Mid-major Basketball: Early 2020-21 preview for Bowling Green Basketball

BUFFALO, NY - JANUARY 31: Justin Turner #1 of the Bowling Green Falcons brings the ball up court during the second half against the Buffalo Bulls at Alumni Arena on January 31, 2020 in Buffalo, New York. Bowling Green beats Buffalo 78 to 77. (Photo by Timothy T Ludwig/Getty Images) /

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 09: The Bowling Green Falcons (Photo by Steven Ryan/Getty Images) /

Bowling Green’ Frontcourt

Coach Huger liked to deploy smaller lineups in 2019-20, only starting one true big man in most of the teams’ games. That big was Tayler Matos (4.9 Pts, 5.1 Reb, 0.3 Ast), and the 6’11 center is no longer on the roster as he transferred back home to play at University of New Hampshire.

That’s not such bad news for Bowling Green because again, this a non-traditional system that leverages big guards. Not one true forward or center averaged more than 16 minutes a game a season ago. Huger also has two post players that were key parts of his post-rotation coming back in Matiss Kulackovskis (3.7 Pts, 1.8 Reb, 0.3 Ast) and Dylan Swingle (1.6 Pts, 0.8 Reb, 0.1 Ast).

Both will log a lot more minutes than the 11 and 5 a game each played a season ago. Swingle was a touted recruit out of Ohio and is now back home after a transfer from Duquesne after sitting out his first year in college as a redshirt.

The bottom-line upfront is that Matos’s five points and five boards per game won’t be hard to replace. The Falcons also return 6’10 redshirt junior Joniya Gadson as well 6’7 guard/forward Chandler Turner (2.3 Pts, 1.5 Reb, 0.1 Ast), Justin’s brother. Cam Young, a 6’7 wing out of Swedesboro, New Jersey also joins the fold coming off a strong high school career where he captained Neumann Goretti high school, the 28th ranked high school basketball team in the country in 2019-20.

Bowling Green is going to be fine without a noteworthy post attack. That says a lot about just how good the Falcon guard play is and how beneficial it is to return a guy like Justin Turner who could potentially have his name in an All-American conversation.