Anderson Arena Opens For Final Time Monday

Complete Game Notes (.pdf)

The Bowling Green men's basketball team plays its final Anderson Arena home opener Monday night when the Falcons host NCAA Division II Ohio Dominican. The team will move into the new Stroh Center beginning with the 2011-12 season. The game is part of a home-opening doubleheader as the women's team hosts Creighton at 6 p.m. and the men will follow the conclusion of that contest.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
• Bowling Green is looking to avoid its first 0-2 start since the 1991-92 season. That team opened the year with five consecutive losses on the way to a 14-15 season.
• Junior Scott Thomas was named preseason All-MAC and came out with a flurry in the opener, coming up one rebound shy of a double-double. He finished with 20 points, nine rebounds, two assists and two steals.
• The Falcons are still trying to find offensive rhythm in the early part of the season. The team scored less than 60 points in both its exhibition win (51-36 over Adrian) and the regular-season opener (a 54-52 loss to Howard).
• Starting the first game of his collegiate career against Howard, Cameron Black had 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting and seven rebounds. The freshman scored six consecutive points during a stretch in which the Falcons had their best offensive rhythm of the contest.

THE SERIES
This will be the first meeting ever between Bowling Green and Ohio Dominican, marking the second consecutive time to open this year in which the Falcons have never played their opponent before.

SCOUTING THE OHIO DOMINICAN PANTHERS
Southern Indiana had 23 offensive rebounds which resulted in 25 points as Ohio Dominican lost in its season opener Friday 80-63. The Panthers went 10-17 a year ago and returns three starters from that squad. A transitioning NCAA Division II squad, Ohio Dominican is playing in the GLIAC for the first time this year and was picked to finish seventh out of seven teams in the South Division. Aaron Gibbs led the team with 12 points in the season opener. Head coach Artie Taylor is in his fourth season at Ohio Dominican with an overall record of 44-44.

HOWARD HANDLES BG IN NATION'S CAPITAL
Bowling Green was unable to find any offensive rhythm and the Falcons lost their season opener at Howard Friday night 54-52. Bowling Green led 42-36 early in the second half but went more than eight minutes without a field goal. Junior forward Scott Thomas led the way with 20 points and added nine rebounds. Danny McElroy added a career-high 10 boards and freshman Cameron Black had 10 points and seven rebounds while starting his first collegiate game.

DON'T SLEEP ON DIVISION II
Ohio Dominican may be an NCAA Division II program, but there is plenty of history to indicate that they could be a dangerous squad. The Panthers play in the GLIAC, a conference that had a pair of shocking exhibition victories to start the 2007-08 season. Findlay defeated Ohio State 70-68 and Grand Valley State defeated Michigan State 85-82 to open that year. Moving outside of the conference, Division II Le Moyne stunned Syracuse 82-79 last year. Here are a few of the Division II exhbition wins over Division I schools this year.

Date Score Division II Winner Division I Loser
11/6 63-61 Bellarmine Xavier
11/7 70-68 Lewis DePaul
11/8 54-52 Columbus State Auburn
11/8 79-64 Indianapolis Tennessee

OPENING THE YEAR STRONG
The loss to Howard snapped the Falcons' streak of two consecutive season-opening victories. Despite that fact, Bowling Green is still 69-27 all-time in season openers. Even more impressive is the Falcons' record in home opener. The team has won 18 consecutive home opening tilts and has an all-time mark of 83-12 in home openers, including 45-5 in Anderson Arena.

HAS THE FORMULA CHANGED?
A year ago, Bowling Green went 7-0 when holding an opponent below 60 points and 6-0 when holding an opponent below 40 percent shooting. In the season-opening loss to Howard, the Bison scored just 54 percent and shot 39.1 percent from the field.

STARTING A CAREER
If Cameron Black gets the starting nod against Ohio Dominican, he will be the first BGSU freshman to start the first two games of his collegiate career since Erik Crawford started the first two games of the 2001-02 season.

