Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons End Season At 22-8
March 20, 2000 | Men's Basketball
March 20, 2000
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team has completed the 1999-2000 season after participating in the National Invitation Tournament. The Falcons fell on the road at Brigham Young Wednesday (March 15) by a final score of 81-54, in the NIT first-round game.
The Falcons saw the season come to an end with an overall record of 22-8. BGSU won the Mid-American Conference regular-season title with a league record of 14-4, but the top-seeded Falcons lost in the quarterfinal round of the MAC Tournament, 58-56 to Miami in overtime. The Brown and Orange ended the year by losing back-to-back games for the first time all season.
COACH DAN DAKICH: BGSU head coach Dan Dakich has completed his third season and has a 50-34 record with the Falcons. 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 BG, his first head coaching position.
FALCONS IN THE POSTSEASON: The 2000 season marked the Falcons' 12th appearance in the NIT, and the team's first in three years ... BGSU now has an all-time record of 6-12 in the tournament, with a championship-game appearance in 1945 and a trip to the semifinals in 1949 ... prior to this season, BGSU's last NIT game was a 1997 loss at West Virginia, 98-95 ... in NCAA Tournament action, the Falcons have an all-time record of 1-5.
THANKS, SENIORS: A pair of seniors, Anthony Stacey and Dave Esterkamp, saw their respective Falcon careers come to an end in the BYU game ... Stacey completes his BGSU tenure as the school's all-time leader in scoring, with 1,938 points ... the MAC Player of the Year this winter, he leaves BG as the 12th-ranked scorer in conference history ... Stacey is the BG career steals leader, with 226 ... Esterkamp, an all-league honorable-mention choice this year, is ranked 25th in BGSU history with 1,080 career points ... he is fifth all-time with 99 three-point field goals made at BG ... the two players combined to play in 235 games, starting 202, in their careers.
FALCON NOTES: Bowling Green is the first MAC team to win the regular-season title and not be invited to the NCAA Tournament since the field was expanded to 64 teams in 1985 ... the Falcons' MAC regular-season title was the team's second in the last four years ... in addition to Stacey and Esterkamp, sophomore Len Matela earned All-MAC honors this season ... Matela received honorable mention ... the Brown and Orange shot less than 40% from the field only three times all season, but two of those games came in postseason play ... BGSU, ranked among the national leaders in field-goal percentage, shot just 32.7% from the floor in the loss at BYU after shooting 35.2% vs. Miami ... BYU's 57.1% success rate from the field was the second-best against the Brown and Orange all year ... the Falcons tied for sixth in school history with 22 wins this year ... the 1943-44 (22-4) and 1996-97 (22-10) squads also won 22 games ... the school record is 28 wins, held by the 1946-47 team (28-7) ... Bowling Green 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 were undefeated at home for just the fourth time in the 39-year history of Anderson Arena, and the first since 1967-68 ... BGSU, 12-0 at home this year, currently has a 16-game home winning streak, tied for the 10th-longest in the nation ... the Falcons won 10 games away from home this year, with a winning road record (8-7) and a 2-2 mark at neutral sites ... BGSU made more free throws (550) than the opponent attempted (521) this season ... the Falcons have won 29 of the last 39 games, dating to the beginning of February, 1999.
FALCON QUICK FACTS
UP NEXT Season Complete1999-2000 BGSU RECORDS Overall: 22-8 Mid-American Conference: 14-4
LAST TIME OUT at Brigham Young 81, BGSU 54 Wed., March 15 * Provo, Utah NIT First Round
HEAD COACH - Dan Dakich (Indiana, 1985) at BGSU: 50-34 (three seasons) Career: 50-34 (three seasons)
MAC STANDINGS as of Sunday, March 19 East Division Team (Overall)___________MAC Bowling Green (22-8)____14-4 Kent (22-7)_____________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 (22-9)_______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 POSTSEASON PLAY NCAA TOURNAMENT Thu., March 16 * Minneapolis, Minn. UCLA 65, Ball State 57
NATIONAL INVITATION TOURN. Wed., March 15 * Provo, Utah at Brigham Young 81, BGSU 54
Thu., March 16 * Kent, Ohio at Kent 83, Rutgers 72
