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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Men's Hoops Begin 84th Season Of Intercollegiate Play
December 27, 1999 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 15, 1999
The tournament opens on Friday (Nov. 19) with the host team playing Tennessee-Martin at 8 p.m. (1 a.m. eastern time). The Falcons will play the second game on Friday opposing Jackson State in a 10 p.m. (3 a.m. eastern time) contest. The consolation game will begin at 6 p.m. on Sunday (Nov. 21) with the two winners meeting at 8 p.m. for the championship.
THE RECORDS: The Falcons are coming off a 1998-99 season in which they posted an 18-10 overall record and a 12-6 mark in MAC play, which was good for a third-place tie in the East Division...BG was the #5 seed in the conference tournament and won on the road at Akron in the quarterfinal round by an 80-74 score in overtime...the Falcons then fell to Miami, 60-56 in overtime, in the tournament semifinals...Jackson State was 16-12 last season, 12-5 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference...Hawaii was 6-20 last season placing seventh in the Pacific Division of the Western Athletic Conference with a 3-11 league mark...Tennessee-Martin is coming off an 8-18 record a year ago when they posted a 5-13 mark in the Ohio Valley Conference to finish in ninth place.
SERIES NOTES: Bowling Green has never played any of the other three teams in the tournament.
STACEY EYEING RECORDS: Senior forward Anthony Stacey (Elyria, Ohio/Grafton Midview) comes into his final season with a chance to put his name among the elite who have played at Bowling Green. Stacey, a first-team All-MAC selection last season, needs just 384 points to become the career scoring leader and just 29 steals to take over the top spot in that category. The least amount of points he has scored in any of his three previous full seasons was 433 and the smallest number of steals he has had in a season was 36. He begins the season with 1,451 points and 173 steals while he is also 11th on the BG career field goal percentage chart shooting 50.9% while he needs just 13 rebounds to become only the 14th player in school history to reach the 600 rebound milestone. He could finish his career as high as fifth on the BG career rebounding list. A second-team all-district pick of the coaches last season, he averaged 18.5 points and 5.6 rebounds with 13 efforts of 20 or more points. Stacey was a first-team preseason All-MAC selection and has been tabbed by several preseason magazines as the Player of the Year in the conference.
BOWLING GREEN FAST FACTS: Bowling Green has played one of its two exhibition games posting an 88-76 win over Pella Windows AAU...sophomore guard Keith McLeod (Canton, Ohio/McKinley) led the team with 22 points hitting 10-of-14 shots from the field...BG had four other players score in double figures in the contest...the Falcons return eight lettermen from a year ago, three of those starters...besides Stacey, senior Dave Esterkamp (Cincinnati, Ohio/LaSalle) and McLeod are the returning starters...Esterkamp, the only other senior on the team other than Stacey, averaged 8.0 points and 4.6 rebounds last season...he has averaged 8.0 points for his career and needs just 315 points to reach 1,000 for his career...McLeod joined the team at the semester break and was the only player other than Stacey to average in double figures for the season...he played in 20 contests, starting nine, and averaged 12.4 points...he earned a spot on the MAC All-Freshman squad following the season...an explosive offensive player, McLeod had four games of 20 or more points...the Falcons were picked to finish third in the preseason MAC poll behind Akron and Kent...one player the Falcons will be counting heavily on this season, sophomore guard Brandon Pardon (Van Wert, Ohio/Lincolnview H.S./Wright State), will not be eligible until the end of the semester...the first game he can play in will be the Dec. 18 game at West Virginia...Pardon is a transfer from Wright State where he started as a freshman and averaged 6.1 points...the Falcons are likely to rely on a couple of sophomores in the middle, Len Matela (Merrillville, Ind./Andrean) and Brent Klassen (Kimball, Neb./Kimball H.S./New Hampton (N.H.) Prep School)...Matela played in all 28 games last season making 12 starts...he averaged 6.2 points and 5.1 rebounds...he recorded five double-doubles during the course of the season with highs of 20 points and 16 rebounds...Klassen played in only 12 games logging a total of 76 minutes, but has been one of the most improved players since practice started in October...the other two returning letterwinners for the Falcons are junior guard Dubrey Black (Mansfield, Ohio/Senior) and junior guard Trent Jackson (Rochester, N.Y./Franklin H.S./Ohio State)...Black played in 19 games a year ago making two starts while Jackson, who also did not become eligible until the semester break last season, played in 18 games making one start...Black averaged 3.0 points while Jackson hit for 2.4 points per game.
