With a game against Mid-American Conference power Eastern Michigan looming in the near future, it is going to be difficult for the Bowling Green women’s basketball team to concentrate on the task at hand — a game against a pesky Central Michigan (9-13, 3-8) team.
The Falcons (16-6, 9-2) come into tonight’s game with the MAC’s best record. A win in this game would make for a one versus two matchup for MAC West supremacy this Saturday in Ypsilanti.
“I think I’d be lying if I said we don’t realize the monster that awaits us on Saturday,” Miller said.
But the Falcons have done their best to put their focus on the Chippewas –a team Miller sees as being very dangerous at this time of year.
“It’s only a matter of time before Central becomes a major factor,” Miller said. “I just hope it doesn’t happen [tonight].”
The Chippewas are similar to Akron, a team the Falcons had trouble with in their last game.
Central has just one player scoring double digits for them as Casey Manning comes into the contest putting in 10.5 points per game.
After that, CMU looks deep into their bench as they have eight players averaging between 4.6 and 8.6 points per game.
Even with the depth, Central still sits at the bottom of the conference standings — something the Falcons will have to look past if they want to keep their place at the top of the MAC.
“We preached to our team that Akron was better than their record,” Miller said. “Central is the same way; They’ve been in every single game.”
For a team that was picked to finished in the middle of the pack in the preseason conference rankings, the Falcons have developed as a front runner to win the MAC and earn an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament at season’s end. Despite that pick, Miller felt the Falcons were on everyone’s radar at the beginning of the season. That blip has only grown thanks to their start to the season.
“I think we had a bullseye on our back at the beginning of the season,” Miller said. “And that is even more prominent now.”
That bull’s-eye gets even bigger for BG when they are playing a team at the bottom of the standings. Sometimes the best way for a team like Central to salvage their season is to knock of one of the contenders in the MAC.
“If you can knock off a first place team sometimes it can make your season,” Miller said. “You had better believe we have a bull’s-eye on our back.”
Tip-off for the game is set for 7 p.m. at Anderson Arena this evening.