The BG News

March 9th, 2007

My email

By Colin Wilson on March 9th, 2007

For some reason my email is not in here anywhere, but if you’d like to comment on anything in my blog my email is crwilso@bgsu.edu.

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March 9th, 2007

Day 5 [continued]

By Colin Wilson on March 9th, 2007

Ball State came out winners and advanced to the championship game. BG and Eastern are warming up right now.

Ball State played pretty solid. They shot 48 percent and made 10-of-18 3-pointers.They also proved that if you shut own Julie DeMuth, they can still beat you. Portia Green had 16 points, six boards and two steals. Audrey McDonald was truly ‘ballin’ with 18 points and four 3s. The Cardinals also went 17-of-17 from the line. That’s a balanced effort if I’ve ever seen one.

A sad thing about this game was that it marked the end of the Stephanie Raymond era. The fiesty NIU point guard meant a lot to the MAC. She shot a lot, but she hit a lot too, so yea. I thought she was fun to watch. She had 23 points, eight assists and four boards in 40 minutes today. A fitting end I suppose.

As I look around, there are about two and a half sections full of orange and some spots here and there. As for Eastern, it doesn’t really look like a huge following but I’m sure their male cheerleaders will make up for the lack of fan support.

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March 9th, 2007

Day 5 [continued]

By Colin Wilson on March 9th, 2007

Northern Illinois has to play team defense. They tried to help out on the permiter and Lisa Rusche just got an easy lay up. They trail by nine at the last media timeout and are probably lucky it’s that close.

Raymond has 17 now and Mary Basic hit a three and has played good defense. They’ve got a chance.

UPDATE:
They’ve reached the two-minute mark and NIU trails by nine. To win they’ll need at least three stops and I honestly think that’s a long shot judging by the defense they’ve played. The Cardinals are just too versatile for them.

UPDATE:

This 75-68 score is just about as close as NIU can get it. They need to make it rain if they want a chance.

UPDATE:

Bal State wins 83-72.

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March 9th, 2007

Day 5 [continued]

By Colin Wilson on March 9th, 2007

It’s the third media timeout now and it’s 63-51 Ball State. NIU is having a hell of a time guarding the wing, McDonald hit another 3 and Tina Bolte hit one as well.

Ball State should probably roll if they keep scoring like they have. It’s been a steady dose of dribble drives, post-ups and 3-balls. They’re 9-of-15 from long range now and it’s clearly killing the Huskies.

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March 9th, 2007

Day 5 [continued]

By Colin Wilson on March 9th, 2007

They just got out of the first media timeout of the second half, it’s 47-36 for Ball State. Northern looks really bad, they’re 1-of-11 from the field in the half and 36 percent for the game.

To be honest, the first half was pretty exciting, but the second half has slowed down. Audrey McDonald hit two straight 3s, but their offense hasn’t got many looks inside.

Raymond is 4-of-13 from the field. NIU needs her to step up if they want to win.

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March 9th, 2007

MAC Tournament- Day 5

By Colin Wilson on March 9th, 2007

Now that I’ve checked my facebook, I can start blogging. They’re at the third media timeout in the first half in the Ball State/Northern Illinois game and it’s 26-17 for BSU. As always, Ball State has a balanced attack. Portia Green leads with 12.

For NIU, Stephanie Raymond has eight, but has made just 3-of-9 from the field.

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March 7th, 2007

MAC Tournament- Day 3

By Colin Wilson on March 7th, 2007

Is the Dan Dakich era at Bowling Green over?

Maybe not. The Falcons lost today to Ohio to end the 2006-07 season. They sure didn’t lay down though. Actually, if it wasn’t for a guy named Bubba, they might be playing against Miami tomorrow.

Bubba Walther came off the bench for Ohio and went 5-of-8 from three. He was a little too much. BG had to bring their guards in to help out against big men Leon Williams and Jerome Tillman and eventually, the Bobcats perimeter players took advantage.

Matt Lefeld and Otis Polk got into early foul trouble. Story of the season for BG, when Erik Marschall went down, it may as well have doomed BG. It really didn’t though. Their bigs stepped up big in the last few games. They beat Miami then came to Cleveland and played a tough OU frontcourt as well as anyone could have hoped.

Going into the press conference, I didn’t know what to expect. If anyone there did know what to expect, including the members of the athletic department, I’d like to know how. Dakich was poised though, he took the questions about whether he thought he’d be back in stride. He told people that he’d like to be back and that he didn’t really think about it until now because he had a team to coach.

Although it’s hard to believe, he is a Division I basketball coach. If he did go around wondering what to do next year, he’d be really lost. No one expected BG to go out and compete for the MAC crown this season. They were picked to finish last.

As for me, I don’t really have a stance on whether Dakich should stay or go. He’s pretty fair. I’d like to be fair to him in return. He’s had good times and bad times at BG. Not every player agrees with him, but some do. He has gotten the best out of some guys and the worst out of some others. I’d be willing to bet that Matt Lefeld and Martin Samarco would tell you that he got the best of their abilities though.

