Bowling Green State University Athletics
Men's Basketball Set to Begin Practice
October 17, 2003 | Men's Basketball
Oct. 17, 2003
Bowling Green, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team will officially begin practice at noon, Saturday, October 18 in Anderson Arena. The Falcons return all five starters back from an injury-riddled team which finished 13-16 last season, but advanced to the MAC Tournament in Cleveland.
Quick Hits
The Falcons have been picked to win the MAC West by Basketball News, Street and Smith's and The Sporting News.
Senior Kevin Netter led the Falcons in scoring with a 15.3 points per game average, a 10.9 point improvement from the previous season. He also led the team in field goal percentage (54.7), blocked shots (38) and free throw attempts (205). He was named preseason All-MAC.
Sophomore forward Germain Fitch re-injured his left knee and will be evaluated in January for a possible return at that time.
Quoting Dan Dakich
Talk about your team as you head into the 2003-04 season?
"I have always felt like we work very hard in the offseason. I think Aaron Hillman and his staff (strength coach) does a terrific job with them. And the thing that I have liked this year is that in our individual workouts, we haven't had to coach pace of play, meaning our guys seem to be getting on each other to make sure that everybody is going at a certain pace and that's made it enjoyable for our coaching staff because we don't have to say things like "let's go," "let's hustle up," "let's get going." All we have to do is coach them on the technical parts of basketball. Which is what you want to do as a coach."
Will the return of Josh Almanson help your team's ability to score inside?
"I think not only inside, but I think outside as well. I think that Josh and Cory (Eyink) are two of the best, if not the two best, bigger shooters that I have been around. And I think we got hurt last year, and Kevin (Netter) got hurt last year by us not having that ability to spread the defense. Having said that, I think that also it obviously gives us a greater deal of depth. You know we were 6-1, or 5-1 (in the MAC) with Josh playing ten minutes a game in the league last year. When he went out, just the lack of those ten or fifteen minutes really hurt our depth."
What can we expect with the addition of Steven Wright?
"Steven is a kid with many gifts, he is very, very talented on the offensive end. But what I like about Steven is he is extremely tough. Steven is going, I am sure, to have a problem early in the season making just solid plays, I think the game speed will be fast, I think he'll be fast, but I think what you will see is Steven will settle down into a kid that I believe to be a truly special player. Not only because of his physical gifts, but as I said he has really, really good physical and mental toughness."
