No. 19 Michigan State Faces Falcons In Stroh Tuesday

BGSU vs. No. 19 Michigan State
ESPNU (Jim Barbar/Tim McCormick)
Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012; 7:00 p.m.
Stroh Center (4,280) / Bowling Green, Ohio
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COMPLETE GAME NOTES (.PDF)

2012-13 MAC STANDINGS
EAST TEAMS	MAC	OVERALL
Ohio	0-0	7-3
Bowling Green	0-0	5-4
Akron	0-0	4-4
Kent State	0-0	5-5
Miami	0-0	3-5
Buffalo	0-0	4-7
WEST TEAMS	MAC	OVERALL
Eastern Michigan	0-0	6-3
Western Michigan	0-0	6-3
Ball State	0-0	5-4
Central Michigan	0-0	4-4
Toledo	0-0	3-6
Northern Illinois	0-0	2-6

QUICK HITS (SIZED FOR YOUR TWITTER ADDICTION)
* Bowling Green plays its fifth straight home game by hosting Michigan State Tuesday at 7 p.m. on ESPNU.
* Bowling Green is 16-5 at home all-time in the Stroh Center and 4-1 this year.
* Michigan State is the first ranked men's basketball team to ever play in the Stroh Center.
* BGSU is 3-10 all-time against Michigan State, but 3-3 when facing a ranked Spartan squad.
* BGSU has held back-to-back opponents to 42 points or less for the first time since 1949.
* With a win, BGSU would be off to its best start (at 6-4) since the 2006-07 team started 7-3.
* A'uston Calhoun needs two points to become the 40th player in BGSU history with 1,000 in his career.
* With 366 career assists, Jordon Crawford ranks eighth in BGSU history and needs three more to climb another spot.
* Jordon Crawford is 10th all-time with 146 career steals and with three more will move into eighth.
* A'uston Calhoun has made 16 consecutive free-throws and is shooting 81 percent on the season.
* Jordon Crawford has made 18 of his last 20 free-throws after making just 9-of-19 attempts to start the year.
* Bowling Green's bench has outscored the opponent's bench in six straight games.
* BGSU is shooting 84.3 percent (75-of-89) from the free-throw line in the past five games and leads the MAC at 73.5 percent.
* BGSU is 4-0 when outrebounding its opponent and is also 4-0 when making more free-throws than its opponent.
* The Falcons have given up an average of 47.0 points per game in the last three contests.

FALCONS HOST MICHIGAN STATE TUESDAY
Bowling Green plays Michigan State for the third consecutive season, hosting the Spartans at 7 pm Tuesday. Michigan State will be the first ranked men's basketball team to ever play in the Stroh Center but the Falcons are 4-1 at home this year and 16-5 all-time in the arena. BGSU also enters the game having won four of its last five contests.

THE SERIES
Michigan State is 10-3 all-time against Bowling Green, including wins in the last two years in East Lansing. However, the series is tied at 3-3 when when the Spartans carry a top 25 ranking (according to the Associated Press) into the game, as should be the case Tuesday.

FALCONS RALLY PAST SAMFORD WITH STRONG DEFENSE
Bowling Green outscored Samford 40-15 in the second half to run away from the Bulldogs on Dec. 8, 57-42. The Falcons held Samford to just nine points in the first 17 minutes of the second half to erase a 27-17 halftime deficit. Jordon Crawford scored all 14 of his points in the second half and Chauncey Orr had nine of his 11 in the final 20 minutes. Bowling Green had just eight turnovers in the contest and forced Samford into 15.

D-FENSE! D-FENSE!
In the Falcons' last two contests, the team has thrived defensively. BGSU beat Wright State 54-41 and followed that up with a 57-42 victory over Samford. Those back-to-back defensive efforts were the first time the program has allowed 42 points or less in successive games since doing so against Loyola and Pepperdine on Dec. 22 and Dec. 27, 1949. It also marked the first time the team held back-to-back opponents to 83 points or less since holding Western Ontario and Miami to 82 points on Dec. 8 and Dec. 12, 1962.

