BGSU Begins Crossover Play Against CMU Wednesday

Bowling Green Falcons (8-10, 2-3 MAC) vs. C. Michigan Chippewas (7-11, 2-3 MAC)
Jan. 25, 2012 • 7 p.m. • Bowling Green, Ohio • Stroh Center (4,347)
Radio: Falcon Radio Network • Todd Walker (Play-by-Play)/Kirk Cowan (Color)
Television: BCSN • Greg Franke (Play-by-Play)/Kevin Brechmacher (Color)
Live Stats: http://www.bgsufalcons.com
Live Video: America One Network
Live Audio: Stretch Internet
Complete Game Notes (.pdf)
PURCHASE TICKETS

QUICK HITS
* BGSU begins crossover play Wednesday as the Falcons host Central Michigan at 7 p.m. The two teams have identical 2-3 MAC records and are part of a three-way tie (along with Kent State) for seventh place in the league.
* BGSU is 36-31 all-time against Central Michigan although the Chippewas have won each of the past two meetings (one in Mount Pleasant and one in Bowling Green). In fact, CMU has not lost in Bowling Green since the 2005-06 season.
* Scott Thomas has skyrocketed up the national steal leaderboard and currently ranks 12th in the country with 2.5 per game. He has had 12 in the past two contests, including a program record-tying eight at Miami. Thomas leads the MAC in league games only and ranks second overall in steals.
* A'uston Calhoun scored a career-high 29 points on 12-of-17 shooting against Buffalo Saturday. It was the 11th 20-point game of his career.
* Thomas is getting very close to having one of the most common names in the BGSU record book. He already ranks fifth in school history in steals and ninth in three-pointers made. He needs 10 more assists to break into the top 10 and 60 more rebounds.
* Jordon Crawford leads the MAC in assists in conference play and posted six Saturday vs. Buffalo. He has posted at least three assists in 12 consecutive games.
* BGSU has led at the half just five times this year and all have been at home. The Falcons won each of the first three times, but lost to Akron and Buffalo despite halftime leads.
* BGSU outrebounded seven consecutive opponents before Buffalo held a 36-35 edge Saturday. The Bulls are the top rebounding team in the conference.
* Bowling Green has shot 50 percent or better in a game seven times this year, including three of the last five contests. The Falcons are 4-3 when reaching that percentage.

BGSU AND CENTRAL MICHIGAN BEGIN CROSSOVER PLAY
Bowling Green plays its first of six consecutive games against Mid-American Conference West Division teams Wednesday as the Falcons host Central Michigan in the Stroh Center at 7 p.m. After winning six of their first seven games in the Stroh Center, the Falcons have dropped two in a row by a total of three points. Both BGSU and CMU are 2-3 in league play and are part of a three-way tie for seventh place in the league standings (along with Kent State).

THE SERIES
Bowling Green is 36-31 all-time against Central Michigan, but the Chippewas have won the past two meetings and have also won two in a row in Ohio. A year ago, the Falcons went to Mount Pleasant with a 7-3 MAC record but Central Michigan handed BGSU a 69-64 defeat that began a six-game losing streak. The team is just 1-3 in the Louis Orr era against CMU.

SCOUTING CENTRAL MICHIGAN
Central Michigan is off to a 7-11 start to the season, including a 2-3 record during the team's first trip through Mid-American Conference West Division play. The Chippewas opened conference play with wins over Toledo and Eastern Michigan but enter Wednesday's game on a three-game losing streak. Central Michigan is led by heralded sophomore Trey Zeigler, who is averaging 16.0 points and 6.7 rebounds, while shooting 46.4 percent from the field. The Chippewas employ a three-guard lineup and all three guards are averaging double-figures with Derek Jackson at 11.7 points and Austin McBroom at 10.7 points. With that in mind, Central Michigan has excelled in handling the basketball and forcing turnovers but the Chippewas have struggled on the boards. Head coach Ernie Zeigler, Trey's father, is 71-101 in his sixth season at Central Michigan.

