Michael Huger - Men's Basketball Coach - Bowling Green State University Athletics

Michael Huger

Title:
Head Men's Basketball Coach
Email:
mhuger@bgsu.edu
Phone:
419-372-2255

Coach Huger
College	Bowling Green (1994)
Coaching History
2005-07	Longwood, Assistant Coach
2007-11	George Mason, Assistant Coach
2011-15	Miami (FL), Assistant Coach
2015- Pres.	Bowling Green, Head Coach
Career Head Coaching Record
2015-16	Bowling Green, 16-18 (5-13)
2016-17	Bowling Green, 13-19 (7-11)
2017-18	Bowling Green, 16-16 (7-11)
2018-19	Bowling Green, 22-12 (12-6)
2019-20	Bowling Green, 21-10 (12-6)
2020-21	Bowling Green, 14-12 (10-8)
2021-22	Bowling Green, 13-18 (6-14)
Total (7 Years)	Bowling Green, 115-105 (59-69)

A 1994 graduate of Bowling Green State University, Michael Huger was named BGSU’s 17th head men’s basketball coach on April 17, 2015. The 2022-23 season will mark the eighth season that Huger will lead his alma mater.

Huger, who returned to BGSU, where he was a standout player for the Falcons from 1989-93, came to Bowling Green after four seasons at the University of Miami. He had spent eight total seasons as an assistant coach for head coach Jim Larrañaga, whom he played for at BGSU.

During the Coach Huger Era, Bowling Green has reached milestone after milestone. During the 2021-22 season, the program eclipsed 100 wins inside the Stroh Center. The 2020-21 campaign witnessed Coach Huger move past the 100-win mark as a head coach, as well as a CBI postseason berth for the Orange and Brown. Huger has pushed the Falcons within the Mid-American Conference, being the No. 2 seed in the MAC Tournament during the 2019-20 season before the coronavirus shutdown.

Huger and the Falcons’ success began during the 2018-19 season. After being picked to finish last in the MAC in the league’s preseason poll, Huger led Bowling Green to its first MAC Championship Game appearance in 17 years and just the fourth time in school history. The achievement made Huger the second coach in BGSU history, and first since John Weinert (1976-86), to have guided the Falcons to multiple MAC Tournament wins across multiple seasons. In Huger's debut campaign in 2015-16, Bowling Green advanced to the conference semifinals with wins over Kent State and Central Michigan.The Falcons went 22-12 in 2018-19, marking the first 22-plus win season since 2001-02, and the fourth time overall for the program since 1950.

The Falcons have achieved unprecedented success in the classroom under Huger, as well. The men's basketball program posted a perfect single-year rate in 2020 in terms of Academic Progress Rate scores. Bowling Green experienced its largest single-year increase in program history. Furthermore, the one-year improvement of 35 points in 2020 marked the largest jump amongst all Division I men’s basketball programs.

Renowned for his recruiting prowess, Huger has recruited and developed some of the MAC’s biggest recent stars. Huger has brought in five 1,000-point scorers during his tenure, including the program’s first 2,000-point scorer and all-time points leader, Justin Turner. Turner also became BGSU’s first back-to-back First Team All-MAC performer in 20 years.

Huger’s recruits worked to rewrite the record books at Bowling Green. In addition to Turner taking the all-time scoring crown, Dylan Frye became the program’s all-time leader in three-point field goals with 238. Trey Diggs joined the list as well, making 172 over just three seasons to end his career eighth on the list.

On the boards, Demajeo Wiggins and Daeqwon Plowden led two of the most dominant rebounding careers in program history. Wiggins finished with 1,066 rebounds, third all-time, to become just the third player in program history to have 1,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds. As for Plowden, he etched his name into the record book for both career rebounds and career blocks. Plowden ended his time in the Orange and Brown fourth for each stat with 935 rebounds and 126 blocks, becoming the first player in program history with at least 1,200 points, 800 rebounds and 100 blocks over their time at BGSU. Plowden ended with 1,618 career points, eighth all-time.

Prior to taking the helm of BGSU’s men’s basketball program, Huger joined the Miami (FL) staff in April of 2011. Huger helped the Canes to a total of 91 wins over his four seasons, including posting a program-record 29 wins in the 2012-13 season. Overall, the Canes posted four-straight winning seasons during his time on the sidelines at The U.

