BOWLING GREEN — If Saturday is moving day at golf tournaments, consider this week the parallel at the top of the Mid-American Conference.
As Bowling Green enters the final third of the league schedule, the Falcons have a chance to put additional distance between themselves and the field — yet it’s tough to tell the Falcons are atop the league from the computer measurables.
Despite being 18-6 and 9-2 in the 12th-ranked league in NET rankings, the Falcons rank 155th in NET rankings and 163rd in KenPom, which place them seventh and sixth in the MAC. They are slightly better in Sagarin rankings at 123rd.
Bowling Green owns a win against current NET No. 46 Cincinnati and is the only MAC team with more than eight wins or fewer than three losses, yet BG has moved a mere nine spots in the NET rankings since the start of conference play. After beating Toledo for a second time last week, the Falcons actually dropped a spot.
The Rockets, who are 3-8 in the conference, are 22 spots ahead of BG at 133rd.
Asked Monday about those pesky numbers, Bowling Green coach Michael Huger broke into a wide smile.
“The numbers like everybody but us,” he said. “The numbers never like us.”
Akron has been the statistics darling of the MAC — Akron is the league’s top-rated team in NET ranking (77), KenPom (74), and Sagarin (102) — setting up a clash Tuesday between the best MAC team on paper and the team with the best record.
Huger is not exactly losing sleep about Bowling Green’s positioning anywhere other than the standings. The fifth-year BG coach said he pays no mind to the measurables regarding his first-place team.
“If I cared about the numbers, we shouldn’t play,” Huger said. “If I care about what the numbers say, we should never play a game because the numbers say we should lose every game we play. According to the numbers, we’re supposed to be 0-and-whatever right now.”
Akron (17-6, 7-3) appears to be BG’s chief competition in the East Division on the strength of its offense, which leads the MAC in scoring margin, 3-point percentage, and free-throw percentage. The Zips also have a player of the year candidate in Loren Cristian Jackson, who leads the conference in 3-point shooting and free-throw shooting.
The Zips are the only team the Falcons have yet to play in the conference so far this season, and if outsiders believe Akron is the best overall team in the MAC, the Falcons say that is fine with them.
“I feel like almost every game we’ve played, we haven’t been the favorites,” Bowling Green guard Caleb Fields said. “I just feel like there’s no respect to Bowling Green basketball.
“I like it like that, honestly, because we can go out and prove to people who we really are.”
As Bowling Green chases its first regular-season MAC title since 2009, Huger and the Falcons aren’t much concerned about their statistical profile.
If Bowling Green keeps winning basketball games, Huger said that is all that matters to him.
“I can’t control the NET, so why worry about something I have no, no control over, none whatsoever, not even a little bit?” Huger said. “No matter how much we win, if they continue to go down, then what? I’d rather continue to win and go down the whole time. Numbers don’t mean a thing to me.”
First Published February 10, 2020, 10:51 p.m.
