Falcons Host Manhattan Wednesday

Complete Game Notes (.pdf)

Bowling Green, Ohio - Bowling Green will play its second opponent from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Wednesday when the Falcons host Manhattan Wednesday at 7 p.m. BGSU lost to MAAC school Niagara, 65-61, in the Legends Classic at Detroit earlier in the season.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
• Both of Bowling Green's wins this year have come in Anderson Arena. The Falcons are 2-2 in The House That Roars, including a victory in the team's last contest in the arena, a 76-67 win over Florida International.
• A'uston Calhoun put together an impressive offensive display in the Saturday's 72-69 loss to Milwaukee, scoring a career-high 26 points, including 18 in the second half, on 13-of-21 shooting. He also had a career-best eight rebounds.
• Bowling Green is 0-4 in games decided by five points or less this year, losing such contests to Howard, Niagara, Albany and Milwaukee. All of those contests, however, were on the road or in neutral site games.
• Scott Thomas is coming off of the fourth double-double of his career in Saturday's loss to Milwaukee. He flirted with a triple-double for much of the game, finishing with 13 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists -- tying his career high in that stat.

THE SERIES
Bowling Green and Manhattan played twice in the 1960's, splitting the two contests. The Falcons beat the Jaspers on Dec. 28, 1962 in the Quaker City Invitational 80-73. The two teams played five years later in the Marshall Tournament on Dec. 20, 1967 and Manhattan came away with a 75-64 win.

SCOUTING THE MANHATTAN JASPERS
Since opening the season with wins over NJIT and Penn, Manhattan has lost nine straight games. The Jaspers are struggling to shoot the ball and are scoring just 58.7 points per game. George Beamon, a 6-foot-4 sophomore guard/forward, leads the team with 14.3 points per game and is also averaging 7.5 rebounds. Rhamel Brown, a 6-6 freshman forward, has been a force inside, blocking 21 shots to go with his 6.8 points and 8.4 rebounds. Demetrius Jemison, a 6-8 graduate student who transferred from Alabama and was not eligible to play in the team's first nine games, averaged 10.0 points and 10.0 rebounds since being activated for the last two contests.

CALHOUN SCORES 26 BUT BGSU GIVES AWAY SECOND HALF LEAD
A'uston Calhoun had a career-high 26 points and a career-best eight rebounds but Bowling Green was unable to hold onto an 11-point second half lead in a 72-69 loss to Milwaukee Saturday. Calhoun was 13-of-21 shooting and the Falcons led 55-44 with 11:52 to go. The Panthers battled back and took the lead for good with just under three minutes to play. Bowling Green had a few shots to tie or win in the last minute but was unable to convert.

LEADING MAN
Last year, Scott Thomas led the Falcons in scoring and steals, ranking second in rebounds, assists, and blocked shots. This year, he's taking it a step further by leading the Falcons in rebounding, assists, steals, three-pointers made, and free-throws made, while ranking second in scoring. His all-around game was on display against Milwaukee Saturday when he flirted with a triple-double and ended with 13 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and two steals. He ranks in the top 10 in the MAC in rebounds, assists, and steals, along with assist/turnover ratio.

DEE-LIGHTFUL
Dee Brown has scored in double-figures in five of the past seven games (and just missed with nine against Milwaukee) to take over the team scoring lead at 11.0 points per game. During the recent stretch, he is averaging 13.3 points per game and shooting 46 percent from the field. He has also made four of his last five three-point attempts to move into 10th place in career three-point shooting at BGSU at 39.4 percent.

THIEVERY
Bowling Green leads the MAC and ranks in the top 20 nationally in steals, averaging 9.5 per game. The Falcons had a 19-steal performance against Western Kentucky, the most in a game for a MAC school this year, and added 16 against Ohio Dominican. The 19 steals were just one shy of the program record (the team had 20 steals against Heidelberg in 1990) and Scott Thomas had six steals individually in that game. Thomas ranks third in the MAC with 2.20 steals per game and Jordon Crawford is sixth at 1.82 per game. Crawford, in fact, had a string of five consecutive games with at least two steals earlier this year. Both Dee Brown and Joe Jakubowski are also averaging at least a steal per contest. A year ago, the Falcons averaged just 6.8 steals per game.

