BOWLING GREEN — Somebody break up ... Bowling Green basketball?
In what has the feel of a fork-in-the-road season for Michael Huger, don’t stick a utensil in the Falcons coach yet.
Make it six in an row for Bowling Green after its 82-63 liquidation of Ohio on Tuesday at the Stroh Center.
And not just any six in a row.
A team picked to finish last in the MAC East Division — and one that was 5½ feet under just last month after an 18-point loss to woeful Cleveland State — has now won six straight by double digits for the first time since the 1947-48 season.
If the Falcons’ 86-64 win at Kent State could be cast aside as one strange night — the only sound explanation for a road beatdown of a Golden Flashes team that had wins at Oregon State and Vanderbilt — what to make of this encore?
Even with star Demajeo Wiggins held scoreless, the hosts had the horsepower and depth to run the Bobcats clear out of Wood County.
Maybe these guys are pretty good.
Maybe too, we ought to keep the book on Huger open.
Let us say, it is about time.
If the slogan for Bowling Green hockey is Kick The Door Down, I believe the basketball team’s motto is Jiggle The Door Knob.
Or is it Knock Gently The Baby Is Sleeping?
The Falcons (10-5, 2-0 MAC) this season just needed to show something.
The first three years under Huger, they sort of existed, like a tree in a half-empty Stroh Center, making little sound. They went 16-18, 13-19, and 16-16, going a combined 19-35 in the MAC. Huger became the first coach in program history to begin his tenure with three straight nonwinning seasons.
Now, in Year 4, the clock is on, Huger at a crossroads that history tells us separates the real deals from the pretenders.
By my count, there have been seven MAC coaches in the last half century who did not have a winning season in their first four years and kept their jobs, including Mark Montgomery, who is in Year 8 of the 100-Year Plan at Northern Illinois.
None rewarded the patience.
The first six coaches held on for another 11 seasons between them, going 130-194. Montgomery is working on a likely third straight losing season.
Point is, you’ve either got it or you don’t, and Huger needs a winning season. If Michelangelo can paint the Sistine Chapel in four years, then that’s time enough for Huger to prove he can build a competitive MAC program.
I asked Huger if the BG job has been harder than he imagined.
“Yes and no,” he said, “because circumstances always change. You have guys who transfer out, setbacks, attitudes, all the stuff you deal with that nobody knows about on he outside. That’s what sets a program apart. It either strengthens you or makes you weaker. That’s what you have to deal with. Once you have all that figured out, then you can start to build a program the right way. That’s where we’re at right now.”
We’ll see where they go.
I don’t know if Huger — a BG grad and a wonderful person — is truly on a warm seat. For as out of character as this spendthrift school has acted lately with the firings of football coach Mike Jinks and women’s basketball coach Jennifer Roos, there is little appetite to buy out the final two years of Huger. Yes, we said two years. Former AD Chris Kingston, as part of his reign of error, gave Huger a six-year contract worth $325,000 annually. Six years!
Still, the coming weeks will foreshadow a lot about the coming years. For the moment, Huger appears to be on to something.
Led by Wiggins and third-year sophomore guard Justin Turner, he has a nice, deep team, with a four-man bench that outscored the Falcons’ starters Tuesday.
Crazy stat: In the 23 minutes played by backup guard Michael Laster, BG had a 37-point advantage.
At the least, a 9-9 conference season — a year that shows clear progress — looks realistic.
Now let’s see them do it. There are no excuses. Not the three players who transferred after last year. Not the uncommon strength of the MAC. Not nothing.
For Huger and the Falcons, there’s no time like this season.
First Published January 9, 2019, 3:55 a.m.