As for the two seniors, I’m not really sure what will happen to Samarco. Lefeld will likely move on to the profession of his choice, he’s an Academic All-American and should not have a problem finding his niche.

Samarco is kind of undersized for the NBA, but I could see him playing overseas. They love to shoot and so does he.

All in all, the BG men’s basketball team has been an interesting cast of characters this season. Not everything worked out for them, they finished strong though.

My blurb of the day

Eastern Michigan has this cheerleader that is probably the biggest tool I’ve ever seen. There are a lot of reasons why, but he was constantly yelling directly to the Eastern players to “play with some intensity” and “buckle it down on defense.” If I’m a player on that team, I’m walking over to that guy and saying, “dude, you’re a cheerleader, not my coach, go back over there and say ‘rah rah go team’ and quit bothering me.” That’s just me though.

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March 7th, 2007

MAC Tournament - Day Two

By Colin Wilson on March 7th, 2007

So maybe I was a bit harsh on Sunday. Today renewed my confidence in the MAC. There were some great basketball games in the quarterfinal round at the Q.

This may also be due to the fact that I went to the Cavs-Rockets game on Monday. I’ll touch on that after I break down the day.

I’ll start with the BG game and then backtrack.

Toledo had some strong-willed seniors on their side. Savannah Werner scored 13 points in the first half and BG had some trouble with that. Carin Horne kept BG in it though by hitting two early 3s and playing great perimeter defense, she finished with 22.

By halftime, BG led 40-29 and had the game in hand for the most part. The Rockets got back within five at the 16:05 mark, but BG didn’t let them come all the way back at any point.

I’m impressed with Toledo, they didn’t really have a good year, but they always give BG a hard time. I did sense some dissension between UT’s fans and coach though. There was this crazy person yelling at Toledo coach Mark Ehlen to foul at the end of the game when they were down double-digits with less than a minute left. His words were something like ‘FOUL, even if your coach says not to!’ Now that’s comedy. If that was a parent, I’m not surprised, but it’s Division I college sports, the coach probably knows better than you, sir.

Rewind to 1 p.m. 

The first game of the day featured Ball State and Western Michigan. The Cardinals are the other No. 1 seed in the tournament. They had a 13-3 record, but one of their losses was to Western Michigan. This game was probably the most neutral of all the games. I’ll put it this way - there weren’t many non-parents in the stands.

Ball State was pretty much carried by Julie Demuth. She had 19 points in the first half and basically pushed around every WMU post player all day to finish with 25.

Carrie Moore, who was chosen as the Co-MAC Player of the Year along with Ali Mann, paced the Broncos with 19. If Moore hadn’t tried so hard to create her own shot, the Broncos may have had a better shot. She shot 6-for-18 though and no one else on Western had that takeover-the-game mentality. The game did go down to the last shot though, Western missed a three at the buzzer and lost 56-53.

Although the teams combined to shoot 39-for-112, I kind of enjoyed this game for a strange reason. Ball State is sort of fun to watch, they have fiery guard play and Demuth is just a great competitor. Western has a tough point guard, Tiera DeLaHoussaye, that is full of energy. She flies up the court on every possession and plays very gutty defense. She led the MAC in steals.

Kent State faced Northern Illinois in the second game. Paul Braverman, the play-by-play guy for WBGU and I decided that this was the most evenly matched game of the day. Kent was at home pretty much, but NIU has some pretty good perimeter players and a great leader in Stephanie Raymond.

Raymond lit up the Flashes for 25 points and had plenty of help in a 72-68 win. Jessie Wilcox had 12 points that included a dagger of a three-pointer in the final minute.

Raymond has definitely gotten my attention as a really fun player to watch over the last couple of years, her ability to drive to the basket and get fouled and her range have impressed. She also plays great defense.

Kristin Peoples has also been an interesting player for Kent, she had 28 points and played all 40 minutes.

OU lost to Eastern Michigan in the final game 79-69. I didn’t stick around for that because I had to write the game story for BG, but those Eagles are tough. BG has got their hands full.

Some observations:

Western Michigan had the most obnoxious fans of the day. Some crazy woman would not stop yelling on every play. She was yelling at opposing players, coaches and mostly referees. Her points were very unintelligent and reflected badly upon the WMU fan base which has already made itself look like a band of idiots.

Akron and Western Michigan tied for hottest dance team and UT definitely had the cutest female cheerleaders.

As far as bands are concerned, they were all annoying and had really stupid chants. That is all I’m going to say about that. BG’s band was pretty well-behaved from what I noticed. They cheered loudly and distracted the other team without being idiots and saying mean things.

Off-topic

As far as the Cavs are concerned, I went to the game Monday and watched Tracy McGrady brick shot after shot for three quarters, only to come back and nearly win the game by making a bunch of impossible shots. Yao Ming on the other hand was less than watchable. He looked like he just joined the league again, I was rooting against him, I still wanted to go down there and be like “Dude, YOU’RE 7-foot-6, QUIT SHOOTING 10-FOOTERS!!! Lebron was great and Larry Hughes played well again, thank God.