JAKUBOWSKI NAMED COUSY AWARD CANDIDATE
Bowling Green senior Joe Jakubowski was named as one of 66 candidates for the 2011 Bob Cousy Award, given to the top point guard in the country. Jakubowski was BGSU's starting point guard during the last half of his freshman campaign and then started every game at the position as both a sophomore and junior. He entered the 2010-11 season with 85 career starts and is one of the most experienced point guards in the country entering the year.

LARGER ROLES
Four players on this year's team are averaging at least 8.0 minutes per game more than they did a year ago. Jordon Crawford, A'uston Calhoun, Luke Kraus, and Danny McElroy combined to play 666 minutes a year ago but have already played 857 this season.

SHOOTING THE ROCK
A year ago, Bowling Green led the Mid-American Conference with a 44.4 field goal percentage. After struggling to shoot through the first nine games, the Falcons have again found their rhythm. Bowling Green has shot 50 percent over the course of the past two games. The team is 2-1 when shooting at least 44 percent from the field this year but has been below 35 percent five times.

DOWN LOW
Head coach Louis Orr's philosophy is always to play inside-out and the Falcons have not done that better this year than they did Saturday at Milwaukee, scoring 44 points in the paint. Bowling Green has scored at least 20 points in the paint in nine of the first 11 games after reaching that total in 27-of-30 games a year ago. Bowling Green has outscored its opponents in the paint in 7-of-10 games (Florida International and BGSU tied 30-30) this year after doing it in 23-of-30 games a year ago.

STARTING A CAREER
Freshman Cameron Black has started the first 11 games of the 2010-11 season. He is the first BGSU freshman to start that many games to begin his collegiate career since Anthony Stacey started all 27 games during the 1995-96 season. Stacey went on to have one of the best careers in program history, setting the school record with 1,938 career points. While Black is not scoring at the same rate Stacey did as a freshman, the rest of his statistics compare favorably.

THOMAS NAMED LEGENDS CLASSIC ALL-TOURNAMENT
Scott Thomas was named to the Legends Classic Subregional Round All-Tournament team for his performances against Niagara, Detroit, and Albany. He averaged 9.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 4.7 assists, while picking up eight steals in the three games.

ORR SIGNS TEAMMATES IN EARLY SIGNING PERIOD
Head coach Louis Orr announced that Canton Timken High School teammates Jehvon Clarke and Desmond Rorie signed National Letters of Intent during the early signing period to attend Bowling Green for the 2011-12 season. Clarke is a highly-touted 6-foot-1 point guard who averaged 15.5 points, 5.6 assists, and 3.0 steals per game as a junior. Rorie is a 6-9 post player whose best days are ahead of him. He averaged 3.7 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 3.7 blocked shots per game as a junior.

EXPERIENCE AT THE POINT
Most experts agree that an experienced point guard can play a huge role in a team's success in college basketball. If that's the case, then Bowling Green could be primed for a big season. Point guard Joe Jakubowski enters the 2010-11 season with 85 games started, 10th most in the country.

CONSISTENT INCONSISTENCY
Until Scott Thomas was injured last week, Head Coach Louis Orr seemed to be settling into a starting lineup. He had used the same lineup of Joe Jakubowski, Dee Brown, Thomas, Danny McElroy and Cameron Black for three consecutive games. In total, however, he has used seven different starting lineups in 11 games this year with nine different players picking up at least one start. Only Black, a freshman, has started all 11 games, while Thomas and Brown have nine starts each and McElroy has added eight starts. A year ago, Orr used just three starting lineups and only seven players got at least one start.

THE PRIDE OF FINDLAY, OHIO
Sophomore guard Luke Kraus had a highly decorated prep career at Findlay High School, where he passed Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to become the school's all-time leading scorer. Since Roethlisberger officially changed his hometown to the fictional Corey Rawson, Ohio during the offseason, Kraus is now likely the most famous athlete from Findlay, Ohio.

FALCONS PICKED FIFTH
Bowling Green was picked to finish fifth in the Mid-American Conference East Division in the preseason media poll. The Falcons had 42 points to edge Buffalo (32 points) in the division. Defending MAC Tournament champion Ohio was selected first, followed by Kent State, Akron, and Miami.

