BGSU men’s basketball journey this season has been one of the toughest and most challenging in the entire country.
Before the season began, freshman guard Alijah Adem’s house caught fire in Las Vegas, tragically killing his father, uncle and two younger sisters. Adem has not been with the team since then.
The Falcons have lost three starters due to injury. A total of nine players have missed games due to injury. Meanwhile, others continue to fight through the pain and find a way to play on the hardwood for the Orange and Brown.
Despite their bad fortunes and adversity, the Falcons have not quit and continue to fight every single time they step on the court. This was most evident when they defeated Toledo 69-68 at Savage Arena for the first time since 2021 on Friday night — just hours after it was announced senior guard Trey Thomas, the floor general for Bowling Green the past two seasons, would miss the rest of the year with a broken leg suffered in the loss against Kent State on Tuesday.
“We’re kind of back up against it. This has been the craziest thing I’ve ever been a part of. I think we’ve had nine of our scholarship guys have missed games now, long-term injuries, crazy injuries…I don’t think you can go over the 364 D1 schools that have had more injuries than us, and that’s something that, hey, nobody cares, work harder, and that’s kind of been our mindset,” head coach Todd Simon said after the win over Toledo. “So, you go up against it and just say, ‘Hey, we’re just going to keep fighting.’ This group never quits. So, it makes it extra special.”
Bowling Green entered the Battle of I-75 in 10th place in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) standings, with a 10-16 overall and 4-9 conference record. While the Falcons could very easily give up, they have continued to put in the work in an attempt to turn the season around.
“This team is very special because even though we have a lot of adversity, close losses, injuries, sickness, we come in practice every day, work hard, no negativity; it’s just overall a great team and great guys,” senior guard Derrick Butler said. “Basketball rewards teams like that.”
Junior guard Javontae Campbell has been limited for much of conference play, playing with a broken hand. He has been a perfect representation of the Orange and Brown’s fight and character.
“Javontae, he really hasn’t been in a live practice since Jan. 6. But he has to get his mental reps in and goes out there and has to run the show off of that,” Simon said. “So, it just shows the special preparation that they put in.”
Poetically, it was Campbell who had the moment of the year — hitting a game-winning layup with 1.6 seconds remaining against the Rockets to silence the nearly 7,000 fans in attendance.
Senior guard DaJion Humphrey is another example of grit and unwillingness to give up. Humphrey missed a lot of the season with an injury but never stopped fighting, earning his shining moment by scoring his 1,000th career collegiate point against Toledo.
“Absolutely love [Humphrey]. He’s a guy that missed three months with a hernia, and he had every reason not to try to come back, and he came back,” Simon said. “Just a tough-as-nails competitor, vocal leader; you can’t say enough about him.”
In the current world of college athletics that has been dominated by the transfer portal and name, image and likeness (NIL), the MAC’s best rivalry gave BGSU another gear in a moment where many wondered if there was any gas left in the tank.
“Rivalries still matter. Rivalries still matter, at least it does in this community, it does in our community, and it does to our guys,” Simon said. “We wanted this game, and they had this one circled, and we wanted to get them back for winning at our place, and maybe we don’t see these guys for four years going back-and-forth and battling together, but the here and now, that game mattered a lot to us, we wanted to beat Toledo.”
The team’s celebration in the locker room after the biggest and most improbable victory of the season has been the pinnacle of jubilation for Bowling Green in a season that has been clouded by inconsistency, misfortune and pain.
“That’s what that locker room was, just a sweet joy of being rewarded because, you know, quite honestly, a lot of folks would just pack it in at this point. A lot of guys would say, ‘Hey, you know what, the season hasn’t gone our way, we’ve just taken one hit after another, and I’ll play for myself, or I’ll just try to get my points, or I’ll try to do this.’ We don’t have any of that, so that makes it extra sweet that they just keep believing,” Simon said. “We have a saying: You believe and believe again because things don’t go your way in life, and you have to keep believing after the fact when you don’t want to, and they’ve been rewarded for that. So, that made it extra, extra special.”
While the Falcons will be sure to enjoy this victory, their miracle run to the MAC Tournament is not complete yet. The next task for the team will be a must-win game on the road against Eastern Michigan on Tuesday.
“We really are a team that has really been through a lot of adversity: Injury, sickness and a lot of other things that just, you know, bothered us along the year. So, it’s really a good thing, good win, for us to have momentum going forward,” Butler said. “It just comes down to the wire [in the MAC]…Just take it game by game and just focus on the next game.”
