BOWLING GREEN — Michael Huger, who guided Bowling Green State University’s men’s basketball program for the past eight seasons at his alma mater, was fired as the Falcons’ head coach after a second straight losing campaign.
BGSU athletic director Derek van der Merwe told The Blade on Sunday afternoon he felt it was time for the program to go in a new direction.
The Falcons went 11-20 this season, including 5-13 in the Mid-American Conference.
“It’s no single specific [reason]; it’s a comprehensive evaluation of the program and the direction of the program. I felt that it was time to make a change,” said van der Merwe, who took over as BGSU’s athletic director in late October. “Everything’s a factor in that evaluation point, and it’s no single data point. It’s comprehensively on where we’re going and on the future of this program.”
Huger was informed Sunday morning of the decision, with the school announcing it shortly after. A former standout on the hardwood for the Falcons, Huger had two years remaining on his contract.
Huger said in a phone interview with The Blade on Sunday the situation was difficult, but is one that he can live with knowing he gave it his all at BGSU.
“Whenever it’s you on the other end, it’s always a difficult decision. I feel more for my coaching staff and my team than I do for myself at this moment,” Huger said. “Just wish we would have had an opportunity to get to know our new AD, it’s difficult when you come in in January and you don’t even get a chance, so that part is difficult.
“But I understand it’s the nature of the business that we’re in, it’s the nature of the business that we chose. You’ve got to win, it just boils down to winning and losing. Two years of two bad seasons is what really caused the whole thing, so it is what it is at this point.”
Huger guided the Falcons to a 126-125 record, including a 64-82 mark in the MAC. BGSU posted three winning seasons, including back-to-back 20-plus win campaigns from 2018 to 2020.
The 2018-19 squad went 22-12 overall and 12-6 in the MAC. The Falcons advanced to the MAC tournament championship, but fell to Buffalo 87-73.
It was just the fourth MAC championship appearance in school history and the first since 2002. The 2018-19 season was only the fourth time since 1950 that the program had at least 22 victories.
“It was fun to see, fun to be able to do it. We were able to do it with freshmen that stayed and became juniors and seniors, and that’s when we were really good,” Huger said. “We had a nice run, too bad we couldn’t cap it off with winning that MAC championship and beating Buffalo.
“But we were able to build it the right way. Once the [transfer] portal took hold and the NIL [name, image, and likeness], things changed. The whole landscape of college basketball changed, and you’ve got to adapt with that. At the time, we didn’t do a great job of adapting to it, and that was the thing. We tried some different things that didn’t work.”
In the 2019-20 season, BGSU went 21-10 (12-6 MAC) and secured the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament before it was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The past two years, however, have been a struggle.
BGSU lost 13 of its final 16 games this season and went through a nine-game losing streak, the longest since a 10-game skid in the 1971-72 campaign.
BGSU’s 11 wins were its fewest in a season since the 2005-06 team went 9-21.
The Falcons have missed out on the MAC tournament the past two seasons. A year ago, BGSU went 13-18 (6-14).
Huger, a 1994 BGSU graduate, earned All-MAC honors his final two seasons playing for the Falcons. As a senior, he was a Naismith Award nominee and the runner-up for the MAC player of the year.
Huger developed several of the best players in BGSU history during his coaching career as well.
Justin Turner scored a program-record 2,077 points from 2016-21, while Toledo native and Springfield graduate Demajeo Wiggins recorded 1,316 points and 1,066 rebounds (third in BGSU history) from 2015-19. Daeqwon Plowden (2017-22) finished his BGSU career as the all-time leader in games played (154); he was also eighth in scoring (1,618), fourth in rebounds (935), and fourth in blocks (126) in being the only player in program history with at least 1,200 points, 800 rebounds, and 100 blocks.
“I thought we made it a better place than when we came in, and that’s what it was about,” Huger said. “We won games, but we produced pros, we produced the all-time leading scorer, one of three double-doubles with 1,000 points, 1,000 rebounds in Demajeo Wiggins.
“Leading scorer in Justin Turner, Daeqwon Plowden top 10 in just about every category. We were able to recruit those dudes and make them better, and they were able to help us get to a championship.”
Turner, a 6-foot-4 guard for the Grand Rapids Gold (NBA G League affiliate of the Denver Nuggets), told The Blade on Sunday night his outlook on Huger’s BGSU coaching tenure is “nothing but positive moments.”
“He definitely was like what you would call a player’s coach, somebody that really was for the players,” Turner said. “For me, I have a positive outlook because he gave me the keys to the program when I was just a redshirt freshman. We kind of had our good moments and obviously played in some meaningful basketball games and tried to turn the program around for the time being.”
Huger’s dedication to the BGSU program, as well as the community, stood out to Turner, as well.
“He [bled] orange and brown,” Turner said. “He made sure that the players were involved in the community, looked at as respected, made sure we were doing the right things within the community, make sure we talk and shake peoples’ hands after the games.
“Doing the Falcon handshake, being respectful, he just went above and beyond when it came to having a positive influence on the community of Bowling Green because he cared that much. He played there and obviously got a chance to coach there for eight years, so it meant the world to him to be a reflection of Bowling Green.”
BGSU will begin a national search immediately to find its next coach.
Van der Merwe said the main qualities he is looking for in the Falcons’ next mentor include someone who is committed to relationships within the school and the Bowling Green community, accountability in striving to build a successful program, and commitment to academic success of the student-athletes.
First Published March 5, 2023, 2:42 p.m.