MAKING AN IMPACT EARLY
Against Howard, Cameron Black became the first true freshman to start the first game of his collegiate career at BGSU since Ryan Sims started the first game of the 2006-07 season. Here are the stat lines of the most recent players to start their first collegiate game:

Name Year Min. Pts Reb Ast Blk Stl
Cameron Black 2010-11 24 10 7 1 1 0
Ryan Sims 2006-07 17 12 0 1 0 0
Perrick Robinson 2004-05 17 0 3 4 0 2
Erik Crawford 2001-02 19 1 2 0 0 0

FALCONS PICKED FIFTH
Bowling Green was picked to finish fifth in the Mid-American Conference East Division in the preseason media poll. The Falcons had 42 points to edge Buffalo (32 points) in the division. Defending MAC Tournament champion Ohio was selected first, followed by Kent State, Akron, and Miami.

MAC Preseason Media Poll
East Division - 1. Ohio (128 points/12 first-place votes), 2. Kent State (114 points/8 first-place votes), 3. Akron (104 points/4 first-place votes), 4. Miami (84 points), 5. Bowling Green (42 points), 6. Buffalo (32 points)
West Division - 1. Ball State (124 points/12 first-place votes), 2. Central Michigan (122 points/8 first-place votes), 3. Eastern Michigan (88 points/2 first-place votes), 4. Western Michigan (68 points), 5. Northern Illinois (64 points/2 first-place votes), 6. Toledo (38 points)
Tournament Champion - Ohio (10), Kent State (6), Central Michigan (4), Ball State (2), Akron (2)

THOMAS NAMED PRESEASON ALL-MAC
Scott Thomas was selected as one of five Preseason All-MAC East Division players by vote of the media. Thomas led BGSU in scoring and steals a year ago, ranking second in rebounds, assists, and blocked shots. He averaged 13.2 points per game on the season but improved that average to 15.4 points in conference games and 16.9 points over the final eight contests.

Preseason All-MAC Teams
East Division - Brett McKnight (Akron), Scott Thomas (Bowling Green), Justin Greene (Kent State), Julian Mavunga (Miami), D.J. Cooper (Ohio)
West Division - Jarrod Jones (Ball State), Trey Zeigler (Central Michigan), Brandon Bowdry (Eastern Michigan), Xavier Silas (Northern Illinois), Flenard Whitfield (Western Michigan)

3-DEE
In his first two seasons at Bowling Green, junior guard Dee Brown has proven to be one of the most accurate three-point shooters in program history. He has a 41.1 percent three-point percentage in his career, fourth-best in school history. In fact, only one player in program history has attempted more than Brown's 112 career long-range shots and made them at a higher percentage. Steve Martenet is the program's record holder by making 56.7 percent of his 67 career attempts. Josh Almanson shot 46.2 percent in 106 career attempts and John Reimold made 42.5 percent of his 536 career three-point attempts.

EXPERIENCE AT THE POINT
Most experts agree that an experienced point guard can play a huge role in a team's success in college basketball. If that's the case, then Bowling Green could be primed for a big season. Point guard Joe Jakubowski enters the 2010-11 season with 85 games started, 10th most in the country.

THEY AREN'T CALLED "FREE" THROWS FOR NOTHING
Senior point guard Joe Jakubowski finished the 2009-10 season by making his final 21 free-throws in a row over the last nine games. Jakubowski, however, missed his first free-throw attempt of the season but it was still the longest streak by a BGSU player since Martin Samarco made 24 in a row in January of 2006.

CONSISTENT LINEUP
A year ago, Bowling Green Head Coach Louis Orr used just three starting lineups. For the first 10 games of the season, the starting lineup was Joe Jakubowski, Dee Brown, Scott Thomas, Marc Larson, and Otis Polk. For the next 19 games, Marschall was inserted into the lineup for Larson. The third lineup took place just once, in the MAC Tournament, when Luke Kraus started instead of Dee Brown.

THE PRIDE OF FINDLAY, OHIO
Sophomore guard Luke Kraus had a highly decorated prep career at Findlay High School, where he passed Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to become the school's all-time leading scorer. Since Roethlisberger officially changed his hometown to the fictional Corey Rawson, Ohio during the offseason, Kraus is now likely the most famous athlete from Findlay, Ohio.

