Bowling Green State University Athletics
Basketball Season is Here! Falcons Host Wayne State Tonight
November 01, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 1, 2007
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team takes the floor for the first time in front of a live audience Thursday night (Nov. 1) ... the Falcons of head coach Louis Orr will play an exhibition game vs. Wayne State University, with tipoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at venerable Anderson Arena ... admission is free ... following the WSU game (and a closed scrimmage at IPFW on Sunday, Nov. 4), the Falcons will begin the 2007-08 season in earnest, with three games at the Peggy Cronin Classic in Orr's hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio (Nov. 9-11).
BGSU Men's Basketball Notes in PDF Format
THE OPENING TIP
• The Wayne State game, albeit an exhibition, is the first contest for the Falcons under new coach Louis Orr ... Orr was named the 15th head coach in program history in April of 2007.
• While Orr makes his BGSU debut, there will be a familiar face on the other bench ... WSU head coach David Greer played collegiately for the Falcons from 1979-83, and still holds the BG and Mid-American Conference assist records.
• Orr and his staff - assistant coaches LaMonta Stone, George Jackson and Andy Moore and director of operations Rick Palmer - have the services of nine returning letterwinners from last year's team, along with three players who will suit up for BGSU for the first time.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons return a total of nine letterwinners from last season's team, including six of the top-seven scorers and three starters from the lineup that BGSU used down the stretch ... the group of returnees combined for 63.0 percent of the team's scoring and 71.3% of the Falcons' rebounding total last winter ... Ryne Hamblet, the lone senior on the 2007-08 squad, led the Falcons in both assists and steals a year ago, and averaged 10.4 points per game ... junior Nate Miller is the top-returning scorer, averaging 14.1 ppg a season ago en route to All-MAC Honorable Mention ... Darryl Clements, Erik Marschall, Brian Moten and Dusan Radivojevic round out the junior class, and are joined among the returning group by sophomores Marc Larson, Otis Polk and Ryan Sims ... Chris Knight enters his first playing season after sitting out the 2006-07 campaign at BGSU ... freshmen Joe Jakubowski and Cameron Madlock complete the 12-player roster for coach Louis Orr and his staff.
FALCONS PICKED FOR SIXTH
The Falcons have been picked to finish sixth in the Mid-American Conference's East Division in the 2007-08 preseason poll ... the poll is the result of voting by members of the MAC News Media Association ... BGSU received 47 points in the poll, five fewer than Buffalo ... Kent State was the voters' choice to win the East Division, narrowly beating out Miami for that honor ... Ohio and Akron were tabbed to place third and fourth, respectively, followed by UB and BGSU ... Western Michigan was picked to win the West Division, nearly 30 points ahead of Toledo ... KSU received seven votes to win the MAC Tournament, while WMU received six and Ohio and Miami five apiece ... the Falcons received one vote to win the league tourney, which will be held at Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland from March 12-15, 2008.
ABOUT THE WARRIORS
Wayne State has nine new faces after graduating three starters from last year's team ... the Warriors of seventh-year head coach David Greer, a BGSU alum, have a pair of returning starters in seniors Jason Saddler and Wynn Sarden ... Saddler was named to the GLIAC South Division All-Defensive team a year ago, while Sarden is WSU's top-returning scorer ... the Warriors were selected for second in the GLIAC South in the 2007-08 preseason media poll.
HEAD COACH Louis Orr
Louis Orr enters his first season at the helm of the Falcon men's basketball program ... Orr, a native of Cincinnati, was named the 15th head coach in the history of the program in April of 2007 ... a fierce competitor and defensive-minded coach who stresses toughness and humility, Orr's programs play in the same image that he projected as a collegiate All-American and as an eight-year NBA veteran ... Orr, 49, most recently was the head coach at Seton Hall University, where he compiled a record of 80-69 in five seasons (2001-06) for the Pirates ... Orr, 100-80 in six overall seasons as a head coach, was the first former Big East player to coach at a conference institution.
Orr takes over a BGSU program that returns nine of its top 12 scorers from the 2006-07 season, with eight of those players entering their sophomore or junior seasons in `07-08 ... he was named the Big East Conference's Coach of the Year in 2003 - becoming the first person in league history to receive league honors as a player and as a coach - and took the Pirates to two NCAA tournaments and one NIT ... after the 2002-03 season, Orr also was honored by the USBWA as its District II Coach of the Year.
During his tenure with the Pirates, his teams posted a nine-game overall winning streak and captured eight straight conference games during the 2002-03 season ... he also saw his squad defeat #10 Notre Dame in 2003, and #13 Syracuse, #23 Providence and #4 Pittsburgh during the 2004 season ... the Pirates advanced to the second round of the NCAA Championships in 2004 and knocked off #18 Arizona in the first round. In 2006, Seton Hall made a second trip to the "Big Dance."
Orr began his head coaching career in the 2000-01 season at Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y. ... in his lone season there (2000-01), he guided the Saints to a 20-11 overall record and a tie for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular-season title ... in addition, he was one of the top rookie coaches in college basketball with 20 wins and his team set an attendance record, averaging 6,400 fans per game.
Orr began his coaching career as an assistant under Pete Gillen at Xavier University in his hometown, spending four years there (1991-94) ... he also served assistant-coaching stints at Providence College (1994-96) and Syracuse University (1996-2000), helping those three teams to a combined four NCAA tourney appearances and four NIT trips ... SU went to the NCAA tourney three times (1998 through 2000) during his four years there, including two trips to the `Sweet 16.'
Orr, a star player out of Cincinnati's Withrow H.S., attended Syracuse, where he was the first recruit of head coach Jim Boeheim ... Orr was a sixth man for much of his freshman year (1976-77), before starting every game but one over his last three seasons.
Orr shot better than 50 percent from the field in each of his four years, teaming with Roosevelt Bouie (the `Bouie `N Louie Show') to help SU to the Big East regular-season championship in the conference's inaugural season in 1980 ... that season, his senior year, Orr was named the team's MVP and was an All-Big East First-Team selection ... SU posted a record of 100-18 during his four years, advancing to the NCAA Tournament in all four seasons.
Orr earned All-America honors his senior season ... he scored nearly 1,500 points (1,487) during his SU career, averaging 12.8 points and 7.6 rebounds per game over his 116-game career while shooting 55.5% from the field.
The 28th pick of the 1980 NBA Draft, Orr was chosen by the Indiana Pacers in the first round ... he played two seasons with the Pacers and six more with the New York Knicks ... Orr averaged 9.8 points per game over his professional career, with a career-high 12.7 ppg. for the Knicks in the 1984-85 campaign.
Orr was named to the Syracuse University All-Century Team in 2000 and was honored as a Syracuse Letterwinner of Distinction in 2006 ... he and his teams have also been active in the community having worked with Renovation House, Children's Specialized Hospital and the New Jersey Developmental Center during his stay at Seton Hall ... he also has assisted at Rescue Missions in Albany and Syracuse, N.Y.
His family includes wife Yvette, daughter Monica (24), a former basketball player at Fordham, goddaughter Dalria (24), and son Chauncey (14) ... Yvette is from nearby Ypsilanti, Mich.
UP NEXT
The Falcons head to Cincinnati for next weekend's Peggy Cronin Classic ... BGSU will face Western Carolina (Nov. 9), Belmont (Nov. 10) and the host school, UC (Nov. 11) in the round-robin tourney.
