Newstand: Bowling Green Pregame

Here are Wednesday's DU-BGSU pregame story links with excerpts. Shawn James has been dealing with back spasms this week. DU is shortening their bench as they prepare for A-10 games. The Falcons have a couple distractions. The football team plays in the GMAC bowl on Sunday. The other is horrible: two students in a rented van were killed in an accident early today.

Where is Bowling Green, Ohio? BG is about 25 miles south of Toledo which is on Lake Erie.

Bowling Green, Kentucky is south of Louisville near the Tennessee border. About 400 miles away from the Ohio town.

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Basketball Stories

• PG: Dukes settle into 8-player rotation for A-10
  Duquesne coach Ron Everhart has made subtle changes in his rotation and substitution pattern to better prepare the Dukes for the grind in the Atlantic 10 Conference, where the competition will stiffen considerably.

  But before Duquesne (9-3) starts league play, it will take a three-game winning streak to Bowling Green (5-6) for a non-conference game tonight.

  "I wanted to shorten the bench and get away from relying on our press," Everhart explained. "I wanted to get into a situation with an eight-man rotation so we could get different combination of players working together."

  The odd men out in the second half of recent games have been guards Jason Duty and Phillip Fayne.

  • Surprisingly strong A-10 will test resurgent Dukes
• Trib: Matchup: Duquesne-Bowling Green
  The Dukes are hoping to have 6-foot-10 forward/center Shawn James (14.5 ppg., 7.4 rpg., 4.5 bpg.) at full strength after he was limited in the past two practices because of back spasms.

  Aaron Jackson is tied for the team lead in steals (19) and is shooting 60.4 percent during the past seven games.

• Toledo Blade: BG pregame notes (in sidebar of football story)
  The Falcons are coming off an ugly 52-48 win over Eastern Illinois on Saturday.

  This will be BGSU’s final nonconference game, except for the Bracket Buster on Feb. 23. (Opponent not yet named for this made-for-TV event)

  • Falcons look bad, feel good after win; Miller's 17 points, 14 boards crucial
    Bowling Green State University wasn't winning when it played reasonably well, so ironically it took an ugly performance for the Falcons to capture their first win in more than a month.

    The game tape of last night's (Sat.) 52-48 win over Eastern Illinois is unsightly. But the smiles, the laughs and the handshakes are what matter most for the reeling Falcons who had lost their four previous games.

    "Any win is a boost," (Bowling Green head coach Louis) Orr said. "The best encourager, the best confidence builder, is a win."

  Previously Published on DuquesneSports
  • Duquesne: DU Looking for First Win at BG Since 1955
  • Bowling Green: Falcons Host Duquesne to Open 2008 Slate
  • DuquesneSports: More on Bowling Green
    Note: Looks like discussion of the 10-40, two-platoon play may not be ... how do press officers refer to mistakes? oh yeah ... operative. One of the problems of doing this from Columbia, MD, - DC

  Other News

  • Van with Bowling Green State students crashes on toll road, killing 2
    ORLAND, Ind. - A van carrying students from Bowling Green State University in Ohio overturned on the Indiana Toll Road early Wednesday morning, killing two people.
  • Not for the money: Falcons hoping to break even in bowl (Play Tulsa on Sun. Jan. 6 at 8 p.m. in Alabama)
    When Bowling Green State University football players refer to the GMAC Bowl as a business trip, they aren't speaking literally.

    After paying the travel and lodging bill for as many as 500 players, coaches, support staff and band members, there will be little, if any, left from the $750,000 that BG receives from the bowl.

    Mid-American Conference teams playing in bowls do not have to share the payouts with fellow conference members while BCS conferences disperse bowl money to league members.

    Though BG isn't looking at the GMAC Bowl as a money maker, the university will certainly prosper from the exposure it receives from playing in the game.