MAC Basketball Season Preview: Bowling Green Falcons

An extensive if not comprehensive look at all 12 Mid-American Conference college basketball teams. The opening game is November 10, so we better get started.

Last year: 14-16 (6-10), 6th MAC East; lost to Western Michigan in MAC tournament first round; no postseason tournament

This year: Picked 5th in MAC East

Coach: Louis Orr, the former NBA center, is entering his fourth season at BG. His record: 46-47.

First Game: Friday, November 12 at Howard

Can a falcon dribble a basketball? Yes, in my dreams. And fanfiction.

Departures

DaVon Haynes (dismissed)
Matt Karaffa (graduated)
Erik Marschall (graduated)
Otis Polk (graduated)
Marc Larson (graduated)

Walk-on seniors

Mike Dabney (Concordia University)
Wiley Roberts (former team manager)

Returning Award-Winners

Scott Thomas (All-MAC Honorable Mention)

Big Nonconference Games

12/4 @ Michigan State

(More Than) A Paragraph of Thought on Bowling Green Basketball

Okay. BG basketball has been irritatingly difficult to follow over the last decade. There's always a glaring deficiency somewhere in the roster. In 09-10 it was shooting. Polk, Marschall, and Larson were three crucial big men last year. So now they have no post play/rebounding. In 08-09 they were actually the No. 1 seed, but they couldn't win away from home and got bounced in the tournament in the semis. The year before that, it was turnovers. Or free throw shooting. Or defense. Or a Dan Dakich meltdown. It's always something. And it always has been since 1968.

So maybe we can go back farther than this millennium. Not since the Nate Thurmond/Butch Komives era has it been rosy for BG. Even when they had some beasts on the team, such as Clinton Venable, Anthony Stacey, Antonio Daniels, and Keith McLeod ... they were just pretty good at best, but never strong enough to make the NCAA tournament. And once Kevin Netter became the star of the team, you knew it was a steady downhill slope towards Averageland.

And while they've rarely been pitiful, this team doesn't have much special going for it. Some terrific guards — yes. But that's about it. That'll get you seven conference wins and maybe 14 on the year. But this is also the final year for their basketball court, Anderson Arena. They christen a new one for 2011, so maybe we can hold a parade for mediocrity, then bulldoze the structure and look forward to prosperity in the 2010s that includes more than the sporadic NIT first-round exit.