Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons to Face Duke, UT-Arlington in Cancun
August 11, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Aug. 11, 2006
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team already had arguably the most difficult non-conference schedule in program history lined up for 2006-07. On Friday (Aug. 11), the schedule got that much tougher.
The Falcons' pairings for the Caribbean Classic in Cancun, Mexico, have been announced, and BGSU's opponents on that trip will be Duke and Texas-Arlington. The order of opponents as well as the starting times have not yet been announced.
"This announcement only adds to our difficult non-conference schedule," said Falcon head coach Curt Miller. "These two games will help us to prepare for the Mid-American Conference schedule, and the Duke game will give us an opportunity to see how we stack up against one of the elite programs in the entire country."
In 2005-06, Duke registered a 31-4 overall record and advanced to the NCAA Final Four for the fourth time in the last eight years. The Blue Devils advanced all the way to the National Championship game before falling to Maryland, 78-75 in overtime. Duke is slated to return nine letterwinners, including three starters, from that team.
Texas-Arlington finished the '05-06 campaign with an overall record of 20-9 and a 13-3 record in the Southland Conference. The Mavericks led the entire nation in scoring defense last year, allowing just 51.6 points per game, finished second in their conference and lost a triple-overtime contest in the conference tourney semifinals.
"UTA is an excellent program coming off a great season," said Miller. "They are known for their defense and we will be challenged the whole game by their pressure.
"These two games will be important RPI games as we prepare for the MAC schedule."
BGSU will play a total of six teams -- Duke, Notre Dame, Oakland, Temple, Delaware and Indiana -- that advanced to national postseason play in 2005-06, and two more opponents (Robert Morris and UTA) that won 20 games a year ago.
The Falcons finished the 2005-06 season with an overall record of 28-3. Miller and company won both the MAC's regular-season and tournament titles for the second year in a row. BGSU set school and conference records for overall victories, and became just the fifth team in conference history to go undefeated in league play, with a 16-0 MAC mark.
