Bowling Green State University Athletics
R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Find Out What it Means to B-G
October 28, 2005 | Women's Basketball
Oct. 27, 2005
By JACK CARLE, Sentinel Sports Editor -
CLEVELAND -- Memo to the Mid-American Conference office -- it's Curt, not Kurt, Miller.
Miller was the MAC coach of the year last season, leading Bowling Green to the conference's tournament championship and the Falcons' first NCAA tournament berth since the 1993-94 season.
However, on Wednesday at the preseason MAC basketball meetings, Miller's first name on his name tag was spelled with a `K' not a `C'.
"It's like we've been saying, we have to earn our respect," Miller said when asked about the misspelling.
"It's not really a big deal. But after being of the coach of the year last year, you might get his name right," BG junior Liz Honegger said with a smile. Honegger and classmate Ali Mann were preseason All-MAC selections. "It happens. It's a typo. It happens to me all the time."
No matter how you spell his name, Miller and his team are the media's preseason pick to win the MAC East title and the tournament championship. BG got 17 of 23 first place votes and 132 points to win the East and 15 of 25 votes to win the tournament title.
"I know we have a lot of expectations on us, but it's a new year," Honegger said. "The first-place pick right now is just based off last year's stuff. We're going to have to come out and prove ourselves again this year.
"It's great, but it really doesn't mean much."
Miller said he knows the Falcons cannot get caught up in the preseason hype.
"It's flattering to be picked No. 1 and that is a big difference from where we have been in the past," Miller said. "Our kids aren't going to get carried away with getting picked first or picked last. We know who we are and we know we're a blue-collar team that needs to come out and play hard and earn each and every victory ... It's a new season with new challenges.
"(It's) a wide-open MAC race, where I think as many as eight teams legitimately have an opportunity to win this league."
Bowling Green has all five starters returning from a team which went 23-8 a year ago. Add in four other returnees and four freshmen and the Falcons are ready to roll.
"All the veterans stayed for at least one session of summer school. We knew we had to get even better than we were," Mann said. "We can't be happy with what happened last year; we have to get better."
Part of Miller's mandate to the team for the off-season was improved conditioning, including adding strength and endurance.
"Three of the freshmen even came up for the (summer) sessions. We were running every day and lifting," Honegger said. "We have to be in better shape and stronger just because the level of competition and the expectations are getting higher."
Mann appreciates what the four freshmen bring to the team. "They bring a new energy to practice and that youthfulness is nice to have around," she said. "They push us on the court and they are stepping right into their roles."
Eastern Michigan, with two preseason All-MAC selections and four starters returning, is the pick to win the MAC West. The Eagles got 20 first-place votes and 132 points in the balloting and received four votes to win the tournament title. Bowling Green beat Eastern, 77-57, in the tournament semifinals last season.
"It's not where you start, but where you finish and we're going to try to finish on top," EMU senior Ryan Coleman said. The Eagles were the preseason pick to win the MAC title last year.
"The loss in the MAC tournament hurt a lot," Coleman added. "It's something that I took to heart and it's something that plays in my mind, over and over again."
Coleman is already looking forward to the only regular season meeting with the Falcons at Bowling Green on Feb. 1.
"It's the game to see," Coleman said. "If it's not the matchup, it's one of the top matchups of the season."
ROSTER UPDATE: Julie Gompers is unable to continue as a member of BG's team because of a medical condition, Miller said. Gompers played in 16 games two seasons ago, but missed all of last season.
Miller said Gompers, a high school standout in West Virginia, would remain on scholarship and be a student assistant coach for the team. Gompers has a 3.81 grade-point average at BG, majoring in pre-medicine.
ACHTER BACK: Kate Achter, the MVP of the MAC tournament last season, is back practicing with the Falcons after battling mononucleosis.
TV TIME: The tipoff for the Bowling Green at Toledo game on Feb. 5 has been changed to 4 p.m. and it will be televised as the MAC game of the week.