THE WALK-ONS
Head Coach Louis Orr accepted two walk-ons to his program this year and both are seniors in eligibility. Wiley Roberts is a feel-good story who served as a team manager for the past two years at Bowling Green. Mike Dabney spent the 2006-07 season at NAIA Concordia University in Ann Arbor, Mich., where he posted the third-highest single-season blocked shot total in program history with 56 rejections.

NAME DROPPING
BGSU freshman Craig Sealey was a part of two AAU National Championship teams with the All-Ohio Red Team in 2006 and 2007. Sealey's teams included Ohio State freshmen Jared Sullinger, J.D. Weatherspoon, and Aaron Craft, along with Michigan State freshman Adreian Payne.

PAINTIN' THE TOWN
Head Coach Louis Orr's philosophy is always to play an inside-out game, but the Falcons may be doing that in different fashion in 2010-11. A year ago, the team scored at least 20 points in the paint in 27-of-30 games and outscored 23-of-30 opponents in the paint. In the season opener against Howard, Bowling Green again reached the 20-point threshold, outscoring the Bison 24-18 in the paint.

WE MUST PROTECT THIS HOUSE (THAT ROARS)
Anderson Arena has always been a difficult place for opponents and the Falcons finished 9-5 in 2009-10. The Falcons are 456-185 (.711) all-time in Anderson Arena and 170-59 (.742) in the past 17 years.

DEFENSE WINS
Bowling Green held opponents below 45 percent shooting in 13 of its 14 victories (Valparaiso shot 46.4 percent) a year ago, a trend for success that has been the norm under Head Coach Louis Orr. The Falcons are just 4-23 in Head Coach Louis Orr's first three years when an opponent shoots better than 45 percent, including 1-11 a year ago. Howard shot just 39.1 percent from the field but still came away with the victory in the season opener.

HE'S SMART TOO!
Joe Jakubowski was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District team in voting by the members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Bowling Green was one of only five teams in the country to place multiple players on one of the eight first team all-district teams as Jakubowski and graduate Marc Larson each made the team. Larson went on to be named ESPN The Magazine Second Team Academic All-American.

ALL-ANDERSON TEAM NAMED
In recognition of the final season in Anderson Arena, the Bowling Green Department of Athletics announced the All-Anderson Team -- the 13 best BGSU players to play in the Anderson Arena era. The 13 members of the team represent 19 first team All-MAC selections, four MAC Players of the Year, and six members of the BGSU Athletics Hall of Fame. Eight of the 13 players were selected in the NBA Draft and/or played in the NBA. One of the players, Nate Thurmond, is an NBA Hall of Famer and was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. The entire team will be honored during Bowling Green's final regular season game in Anderson Arena against Buffalo on either March 4 or 5.

All-Anderson Team
Cornelius Cash, 1972-75
Antonio Daniels, 1993-97
Bob Dwors, 1962-65
David Greer, 1979-83
Colin Irish, 1979-84
Shane Kline-Ruminski, 1991-95
Howard Komives, 1961-64
Keith McLeod, 1998-02
Marcus Newbern, 1978-82
Jim Penix, 1968-70
Walt Piatkowski, 1965-68
Anthony Stacey, 1995-00
Nate Thurmond, 1960-63

IT WILL STILL ROAR
Known as "The House That Roars", Anderson Arena will play host to the Bowling Green men's basketball team for the final year in 2010-11. The team will move into the brand new Stroh Center next year and will open the building by hosting Howard on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011. In honor of the final season in Anderson Arena, the Athletics Department is holding a year-long celebration titled "Closing The Doors Of The House That Roars". Following is a list of some of the key dates/events of the final year in Anderson Arena and the first year in Stroh Center:

Jan. 29, 2011 - Men's basketball throwback game vs. Eastern Michigan
March 4/5, 2011 - All-Anderson Team recognized vs. Buffalo
March 5, 2011 - The B!G Event; One final celebration of Anderson Arena
Sept. 9, 2011 - Volleyball vs. Michigan State; Stroh Center ribbon-cutting
Nov. 12, 2011 - Men's basketball vs. Howard; First game in Stroh Center
Nov. 17, 2011 - Women's basketball vs. Purdue; First game in Stroh Center
March 17-20, 2012 - NCAA Women's Basketball Tourney in Stroh Center

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