BOWLING GREEN — Solidifying the roster and coaching staff was a pretty important first step for Bowling Green State University’s men’s basketball program under new head coach Todd Simon.

The next step the Falcons are taking might be the most challenging.

How does a team consisting of 10 newcomers in the past two months — none of the 14 players have spent more than one season in Bowling Green — jell together quickly in an era when winning immediately is expected? For Simon, it all starts with the day-to-day interactions with his players.

“We’re going to be a high-level relationship program, No. 1, so you get to know guys and get them to open up, and No. 2, you’ve got to become a high-level communicating program,” Simon said.

“We’re going to talk about these things. It’s not going to rest under the surface; we’re going to get things on the forefront and tackle it head on and say, ‘Hey, these are the things that are important for us that are going to impact winning.’

“There’s standards that everyone’s going to have to meet in order to be a part of this and achieve a common goal, so we try to be very explicit in all of those areas. I think when expectations are communicated and accountability is in place, all those things can happen fast.”

With nine transfers and an incoming freshman joining a returning group that includes senior forwards Rashaun Agee and Sam Towns, sophomore guard Anthony McComb III, and redshirt freshman forward Jamai Felt, BGSU has the pieces in place to have immediate success. Nearly all of the transfers — seven guards and two forwards — played significant roles at their previous schools.

“It starts with bringing in good guys. When you do that, you’re always going to give yourself a chance,” Simon said. “But that’s going to be our challenge going forward here is now we’ve got to blend this room together.

“We’ve got to get the personalities, the individual goals to align with the team goals. But that’s all what we do, and that’s the exciting part.”

According to Simon, the nearly complete roster turnover for the 2023-24 BGSU squad was similar to his high school coaching days at Findlay Prep in Nevada. He was an assistant coach from 2006-12, then the head coach the following season when Findlay Prep went 35-1.

“We were turning over eight, nine guys a year. There’s kids transferring high schools all the time,” Simon said. “So, we’re used to it.

“You’ve got to build the system that can accommodate new faces and be able to teach efficiently. You can’t build a team for three, four years anymore and say ‘OK, we’re just going to be good in year four.’ That’s not how it works. You’ve got to build your program to really accommodate the changing landscape.”

One of Simon’s biggest assets that could help him connect with his new players will be one of the standouts he brought in from his previous stop at Southern Utah.

Jason Spurgin, a 6-foot-11, 250-pound senior center/forward from Australia, played the past three seasons at Southern Utah. He started all 72 games the past two years and averaged 10 points, six rebounds, and blocked 63 shots last season.

Spurgin knows the fast-paced, high-scoring style that has been the highlight of the Thunderbirds’ squads the past several years. He has also gotten to know incoming BGSU assistant coaches Bryce Martin and Lourawls Nairn, Jr., as well as director of basketball operations German Srulovich, each of whom worked with Simon at Southern Utah.

Spurgin certainly knows Simon’s characteristics as well.

“He’s honest with you,” Spurgin said. “If you approach him and ask him questions about your game or your situation on the team or your role on the team, he’s very honest with you.

“He sets the expectations on where he wants you to be, and he helps you out as much as he can to get there. So just him being honest with players I’ve seen over the last couple years actually brought out the best in those guys.”

Spurgin said he and Simon have had conversations about helping his new teammates.

“Sometimes players don’t see eye to eye with coaches, so being used to the system and being able to talk to the players through the players’ eyes should help quite a bit and help speed up the learning process and get them on the right page with us,” Spurgin said.

A lot of the new players have already made their way to Bowling Green and have started working toward building camaraderie. Although the start of the 2023-24 regular season is still well down the road, the work the Falcons do in the summer could go a long way toward building a winning program again.

“I’m super excited, to be honest. I’m ready to meet all my teammates, get to know them, and getting to fight with them on the court,” Agee said.

“The couple guys that I’ve met already, they seem like a great bunch of guys,” Spurgin said. “Coach has recruited some great people, they all want to work.

“It seems like most of the guys, if not everyone I’ve talked to, wants to get in the gym, wants to get better, and wants to win, basically. It’s an interesting dynamic of where you don’t really have the old vets of what used to happen with coach, but you’ve got all these new guys that are coming in and they want to prove themselves to coach and prove themselves to everyone else.”

First Published June 24, 2023, 3:30 p.m.