JACKSON STATE NOTES: Head coach Andy Stoglin is in his 11th season with his teams having compiled a record of 154-140...Jackson State played its only exhibition game before opening the season against the Falcons and posted a 98-82 win over VASDA...two returning players for the Tigers, junior Vincent Jones (6-11) and senior Timmy Marks (6-2), led the team in scoring with 21 points apiece...13 different players scored in the game for Jackson State...Jones is joined by seniors Deon Burns (6-6) and Marino Walker (6-3) as the three returning starters from a year ago...Jones averaged 12.7 points and 6.6 rebounds a year ago to lead the team in both categories...Marks is one of six other returning letterwinners from a year ago...Jackson State finished third in the SWAC last season.
HAWAII NOTES: Head coach Riley Wallace is in his 13th season at Hawaii with his teams having compiled a 182-172 mark...the Rainbows six-win season a year ago came after consecutive 21-win seasons...they have six letterwinners and three starters returning...Hawaii defeated the Northwest All-Stars in one of their exhibition games by a score of 89-67...junior Lane O'Connor (6-6) led the squad with 17 points while junior Troy Ostler (6-9) added 14 points and 15 rebounds...both are junior college transfers to the program...one of the three returning starters, senior Marquette Alexander (6-8) added 14 points...he led the team in scoring last season averaging 13.4 points...Hawaii had 10 different players score in the exhibition game...senior Johnny White (6-0) is another returning starter and he had seven points and nine assists in the exhibition victory.
TENNESSEE-MARTIN NOTES: Head coach Bret Campbell is in his first season with the Skyhawks...they will have almost a completely new team this season with only two letterwinners returning and one starter...that one returning starter, sophomore Andrae Betts (5-9), led the team with 23 points in their exhibition win over Sports Reach by a score of 90-87...Betts averaged 10.7 points and 5.2 assists last season...junior Dexter Webb (6-7), a junior college transfer, added 14 points and 12 rebounds...of the nine players who saw action in the game, four were junior college transfers...the Skyhawks also topped the 90-point barrier in their other exhibition game winning 97-86 over Reebok as another of the junior college tranfers, Byron Benton (6-5), led four players in double figures with 21 points...Webb added 16 points and nine rebounds in the victory.
NEXT WEEK: The Falcons return from Hawaii and will prepare for the home opener on Nov. 27 against Arkansas-Little Rock. That contest will tip-off at 1 p.m.
Probable Starters
Bowling Green F - Dave Esterkamp, 6-7, 220, Sr., 8.0 ppg, 3.2 rpg F - Anthony Stacey, 6-4, 235, Sr., 18.5 ppg, 5.6 rpg C - Len Matela, 6-9, 220, So., 6.2 ppg, 5.1 rpg G - Graham Bunn, 6-1, 170, So., 4.3 ppg, 1.2 rpg G - Keith McLeod, 6-2, 185, So., 12.4 ppg, 2.9 apg Off The Bench G-Trent Jackson, 6-4, 205, Jr., 2.4 ppg, 1.3 rpg C-Brent Klassen, 6-8, 220, So., 1.7 ppg, 0.8 rpg G-Dubrey Black, 6-3, 185, Jr., 3.0 ppg, 1.2 rpg
Compare The Teams
(MAC Rank) 1998-99 StatisticsBowling Green Scoring: 70.7 ppg (6) Scoring Margin: +5.6 (6) FG%: 45.9% (3) 3-Pt. FG%: 32.5% (9) FT%: 72.6% (4) Pts. Allowed: 65.1 ppg (4) FG% Defense: 42.6% (6) Reb. Margin: +1.3 (4)
Hawaii Scoring: 63.8 ppg Scoring Margin: -7.5 FG%: 46.1% 3-Pt. FG%: 32.7% FT%: 66.2% Pts. Allowed: 71.3 ppg FG% Defense: 44.2% Reb. Margin: -3.7
Tennessee-Martin Scoring: 64.1 ppg Scoring Margin: -7.6 FG%: 47.4% 3-Pt. FG%: 34.7% FT%: 73.8% Pts. Allowed: 71.7 ppg FG% Defense: 46.2% Reb. Margin: -6.5
