Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Built in Dakich's Image
January 20, 2003 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 20, 2003
A fan leaving Eastern Michigan's Convocation Center on Tuesday night could have had one of two reactions - surprise over Bowling Green having lost its first Mid-American Conference game of the season or surprise that the Falcons had won their first four.
BG's team is not extraordinarily gifted and has little if any depth.
There are no Keith McLeod's or Anthony Stacey's or Antonio Danielses out there, no dazzling athletes who will run circles around opponents, press them into submission, launch awe-inspiring 3-pointers, sizzle in transition, or win games above the rim. And there is no second wave of supersubs poised to make a difference.
On that bench, instead, is 6-5 sophomore forward Germain Fitch, projected to be a starter, but watching in street clothes because of a season-ending injury. He'll be joined at the far end of the pine Saturday by 6-8 junior forward Josh Almanson, another projected starter who has played sporadically and in obvious pain, but is now done for the year with an ankle ailment.
They were projected starters because all of last season's starters departed after a 24-9 campaign. The Falcons have just one senior and two juniors on their active roster. If the word rebuilding ever applied, this is the year and this is the team.
Yet BG opened with four straight MAC wins, the most recent coming Saturday at Kent State, where the Falcons laughed in the face of a 24-point deficit and handed the Golden Flashes their first home loss in 18 games.
The Falcons came back to earth with a thud against Eastern Michigan, a fairly athletic team that gave the visitors problems with an aggressive, extended man-to-man defense. BG had no one who could break it down one-on-one, especially on a night that 6-10 Kevin Netter and the inside game were not particularly proficient.
So, again, surprise over a loss or surprise over the four wins that preceded it?
"Both, I guess," says BG coach Dan Dakich. "I'm disappointed. I had hoped we'd come back [after the win at Kent] and play better than we did. But we had chances down the stretch and, heck, it just isn't going to happen every night."
The remarkable thing, though, is that it could. And that it probably will more times than not.
That is because the Falcons are a team built in Dakich's image.
In his prime as a player for Bob Knight's Indiana Hoosiers, no one ever confused Dakich with, say, Steve Alford or Scott May. IU didn't play in three NCAA Tournaments during his career because Dakich was a syrup-smooth offensive machine. The Hoosiers didn't win the Big Ten because Dakich could leap small buildings and dominate on the boards. He wasn't twice elected team captain because he sprinted past the other candidates.
But when Dakich left the floor he could tell you what every opposing player had eaten that day, because he was close enough to smell it on their breath. Close enough in a scrum diving for a loose ball, close enough while clutching, grabbing and bumping in man-to-man defense, close enough blocking out under the glass, close enough setting a pick.
And these Falcons are Dakich's Falcons.
"We've got really good kids," he says. "Winning kids, tough kids. They're a reflection of their upbringing and we were just smart enough to recruit them.
"I like to have kids with no agenda other than this team and what they can do to help it win. I like basketball junkies, kids who come from great programs and know how to win."
Sophomore forward John Reimold played on three high school state championship teams in Pennsylvania. Point guard Jabari Mattox, a junior, played on a state title team in Illinois. Freshmen Ronald Lewis and Raheem Moss played for Columbus Brookhaven, the 2002 Ohio Division I champion.
Dakich takes gym rats and champions alike and teaches them how to win at the next level. Sometimes, against all odds, it can happen overnight.
"With these kids, it's all from within. I think they have pride in the program and in how hard they work. They have pride in themselves. They're really neat kids."
Kids who will not win every time out because they are not talented enough, as a whole, and because the roster isn't deep enough. But they are kids who will always be tough enough, intense enough, gritty enough to achieve beyond the pedestrian expectations of others.
