Men's Basketball
Home Team: Miami RedHawks
Visiting Team: BGSU Falcons
Venue: Millett Hall (Oxford, Ohio)
Game Time: 7:00 p.m.
Fellow Attendees: None
First off, win or lose, I have to give the Falcons a lot of credit. Like so many other games this season, they were behind for a good portion of this game, sometimes by a significant amount. Like so many other games this season, they battled back to put themselves in a position to win at the end. Especially with one of the team's best players (Chris Knight) out and frontcourt depth at a premium due to injury (Marc Larson), the way BG has been playing of late has been very, very impressive. Alas, this time around, they just couldn't get the ball in the hole when they really needed to, but they gave it a hell of a run.
Going to sporting events by myself has good and bad points, sometimes wrapped up all in one thing. Since I'm the rare bird that just needs one ticket, I can often find a singleton in what seems like a really good spot. For this game I found myself in the first row right behind the Miami bench. That sounds pretty good, but really, it's not optimal. Once the game starts, players are jumping up and down, coaches and trainers are roaming around, and plenty of game personnel and event staff are in the vicinity as well. Frankly, it's often hard to see what's going on. I was extremely grateful to one ref who eventually made it a point to tell Miami's bench to sit down pretty much each time down the floor (I think at some point they should have earned a technical foul, but I'm biased). Of course, that didn't keep ol' Charlie from getting in my way from time to time, but it made it easier to see more of the game.
And it goes without saying that I was surrounded by Miami fans. One guy, on his way into the section, saw me decked out in orange and tried to tell me I was in his seat. When I assured him I had a ticket for my seat and actually started to get it out to show it to him, he remembered that he was actually in the row behind me. In the middle of the section I might have bought it, but I was in the first row - dude, you know I'm not in your seat. I think he just assumed I was trying to bogart the seat and wanted to keep a Falcon fan from occupying such a "prime" spot. Unfortunately for him, he had to listen to me yelling encouragement to the Falcons all night long. I don't think I was too obnoxious, except when Scott Thomas hit the 3-ball at the buzzer to send the game into overtime. I went a little bit out of my mind at that point. My throat is still a little raw from that outburst, actually.
My observations on the game itself are a little spotty, due to my odd perspective, but here's what I've got. First, I'd love to see Scott Thomas get some more minutes. His absolutely clutch trey aside, he's the only player we have that looks confident and consistently competent when passing into the post. I think Otis could provide at least some scoring punch if we could get him the ball more often, and we know that Marschall can score. With the offensive droughts these guys go through sometimes, that could be huge. And what was Otis doing on his last foul? He fouled a guy shooting a 3 - bad enough when anyone does it, but why was the center out there? We could have used him in OT. I also wasn't crazy about Nate driving for the layup with about 10 seconds left in overtime, down by 3. The defense cleared out and was pretty much giving it to him, but with that little time on the clock, I think it was time to shoot for 3. It didn't help that he missed the layup, but I think it was the wrong decision either way. And I'm not criticizing Nate - that could have been a coaching call as much as his own initiative. And without him we're not in that situation anyway. He's been huge for us.
So now the Falcons go into their final regular-season game in a four-way tie for first in the MAC with Miami, Buffalo, and Akron. There's a bunch of different ways this can play out, but the only thing the Falcons can do at this point is take care of OU at home and let the whole mess sort itself out. I'll be at the House That Roars (and hopefully it will) on Sunday to cheer the Falcons on, and hopefully we can send B-Mo, DC, and Nate out in style.
No comments:
Post a Comment