Falcons Head To Oakland For CIT First Round

Bowling Green Falcons (16-15) at Oakland Grizzlies (17-15)
March 15, 2012 • 7 p.m. • Rochester, Mich. • Athletics Center O'rena (3,000)
Radio: Falcon Radio Network • Todd Walker (Play-by-Play)
Television: None
Live Stats: Gametracker
Live Video: BGSUFalcons.com
Live Audio: Stretch Internet
Complete Game Notes (.pdf)
PURCHASE TICKETS

QUICK HITS
* BGSU returns to the postseason for the first time since 2009 as the Falcons play at Oakland in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) Wednesday at 7 p.m. The Falcons went 16-15 on the season and Oakland went 17-15.
* Bowling Green is 3-3 all-time against Oakland and have played the Grizzlies once under head coach Louis Orr, a 90-80 loss in the O'rena.
* Oakland head coach Greg Kampe is a 1978 BGSU graduate, earning Academic All-MAC first team honors in both football and basketball.
* BGSU has exceeded its overall win total from each of the past two seasons. The nine conference wins are the most since the 2008-09 team won the MAC regular season with 11 wins.
* Scott Thomas leads the MAC and ranks 16th in the country with 2.4 steals per game.
* Thomas had at least one steal in each of the first 29 games but went two straight games without one to close the season.
* The Falcons are 9-1 when making more three-pointers than their opponent.
* Thomas' 73 steals are tied for the second-most in a single-season in BGSU history. He has 199 career steals, needing one more to become the third Falcon ever with at least 200.
* Cam Black's 47 blocked shots are the fourth-most in a single-season in BGSU history.
* With nine rebounds against Miami, Scott Thomas moved into the top 10 in career boards. He is one of only four players (and the only active one) from MAC institutions to rank in their program's top 10 in rebounds and assists.
* BGSU has not won a postseason game since defeating Tennessee 67-58 in the short-lived National Commissioner's Invitational in 1975.
FALCONS HEAD TO POSTSEASON FOR FIRST TIME IN THREE YEARS
Bowling Green returns to the postseason Wednesday night as the Falcons play at Oakland at 7 p.m. in the first round of the 32-team CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT). BGSU is one of four MAC teams in the field and will meet the Grizzlies for the first time since 2007.

THE SERIES
Bowling Green is 3-3 all-time against Oakland and 0-1 under head coach Louis Orr as the Falcons lost to the Grizzlies 90-80 on Dec. 1, 2007. Oakland's Johnathon Jones scored 31 points in that contest and is the last opponent to score 30 points in a game against the Falcons.

SCOUTING OAKLAND
Oakland enters Wednesday's contest with a record of 17-15 overall and the Grizzlies went 11-7 in Summit League play, finishing third in the conference. The team is led by the nation's leading scorer Reggie Hamilton. The 5-foot-11 senior guard is averaging 25.7 points per game and is sixth in the country with 3.3 three-pointers per game. Amazingly, he is only second on the team in three-pointers made as 6-5 sophomore guard Travis Bader is third in the country with 3.6 three-pointers per game. As a team, the Grizzlies average 9.2 three-pointers per contest, third-best in the nation and are ninth in scoring average at 79.2 points per contest. Head coach Greg Kampe is a 1978 Bowling Green graduate and has a career record of 487-348 in 28 years at the Oakland helm.

LAST GAME: FALCONS LOSE TO CMU IN MAC TOURNAMENT
Torian Oglesby's tip-in off on inbounds lob bounced off the back iron as time expired and Bowling Green was upset in the first round of the MAC Tournament by Central Michigan, 54-53. The Falcons led by as many as nine points in the second half but went 4-for-22 down the stretch to led the Chippewas take the lead. Senior Dee Brown had 20 points to lead the Falcons and Jordon Crawford had 13 points. Scott Thomas added seven points, nine rebounds, and six assists.

THE CIT
The CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT) is a 32-team single-elimination postseason tournament that selects teams after the NCAA and NIT fields have been chosen. This year, four MAC teams are part of the field. There is no bracket and match-ups for each round will be determined based on geographic proximity. The entire first round of competition is listed below:

Tuesday, March 13
Robert Morris @ Indiana State 7:00
Tennessee State @ Mercer 7:00
Coastal Carolina @ Old Dominion 7:00
Tennessee Tech @ Georgia State 7:00
McNeese State @ Toledo 7:00
Utah Valley @ Weber State 9:00

Wednesday, March 14
Manhattan @ Albany 7:00
Yale @ Fairfield 7:00
Bowling Green @ Oakland 7:00
Buffalo @ American 7:30
North Dakota @ Drake 8:00
Rice @ UL-Lafayette 8:00
UC Santa Barbara @ Idaho 9:00
Cal State Bakersfield @ Utah State 10:00
Cal State Fullerton @ Loyola Marymount 10:00

Thursday, March 15
Kent State @ USC Upstate 7:00

ALL-MAC
A'uston Calhoun was named to the 2012 All-MAC Second Team and Scott Thomas was named to the third team by vote of the league's 12 head coaches. Both were named honorable mention a year ago. 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). Thomas led the MAC in steals (2.7 per game), ranked sixth in rebounding (6.9 per contest), ninth in three-pointers made (2.0 per game), 13th in three-point shooting (38.1 percent) and 15th in scoring (11.9 points per game) in league games only.