LAST GAME: CALHOUN'S CAREER HIGH NOT ENOUGH AGAINST BULLS
A'uston Calhoun scored a career-high 29 points on 12-of-17 shooting but Buffalo escaped the Stroh Center with a 68-66 win Saturday. In a game that featured 10 ties and 10 lead changes, Buffalo's Dave Barnett missed a free-throw attempt with 5.5 seconds left. Bowling Green's Jordon Crawford raced the length of the court but his lay-up as time expired was blocked by Mitchell Watt to give the Bulls the victory. Dee Brown had 13 points, five rebounds and three assists, while Scott Thomas scored 12 points, grabbed three rebounds, and posted three assists and four steals. The Falcons led by a point at the half but Buffalo made 8-of-10 three-point attempts in the second half to take the lead and hold on late.

THE MAC TOURNAMENT
A new format for the MAC Tournament changes the bracket and seeding this year. The teams with the top two records in the league (regardless of division) will earn a double-bye into the semifinals and the next two best records will earn a bye to the quarterfinals. Teams seeded fifth through eighth will host a first-round game and teams seeded ninth through 12th will play on the road in the first round. If the MAC Tournament were to start today, Bowling Green would be the No. 9 seed and would play at No. 8 seed Central Michigan in the first round. The Falcons are currently in a three-way tie for seventh but would be the No. 9 seed by virtue of an 0-1 record against the other two teams (Kent State would be No. 7 with a 1-0 record and CMU would be the No. 8 seed with an 0-0 record).

TORCHING THE NETS
Through five conference games, Bowling Green ranks second in the Mid-American Conference in both field goal percentage and three-point percentage in league games. The Falcons have shot at least 50 percent from the floor in three of the five conference games and are shooting 47.3 percent overall, behind only Ball State's 47.7 percent. The team is also making 38.2 percent of its three-point attempts, trailing only Akron (39.7 percent).

CONSISTENTLY INCONSISTENT
In attempting to build momentum, Bowling Green has struggled to string together wins, but the Falcons have not had any extended losing streaks either. BGSU has not won or lost more than two games in a row all year. The team has had one two-game winning streak (beating Austin Peay and Detroit on consecutive nights) and two two-game losing streaks (the first against Valparaiso and Michigan State and the second against Akron and Kent State).

STAT STUFFER
While Scott Thomas has proven to be the team's most consistent scoring threat this year, he will also go down as one of the most versatile players in program history. With eight steals against Miami, he tied a program record for a single-game and moved into fifth place in BGSU history. He added four more against Buffalo and has 171 in his career. Thomas also ranks ninth in school history with 119 career three-pointers and could move into the top 10 in career assists and rebounds before the year is over. He went over 1,000 career points with a three-pointer early against Duquesne and is the only player in program history with 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 150 steals and 100 three-pointers in a career.

WHAT A STEAL
Over the course of the past two seasons, Bowling Green has been one of the top teams in the Mid-American Conference in steals, leading the conference in that category a year ago. This year, the team is fifth in the conference and, once again, Scott Thomas and Jordon Crawford are leading the way individually. The duo has combined for 71 steals and Thomas ranks second in the conference. In fact, Thomas tied the school record with eight steals against Miami and leads the league in steals in conference games. He ranks fifth in BGSU history with 171 career steals and Crawford is now over the century mark with 105. Thomas ranks 12th in the country with 2.5 steals per game and his eight against Miami are tied for the second most in a game by an NCAA Division I player this year.

THE RECORD SETTER
Senior forward Torian Oglesby set an NCAA Division I record by making 26 consecutive field goal attempts, a streak that ended with a first-half miss against Ohio. Despite the miss, Oglesby has made 45-of-54 shots on the year, shooting 83.3 percent. The old record of 25 consecutive field goal attempts without a miss was set by Ray Voelkel of American University in 1978, a mark which stood for 33 years. As if all of that is not remarkable enough, Oglesby has made 30-of-33 shots on the road, for a 90.9 field-goal percentage away from the Stroh Center.

