Broseph's Bits And Saturday Gospel

Northern Arizona -3 -- The Grizzlies will try and keep up their good ways in the Big Sky conference when they hit the road to take on Northern Arizona. It'll be tough for the Grizz without Will Cherry who will be out due to a sprained ankle. Cherry averages 15.5 points per game and shoots 44% from the field. This mean's they'll rely on Brian Qvale (14.4 ppg) and Derek Selvig (10.8 ppg) more. Northern Arizona has a good homecourt and multiple weapons for teams to deal with. The Lumberjacks are led by Cameron Jones (19.5 ppg), Gabe Rogers (11.7 ppg) and Shane Johannsen (10 ppg). Montana won the first meeting at home 83-80 on December 29th. Cherry scored 27 points adding four rebounds and six assists to that stat line. NAU shot 56% in that game getting 30 from Jones and 19 from Platt. Now the scene shifts to NAU's building where they've lost by just once. We like NAU's chances to hold serve at home against a weaker Montana team.

Bowling Green -3 -- The Falcons have enjoyed conference play after starting the season 5-9. They are 6-2 in the MAC having won three straight and five of their last six. The Falcons play a stiff 2-3 defense which has helped them allow only 65.2 points per contest. Bowling Green is led by Scott Thomas (11.8 ppg), A'uston Calhoun (10.8 ppg) and Dee Brown (9.9 ppg). Western Michigan is 11-9, 4-3 in the MAC. They have some defensive problems giving up nearly 70 points per contest. They do score a bit more then Bowling Green, but may lack the shooters to break the zone. Demetrius Ward (38.9%) and Alex Wolf (38.6%) are the best shooters the Broncos have. Western Michigan is coming off a nice road win at Miami Ohio, but they've lost at Towson and Toledo who are two of the worst teams in the country. This team's inconsistency makes me like Bowling Green who has defended homecourt well.

Virginia +9.5 -- The Cavaliers weren't expected to do much this season. While they aren't going to be in the field of 68, they've proven to be a thorn in the side of their opponents. After knocking off Clemson, the Hoos hit the road to take on Miami who is coming off a win over Georgia Tech where they had a TON of turnovers. The Cavs haven't exactly wilted on the road. They won at Minnesota and Virginia Tech before losing to Duke, BC and Wake Forest. The Blue Devil game was close for a half while the team could have won in Boston College. The team defense keeps them in games allowing just 63 points per contest. Mustapha Farrakhan (13.1 ppg), K.T. Harrell (9.9 ppg) and Joe Harris (9.9 ppg) are the UVA leaders on offense. The Hurricanes meanwhile love to play close contests. They have played seven straight games that have been decided by single digits. This is coming after an 11 point loss at Duke which was also close. The Canes lack of a solid point guard and an inconsistent offense will keep the Cavaliers in it till the end.

Broseph's Bits And The Tuesday Gospel

The gospel was thinking about the NCAA Tournament and was thinking that the cream of this year's crop is pretty well defined. Most years there are at least 10-15 teams who could win it all, but it doesn't seem like the case in 2011. Ohio State and Duke are the best by far in the country. San Diego State is a nice story, but come March they won't be around as long as the first two. I'm not convinced about Pittsburgh or Connecticut and their lofty ranking. UConn is a one man band with Kemba Walker and Pittsburgh's a nice story, but I'm just not putting them in the elite class yet.

Kansas and Texas are in the next grouping of teams. Texas has the feel potentially of a young Syracuse team who won in 2003 even without their own Carmelo Anthony. Kansas is probably the deepest team in the country, but where is their nice wins this season. Move down a bit more and you find Villanova, Syracuse, BYU and Purdue. Each of these teams have faults as well. Nova's inside game will hurt them. Syracuse's lack of a good jump shooter will be their demise while BYU's toughness usually leaves them come tourney time. Purdue's a nice story, but they are a two man team.

Anyways, the point of this exercise is that other then Ohio State and Duke, there's a large grouping of teams who each have a lot of questions. The best part of the Field of 68 is trying to find out who will be their biggest challengers and where will Cinderella's slipper go. Will it be a young Kentucky squad with a lot of talent that could make things interesting? Maybe it's Washington who will run a lot of teams out of the building? Could we have an all Big East elite 8? It seems like they may place at least 10 in the tournament so there's a chance that could happen. Get those pens ready...we're almost at bracket filling time.

The gospel went 0-1 yesterday. Days like that will happen in this game of gambling. We'll bounce back.

Bowling Green -5 -- The Falcons take on Toledo on Tuesday evening. Bowling Green is 8-11, 3-2 in the MAC. They have won six of their last eight contests which include road wins at Buffalo and St. Louis. They are coming off a close five point loss at Akron on the 22nd. BG scores only 62.5 points per game, but they allow only 65.1. The Falcons have multiple weapons with Scott Thomas (11 ppg), A'uston Calhoun (10.3 ppg) and Dee Brown (9.7 ppg) leading the way. The team plays a ton of zone which will fit in well against a Toledo squad who doesn't have a single player who is shooting over 40% from three point land. They have Malcolm Griffin (12.7 ppg) and Reese Holliday (9.9 ppg) as their main threats. The Rockets score a woeful 58 points a contest and allow almost 70. They have lost six of their last seven with the lone win coming against Western Michigan on January 19th. Toledo was blown out at home by woeful Eastern Michigan 71-48. Bowling Green has covered seven of their 11 games against teams with a losing record this season. They'll continue that trend on Tuesday.

TWTW: Best Bowl Finish In Boise...???

Yup...

We all know what you're thinking...

That Humanitarian Bowl between Bowling Green and Idaho will surely be one worth watching... it's WAC versus MAC...

Yep. We're tied down for that one...
Clock us in... check us out...

Well, the HQ hates to break it to you, but it was BY FAR the best finish in this bowl season to date.

For those of you who don't know, Bowling Green WR Freddie Barnes set the Division I record for receptions in a season- finishing the day with 155 on the year. He caught 17 for 219 yards and 3 scores during the day.

In a game that featured 46 first downs and 990 yards of total offense, Barnes caught his third TD pass with 32 seconds left from 51 yards out to give the Falcons a 42-35 lead.

That's where we pick up Eric Collins and Brock Huard...
((HT: ESPN))


Idaho won only two games last year...
They wouldn't dress in Boise State's home dressing room, either...
Awesome...

And so it begins...

College football season is here, and we've had our first victim.

The Wannstedt and Pittsburgh goes down to Bowling Green on Pitt's home field 27-17...(read the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette column and the Bowling Green Sentinel Tribune column...good stuff...)

Here is the end of the game audio, thanks to Learfield Communications and the BGSU Falcons Radio Network.

I have a funny story about Bowling Green, as I was chased off the field by an assistant coach by in 2003.

Ask Nelly about it...I was on the phone with him while I was pulling a Peter Graves/Mission Impossible stunt...

Funny stuff.

J-Dub