MAC Preseason Media Poll
East Division - 1. Ohio (128 points/12 first-place votes), 2. Kent State (114 points/8 first-place votes), 3. Akron (104 points/4 first-place votes), 4. Miami (84 points), 5. Bowling Green (42 points), 6. Buffalo (32 points)
West Division - 1. Ball State (124 points/12 first-place votes), 2. Central Michigan (122 points/8 first-place votes), 3. Eastern Michigan (88 points/2 first-place votes), 4. Western Michigan (68 points), 5. Northern Illinois (64 points/2 first-place votes), 6. Toledo (38 points)
Tournament Champion - Ohio (10), Kent State (6), Central Michigan (4), Ball State (2), Akron (2)

THOMAS NAMED PRESEASON ALL-MAC
Scott Thomas was selected as one of five Preseason All-MAC East Division players by vote of the media. Thomas led BGSU in scoring and steals a year ago, ranking second in rebounds, assists, and blocked shots. He averaged 13.2 points per game on the season but improved that average to 15.4 points in conference games and 16.9 points over the final eight contests.

Preseason All-MAC Teams
East Division - Brett McKnight (Akron), Scott Thomas (Bowling Green), Justin Greene (Kent State), Julian Mavunga (Miami), D.J. Cooper (Ohio)
West Division - Jarrod Jones (Ball State), Trey Zeigler (Central Michigan), Brandon Bowdry (Eastern Michigan), Xavier Silas (Northern Illinois), Flenard Whitfield (Western Michigan)

THE WALK-ONS
Head Coach Louis Orr accepted two walk-ons to his program this year and both are seniors in eligibility. Wiley Roberts is a feel-good story who served as a team manager for the past two years at Bowling Green. Mike Dabney spent the 2006-07 season at NAIA Concordia University in Ann Arbor, Mich., where he posted the third-highest single-season blocked shot total in program history with 56 rejections. Roberts saw his first collegiate action by playing one minute in the team's victory over Ohio Dominican and Dabney got his first BGSU action with one minute against Michigan. Dabney played a large role in the team's game against Detroit, picking up five points, four rebounds, a blocked shot, and a steal in 13 minutes of action.

NAME DROPPING
BGSU freshman Craig Sealey was a part of two AAU National Championship teams with the All-Ohio Red Team in 2006 and 2007. Sealey's teams included Ohio State freshmen Jared Sullinger, J.D. Weatherspoon, and Aaron Craft, along with Michigan State freshman Adreian Payne.

WE MUST PROTECT THIS HOUSE (THAT ROARS)
Anderson Arena has always been a difficult place for opponents but the Falcons are 2-2 so far in 2010-11. The Falcons are 458-187 (.710) all-time in Anderson Arena and 172-61 (.738) in the past 18 years.

DEFENSE WINS
Bowling Green held opponents below 45 percent shooting in 13 of its 14 victories (Valparaiso shot 46.4 percent) a year ago, a trend for success that has been the norm under Head Coach Louis Orr. The Falcons are just 4-28 in Head Coach Louis Orr's first four years when an opponent shoots better than 45 percent, including 1-11 a year ago and 0-6 this year. Duquesne shot a remarkable 60.7 percent, while Michigan, Niagara, Detroit, Michigan State, and Milwaukee all shot over 45 percent.

HE'S SMART TOO!
Joe Jakubowski was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District team in voting by the members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Bowling Green was one of only five teams in the country to place multiple players on one of the eight first team all-district teams as Jakubowski and graduate Marc Larson each made the team. Larson went on to be named ESPN The Magazine Second Team Academic All-American.

IT WILL STILL ROAR
Known as "The House That Roars", Anderson Arena will play host to the Bowling Green men's basketball team for the final time in 2010-11. The team will move into the brand new Stroh Center next year and will open the building by hosting Howard on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011. In honor of the final season in Anderson Arena, the Athletics Department is holding a year-long celebration titled "Closing The Doors Of The House That Roars". Here are the key events of the final year in Anderson Arena and the first year in the Stroh Center:

Jan. 29, 2011 - Men's basketball throwback game vs. Eastern Michigan
March 4/5, 2011 - All-Anderson Team recognized vs. Buffalo
March 5, 2011 - The B!G Event; One final celebration of Anderson Arena
Sept. 9, 2011 - Volleyball vs. Michigan State; Stroh Center ribbon-cutting
Nov. 12, 2011 - Men's basketball vs. Howard; First game in Stroh Center
Nov. 17, 2011 - Women's basketball vs. Purdue; First game in Stroh Center
March 17-20, 2012 - NCAA Women's Basketball Tourney in Stroh Center

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