WHAT A STEAL
Over the course of the past two seasons, Bowling Green has been one of the top teams in the Mid-American Conference in steals, leading the conference in that category a year ago. This year, the team is third in the conference and, once again, Scott Thomas and Jordon Crawford are leading the way individually. Only one other duo in the MAC has combined for the 122 steals those two have and Thomas tied the school record with eight against Miami. In fact, he leads the MAC in steals. He is third in BGSU history with 199 career steals and Crawford is now over the century mark with 128. Thomas ranks 16th in the country with 2.4 steals per game and had at least one in each of the first 29 games before being shut out in the past two contests.

TORCHING THE NETS
Offensively, Bowling Green has been an efficient team, ranking third in the Mid-American Conference with a 45.8 field-goal percentage. Bowling Green is 37-8 in head coach Louis Orr's five years when making at least half of its shots, including 8-3 this year. The last time a BGSU team shot 50 percent more than 11 times in a season was 2004-05.

EVEN MORE SHOOTING PROWESS
Bowling Green is 5-0 this year when shooting at least 54 percent from the floor, defeating Temple, Malone, Western Michigan, Morehead State, and Kent State. The Falcons did not shoot better than 52.1 percent a year ago.

AVOIDING LOSING STREAKS
Bowling Green had a four-game winning streak snapped at Ohio, but that was the first time BGSU had either won or lost more than two in a row all year. Bowling Green has not gone a full season without at least one three-game losing streak since the 2004-05 team posted three two-game losing streaks but never lost more than that in a row.

ONE OF THE BEST
With nine rebounds against Miami, Scott Thomas moved into 10th place all-time at BGSU in career rebounds. He already ranked in the top 10 in career steals, assists, and three-pointers made, becoming just the fifth player in BGSU history to rank in the top 10 in four different statistical categories.

HEIGHT IS OVERRATED
At 5-feet-6, junior point guard Jordon Crawford is the fourth-shortest player in NCAA Division I basketball. Green Bay's Eric Valentin measures in as the shortest player at 5-4, while Denver's Charles Webb and George Washington's Malik Tonkins are both 5-5. None of those players have the type of impact that Crawford has on the Falcons. In fact, Crawford's 25 points against Miami are more than the other three have combined to score all season. He is third on the team with 11.0 points per game and has started 29-of-31 contests.

SO THAT'S WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO WIN THERE
Three of Bowling Green's four road wins this year have come in locations in which the Falcons had not won since at least 2002. BGSU had one non-conference road win (against FIU) and has posted three conference road victories (Miami, Western Michigan, and Ball State), equaling last year's MAC road win total.

THE RECORD SETTER
Senior forward Torian Oglesby set an NCAA Division I record by making 26 consecutive field goal attempts, a streak that ended with a first-half miss against Ohio. Despite the miss, Oglesby has made 73-of-97 shots on the year, shooting 75.3 percent. The old record of 25 consecutive field goal attempts without a miss was set by Ray Voelkel of American University in 1978, a mark which stood for 33 years.

THE BIG APOSTROPHE
Junior A'uston Calhoun has continually turned his game up as the 2011-12 season has worn on, averaging more points at a higher shooting percentage throughout. He averaged just 2.5 points in the first two games of the season, improved to 12.4 points over the next five, 14.3 in the next ten and 14.6 over the next nine. He has again picked up his game, and is averaging 15.8 points on 52 percent shooting in the last five contests.

A RARE COMBINATION
With nine rebounds against Miami, Scott Thomas joined a select group in Mid-American Conference history. Already ranking in the top 10 in BGSU history in assists, he became just the fourth player at any MAC school to rank in the top 10 in their school's history in those two categories, joining Miami's Ron Harper and Chet Mason, and Ball State's Bonzi Wells.

DOWN LOW
Head coach Louis Orr's philosophy is always to play inside-out and the Falcons have done that well during his tenure. This year, the Falcons have scored at least 20 points in the paint in 28-of-31 games with a season-high 58 against Malone. In fact, the 58 points in the paint represents the most in a game in Orr's tenure. BGSU had scored at least 30 points in the paint in seven consecutive games before being held to 16 at Eastern Michigan. In 2009-10 and 2010-11, the Falcons scored 20 or more points in the paint in 57-of-63 games.

THE STROH CENTER
BGSU played its first regular season game ever in the Stroh Center against Howard. After 51 years in venerable Anderson Arena, the Falcons opened one of the newest facilities in the country.