1,000 POINT SCORERS
At their current rate, A'uston Calhoun and Jordon Crawford will become the eighth set of teammates in school history to score their 1,000th career point in the same season. It would also be the first time that it's happened in back-to-back seasons as Scott Thomas and Dee Brown both did it last year. Calhoun should reach the total Tuesday, needing just two more points. Crawford is 120 away from the milestone.

STROH IN THE 70'S
BGSU is 6-0 all-time when scoring at least 70 points in the Stroh Center. The Falcons went 5-0 last year and defeated Detroit 70-65 this year.

THE NEXT T.O.?
A year ago, Torian Oglesby shot a remarkable 74 percent from the field and set a new NCAA record by making 21 consecutive field goal attempts. Oglesby graduated, but a new player has stepped into that role. Sophomore transfer Richaun Holmes has made 21-of-28 field goal attempts this year, knocking down 75 percent of his shots thus far. In fact, Holmes has missed more than one field-goal attempt in a game just once this year.

THREE'S THE KEY?
After shooting three-pointers well for four consecutive games, the Falcons have slid over the past three. BGSU went just 9-of-45 (20.0 percent) from long range against Youngstown State, Wright State and Samford.

PLUS/MINUS
Although none of them rank among the top three on the team in scoring, Richaun Holmes, Luke Kraus and James Erger may have the largest impact on the success of the team so far this year. Bowling Green has outscored its opponents by 42 points when Erger is on the floor, 38 when Holmes is on the floor and 22 when Kraus is on the floor, the top three totals on the team.

1-2 PUNCH
Senior forward A'uston Calhoun and senior guard Jordon Crawford currently rank as the second-highest scoring duo in the Mid-American Conference. Calhoun and Crawford have combined for 32.4 points per game to trail Toledo's Julius Brown and Rian Pearson at 34.1 points per contest. Kent State's Chris Evans and Randal Holt are third at 29.4 points per game.

MORE OF THE DYNAMIC DUO
Both A'uston Calhoun and Jordon Crawford are averaging at least 16.0 points per game. The last BG teammates to finish a season at 16.0 points per game or better were John Reimold (18.5 points) and Josh Almanson (17.2 points) in 2004-05.

SENIOR IMPACT
Each of Bowling Green's four seniors have increased their scoring average this year. Combined, A'uston Calhoun, Jordon Crawford, James Erger and Luke Kraus are scoring 38.6 points per game in 2012-13, up from 29.0 points per contest a year ago.

THE CHARITY STRIPE
In the past five games, BGSU has made 75-of-89 free-throws (84.3 percent), including 19-of-21 against Wright State. In the first four games, the Falcons shot just 60.2 percent from the stripe. The team's season-percentage of 73.5 is the best since the 2004-05 team shot 74.8 percent for the season and currently leads the league. The school record is 75.3 percent in 1964-65.

THE FALCONS AGAINST TOP 25 TEAMS
While Bowling Green has won four consecutive home games against nationally ranked opponents, it has been almost 22 years since the Falcons won a road game against a top 25 team. That victory came on Dec. 18, 1989 when Bowling Green beat this Michigan State program 81-79 in East Lansing. Bowling Green is 1-3 against Top 25 teams under head coach Louis Orr, defeating No. 23 Kent State 89-83 on March 1, 2008. Since the Associated Press began conducting a poll on Jan. 20, 1949, the Falcons have a record of 22-50 against nationally-ranked foes.

AT THE LINE
Bowling Green is 4-0 when making more free-throws than its opponent this year, and the Falcons have been able to get to the line more than their opponents lately. While BG has attempted just five more free-throws than their opponents on the year, the Falcons have shot 21 more in the last two games.

50% IS GREATER THAN 80%
Under Head Coach Louis Orr, Bowling Green has won more than 80 percent of its games when its shoots at least 50 percent from the floor. A year ago, the Falcons went 8-3 in such games and are 37-8 in Orr's five years at Bowling Green when reaching that total. BG is yet to shoot 50 percent in a game this year.

