcons are led by a trio of seniors in 2020-21, including First Team All-MAC guard Justin Tuner, who became Bowling Green's all-time leading scorer this season and currently ranks 10th in MAC history with 2,077 career points. Forward Daeqwon Plowden was named Third Team All-MAC in 2020-21, and ranks 10th in school history in both career rebounds (719) and blocked shots (89). Plowden ranks 38th on BGSU's all-time scoring list with 1,124 points. Fellow senior Trey Diggs was named the MAC's Sixth Man of the Year in 2020-21. Diggs, who averaged 11.4 points as a senior, has knocked down 106 three-pointers since becoming a Falcon in 2019.

[Falcon Fryed]

Will be great to keep the team playing. The young core will only be able to grow from experiences like this. I would be curious to see the break down of how much added practice time they get - similar to why NCAA football teams accept bowl games.

If nothing else it will be a great send off for Turner and Plowden getting a free vacation to Daytona Beach!

[zete]

There is probably a fairly high expectation to win this tournament and will be disappointing if we do not. Time and time again this season, i have turned to games only to find them down big early seemingly unmotivated to play. Then they decide to play a little harder to make a game of it. The key work here is motivation.
I know each year presents a different set of circumstances to the lockerroom -- new players equals new personality dynamics, new coaches bring new personalities. Its hard to look inside and really get a feel for who is doing the motivation with this team, or any team for that matter. Sometimes it 's team captains doing most of the talking, or coaches, or a younger player with leadership skills. When a team leaves the lockerroom they should be 110 percent ready to play hard.
What I saw out of Plowden the other night was something I will remember for a long time. He was ready to play, and play hard. He tore it up throughout the night. If we are injury free this next coming week, I think we will see some great effort coming forth from this entire team especially the seniors.

[mbenecke]

Records of teams in the field:

Bowling Green 14-11
Army 12-9
Bellarmine 13-7
Bryant 15-6
Coastal Carolina 16-7
Longwood 12-16
Pepperdine 12-12
Stetson 11-14

Washington State went 14-14, but they declined an invite to participate.

[Falconwriter]

Aside from a trip to Florida, the only reason to play in something like this is to give younger players more time on the court to develop their games. Everything else is pretty meaningless. Even if they win the tournament (which is highly unlikely), it won't erase the fact that this team failed miserably this season, given its talent and expectations.

[hammb]

Aside from a trip to Florida, the only reason to play in something like this is to give younger players more time on the court to develop their games. Everything else is pretty meaningless. Even if they win the tournament (which is highly unlikely), it won't erase the fact that this team failed miserably this season, given its talent and expectations.

Correct. And I completely understood the reasoning behind sitting out the post season in '19, but personally I think this program should take every chance at playing games and learning what it's like to play one & done tourneys they can. Clearly we don't know what it takes to excel in that environment, so keep working on it until we get it.

To me this seems like a sort of favor to the seniors, but the real value is the experience and games to the underclassmen. Obviously there is not much pride or prestige in coming away with the CBI title, but you wanna win anytime you lace them up, so let's see if we can make some noise.

[BGSU33]

Aside from a trip to Florida, the only reason to play in something like this is to give younger players more time on the court to develop their games. Everything else is pretty meaningless. Even if they win the tournament (which is highly unlikely), it won't erase the fact that this team failed miserably this season, given its talent and expectations.

Correct. And I completely understood the reasoning behind sitting out the post season in '19, but personally I think this program should take every chance at playing games and learning what it's like to play one & done tourneys they can. Clearly we don't know what it takes to excel in that environment, so keep working on it until we get it.

I completely agree. When you've only won 1 postseason game in 40 years - and it wasn't in the NCAA Tournament or even the NIT - you play. BG is in no position to be turning down postseason opportunities based on its horrible, make that pathetic, track record in postseason play in March. How can we develop a culture for winning in March when we turn down opportunities? That goes for our players, coaches, administration, and anyone on board to pass on the opportunity. The message you send by doing that is a horrible one. Look, if one day down the road BG miraculously gets things fixed and starts to win MAC Tournaments and gets a win or two in the NCAA Tournament again and decides to pass on a small postseason tournament, fine, we'd all understand. But with the pathetic state of our postseason history in March over the past 4 decades, we don't pass on a chance to compete, we play.

[hammb]

Aside from a trip to Florida, the only reason to play in something like this is to give younger players more time on the court to develop their games. Everything else is pretty meaningless. Even if they win the tournament (which is highly unlikely), it won't erase the fact that this team failed miserably this season, given its talent and expectations.

Correct. And I completely understood the reasoning behind sitting out the post season in '19, but personally I think this program should take every chance at playing games and learning what it's like to play one & done tourneys they can. Clearly we don't know what it takes to excel in that environment, so keep working on it until we get it.

I completely agree. When you've only won 1 postseason game in 40 years - and it wasn't in the NCAA Tournament or even the NIT - you play. BG is in no position to be turning down postseason opportunities based on its horrible, make that pathetic, track record in postseason play in March. How can we develop a culture for winning in March when we turn down opportunities? That goes for our players, coaches, administration, and anyone on board to pass on the opportunity. The message you send by doing that is a horrible one. Look, if one day down the road BG miraculously gets things fixed and starts to win MAC Tournaments and gets a win or two in the NCAA Tournament again and decides to pass on a small postseason tournament, fine, we'd all understand. But with the pathetic state of our postseason history in March over the past 4 decades, we don't pass on a chance to compete, we play.

Yeah, the cynic in me could trace our last 2 seasons falling short back to that decision to not play in a tourney at all in '19. I got it completely at the time. We were minutes away from breaking the drought. We were on the cusp. Then we not only missed out on the big dance, but got spurned by the NIT as well. I get it that the rest of the tournaments are junk for dollars (and actually COST teams like BG to participate). I get completely the attitude of "well eff it, if they won't let us playin a meaningful tourney let's go home."

But how much of that attitude was ACTUALLY thinking, "we're a young team, we'll get our chances next year anyhow". I certainly know that was MY thought at the time. Making it to the conf championship with sophomores leading the way had me thinking we had the group that should break that streak. Did we get complacent? Would the real competitive dogs have bowed out waiting until next year, rather than say, "screw it, if we're going to a lousy tournament, let's at least WIN that mofo!"

I dunno...the likelihood of any causation is slim, but the correlation is there.

We haven't used the Frack money worth a damned since we brought in FGCU 4-5 years ago. If the best thing we can use it for now is playing in contrived postseason tournaments so be it. Get some experience and figure out what it takes to start WINNING some of these win or go home games.

[mbenecke]

Fulcher is starting at the 3 today. Justin Turner isn't in the starting lineup.

I won't be able to watch the game, but I'll be following when I can.

[BillyLP]

Radio and video feeds are pretty terrible. Todd Walker is trying to call it using the Flohoops feed, which is spotty, so not a great way to follow along unfortunately. I'll probably just try keeping track on ESPN.

[mbenecke]

Swingle had 6 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 blocks in 11 minutes in the first half. Wow.

Falcons up 29-21 at halftime.