2026 Offseason

[BillyLP]

BG picks up a commitment from 7'0 center from South Carolina, Christ Essandoko. He has also played at Saint Joseph's and Providence in his career.

Native of France.

And there's our big. Had a very respectable season as a soph with St. Joe's in the A-10, which is a much better league than the MAC. Kept trying to climb up the conference latter with less minutes and impact after that. Assuming he can move pretty well up and down the floor, this should be a nice pick up.

[OSUFALCON]

Real solid pick up. This gives the team the depth they needed inside.

[mbenecke]

Justin Thomas is entering the portal and seeking an extra year of eligibility.

[fanatic13]

He averaged 8 and 6 in 21 minutes at St Joe's after redshirting his first year. Also not a bad low volume 3 point shooter which is hard to find at his size.

My source tells me he wasn't a bad player at South Carolina and they were surprised he didn't play more especially after coming around in the back half of non conference (8 and 7 off the bench against Clemson). He was just a bit too slow for the sec and his size wasn't as much of an advantage as the A10.

Should be a much better fit in the MAC but wonder how he'll fit defensively since Goins and Karel aren't exactly quick either. Who we get in the 4 spots will be huge unless we're committing to zone more

[BleedOrange]

Christ Essandoko

https://bgfalconmedia.com/179828/sports ... -transfer/

https://gamecocksonline.com/sports/mbba ... essandoko/

[Falconwriter]

I had asked earlier if Colin White (former two-time Ohio Mr. Basketball out of Ottawa Glandorf) might be in play at BG since he was leaving Ohio State and entering the portal.

Well, he is going to Akron.

He will very likely be a total pain in the butt for BGSU over the next two seasons. I don't know if BG pursued him, but I'm guessing the answer is no.

[Tricky_Falcon]

I had asked earlier if Colin White (former two-time Ohio Mr. Basketball out of Ottawa Glandorf) might be in play at BG since he was leaving Ohio State and entering the portal.

Well, he is going to Akron.

He will very likely be a total pain in the butt for BGSU over the next two seasons. I don't know if BG pursued him, but I'm guessing the answer is no.

I figured he would go to Miami.

[guest44]

I had asked earlier if Colin White (former two-time Ohio Mr. Basketball out of Ottawa Glandorf) might be in play at BG since he was leaving Ohio State and entering the portal.

Well, he is going to Akron.

He will very likely be a total pain in the butt for BGSU over the next two seasons. I don't know if BG pursued him, but I'm guessing the answer is no.

Im guessing he was pursued by basically every MAC team in Ohio, including BG and Toledo. He went to the school that has by far the biggest NIL budget and frankly the best chance to win.

[hammb]

I had asked earlier if Colin White (former two-time Ohio Mr. Basketball out of Ottawa Glandorf) might be in play at BG since he was leaving Ohio State and entering the portal.

Well, he is going to Akron.

He will very likely be a total pain in the butt for BGSU over the next two seasons. I don't know if BG pursued him, but I'm guessing the answer is no.

Im guessing he was pursued by basically every MAC team in Ohio, including BG and Toledo. He went to the school that has by far the biggest NIL budget and frankly the best chance to win.

Yeah, if a kid is going to Akron it's pointless to ask if we pursued him. I'm sure we did, he saw the zeroes on the check that Akron has and laughed Simon out of the room.

[BGSU33]

I had asked earlier if Colin White (former two-time Ohio Mr. Basketball out of Ottawa Glandorf) might be in play at BG since he was leaving Ohio State and entering the portal.

Well, he is going to Akron.

He will very likely be a total pain in the butt for BGSU over the next two seasons. I don't know if BG pursued him, but I'm guessing the answer is no.

Im guessing he was pursued by basically every MAC team in Ohio, including BG and Toledo. He went to the school that has by far the biggest NIL budget and frankly the best chance to win.

Yeah, if a kid is going to Akron it's pointless to ask if we pursued him. I'm sure we did, he saw the zeroes on the check that Akron has and laughed Simon out of the room.

When you said "he saw all the zeroes" in relation to Akron I thought you were going to reference the amount of wins BG has racked up vs Akron over the past 20 years. Because there's a helluva lot of zeroes (wins) for BG when it comes to playing Akron over the last 20 years. Akron has downright owned BG in hoops the last two decades, starting well before NIL and paying these kids came ever came into the picture. BG would have a better chance (albeit a minuscule one) beating a team like Michigan, Arizona or Duke over beating Akron. They second the schedules comes out vs those guys, its already a loss for BG. BG could play Akron 5 on 3 and somehow the Zips would still find a way to win.

[guest44]

I had asked earlier if Colin White (former two-time Ohio Mr. Basketball out of Ottawa Glandorf) might be in play at BG since he was leaving Ohio State and entering the portal.

Well, he is going to Akron.

He will very likely be a total pain in the butt for BGSU over the next two seasons. I don't know if BG pursued him, but I'm guessing the answer is no.

Im guessing he was pursued by basically every MAC team in Ohio, including BG and Toledo. He went to the school that has by far the biggest NIL budget and frankly the best chance to win.

Yeah, if a kid is going to Akron it's pointless to ask if we pursued him. I'm sure we did, he saw the zeroes on the check that Akron has and laughed Simon out of the room.

When you said "he saw all the zeroes" in relation to Akron I thought you were going to reference the amount of wins BG has racked up vs Akron over the past 20 years. Because there's a helluva lot of zeroes (wins) for BG when it comes to playing Akron over the last 20 years. Akron has downright owned BG in hoops the last two decades, starting well before NIL and paying these kids came ever came into the picture. BG would have a better chance (albeit a minuscule one) beating a team like Michigan, Arizona or Duke over beating Akron. They second the schedules comes out vs those guys, its already a loss for BG. BG could play Akron 5 on 3 and somehow the Zips would still find a way to win.

Losing to Akron in basketball has been expected, will be expected, and is going to continue to happen. They kept coaches for long periods of time, Lebron also helped, while BGSU extended coaches literally nobody else would want. Similarly, losing to Akron in football is much more embarrassing. They don't care at all, and BGSU has a football brain AD.

[BleedOrange]

I had asked earlier if Colin White (former two-time Ohio Mr. Basketball out of Ottawa Glandorf) might be in play at BG since he was leaving Ohio State and entering the portal.

Well, he is going to Akron.

He will very likely be a total pain in the butt for BGSU over the next two seasons. I don't know if BG pursued him, but I'm guessing the answer is no.

Im guessing he was pursued by basically every MAC team in Ohio, including BG and Toledo. He went to the school that has by far the biggest NIL budget and frankly the best chance to win.

Yeah, if a kid is going to Akron it's pointless to ask if we pursued him. I'm sure we did, he saw the zeroes on the check that Akron has and laughed Simon out of the room.

Hammbone, what do you know about NIL dollars at other MAC schools? How do you know Akron has so much more then BG? Honest question.

[guest44]

https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/bud-w ... 53549.html

This explains some of the Akron situation. They care about basketball more than any other sport.

UMass also has a much larger NIL than the most of the rest of the conference. Between that and the nearly 2 million they pay Frank Martin it's understandable why they are unhappy.

[mbenecke]

There was another thread that touched on one of the games, but we have 4 reported non-conference games on the schedule so far, so I figured I would throw them here.

Mon 11/9 vs. Cleveland State
Fri 11/13 vs. Niagara
Tue 11/24 vs. Gardner-Webb
Fri 11/27 @ Indiana

[Flipper]

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-baske ... e-76-teams

When it gets to 150...I think we're in