At 6-9 overall and 1-2 in Mid-American Conference (MAC) play, the BGSU men’s basketball team is not where they want to be on Jan. 13.

For comparison, last season, the Falcons were 12-4 overall and 3-1 in conference play at this time of year.

The same problems that have haunted the Orange and Brown this season continued to hurt the team this past week.

After a promising — but disappointing — 71-68 loss to Akron on Jan. 3, the Falcons battled back from a 14-point deficit to defeat Western Michigan 83-79 on Tuesday.

Bowling Green shot a scorching 53.4% (31-58) from the field and 35.3% (6-17) from deep in the win.

The Falcons were hoping to carry over the momentum and earn back-to-back victories for just the second time this season.

However, the opposite happened.

Bowling Green fell to Ball State 91-69 on Saturday. The team also didn’t shoot the lights out, making 40.3% (25-62) of their shots from the field and 29.6% (8-27) from beyond the arc.

While there are numerous reasons you could point to why the team has not been able to generate consistent success this season, the main culprits are undoubtedly the injuries and lack of depth.

The Falcons were limited to eight players during the Western Michigan and Ball State games.

While the team can sneak away with a win here or there, it is not sustainable to expect success with a thin rotation.

There have been some bright spots recently.

One of the more notable high points has been the resurgence of senior guard Trey Thomas.

After struggling for much of non-conference play, Thomas has 17 points per game over the past three contests. He has also made multiple three-pointers in all three games, shooting 55.6% (10-18) from beyond the arc during the recent stretch.

Junior guard Javontae Campbell has also continued to be dominant on both sides of the ball, especially on defense. Campbell ranks third in the nation with 3.3 steals per game and is currently on track to break the BGSU and MAC single-season records for steals.

While there have been some bright spots, if BGSU hopes to get back on track and compete come tournament time in Cleveland, they are going to need some of the calvary back.

The calvary I am referring to is senior forward Sam Towns, junior forward Youssef Khayat and senior guard DaJion Humphrey.

Towns, the team’s top rebounder, and Khayat, one of the team’s most well-rounded players, have not played since Nov. 23 against Bellarmine. Humphrey, who played in 32 of BG’s 34 games last season, has not played since Nov. 19 against Niagara.

Any of those three would provide much-needed help for the Falcons — help that they quite frankly need in order to compete.

While I have mentioned the team needs some more help to compete at the MAC Tournament in March, the Falcons first need to make sure they make it to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

Bowling Green currently holds the final spot in the conference tournament if the regular season was to end today. While the four teams below BGSU currently don’t have a MAC win, just three overall wins separate the Orange and Brown from last place in the conference.

Simply put, BGSU will need to get healthier and play a more consistent brand of basketball the rest of the season if they want to end up with a successful season.