Bowling Green Basketball: 2023-24 season preview for the Falcons
By Jay George
Looking Ahead at Bowling Green’s Schedule
The Falcons have a very favorable schedule in non-conference play. They start with two home games against a Chicago State and Arkansas State which are two great early opponents to face to get them up to speed. A road game at Oakland, who always proves to be a test coached by former BGSU alum Greg Kampe, and a home game against Bellarmine puts them at the Northern Classic tournament.
There, they will face a good mid-major pool before finishing the final leg of non-conference play at southern Indiana followed by four home games. They will face some respectable opponents early on such as Bellarmine, Arkansas State, and Lipscomb among others. Being able to take some opponents head on early in the schedule will be great.
This could realistically place the Falcons at 9-10 wins heading into MAC play. In essence, this is a great schedule for Simon and his program to really work on what they have and be able to fine-tune. These games are all manageable for Bowling Green and should be a great indicator of how the team will look early on.
In conference play, their toughest opponents will come in Toledo – their main rival, Kent State, Akron, and Ohio who are all favorites at the top of the conference. They will face Toledo twice naturally as well as Ohio. They only face Akron and Kent State, arguably the two best MAC teams, once each with Akron on the road and Kent State at home. They’ll also see some tougher games with Ball State twice and Northern Illinois once in conference play.
Although they’ll start conference play in a tougher spot with Akron, Ohio, and Northern Illinois in their first handful of conference games, they get a bit of a break towards the middle of MAC play. Even by college basketball standards, the MAC has a lot of parity to it, so there is always a chance of an upset one way or another. However, by the time these MAC games roll around, the team should have a great idea of their identity, their strengths, and their chemistry.