EVEN MORE SHOOTING PROWESS
Bowling Green went 5-0 a year ago when shooting at least 54 percent from the floor, defeating Temple, Malone, Western Michigan, Morehead State, and Kent State.

BLOCKING OUT
Bowling Green has had as many or more blocked shots than its opponent in 8-of-9 games this year. The Falcons had seven blocked shots in each of the first two games and have had at least two in every contest this year. Sophomore transfer Richaun Holmes has led the way with 19 blocks, ranking fourth in the MAC.

HOLMES THINKING RECORDS?
With 19 blocked shots in the first nine games, Richaun Holmes is on pace to finish the 31-game regular season with 65 blocked shots, which would break the school record of 59 for a single-season (Cornelius Cash in 1973-74). Add in a minimum of one MAC Tournament game and Holmes could shatter the mark.

WINNING UGLY
One sign of a good team is the ability to win games when not playing at its best. Three times this year, the Falcons have won games when shooting below 40 percent from the field, beating Lake Erie, Wright State and Samford. A year ago, BGSU lost all seven contests when it show below 40 percent.

HOME COURT ADVANTAGE
In just over one year, the Stroh Center has proven to be a difficult place for opponents to play. The Falcons are 4-1 this year at home after going 12-4 a year ago, including a mark of 3-0 against teams that eventually went to the NCAA Tournament (victories over Detroit, Temple and Ohio). The 16-5 record in the Stroh Center comes out to a .762 winning percentage, which is higher than the program's .709 winning percentage in Anderson Arena, the home for the Falcons from 1960-2011.

THE POST GAME
Head coach Louis Orr's philosophy is always to play inside-out and the Falcons have done that well during his tenure. In the past four seasons, BGSU has scored 20 or more points in the paint in 93-of-103 games. The high-water mark came when Bowling Green scored 58 points in the paint against Malone a year ago.

FRESH FACES
BGSU head coach Louis Orr announced the signing of three student-athletes during the fall signing period. J.D. Tisdale (Flint, Mich./Swartz Creek High School), Zach Denny (Germantown, Ohio/Valley View High School) and Garret Mayleben (Milford, Ohio/Milford High School) will join transfer Josh Gomez (Brooklyn, N.Y./Rice High School/Iona) among next year's incoming class.

LITTLE BIG MAN
At 5-feet-6, junior point guard Jordon Crawford is likely the best player in the country at his height. Over the summer, Bleacher Report named him the best Division I player in the nation at his height. Crawford currently ranks third in the MAC at 16.6 points per game.

FALCONS ON REGIONAL/NATIONAL TELEVISION
BGSU will play a minimum of three games on ESPNU and SportsTime Ohio this year. The Falcons will host Michigan State on ESPNU on Dec. 18 and will host Eastern Michigan on STO on Jan. 12. The third guaranteed contest comes on STO on Jan. 30 at home against Akron. There will be 10 more MAC games selected to be aired on ESPN/STO throughout the year.

PRESEASON ALL-MAC
A'uston Calhoun earned East Division Preseason All-MAC honors by voting of 24 members of the MAC News Media. Calhoun was one of five players selected in the East Division, joining Buffalo's Javon McCrea, Akron's Zeke Marshall, and Ohio's D.J. Cooper and Walter Offutt.

MEDIA PICKS BOWLING GREEN FIFTH
Bowling Green was picked to finish fifth in the East Division by vote of 24 members of the MAC News Media. The Falcons were chosen ahead of Miami, while Ohio was selected to win the division, followed by Akron, Kent State and Buffalo.

CSM HONORS CALHOUN, CRAWFORD
College Sports Madness released its preseason All-MAC awards, naming A'uston Calhoun first team preseason All-MAC and Jordon Crawford third team.

A'USTON IS ALL-MAC
A'uston Calhoun was named to the 2012 All-MAC Second Team by vote of the league's 12 head coaches after being named honorable mention in 2011. Calhoun ranked fifth in the MAC in scoring in league games (15.1 points per game), eighth in field-goal percentage (50.3 percent), and 12th in rebounding (5.4 per game).

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