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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Four Significant Wins Over Ranked Teams (And A Bonus Tournament Run)
January 28, 2019 | Men's Basketball
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While the Falcons have defeated ranked opponents on more than 20 occasions, these are just four significant home wins in BGSU men's basketball history with one bonus tournament run thrown in.
Jan. 13, 1960 / BGSU 86, #18 Toledo 82 (OT)
Under the tutelage of Harold Anderson, BGSU went 18-8 in 1958-59, won the MAC Championship and played in the NCAA Tournament. But with heavy graduation losses, the Falcons limped through the opening stretch of the 1959-60 season at just 3-8. Toledo, on the other hand, won nine of its first 10 games and entered this rivalry match-up ranked No. 18 in the country. But senior captain Jimmy Darrow proved why he deserved the accolades that were bestowed upon him, scoring 52 of the team's 86 points in a stunning upset. Following the defeat, Toledo went on to win its next eight games and peaked at No. 11 in the country before finishing the year 18-6. For the season, Darrow averaged 29.4 points per game, the second-highest single-season scoring average in BGSU history, and was named first team All-American by both the AP and UPI. He twice scored 52 points in a game that season, a mark which remains the single-game school record to this day.Feb. 16, 1963 / BGSU 92, #2 Loyola 75
Much has been written about this contest; a few of which are linked below:A Legend's Last Words
Anderson Arena Memories
Remembering The Greatest Game
Loyola would win the national championship almost exactly five weeks after this game was played, but for this night, Bowling Green was without a doubt the best team in the country.
Excerpted from A Legend's Last Words:
"I knew we were in trouble when we walked into the arena at 5 o'clock and the place was already packed," Loyola legendary coach George Ireland said years later. "It was three hours before the game they were cheering."
Behind the dynamic All-American duo of Thurmond and Komives – Thurmond with his penchant for intimidating defense and Howard with his flair for vicious crossovers and 25-footers – BG delivered the first of what would become many slayings of national powers inside Anderson over the years, whipping Loyola 92-75.
Dec. 1, 1990 / BGSU 98, #5 Michigan State 85
Two-time first team All-American Steve Smith had Spartan fans thinking about a national championship as the 1990-91 season got underway. But after Bowling Green's 98-85 dismantling of Michigan State, neither Smith nor 19-year head coach Jud Heathcote could ever fully get the team back on track, eventually losing to Utah in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The entire game is available on YouTube by CLICKING HERE.Excerpted from A Legend's Last Words:
Bowling Green wasted no time introducing Heathcote and his Spartans to the Falcons' sweltering and thunderous gym, burying triple after triple and dunk after dunk in a hammering of one of the nation's elite teams. Before a sold-out crowd of 4,898, Anderson's largest showing since the arena's capacity was reduced due to bleacher renovations in 1983, the Clinton Venable-led Falcons blitzed Michigan State with a stifling man-to-man defense till the end, winning 98-85.
"We blew 'em out of the gym," said Van Wright, assistant to the vice president of University advancement and unofficial Anderson historian. "Right from the tip-off, we had them beat. It was unbelievable."
The game's curtain call came early in the second half, when Michigan State's Matt Steigenga, a hefty 250-pound-plus power forward, got loose on his team's own baseline and rose for a crushing slam. Before he could put the ball through the cylinder, however, Steigenga saw the outstretched left hand of Falcon center Tom Hall wrap from out of nowhere and punch the ball off the backboard. After caroming out to mid-court, the ball fell into the hands of the snake-quick Venable for a breakaway score.
"It's over!" Wright remembers howling from his Anderson seat after Venable punctuated the play.
Wright believes that night to be the loudest and wildest Anderson's raucous confines has ever been, and added that, as Venable was carried away above a sea of brown and orange, the building was so electric it felt like it was shaking on its foundation.
"The craziest ending to a game I've ever seen," he said. "There were hundreds rushing the court and jumping around. It stayed like that well after the teams had left for their locker rooms."
After the game, Michigan State's coach was visibly shaken and red as a bloomed rose, but not at a loss for words. Inside the cramped and musty classroom in Anderson's upper level corridor that has served as the arena's makeshift media center since the days Harold Anderson roamed its halls, Heathcote stammered and sulked.
"I'll tell you this," the coach famously snarled, "I will never bring my team back in here."
March 1, 2008 / BGSU 89, #23 Kent State 83
Kent State was in the midst of one of the more dominant stretches in recent Mid-American Conference history, advancing all the well to the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight in 2002. From 2000-2011, the Golden Flashes won at least 20 games in 10-of-11 seasons, played in four NCAA Tournament and five NITs. The 2007-08 version would go 28-7 and 13-3 in MAC play, but the Falcons had an edge in this late season match-up. Earlier in the day, the University announced an $8 million gift from Kerm and Mary Lu Stroh that signaled construction of a new convocation center – The Stroh Center.The Falcons withstood a 54-point second-half flurry from Kent State to get the six-point win. Brian Moten came off the bench to make six three-pointers and freshman point guard Joe Jakubowski added 21 points and 12 assists. The full recap of that game can be read by CLICKING HERE.
BONUS
1949 NIT TOURNAMENT
The NIT was once considered the premier postseason tournament and Bowling Green earned a bid to the 12-team national championship in 1949 behind the exquisite play of Mac Otten and the coaching genius of Harold Anderson. Ranked for much of the latter half of the year, the Falcons were 21-6 and ranked No. 9 in the nation when they began the NIT in Madison Square Garden.Bowling Green advanced to the quarterfinals by defeating unranked St. John's 77-64 in the first round, where No. 3 Saint Louis awaited. The Falcons, though, rolled to the semifinals with an 80-74 victory. This time No. 8 San Francisco proved to be too much in a low-scoring 49-39 affair. San Francisco would go on to win the NIT.
Bowling Green closed out the 1949 NIT by facing No. 7 Bradley in the third place game. The Falcon picked up their third win of the tournament, and second over a ranked team, defeating Bradley 82-77. BGSU ended the season 24-7.