BOWLING GREEN — The Bowling Green State University men’s basketball team is 5-2 this season. And coach Michael Huger is not happy.
Well, that is not completely true. Huger is happy with his team’s start; he just knows it might have been better.
“I’d rather be 7-0,” he said with a laugh Tuesday. “But every coach is like that. And we could be 2-5.”
But the Falcons enter Wednesday’s contest against San Jose State at the Stroh Center following a strong performance at the Creek Classic hosted by Campbell University during Thanksgiving break. BG won twice in the three-games-in-three-days event, starting with a win over USC-Upstate.
“USC-Upstate played a zone and were similar to Eastern Michigan,” Huger said. “Against a zone you have to make shots, and we made some shots — and that frees things up on offense.
“We had a double-digit lead and didn’t sustain it. ... We got them down, but we need to figure out how to put them away.”
The next day the Falcons beat the host school, and Huger said he was impressed with his team’s defense against Campbell.
“We taped down a court in our meeting room and walked through what we wanted to do on defense,” Huger said with a laugh. “I thought our guys did a phenomenal job of doing what we wanted them to do.”
But the Falcons struggled in the third game and lost to Abilene Christian on Sunday.
“They were a physical team, like Buffalo,” Huger said. “Playing three teams in three days took a toll — but on our minds, not our bodies.
“I thought we were mentally tight. You have to be prepared, game after game. ... We took a lead, but we just couldn’t sustain it and pulled away.”
The Falcons offense has improved from last season, producing 84.7 points per contest. And much of that improvement has come from the addition of talented freshmen such as redshirt Justin Turner (14.8 points per game), Daeqwon Plowden, and Derek Koch (7.0 ppg), and Nelly Cummings (6.3 ppg).
But another source of offense has been sophomore Rodrick Caldwell, who has improved his 6.8 points per game average last season to 15.7 points per game this year. Caldwell scored 18 points against USC-Upstate, 20 versus Campbell, and 25 against Abilene Christian to earn a berth on the all-tournament team as well as MAC East Division player of the week honors.
Huger said Caldwell’s offense is “growing.”
“We call it ‘hunting’ shots — when you’re open and you look for the ball and try to get it,” Huger said. “Last year Rod was not ‘hunting’ shots: When he was open, he would wait for the ball; if he didn’t get the ball, he would just go downcourt and play defense.
“Now he is ‘hunting’ the ball, looking to get it and looking to take shots.”
The problem for the Falcons to this point has been defense. BG is surrendering an average of 82.4 points per game. While that number is skewed by the 106 points the Falcons surrendered in OT against Lake Erie, there are three other games where BG surrendered more than 80.
And Bowling Green’s season “low” in points allowed is 78.
“I thought we could have put up more resistance, but I thought they also made some tough shots,” Huger said after his team gave up 83 to Abilene Christian. “They didn’t just have their way with us.
“I thought Lake Erie had their way with us. I thought Abilene Christian just made tough shots.”
Huger is looking for more consistency from his team's defense.
“We have games where we ‘bring it,’ and games where we don’t," he said. "And there are times when we relax in a game, and that takes away from our defense — and that affects our offense, too.
“The one consistent thing we can do is [play] defense. We control how hard we play. We control our energy and effort. ...
“If we were going backwards, I would be concerned. But we’re getting better each practice, each game. And I think we’ll keep coming along with more practice and game experience.”
Contact John Wagner at jwagner@theblade.com, 419-724-6481, or on Twitter @jwagnerblade.
First Published November 28, 2017, 8:18 p.m.
