Men's Basketball
Home Team: BGSU Falcons
Visiting Team: Buffalo Bulls
Venue: Anderson Arena (Bowling Green, Ohio)
Game Time: 7:00 p.m.
Fellow Attendees: None
Right now, Buffalo coach Reggie Witherspoon is standing at the scorer's table in a dark and empty Anderson Arena, sounding the buzzer over and over again in hopes that the Falcons will emerge from the locker room and give his team an arbitrary chance to win a game they lost in regulation. Why not? It worked last time (well, except for the dark and empty part).
Okay, so I'm still just the tiniest bit bitter about the ending of the last matchup between these two teams. Thankfully, BG didn't leave any doubts about who the winner was this time. I felt pretty good when I looked up at the scoreboard less than eight minutes into the first half and saw that the score was already 20-10 in favor of the good guys. The Falcons were able to maintain a comfortable lead throughout the rest of the game.
Yeah, the Bulls aren't very good. They came into the game with the same record as the Falcons, so I was very interested to see how we would play against a team that's roughly on our level. Answer: they played pretty well, and were able to dominate throughout. And that's great to see.
It looks like things are finally coming together for the Falcons on the offensive end. Scoring points has been a problem at times this season, but tonight it really looked like the guys were starting to figure out how to play together, how to move the ball around and find each other. That led to a pretty balanced attack, with four guys in double figures, led by Brian Moten's 20. He's really come on lately, as have Otis, Jakubowski, Clements...a bunch of guys who were question marks coming into this season. Guys are starting to learn and fill their roles, which is a great sign for the rest of the season.
Another great sign? BG was able to do this well offensively without huge contributions from forwards Nate Miller and Chris Knight. Nate looked okay, just seemed to realize he didn't need to score as much as usual tonight. Knight still looks tentative, like he's trying to find his way. That's all right. The light will come on for him eventually, and he'll be a monster. It's worth having his athleticism on the floor even when he's not scoring a lot.
I really enjoy watching these guys play. Aside from the fun of seeing them improve, both individually and as a team, from game to game, they're becoming the type of team I can really get into. They're tenacious. It's even fun watching them play defense, which I've probably never said prior to this year. I'm still trying to keep my expectations on the low end for this season, but it's impossible not to be encouraged and enthused about what I've seen so far.
Oh, and Coach Witherspoon? The game ended--I mean actually ended--almost three hours ago. The refs aren't going to hand you this one.
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