IMPROVING EFFICIENCY
While Scott Thomas does just about everything on the floor for the Falcons, the area in which he most needed to improve coming into the 2011-12 season was shooting from three-point range and the free-throw line. A year ago, Thomas shot 29 percent on three-pointers and 59 percent from the charity line. This year, he has made 58-of-153 three-pointers (37.9 percent) and 48-of-71 free-throws (67.6 percent). He made eight three-pointers in the team's BracketBusters win over Morehead State, the most since Jay Larranaga set the school record with nine in a 103-78 win over Akron on Feb. 8, 1997.

1,000 POINT SCORERS
With a three-pointer against Duquesne, Scott Thomas became the 38th player in program history to score 1,000 career points. Dee Brown followed with a long jumper at Akron to become the 39th to reach that milestone. The duo is just the seventh in school history to score 1,000 career points in the same season.

DEFENSE WINS
Over the course of the past three years, Bowling Green has held its opponent to 45 percent shooting or worse in 34 of the Falcons' 44 wins. A year ago, Bowling Green went just 2-12 when an opponent shot at least 45 percent, posting victories against only Manhattan (48.9 percent shooting) and Ohio (45.8 percent). This year, the Falcons have been able to overcome solid shooting nights from an opponent and are 7-8 when allowing 45 percent or higher field-goal percentage. Bowling Green actually won for the first time in Louis Orr's tenure when a team shot 50 percent as Austin Peay scored at a 51 percent clip, but the Falcons won 82-72.

THE NEW HOUSE
Anderson Arena provided BGSU with an excellent home court advantage as the Falcons went 466-190 (.710) all-time in The House That Roars. Bowling Green will attempt to build a new home court advantage after going 10-5 in Anderson Arena a year ago. This year, the Falcons are 12-4 (.750) in the Stroh Center, the team's best home mark since the 2004-05 team went 12-3. The team has not won 13 home games since going 13-1 in 2001-02.

PARKER/HOLMES SIGN WITH THE FALCONS
Louis Orr announced the signing of Spencer Parker and Richaun Holmes during this year's early signing period. Parker is from West Bloomfield, Mich. and is playing for Fishburne Military School in Waynesboro, Va. this year. He will have four years of eligibility remaining. Holmes is from Lockport, Ill. and is playing this year at Moraine Community College. As a full qualifier out of high school, he will transfer to Bowling Green and be able to play immediately with three years of eligibility remaining.

FALCONS ON REGIONAL/NATIONAL TELEVISION
BGSU will play a minimum of seven games on ESPNU, SportsTime Ohio, or the Big Ten Network this year. The Falcons played on ESPNU at Georgia on Nov. 13 and then played on the Big Ten Network Dec. 17 at Michigan State. The Falcons also played on STO on Jan. 7 against Ohio in the first MAC game in the Stroh Center, again Jan. 28 at Eastern Michigan, on Feb. 4 against Northern Illinois, and then again on Feb. 25 at home against Kent State. The Falcons close out the regular season on STO at Buffalo on March 3 and every game Bowling Green plays in Cleveland during the MAC Tournament will be televised on the regional sports channel.

FALCONS EARN MAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK AWARDS
Scott Thomas and A'uston Calhoun have each earned Mid-American Conference East Division Player of the Week awards. Thomas won the award Nov. 28 after averaging 12.0 points and 5.8 rebounds in a 3-1 week. Calhoun received the award on Feb. 13 after averaging 23.5 points and 10.5 rebounds in wins over Ball State and Toledo.

FIRST TEAM ALL-STATE
Bowling Green has brought in an Associated Press Division I First Team Ohio All-State player for three consecutive years. Junior Luke Kraus was named first team all-state at Findlay High School in 2008-09. Redshirt freshman Anthony Henderson earned the honor at Toledo Start High School in 2009-10 and Chauncey Orr was named to the team from Bowling Green High School in 2010-11. BGSU is the only school in the country with three players from the AP Division I First Team Ohio All-State teams from the past three years on the roster. Miami (Ohio) and Ohio State each has two.

FALCONS PICKED SIXTH
Bowling Green was picked to finish sixth in the Mid-American Conference East Division in the preseason media poll. Defending MAC champion Kent State was selected to win the East while Western Michigan was selected to win the West.

MAC Preseason Media Poll
East Division - 1. Kent State (132 points/16 first-place votes), 2. Akron (104 points/8 first-place votes), 3. Ohio (94 points), 4. Miami (80 points), 5. Buffalo (62 points), 6. Bowling Green (32 points)
West Division - 1. Western Michigan (128 points/14 first-place votes), 2. Ball State (111 points/9 first-place votes), 3. Central Michigan (92 points/1 first-place vote), 4. Toledo (76 points), 5. Northern Illinois (59 points), 6. Eastern Michigan (38 points)
Tournament Champion - Kent State 12, Akron 6, Ball State 3, Western Michigan 2, Central Michigan 1

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