Under Huger, the team’s defensive coordinator, the Canes were nationally ranked No. 11 in scoring defense (59.6 ppg) and No. 39 in field goal defense (40.7 percent) in 2013-14, after ranking No. 39 in scoring defense (60.6) and No. 48 in field goal percentage defense (40.0) in 2012-13.

In 2014-15, Huger helped to guide Miami to the 2015 National Invitation Tournament (NIT) Championship Game at Madison Square Garden and to an overall record of 25-13, with the 25 wins being the second most all-time in school history. On the season, the Canes defeated three nationally ranked top 25 teams – at No. 8/7 Florida, vs. No. 24/25 Illinois and at No. 4/4 Duke – with two of those wins over ranked opponents coming on the road for the first time since 1998-99. With the Canes’ win over Duke, the eventual 2015 NCAA Men’s Basketball National Champions, Miami snapped Duke’s home winning streak at 41 games. Duke’s winning streak was the longest active streak in NCAA Division I history at the time. The Canes also ended Florida’s streak of consecutive home wins at 33 straight victories, which was the longest streak in UF history.

Prior to assisting Miami to a 17-16 overall record in 2013-14 after losing all five of its starters from a championship team the previous season, Huger and the Canes played in the Sweet 16 after earning a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament in 2012-13. Miami was the ACC regular-season and tournament champion, earned a No. 2 ranking in both national polls and won a school-record 29 games, including 15 conference victories. He helped lead Miami to four 20+ point wins over ACC opponents, including a 27-point rout of No. 1 Duke, and victories against North Carolina (+26), Florida State (+24) and Boston College (+22).

In his first season with the Canes in 2011-12, Huger aided Miami in winning nine conference games en route to finishing tied for fourth place in the ACC. It was the first time the team posted a winning record in the ACC since the program's first season in the league in 2004-05, and it was the highest the team had ever finished in the final regular season standings before receiving an NIT postseason bid.

While at Miami, Huger helped Durand Scott earn 2013 ACC Defensive Player of the Year honors, while in 2011-12 Kenny Kadji made the All-ACC Third Team and Shane Larkin was picked to be on the ACC All-Freshman Team. Fellow Canes’ Angel Rodriguez and Sheldon McClellan, along with both Scott and Tonye Jekiri, also received All-ACC Honorable Mention honors.

As a former point guard, Huger also worked individually with All-American Larkin, who in 2012-13 was the ACC and Lute Olson National Player of the Year, ACC Championship Tournament MVP, and was a finalist for the Bob Cousy, Naismith and John R. Wooden awards. Larkin left UM after his sophomore season to enter the 2013 NBA Draft.

Prior to following Larrañaga to Miami, Huger spent four seasons at George Mason where he helped lead the Patriots to the postseason every year -- including NCAA berths in 2008 and 2011. In 2011, the team defeated Villanova to advance to the third round of the NCAA Tournament, earned a regular-season CAA title and posted a school-record tying 27 wins. In 2009, he helped George Mason to an NIT bid and its second-straight 20-win season, and in 2008, Huger helped the Patriots to their second-highest win total in school history as they beat nationally-ranked Kansas State and won the CAA title for the first time since 2001.

Huger began his coaching career at Longwood University (Va.) under Mike Gillian, a former George Mason and BGSU assistant coach under Larrañaga, where he spent two seasons.

Before joining the coaching ranks, Huger played professional basketball in Europe, spending time in Finland (1992-94), two years in Holland (1994-96) and nine in Belgium (1996-2005). He was selected Dutch League MVP in 1996 after averaging 25.3 points and 5.8 assists, and went on to earn first team All-Belgium honors in 2000 and 2004 after leading his clubs to Belgium Cup championships in both seasons.

A native of New York City, Huger is a 1994 graduate of Bowling Green State University with a bachelor's degree in education. He played for Larrañaga from 1989-93, helping the Falcons to a pair of NIT appearances. Tabbed the BGSU Team MVP in 1992-93, he earned All-Mid-American Conference honors in his final two seasons, and was a Naismith Award nominee and the runner-up for MAC Player of the Year as a senior. As a prep player, he helped lead Stevenson High School (Bronx) to back-to-back PSAL City Championships in 1988 and 1989. He played AAU ball for the famous Riverside Church Hawks.

Huger and his wife, Tonya, have one son, Michael Anthony II, born in November 2011.