After a 2-7 start to Mid-American Conference (MAC) play, Bowling Green men’s basketball are winners of six of their last eight games and have won three games in a row.
Now, the question remains whether or not the Falcons can still make it to the MAC tournament.
A couple of weeks ago, that question would have sounded insane, but strong performances by the Orange and Brown in recent weeks have made the question impossible to ignore.
Bowling Green’s winning streak featured a 69-68 victory over Toledo at the Savage Arena for the first time since 2021, a 65-60 victory vs Eastern Michigan and, most recently, a 61-52 win over Ball State.
The Orange and Brown’s three-game winning streak is their longest of the entire season.
Across the three-game winning streak, BGSU junior guard Javontae Campbell is on an absolute tear, with five straight games scoring at least 20 points, a game-winning layup against Toledo and recently scoring 26 points on 10-18 shooting against Ball State.
“We’re always playing like it’s our last game. So, that’s what it comes down to,” Campbell said. “We really want to get to Cleveland, so we’re going to play like it every game.”
The road to Cleveland at this point is extremely difficult, with so few games remaining and the Falcons currently just outside of where they’d like to be.
The Falcons still have weaknesses in their overall game, including low rebounding numbers with 33.9 per game (eighth in the MAC) and 11.3 assists per game (last in the MAC).
However, the three-game winning streak Bowling Green is currently on proves the Falcons are more than capable of playing through and conquering these season-long issues. Bowling Green even outrebounded Ball State 38-36 in their victory.
BGSU currently rests in ninth place in the conference, sitting just outside of a trip to Cleveland and a spot in the MAC tournament.
“We’re at that stage now where it’s fight or flight. We are all we got, and this is who it is, and don’t look over your shoulder; we’re going to do this together, and everyone’s bought in,” Bowling Green head coach Todd Simon said. “We don’t want to be the guy that’s looking for the light at the end of the tunnel. Just put your head down and keep digging; that guy is going to get there first.”
As of today, here is what the current MAC standings with conference records look like:
- Akron (15-1)
- Miami OH (12-4)
- Ohio (10-6)
- Kent State (9-7)
- Toledo (9-7)
- Eastern Michigan (8-8)
- Western Michigan (8-8)
- Ball State (7-9)
- Bowling Green (7-9)
- Central Michigan (6-10)
- Buffalo (4-12)
- Northern Illinois (1-15)
To move up the standings, the Orange and Brown would need to win at least one of their final two games and need Ball State to lose out in order to move up to eighth place in the conference.
Bowling Green has two games left this season to possibly move up one spot in the standings against Northern Illinois and Western Michigan.
The Falcons defeated the Huskies 84-77 in early February and beat Western Michigan 83-79 as MAC play first began.
BGSU faces Northern Illinois on Tuesday, with tip-off at 7:00 p.m. to begin their final season stretch. They will end the regular season at home against Western Michigan on Friday at 7 p.m.
The Falcons can absolutely make it to Cleveland, but they must continue their recent winning ways.
