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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Men's Basketball Awaits Postseason Fate
March 07, 2000 | Men's Basketball
March 7, 2000
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - UP NEXT: The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team must play the waiting game after suffering a narrow loss in the Mid-American Conference Tournament quarterfinals yesterday (March 5). The Falcons, now 22-7 overall, will not find out until Sunday (March 12) if the season will continue.
The NCAA Tournament field of 64 teams will be revealed Sunday at 6:30 p.m. ET, while the National Invitation Tournament bracket will be determined later that night.
The Falcons, the top seed for the conference tourney, fell to ninth-seeded Miami in overtime by a 58-56 score.
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)
RECAPPING THE MIAMI GAME: The Falcons suffered a 58-56 overtime setback to Miami in MAC Tournament action Sunday afternoon March 5) at Gund Arena in downtown Cleveland ... BGSU, the MAC East Division champion and the tourney's number-one seed, led by a 54-51 margin before MU's Jason Grunkemeyer hit a three-pointer from 35 feet at the regulation buzzer to force the overtime period ... in overtime, sophomore Len Matela's basket with 4:11 remaining turned out to be the only scoring BG could muster ... the RedHawks took the lead on a Jason Stewart three-pointer with 1:06 left and added a Rich Allendorf free throw with 14 seconds remaining ... BG had a final chance in the overtime period, but senior Dave Esterkamp's contested three-point attempt bounced off the back of the rim as time expired ... the Falcons missed their final six shot attempts from the field in overtime ... BGSU, after entering the game ranked first in the MAC and second in the nation in field-goal percentage, hit less than 40 percent of their shots for just the second time all year ... the Brown and Orange went 19-of-54 (.352) from the floor ... Miami opened the game by scoring the first five points, and the ninth-seeded RedHawks held leads of 9-2 and 14-6 before the Falcons came battling back ... senior Anthony Stacey did much of the damage during that run ... Stacey, the Falcons' career scoring leader, had nine points as the Falcons went on a 17-2 run over a 4:28 span to open a 23-16 lead ... Stacey had a game-high 22 points and now has 1,927 career markers ... Miami reeled off seven consecutive points to tie the contest before sophomore Brandon Pardon's triple at the buzzer gave the Falcons a 26-23 halftime edge ... the second half featured seven ties and five lead changes, with neither team leading by more than six points ... MU went on a 7-1 run, capped by a pair of Mike Ensminger free throws, to take a 47-41 edge with 5:23 remaining ... after a pair of Esterkamp charity tosses, an Allendorf layup gave MU a six-point edge once again before the Falcons made a run ... baskets by Stacey and Matela cut the lead to two points, and another Stacey hoop tied the game at 49-49 with 2:17 left ... Grunkemeyer hit at the 1:39 mark, but BGSU reeled off the next five points, sparked by a Matela three-point play with 1:11 left ... Stacey's two free throws put the Falcons up, 54-51, with 29 seconds left in regulation, setting the stage for Grunkemeyer's heroics ... BG's defense held Miami's leading scorer, Anthony Taylor, without a point on the day ... Taylor, who entered the game with a team-high average of 17.6 points per game, was 0-of-9 from the field ... Rob Mestas, who played all 45 minutes, led three RedHawks in double figures with 17 points ... Ensminger and Grunkemeyer added 12 and 11, respectively ... Stacey, who also played every minute of the contest, had seven rebounds, one shy of junior Trent Jackson's team-high total ... Pardon added 11 points, including three three-pointers ... he also played all 45 minutes of the game ... Miami improved to 14-14 on the season, and will face Marshall in a semifinal game Monday ... the Falcons saw a six-game winning streak come to an end with the loss.
NATIONALLY SPEAKING: BGSU ranked second in the country in field-goal percentage in the latest NCAA statistics, released Wednesday (March 1) ... the Falcons were shooting .503 from the field, trailing only North Carolina's .504 rate ... the Falcons also are among the national leaders in free-throw pct., shooting .744 to rank 16th in the country when the stats were released ... after the Miami game, BG is now shooting .498 from the field ... the Falcons still have a .744 conversion rate from the stripe ... BGSU has shot .500 or better from the field in 15 games this season, and over .600 in five of those contests.
STACEY STEALS AND SCORES: Senior Anthony 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.
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 .495 success rate at the time of the latest rankings (last Wednesday) ... McLeod missed his only long-range attempt vs. Miami, and now stands at .490 on the year ... BGSU has made more free throws (536) than the opponent has attempted (510) this season.
FALCON QUICK FACTS
1999-2000 BGSU RECORDS Overall: 22-7 Mid-American Conference: 14-4LAST WEEK 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 tourney semifinal round 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 (15-14)_____________8-10 Buffalo (5-23)____________3-15
West Division Ball State (21-8)_________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
MAC TY. SEMIFINALS Monday, March 6 * Gund Arena Miami 69, Marshall 63 Ball State 70, Ohio 67
