Two exhibition wins against fairly obscure opponents probably isn’t very telling of what is on the horizon for a basketball team, but for Bowling Green coach Dan Dakich, it’s all he has to go on heading into Saturday’s season opener at Detroit.
Dakich said he saw both good and bad in the preseason wins over Czech Republic Select and Shawnee State. Among the bad is the team’s defense, which despite yielding just 135 points in the two games, is not playing well as a unit yet.
“I think we have a really long ways to go to be a good defensive team,” he said. “There are some things we have worked on since August that we’re not real good at.”
Offensively, the team is ahead of where Dakich anticipated. BG’s offense put up 180 points in the preseason, and shot over 49 percent from the field against the Czechs.
“I wasn’t sure we could score, and I’m still not 100 percent sure we can score, but we’ve scored better than I thought,” he said.
With a team as young as the Falcons have this year, the only way to teach them is to drill them repeatedly in practice. To that effect, Dakich is very pleased with his players so far. He has repeatedly commended their work ethic, even if all the things he wants them to know in time for the season haven’t quite sunk in yet.
“I think these players, as a group, and this might be the best thing, want to get better,” he said. “They want to improve and want to work.”
Some of that desire comes from the example that the team’s few veterans set for the younger players. Cory Ryan, the team’s lone senior, has particularly embraced his role as a leader. Germain Fitch has also stepped up in Dakich’s eyes.
“I think Cory Ryan has done good in these two exhibition games, as has Fitch, as being a leader,” he said. “Trying to do the things we ask older guys to do. I have been impressed with the way guys, particularly Ryan, have been trying to understand what the previous guys did, fill their shoes, step into that role.”
Dakich did, however, temper his praises with a caveat. This team hasn’t been tested by the season. This team hasn’t had to deal with losing yet. Nobody has complained about their playing time. If and when those things happen, that will be when the team’s real leaders have to emerge.
FRESHMEN
Raheem Moss and Ronald Lewis are coming off solid preseasons for two guys who had never seen collegiate action before. Lewis scored a total of 33 points in the exhibition games and Moss chipped in 17. Dakich recruited the team’s top two freshmen together from Brookhaven High School in Columbus. He said there are good and bad points to having two guys from the same high school class entering the program together.
“I think it helps and it hurts,” he said. “It helps because they have someone to lean on, there’s a comfort level there. I think it has a potential to hurt because this is a team, this isn’t a relay or two-man bobsled deal, and you don’t want two kids separating themselves from the group.”