FIRST HALF ROAD WOES
Bowling Green is just 2-7 on the road this year, but most of the team's struggles have come in the first half. The Falcons have trailed at the half in all nine of those contests but have outscored their opponent in the second half seven times. In fact, Bowling Green trails by an average of 8.1 points at the break but has outscored their opponents by an average of 4.6 points in the second half. BGSU averages 26.8 first-half points on the road and 39.8 second-half points.

HEIGHT IS OVERRATED
At 5-feet-6, junior point guard Jordon Crawford is the fourth-shortest player in NCAA Division I basketball. Green Bay's Eric Valentin measures in as the shortest player at 5-4, while Denver's Charles Webb and George Washington's Malik Tonkins are both 5-5. None of those players have the type of impact that Crawford has on the Falcons. In fact, Crawford's 25 points against Miami are more than the other three have combined to score all season. He is third on the team with 10.7 points per game and has started 16-of-18 contests.

IMPROVING EFFICIENCY
While Scott Thomas does just about everything on the floor for the Falcons, the area in which he most needed to improve coming into the 2011-12 season was shooting from three-point range and the free-throw line. A year ago, Thomas shot 29 percent on three-pointers and 59 percent from the charity line. This year, he has made 30-of-76 three-pointers (39.5 percent) and 34-of-49 free-throws (69.4 percent). Thomas ranks ninth in the MAC in three-point percentage.

THE BIG APOSTROPHE
Junior A'uston Calhoun has turned his game up as the 2011-12 season has worn on. He averaged just 2.5 points in the first two games of the season, improved to 12.4 points over the next five, and then averaged 14.4 in the next nine. Over the past two games, Calhoun is averaging 21.0 points per game and shooting 56.7 percent from the floor.

50 PERCENT PROVIDES BETTER THAN A 50/50 CHANCE
When Bowling Green shoots at least 50 percent from the floor, the Falcons have an excellent chance of winning the game. The Falcons went 8-1 a year ago in such instances and are 33-8 in head coach Louis Orr's four years when making at least half of their shots. This year, Bowling Green is 4-3 when shooting at least 50 percent from the floor, including both of the team's conference wins.

DOWN LOW
Head coach Louis Orr's philosophy is always to play inside-out and the Falcons have done that well during his tenure. This year, the Falcons have scored at least 20 points in the paint in 17-of-18 games with a season-high 58 against Malone. In fact, the 58 points in the paint represents the most in a game in Orr's tenure. BGSU has scored at least 30 points in the paint in six consecutive games as well. In 2009-10 and 2010-11, the Falcons scored 20 or more points in the paint in 57-of-63 games.

1,000 POINT SCORERS
With a three-pointer against Duquesne, Scott Thomas became the 38th player in program history to score 1,000 career points. Senior Dee Brown also has a chance to reach 1,000 points this year, which would be just the seventh time in school history that two players have reached the milestone in the same year. Considering 12 regular season games remaining and a minimum of one MAC Tournament game, Brown needs to average 8.8 points through the remainder of the year to reach that total as he sits at 885 career points.

THE STROH CENTER
BGSU played its first regular season game ever in the Stroh Center against Howard. After 51 years in venerable Anderson Arena, the Falcons opened one of the newest facilities in the country.

DEFENSE WINS
Over the course of the past three years, Bowling Green has held its opponent to 45 percent shooting or worse in 31 of the Falcons' 36 wins. A year ago, Bowling Green went just 2-12 when an opponent shot at least 45 percent, posting victories against only Manhattan (48.9 percent shooting) and Ohio (45.8 percent). This year, the Falcons have already equaled that win total but are just 2-6 when an opponent shoots over 45 percent. Bowling Green actually won for the first time in Louis Orr's tenure when a team shot 50 percent as Austin Peay scored at a 51 percent clip, but the Falcons won 82-72.

A NEW HOLIDAY TRADITION
BGSU men's basketball played on New Year's Day for the second consecutive season as the Falcons lost to Texas San Antonio in overtime, 86-79. Bowling Green is 4-2 all-time when breaking in the New Year and the Falcons were just one of eight NCAA Division I programs to play on New Year's Day in each of the past two seasons (joining Syracuse, DePaul, Marquette, Southern Illinois, Illinois State, Northern Iowa, and Evansville).

