On Feb. 1, BGSU men’s basketball’s season seemed over. The team was on the brink of collapse, losing a key game to Central Michigan by 19 points — losing their fifth straight game and pushing their conference record to just 2-7.
However, over the next month and change, the Falcons proved that they can never be counted out.
Despite losing three starters due to injury — with a fourth playing with a broken hand — Bowling Green won seven of their last 10 games, including their final four road matchups, to make the Mid-American Conference (MAC) Tournament.
“I feel like that was our whole season this year, all the adversity that we went through. Just being able to conquer all those emotions and adversity just shows the character,” senior guard DaJion Humphrey said. “We have heart in that locker room; we feel like we deserve this regardless of everything.”
The Orange and Brown slid into the MAC Tournament in one of the most improbable ways.
The Falcons lost a win-and-get-in game against Western Michigan to close out the regular season. However, Miami (OH) beat Ball State and Northern Illinois, who had one conference win and was winless on the road, pulled off the upset of the year, defeating Central Michigan in double overtime on a miracle pass turned into a shot in Mount Pleasant, knocking the Chippewas out of the tournament and sending BGSU to Cleveland.
To get up off the mat and keep fighting this season, head coach Todd Simon and the Falcons had to change their entire system to fit what they had to work with, which was limited to a six or seven-man rotation at times.
“We completely reinvented ourselves, not only just like in terms of lineups and all that stuff but completely different scheme,” Simon said. “It’s just completely a different program, and they bought into it.”
While it seemed like the season was lost just a few weeks ago, the Falcons never stopped believing, making a miracle run to Cleveland.
“I think that we were just destined to be in this position, regardless of what we went through this year, we’re just destined,” Humphrey said. “We keep going, we keep working, regardless of the cards that’s dealt, and that just shows how we are as a team, and that starts from the head of the snake, coach Simon, all the way to the 15th man, and the managers too. We all built different; we built for this.”
Simon proved he is one of the best coaches in the MAC and possibly in all of the mid-major conferences this season. He has made the conference tournament in all nine of his seasons as a head coach, including back-to-back seasons at BG with essentially two completely different rosters.
BGSU will finish with a worse record than last year. They also may not win a conference tournament game or make a postseason tournament like last season.
However, this season should be chalked down as a success. With the odds stacked against them and constant adversity from before the season, Bowling Green came back from the dead and went on a miracle run to make the MAC Tournament, saving a season that was destined to be lost in the echoes of time.
The Orange and Brown will face their toughest task this season against Akron, the MAC regular season champions, in the first round of the MAC Tournament at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on Thursday at 11 a.m.
“There’s eight teams in this tournament, and we all are 0-0, and that’s the way we look at it. They got to beat us; we have that chip on our shoulder,” Simon said. “At the end of the day, it’s an eight-team tournament, everyone’s 0-0, who can win three [games] in three days; I’ll bet on my guys.”
