Bowling Green Falls Apart In The Second Half vs. IUPUI

Some dedicated people in the seats witnessed this game — perhaps waiting out the time before Michigan's tip-off — and thought, whoa, IUPUI is clearly a better basketball team. And I'm inclined to believe them. (Again, I'm ruing that I didn't show up to Crisler Arena and just walk down to the front row and see if anyone ushered me back to my assigned seat.)

Mostly, IUPUI pulled away in the final four minutes. BGSU led for most of the first half, then the Falcons and Jaguars traded blows in the second half and once it was 64-62 IUPUI with 4:39 left in the game - do the math - they sprinted out on a 16-4 run to end the game and make it look silly.

And what a waste to see a bounce-back game by Jordon Crawford like this. With just one turnover, he scored 24 points on 19 shots (4-for-9 on threes) and dished out four assists. A night after scoring 30, A'uston Calhoun scored 19 points down low. Another setback game, if you want to call it that: Richaun Holmes fouled out in just 16 minutes of play (no blocks), contributing seven points and seven rebounds.

40 minutes of basketball with eight turnovers is pretty good for the Falcons, but IUPUI got 27 points out of Mitchell Patton (with 13 rebounds) and Greg Rice scored 21. Hard to overcome that type of output.

I want to still have some belief that BGSU will be competitive — and it's incredibly early to say they won't be — but the pieces are there for them to play a full 40 minutes. Right now they're at, like, 36.

The Falcons will have to wait and see where they will play their next Preseason NIT games, but for now the next hard-and-fast scheduled game is November 27 against Detroit.