Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Prepare For NIT Game at BYU
March 13, 2000 | Men's Basketball
March 13, 2000
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
UP NEXT: The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team's season will continue, as the team heads west to open play in the National Invitation Tournament. The Falcons, 22-7 overall, will open NIT play with a Wednesday (March 15) game at Brigham Young University (20-10). The contest is scheduled for a 7:00 p.m. local start (9:00 p.m. BG time) at BYU's 22,700-seat Marriott Center.
The NIT invite capped a long week of waiting for the Brown and Orange, who had not played since Sunday, March 5. On that date, BG, the top seed for the Mid-American Conference tourney, fell to ninth-seeded Miami in overtime by a 58-56 score.
The 2000 season marks the Falcons' 12th appearance in the NIT, and the team's first in three years. BGSU has an all-time record of 6-11 in the tournament, with a championship-game appearance in 1945 and a trip to the semifinals in 1949. BGSU's last NIT game was a 1997 loss at West Virginia, 98-95.
COACH DAN DAKICH: BGSU head coach Dan Dakich is in his third season after taking over the program on April 21, 1997. His teams have shown steady improvement each season. The Falcons posted a 10-16 overall mark and a 7-11 record in MAC play his first season before rebounding last year to finish 18-10 overall and 12-6 in loop action. Dakich spent 16 years at Indiana, the first four as a player for the Hoosiers, and the last 12 as an assistant coach under Bob Knight, before taking the job at Bowling Green, his first head coaching position. His teams have compiled a 50-33 record at BG.
BGSU PROBABLE STARTERS
F__Dave Esterkamp (6-7, 220, Sr., 13.0 ppg, 4.8 rpg, .560 FG%) F__Anthony Stacey (6-4, 235, Sr., 17.0 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 1.9 spg) C__Len Matela (6-9, 220, So., 12.7 ppg, 7.7 rpg, .627 FG%) G__Brandon Pardon (6-1, 185, So., 6.9 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 5.6 apg) G__Trent Jackson (6-4, 205, Jr., 8.8 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 1.4 apg)
OFF THE BENCH
G__Keith McLeod (6-2, 185, So., 13.0 ppg, 2.6 apg, .490 3-Pt%) C__Brent Klassen (6-8, 220, So., 2.5 ppg, 1.6 rpg) G__Graham Bunn (6-1, 170, So., 2.4 ppg, 1.4 apg)
STACEY IS MAC PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Senior Anthony Stacey was named the Mid-American Conference Player of the Year Thursday (March 9) ... the team is selected by the members of the MAC News Media Association ... two days earlier, Stacey made the All-MAC First Team, while senior Dave Esterkamp and sophomore Len Matela earned honorable mention, as voted by the MAC's head coaches ... BG coach Dan Dakich was second in the league's coach-of-the-year voting ... Stacey became the BGSU career leader in two categories earlier this season ... with a field goal early in the second half of the Kent game (Feb. 16), Stacey became the all-time BG scoring leader ... after his 22-point performance vs. Miami yesterday, he now has 1,927 points as a Falcon ... Stacey also is the BG career steals leader, and now has 225 thefts ... Stacey ranks seventh in school annals with 752 career rebounds.
SCOUTING BYU: Brigham Young University enters NIT play with an overall record of 20-10, including a 7-7 record and a sixth-place finish in the Mountain West Conference ... the Cougars got hot in the conference tourney, downing New Mexico, 55-43, and Utah, 58-54, before falling in the championship game ... BYU lost that final game on the road vs. UNLV by a 79-56 final ... a 28-3 UNLV run to start the game proved to be more than the Cougars could overcome ... junior forward Mekeli Wesley led the team with 17 points in that game ... Wesley entered the MWC championship contest ranked second on the team in scoring, at 17.2 points ... he was the team's rebounding leader with 5.8 boards per game ... junior guard Terrell Lyday paced the team with 17.4 points, and also led the Cougars in steals (2.0 spg) ... no other Cougar was in double figures in scoring, as sophomore guard Michael Vranes was third at 7.7 ppg ... Lyday, Wesley and Vranes have started every game this year ... sophomore guard Matt Montague led BYU with 3.5 assists per game ... the team is 12-2 at home this season, with the only losses there coming to Utah and New Mexico ... the Cougars avenged both of those losses in the league tournament ... head coach Steve Cleveland is 41-47 in his third year, both at the school and overall ... BYU was 1-25 the year before he arrived, but have gone 9-21, 12-16 and now 20-10 in the subsequent years.
