Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Open Season in Cincinnati This Weekend
November 08, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 8, 2007
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
BGSU vs. WESTERN CAROLINA
Fri., Nov. 9, 2007 • 5:00 p.m. • Peggy Cronin Classic
Fifth Third Arena (13,176) • Cincinnati, Ohio
2006-07 RECORDS: BGSU 13-18, 3-13 MAC // WCU 11-20, 7-11 SoCon
RADIO: WBGU-FM 88.1 - Kevin Zilch and Alex Mikos
SERIES: WCU leads, 1-0 // STREAK: WCU - 1
LAST MEETING: Western Carolina 56, Bowling Green 50 (Nov. 10, 2005)
* BGSU Notes, Stats & Player Information (20 pages) in PDF Format
* Peggy Cronin Classic website
ORR ERA BEGINS IN HIS HOMETOWN
The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team opens the 2007-08 season with three games in three days ... the Falcons of head coach Louis Orr -- a native of Cincinnati -- travel down I-75 to participate in the inaugural Peggy Cronin Classic, hosted by the University of Cincinnati ... the Brown and Orange will meet Western Carolina on Friday (Nov. 9), with tipoff scheduled for 5:00 p.m. at UC's Fifth Third Arena (13,176) ... in the day's second game, UC will face Belmont University ... the Falcons will meet Belmont on Saturday (Nov. 10) at 4:00 p.m., before closing the weekend's action with a Sunday night (Nov. 11) game vs. the host Bearcats, starting at 8:00 p.m.
THE OPENING TIP (STORYLINES)
• The Peggy Cronin Classic is an exempted round-robin tournament featuring doubleheaders at Fifth Third Arena on each of the three days.
• In addition to head coach Louis Orr, assistant coach George Jackson is also returning to his hometown this weekend ... Orr and Jackson have known one another since childhood, and both attended Withrow High School ... Jackson served as head coach at his alma mater for 20 years.
• Yet another member of the program will make his debut in his hometown ... Chris Knight enters his first season in uniform for the Brown and Orange, and had a double-double in the Falcons' exhibition win over Wayne State (Nov. 1) ... Knight, like Orr and Jackson, is a graduate of Withrow H.S., where he was a two-time all-state selection for head coach Steve Gentry.
COACHING TIES
BGSU assistant coach George Jackson, as mentioned, has known head coach Louis Orr since the days of their youth in Cincinnati ... Jackson also has a history with the other head coach in Friday's game ... Western Carolina head coach Larry Hunter was the coach at Wittenberg University from 1976-89 ... Jackson, a 1979 Wittenberg graduate, was a player on the Hunter-coached team that won the NCAA Division III national title in 1977 ... Hunter went on to coach in the MAC, serving as head coach at Ohio University for 12 years (1989-2001).
LAST TIME OUT
Chris Knight had a double-double as the Falcons posted a 59-44 victory over Wayne State in exhibition play on Nov. 1 at Anderson Arena ... in their first game under head coach Louis Orr, the BGSU defense held the Warriors to a field-goal percentage of 29.6% on the evening, including just a 7-for-28 (25.0%) rate in the second half ... junior Nate Miller led all scorers with 15 points, while Knight, a redshirt freshman making his first appearance for the Falcons, had 13 points and a game-high 13 rebounds ... the Falcons held a 50-38 advantage on the boards ... 18 of BGSU's 50 rebounds came at the offensive end, with Knight getting seven and sophomore Otis Polk five ... Polk had nine points to go along with his six total rebounds, while senior Ryne Hamblet scored eight points.
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 ... that staff includes assistant coaches LaMonta Stone, George Jackson and Andy Moore and director of operations Rick Palmer.
SCOUTING WESTERN CAROLINA
Western Carolina returns a total of seven letterwinners, including a pair of starters, from last year's team that finished 11-20 overall and 7-11 in Southern Conference play ... the Catamounts were picked to finish third in the North Division in the preseason league poll, with sophomore Nick Aldridge selected to the preseason all-conference team ... Aldridge led the team in scoring a year ago, with 18.3 points per game as a freshman ... Aldridge, a forward, and sophomore guard Brandon Giles each scored 15 points in the team's 102-61 exhibition win over Milligan College (Oct. 31) ... head coach Larry Hunter enters his third season at the WCU helm, and his 28th season as a collegiate head coach ... he is 24-37 with the Catamounts, and is 533-261 overall ... the school's athletics web site is www.catamountsports.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons trail Western Carolina, 1-0, in the all-time series between the teams ... in the season-opening game for both teams, the Catamounts captured the lone earlier meeting, 56-50, nearly two years to the day prior to this season's matchup (Nov. 10, 2005) ... that game was part of the NABC Classic in Blacksburg, Va., and was Larry Hunter's first game at the WCU helm ... the list of BGSU-WCU game-by-game series results (result) can be found on page 3 of these notes.
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.
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.