3 points

1) Lebron is back- watch out Detroit

2) Coach K is pissing on my leg and telling me it is raining when it comes to this whole Tyler Hansborough situation

3) The MAC Tournament should be a blast the rest of the week, enjoy it while it’s here

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March 4th, 2007

Day One at the MAC Tourney- [instert expletives]

By Colin Wilson on March 4th, 2007

Excuse me if I yawn please.

I apologize to anyone who went down to the Q today. It was kind of boring, sloppy and well just downright bad.

I arrived at the arena around 3 o’clock and I was not aloud to park out front and grab my parking pass. Then I try to plead with the guy at the parking garage to let me grab my parking pass and come back and show him. No dice, I have no cash for collateral and he doesn’t trust me any further than he can throw me.

So I go to this gas station and look for an ATM and the cashier looks at me like I’m crazy. Some guy directs me to a hotel down the street and says “you can just leave your car here, it’s right around the corner.” Words that really did not make me feel safe.

So I lock my car, go to a hotel, get 20 bucks and pay the [instert expletive] $2.50 service fee. I give the a-hole at the parking garage collateral, park in a reserved spot run in, get my pass and come out.

That wasn’t so bad was it?

Well I missed the first game, Western Michigan beat up on Miami and will play Ball State next round, blah, next game. NIU and Akron. Outside of Riana Miller and a late spurt from Sarah Tokodi, the Zips are mush. NIU is shooting the freaking lights out of the Q and their center, Kristin Wiener (blessed with a bad name) is getting whatever she wants inside. Akron shows some fight, but can’t make a jump shot to save their season. NIU wins, they’ll play Kent in the quarters.

Toledo vs. Buffalo is the game we care about. Whoever wins plays BG.

Needless to say, this was a terrible, terrible basketball game. UB’s best players were in foul trouble early, but UT hesitated to go inside. For a while Buffalo stuck with them, but UT started going inside and making free throws, thus killing Buffalo’s momentum or lack thereof.

Something tells me UT coach Mark Ehlen knows that he’s 0-for his last-8 against BG. In the press conference after the game he kind of joked about how it’s great that they moved on, but they are playing BG.

The last game featured Ohio and Central Michigan. This one figured to be a laugher, but as it turns out, CMU came to play. Ann Scufka is just an animal. She may be dorky looking with her bangs and facemask, but there is really no way around her on offense. She is also a really tough guard. The Chips dropped a close one to Ohio. It’s really weird because Ohio did beat BG recently but also lost to Buffalo, barely beat Akron and now barely beat Central. Will the real Ohio University be the one who upset BG? They face Eastern Michigan Tuesday, we’ll find out.

After today, I’m glad I’ll be watching the MAC elite play again soon. 

In other news, the BG men won today. Rewind…the BG men won today? Yes they did. Ryne Hamblet is a baller in my book. A 28-point day for the ju-co transfer helped BG beat Miami and potentially drop them to a No. 5 seed. Unfortunately, the mighty Ohio Bobcats were spanked by Buffalo and will remain in the 5 spot and face BG.

That sucks for BG because they have a much better chance against Miami than Ohio. The Bobcats inside game is way too much for the young front court to handle.

The rest of college basketball was pretty sweet today. Carolina made Duke their [female dog] once again. And Tyler Hansborough has a battle scar after being clubbed with 14 seconds left.

Florida also continued their dominance over Kentucky today, winning their sixth straight over them. You know what this means right? Tubby Smith will never see Joakim Noah cry. The Florida junior class is now 6-0 against the Wildcats in their careers.

Wow, that was long. Stay tuned for more blogging on Tuesday.

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March 2nd, 2007

It’s Tourney Time

By Colin Wilson on March 2nd, 2007

Well folks, it’s time for the MAC Tournament. I’m excited because I’m a Cleveland native and I can mooch off my mom and dad for a week and not have many responsibilities for the week other than blogging and watching basketball. Now that’s the life.

In case you haven’t read it in the sports rail, I’ll be blogging throughout the week and hopefully throughout most of the games including the 1+ men’s games. I’m really hoping they advance too, giving me yet another reason to kick it down at the Q.

On a sour note, I received an email today telling me that Jasmine McCall will not be returning to the team. She has ‘voluntarily left the program.’ That leaves BG with their best post player as the backup point guard.

McCall has got some things to take care of, that’s her deal, hopefully the Falcons can still play top notch basketball. They were able to beat Miami by 30 on Wednesday, but we’ll have to see what happens against tougher teams who have more versatile guards like Stephanie Raymond(NIU), Portia Green(Ball St.) and Kristin Peoples(Kent St.). Fortunately the Falcons won’t see any of those three until the finals if at all.

Anyway, just be sure to check back with the blog throughout the week, I hope to update it a lot.

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