NATIONALLY SPEAKING: BGSU ranked third in the country in field-goal percentage in the latest NCAA statistics, released Wednesday (March 8) ... the Falcons were shooting .498 from the field ... the Falcons also are among the national leaders in free-throw pct., shooting .744 to rank 17th in the country ... BGSU has shot .500 or better from the field in 15 games this season, and over .600 in five of those contests.
20 WINS: The 1999-2000 Bowling Green squad became the 11th team in school history to reach the 20-win plateau ... the team's total of 22 wins this season is tied for sixth with the 1996-97 squad ... a complete list of BG's 20-win teams follows:
28 wins... 1946-47 28-7
27 wins... 1945-46 27-5
1947-48 27-6
24 wins... 1944-45 24-4
1948-49 24-7
22 wins... 1943-44 22-4
1999-2000 22-7
1996-97 22-10
21 wins... 1961-62 21-4
1982-83 21-9
20 wins... 1979-80 20-10
DEFENSE IS THE KEY: As was the case down the stretch last season, the tough Falcon man-to-man defense is the key to much of BG's success ... they have held 18 of the 29 opponents to a field-goal percentage of .480 or less so far this season ... BG foes are shooting a cumulative .444 this year ... from three-point range, BG's opponents have shot less than .250 in eight of the 29 games and have shot just .345 as a group ... since the beginning of last season, a span of 57 games, only 12 opponents have shot .500 or better from the field, and a total of only 24 have managed to shoot .450 or better ... BG has held 14 of those opponents to less than .400 shooting ... the Falcons are 27-6 since the beginning of last year when the opponent shoots less than .450 from the floor ... BG's defense has forced 447 turnovers this year while the opposition has 412 assists.
FALCON NOTES: The Falcons' MAC regular-season title was the team's second in the last four years ... Bowling Green has had a pair of six-game winning streaks this season ... the last BG squad to fashion a seven-game winning streak was the 1989-90 team ... the team's 14 wins in league play is the second-highest total in school history ... the 1982-83 squad won 15 MAC games on their way to a league title ... the Falcons have now made 18 MAC Tournament appearances ... the school's best showings were runner-up finishes in 1980 and 1983 ... senior Dave Esterkamp is now tied for 25th on the BGSU career scoring list with 1,061 points ... he is also fifth on the all-time BGSU list for three-point field goals with 97 ... sophomore Keith McLeod was third in the nation in three-point percentage, with a .490 success rate at the time of the latest rankings (last Wednesday) ... BGSU has made more free throws (536) than the opponent has attempted (510) this season.
FALCON QUICK FACTS
UP NEXT BGSU at Brigham Young Wed., March 15 * 7:00 p.m. MT Marriott Center (22,700) Provo, Utah * NIT First Round1999-2000 BGSU RECORDS Overall: 22-7 Mid-American Conference: 14-4
LAST TIME OUT Miami 58, BGSU 56 (OT) Sunday, March 5 * Gund Arena Cleveland, Ohio MAC Tournament Quarterfinal
HEAD COACH - Dan Dakich (Indiana, 1985) at BGSU: 50-33 (third season) Career: 50-33 (third season)
MAC STANDINGS through MAC Tournament East Division Team (Overall)__________MAC Bowling Green (22-7)___14-4 Kent (21-7)____________13-5 Akron (17-11)__________11-7 Marshall (21-9)________11-7 Ohio (20-13)___________11-7 Miami (15-15)__________8-10 Buffalo (5-23)_________3-15
West Division Ball State (22-8)______11-7 Toledo (18-13)_________11-7 Eastern Mich. (15-13)___9-9 Northern Ill. (13-15)__7-11 Western Mich. (10-18)__6-12 Central Mich. (6-23)___2-16
MAC TY. QUARTERFINALS Sunday, March 5 * Gund Arena #9 Miami 58, #1 BGSU 56 (OT) #5 Marshall 58, #13 CMU 56 #2 Ball State 64, #7 Toledo 63 (OT) #6 Ohio 69, #3 Kent 68
SEMIFINAL RESULTS Monday, March 6 * Gund Arena Miami 69, Marshall 63 Ball State 70, Ohio 67
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME Wednesday, March 8 * Gund Arena Ball State 61, Miami 58
BGSU RESULTS LINE 419/372-7076, choose option 4 (same-day scores and brief summaries from all Falcon athletic teams)
