BOWLING GREEN — At every Bowling Green game, there is a game within a game.
Falcons coach Michael Huger admits that he’s usually so focused on the first that he rarely sees the second until he watches the recording the next day.
So, when the Falcons played Tuesday at Western Michigan, Huger naturally saw Justin Turner make a key 3-pointer deep in the second half of BG’s 85-82 win. He usually needs the tape to see the over-the-top celebrations on the bench from Falcons walk-on Ethan Good, who, on this particular occasion, watched Turner make the shot, then pretended to reach back to an imaginary quiver and shoot a bow and arrow — bull’s-eye.
Good, a senior from Wapakoneta, leapt at his only chance to be on a Division I team, and rarely is anyone enjoying the small moments of the game more than he is. He’s often the first to leap off the bench in celebration or make one of his on-court teammates crack a smile, the latter usually occurring because of the former.
Over time, Good said his ever-present enthusiasm became his avenue to staying engaged with the game.
“At first, I would just get bored. I was like, ‘I have nothing else to do on this bench, I might as well go crazy and have a little bit of fun with it,’” Good said. “Eventually, it became my way of expressing my enjoyment and my excitement for what we were doing.”
Huger called Good “the glue guy” for Bowling Green for his ability to get everyone on the same page, a voice he said is unique coming from a walk-on.
“He’s that bench leader,” Huger said. “He’s getting everybody else up, and they see him excited about something, and now everybody else is excited.”
Though Good has played sparingly at BG — he’s appeared in 22 games in 3½ seasons — Huger said bench players have the tough task of staying engaged when they aren’t playing.
With Good, Huger said that’s never a problem.
“They all have a really difficult job and, with Ethan, I know he’s always ready,” Huger said. “The one thing he always says to me is, ‘Coach, I got five fouls and I can’t take them with me.’”
Good particularly catches the ear of Turner, the Falcons’ leading scorer, which he said happens for two reasons. The first is that Turner, currently averaging just fewer than 18 points, scores with regularity, meaning there are plenty of chances.
The second is that he is certain Turner listens, offering an opening for the Falcons’ personal hype man to make his move, blending seamlessly between playfully deriding Turner one moment to telling him he’s unstoppable the next.
“On a normal day, he’s just going to come in and talk trash, whether it’s telling me that the other team’s best player is coming for my head or the other team is going to be on me. He’s always finding different ways to challenge me like that,” Turner said, smiling. “And then when I do something [during the game], he acts a little crazy, and I look over and he’s just going ballistic on the bench. It’s always something new.”
An all-conference player and a team captain as a senior in high school, Good chose a walk-on role at BG over the chance to see the court more frequently at a lower level.
A neuroscience major, Good said he preferred to be a small fish in the big pond of D-I because of its natural challenges and the opportunities it creates.
Being a walk-on can be thankless, but Good said he wouldn’t change a thing.
He’s a key part of the behind-the-scenes effort for a BG team chasing a Mid-American Conference title and, for Good, having fun is a full-time gig.
“I had a coach tell me once that nothing is new in basketball except for what you forget, so my job is to remind people what is important, what we’re focusing on, and what needs to change,” he said. “And really, just to make it fun. The toll of a basketball season wears on everybody — coaches, managers, players, everyone. Just to look at the big picture, I’m glad I’m here and I’m glad to be here.”
First Published January 16, 2020, 10:02 p.m.