WHERE MY FALCONS AT?
Bowling Green finally returned home to open conference action after playing away from the Stroh Center for a month with five consecutive road games in five different States. According to Google Maps, the team traveled a total of 6,442 miles, or slightly more than a quarter of the way around the planet.

THE NEW HOUSE
Anderson Arena provided BGSU with an excellent home court advantage as the Falcons went 466-190 (.710) all-time in The House That Roars. Bowling Green will attempt to build a new home court advantage after going 10-5 in Anderson Arena a year ago. This year, the Falcons are 6-3 (.667) in the Stroh Center.

PARKER/HOLMES SIGN WITH THE FALCONS
Louis Orr announced the signing of Spencer Parker and Richaun Holmes during this year's early signing period. Parker is from West Bloomfield, Mich. and is playing for Fishburne Military School in Waynesboro, Va. this year. He will have four years of eligibility remaining. Holmes is from Lockport, Ill. and is playing this year at Moraine Community College. As a full qualifier out of high school, he will transfer to Bowling Green and be able to play immediately with three years of eligibility remaining.

FOREIGN TOUR
The BGSU men's basketball team got the opportunity to travel to Toronto for a summer foreign tour and play three games. The Falcons went 2-1 on the trip, gaining experience and the opportunity for extra practices.

FALCONS TO PLAY ON REGIONAL/NATIONAL TELEVISION
BGSU will play a minimum of five games on ESPNU, SportsTime Ohio, or the Big Ten Network this year. The Falcons played on ESPNU at Georgia on Nov. 13 and then played on the Big Ten Network Dec. 17 at Michigan State. The Falcons also played on STO on Jan. 7 against Ohio in the first MAC game in the Stroh Center. BGSU has two more STO games scheduled, on Jan. 28 at Eastern Michigan and on Feb. 4 vs. Northern Illinois. On top of those contests, there are approximately a dozen other opportunities for STO or ESPN to choose the Falcons for television games.

THOMAS NAMED MAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Scott Thomas was named MAC East Division Player of the Week on Nov. 28 after guiding the Falcons to a 3-1 week, including a win over Temple. Thomas scored in double-figures in all four games, averaging 12.0 points and 5.8 rebounds per contest. He also had seven assists, nine steals, and two blocked shots.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON?
Head coach Louis Orr was an All-American at Syracuse and he will have the opportunity to help his son, freshman Chauncey Orr, grow into a strong collegiate player. Chauncey was a first team all-state player at Bowling Green High School.

FIRST TEAM ALL-STATE
Bowling Green has brought in an Associated Press Division I First Team Ohio All-State player for three consecutive years. Junior Luke Kraus was named first team all-state at Findlay High School in 2008-09. Redshirt freshman Anthony Henderson earned the honor at Toledo Start High School in 2009-10 and Chauncey Orr was named to the team from Bowling Green High School in 2010-11. BGSU is the only school in the country with three players from the AP Division I First Team Ohio All-State teams from the past three years on the roster. Miami (Ohio) and Ohio State each has two.

FALCONS PICKED SIXTH
Bowling Green was picked to finish sixth in the Mid-American Conference East Division in the preseason media poll. Defending MAC champion Kent State was selected to win the East while Western Michigan was selected to win the West.

MAC Preseason Media Poll
East Division - 1. Kent State (132 points/16 first-place votes), 2. Akron (104 points/8 first-place votes), 3. Ohio (94 points), 4. Miami (80 points), 5. Buffalo (62 points), 6. Bowling Green (32 points)
West Division - 1. Western Michigan (128 points/14 first-place votes), 2. Ball State (111 points/9 first-place votes), 3. Central Michigan (92 points/1 first-place vote), 4. Toledo (76 points), 5. Northern Illinois (59 points), 6. Eastern Michigan (38 points)
Tournament Champion - Kent State 12, Akron 6, Ball State 3, Western Michigan 2, Central Michigan 1

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