@ Northern Illinois (1/18)

[mbenecke]

BG Men's Basketball (8-8) heads to DeKalb, IL tonight to take on the Northern Illinois Huskies (5-8).

This NIU team seems bad when you look at their record, but they did knock off Kent State (on the road!) last week, and they also own a win over the PAC 12's Washington, so who the hell knows?

Tip time is 8:00pm EST, and it'll be available to stream on ESPN3.

Go Falcons. Turn this thing around.

[hammb]

I'll be watching tonight, I'm curious to see how we play against somebody that isn't one of the best teams in the MAC. I'm not really sure what to expect of NIU...they got thumped by UT but have wins over KSU & EMU. They've been thumped quite a few times this year, but they also didn't play a patsy OOC schedule instead being willing to play UW, Indiana, Marquette, Mizzou, etc.

Also tough to read too much into that UT game since it was their first game back after having 3 games postponed because of COVID...they hadn't played in almost 3 weeks prior to that UT game.

[BPardonMyTake]

I'll be watching tonight, I'm curious to see how we play against somebody that isn't one of the best teams in the MAC. I'm not really sure what to expect of NIU...they got thumped by UT but have wins over KSU & EMU. They've been thumped quite a few times this year, but they also didn't play a patsy OOC schedule instead being willing to play UW, Indiana, Marquette, Mizzou, etc.

Also tough to read too much into that UT game since it was their first game back after having 3 games postponed because of COVID...they hadn't played in almost 3 weeks prior to that UT game.

Yep, tonight starts a 5 game stretch that's the make or break of the season IMO. We clearly aren't good enough right now to beat the top 3 teams in the conference, but we have 5 winnable games upcoming that we will be favored in (NIU/WMU/EMU) or 1-3 point dogs in I'm guessing (kent/akron). We get hot now then who knows how we fare against the likes of OU/UT/Buffalo come March.


Win 4 of 5 or the season's done, in my humble opinion. I'm headed back to the promise land for the Kent game so I am hoping that will be for a 5 game winning streak! Either way it starts tonight and I too will be watching, my friend.

[BGSU33]

I can't really believe I'm labeling this a must-win game for BG, but this really is one. I did not expect to see this team at .500 after 16 games into the season, not did I expect to see it sitting 11th out of 12 teams in the MAC after the first quarter of conference games. But, here we are. BG is off to a terrible 1-4 start in conference play and with a lot of good MAC teams left to play - and there being no first round games for the MAC Tournament - if this team has any real hope of even just simply making it to Cleveland to play in the MAC Tournament, they simply cannot lose this game. That blown game at the end of the Ball State game is really glaring right now, because instead of sitting 2-3 with a chance to even things up at 3-3 tonight, we're looking to avoid falling to 1-5 for our worst start in MAC play in who knows how long.

[mbenecke]

I can't really believe I'm labeling this a must-win game for BG, but this really is one. I did not expect to see this team at .500 after 16 games into the season, not did I expect to see it sitting 11th out of 12 teams in the MAC after the first quarter of conference games. But, here we are. BG is off to a terrible 1-4 start in conference play and with a lot of good MAC teams left to play - and there being no first round games for the MAC Tournament - if this team has any real hope of even just simply making it to Cleveland to play in the MAC Tournament, they simply cannot lose this game. That blown game at the end of the Ball State game is really glaring right now, because instead of sitting 2-3 with a chance to even things up at 3-3 tonight, we're looking to avoid falling to 1-5 for our worst start in MAC play in who knows how long.

Just for reference, BG last started 1-4 in MAC play in 2016-2017.

The last 1-5 start came during the 2006-2007 season, which was ironically Dan Dakich’s final season here.

[Matty B]

That late game collapse vs Ball State is REALLY looming large right now. Tonight could have been an opportunity to get to 3-3 in the MAC, with losses to the top 3 teams (2 on the road), and the softest part of our schedule approaching, meaning a real chance to "get right" and gain some serious momentum. Instead, it is absolutely a must win game.

Say what you want about this team's struggles and flaws, but take away that 35 seconds of disaster in Muncie, and we're looking at this team and this season a lot differently.

Opportunity still exists to get hot in the soft part of the schedule and steal another upset or two along the way, but it all starts tonight in Dekalb.

[Diemilkweed]

Mills taking like 10 fancy dribbles to go literally no place on the floor and settle for a fade away over a taller player 17 feet from the rim is our season.

[Diemilkweed]

At 15:53 we are down 2 - 5.

YEesh.

[mbenecke]

2 points in the first 5 minutes.

This team is hard to watch a lot of the time. Sheesh.

[Diemilkweed]

Plowden with 2 fouls in 3 minutes.

Will coach be a massive idiot here?

[Diemilkweed]

7 minutes in and Kula started teh game, went out, and is back already.

Why?!?

[Diemilkweed]

8 minutes in, we have 9 players who have played at least 3 minutes each.

[hammb]

This is hot garbage basketball... My god

[Diemilkweed]

And we piss away a couple of 8 point leads to go into halftime tied.

And yes, Huger is an idiot. Plowden played 3 minutes.

[BillyLP]

Is this the worst court in America to watch a dark uniform on?