BGSU men’s basketball’s rough season continued this past week as the Falcons dropped two more contests, extending their losing streak to three games, the longest active skid in the Mid-American Conference (MAC).
The Orange and Brown fell to Miami (OH) 84-76 in Oxford on Tuesday before dropping the first edition of the Battle of I-75 against Toledo at the Stroh Center on Friday, 84-71.
The Falcons led the RedHawks by one point and trailed the Rockets by just five at halftime. However, they were outscored a combined 86-69 in the second half of the two games.
Even though BG got senior guard DaJion Humphrey back for both games, they are still very thin with their rotations, leading to fatigue playing a major part in the recent struggles.
“I mean, it’s a factor; right now, we’re squeezing too many minutes out of everybody…We have guys that we have to from an injury standpoint, are one or two days a week practicing. A guy like [Javontae Campbell] doesn’t practice. We need him for games, and until we feel he’s 100%, he’s just going out there and giving everything he has,” head coach Todd Simon said after the loss to Toledo. “It catches up with you at some point. I think the fatigue is certainly showing.”
The Falcons have struggled to get any consistent scoring off the bench.
BGSU scored just eight combined bench points against Miami and Toledo. BG scores just 14.1 bench points per game this season, the fewest in the MAC and 18th fewest in the country.
Bowling Green has also struggled sharing the ball recently. They have recorded 10 or fewer assists in 11 games this season, including six of the last seven contests.
“Just making that one more pass, just playing together as a team. This is another game where we had 10 assists. Last game against Miami, we had more than 10 assists, our offense was smoothly sailing,” senior forward Marcus Johnson said. “We just got to play more as a team, swing the ball around the arc more, finish more inside and just be smarter with our shot selection down the stretch.”
The Falcons average just 11.4 assists per game this season, the worst in the MAC.
“We had a good game of sharing the ball, making simple plays against Miami, and [against Toledo] I thought we had way too many kinds of hero shots that ball got a little sticky, particularly when they were switching and guys trying to win one-on-one battles as opposed to kind of maybe drawing two and making a play for someone else,” Simon said.
Another issue on the current laundry list is the lack of rebounding for the Falcons, which has been an issue since losing 6-foot-10-inch Sam Towns and 6-foot-9-inch Youssef Khayat early in the season.
“I’m not a big plan of playing small. We got four small guards in the lineup, and when we do that, you have to find guys that are going to play bigger than they are, tougher than they are,” Simon said. ”
Over their recent three-game losing streak, BGSU has been outrebounded 108-88.
“I’m not a big plan of playing small. We got four small guards in the lineup, and when we do that, you have to find guys that are going to play bigger than they are, tougher than they are. Marcus is not a guy that’s an above-the-rim guy at that four spot, and it puts a lot of pressure on Jamai. Then, you’re playing Jamai too long of stretches as a guy that’s got to do all the dirty work and run 94 feet and all that sort of stuff; you don’t want him out there 31 minutes every game, takes away from what he does,” Simon said. “But with the group that we have and the hand that we’re dealt, we need him for rebounding, and right now, we don’t have anyone stepping up. Our guards have not stepped up; we don’t have one that’s taken on that responsibility to say, ‘Hey, I’m going to go get the ball.’ Until we find that, and we do find it, that person’s going to play a million minutes.”
The Falcons are not out of the woods yet in terms of tough matchups. After facing two of the top teams in the MAC in Miami (14-5, 6-1 MAC) and Toledo (11-8, 5-2 MAC), they still have to face Kent State (12-7, 3-4 MAC) and Central Michigan (9-10, 3-4 MAC) on the road in their next two contests.
“We knew our first half of league play was brutal for us,” Simon said. “This stretch of at Miami, Toledo, at Kent, at Central Michigan, was going to be kind of that stretch of the season that we were going to have to fight.”
Bowling Green is currently on the outside looking in. If the regular season ended today, the Falcons would miss the MAC Tournament after a 20-win season last year.
The Central Michigan game is shaping up to be a must win for the Orange and Brown, as the Chippewas currently hold the final tournament spot.
However, BG has an opportunity to help themselves by pulling off an upset against Kent State on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
“We’re going to see what we look like getting off the mat and fighting on Tuesday,” Simon said.
