The Sweet 16 in at #6!

Sweet 16 at #6
With the beginning of classes Monday, August 23, 2010, the 2010-11 school year here at BG got underway. Every year here is a special one for various reasons, but this year perhaps more than most, as BGSU celebrates its Centennial Anniversary. BG will be using the entire year to honor the last 100, with tons of activities and celebrations throughout the school year in the works.
In regards to women’s basketball, we’ll have a number of activities to honor our own personal history, including a night honoring the All-Anderson Team, and a soon-to-be released television program about the history of women’s basketball here at Bowling Green, aptly titled “BGSU Women’s Basketball – A Legacy of Excellence.”
So along those lines, BG’s own Sentinel-Tribune staff recently put together a list of the Top 20 Sports Moments in BG History. Reading through, there were some AMAZING accomplishments by BG athletes and their respective programs, including national championships in hockey, football, as well as having multiple Olympic Champions. With all the athletic success over the century, and despite the fact that the time span of women’s basketball being a varsity sport at BG is a fairly short one, we were very, very proud to have our Run to the Sweet 16 listed as the 6th best moment in BGSU Sports history! That 2006-07 squad went 15-1 in conference, ran the tables at the MAC Tournament, beat Oklahoma State in the NCAA 1st round, and followed by an upset of Top 10 and #2 seed Vanderbilt to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history. A quick turnaround and Arizona State proved to be a little too much for the Falcons, and we finished the year at 31-4. This team may have achieved the #6 Best Moment in BGSU Sports History, but this team will always be remembered as one of the greatest ever!

Putting the 'Student' in Student-Athlete

Putting the ‘Student’ in Student-Athlete
As proud as we are of our program’s success on the basketball court (I promise you, collecting championship rings NEVER gets old!), we are even MORE proud of what our players have accomplished in the classroom! Here are just a few of our academic highlights from the past year – not as fun to look at as our basketball highlight film (thank you Julie Baker!), but equally impressive:
- A 3.5 team GPA for the year - #6 IN THE NATION
- 6 players with a perfect 4.0 in the Fall of ‘09
- 3 players with a perfect 4.0 in the Spring of ‘10
- 14 players posted a Spring semester GPA of 3.2 or higher
- 14 players have a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher
- Maggie Hennegan and Laura Bugher were named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Team
- Laura Bugher was a finalist for the Senior Scholar Athlete of the Year
- Maggie Hennegan was a finalist for the Junior Scholar Athlete of the Year
- Of the 13 members of the MAC All-Academic Team, BGSU had FIVE team members; no other team had more than one
- This summer, our players posted 19 A’s out of 24 classes taken

This academic success of the student-athlete is not limited to only our program, however. Earlier this week the MAC announced that BGSU earned the 2009-10 MAC Institutional Academic Achievement Award. This annual award is presented to the MAC member who’s student-athletes have earned the highest GPA. With a GPA of 3.107 among our student-athletes, we edged the school up north for this tremendous honor, making it even that much more special!
The academic accolades don’t stop there, as on the heels of winning the MAC Institutional Academic Achievement Award for ALL our student-athletes, our female athletes continued to garner honors as it was announced that BGSU won the 2009-10 Mid-American Conference Faculty Athletic Representatives Academic Achievement Award! This award is designed to recognize the conference institution with the overall highest grade point average of student-athletes based on gender. Though this award is only three years old, our female student-athletes have won it twice!
A huge congratulations to ALL of our student-athletes for the tremendous year of success in the classroom! We are very, very proud that our athletes know they are students first!

2010-11 Non-Conference Schedule

Non-Conference Schedule Announced!
One of the most overlooked aspects of a successful program is how important and vital scheduling is. Not only is it extremely important, but very, very difficult – especially for a successful mid-major. No one wants to play you, and when you’ve won 30 straight regular season games at home, absolutely NO ONE wants to play you at your place! That is what makes the 2010-11 non-conference schedule even more special – we’ll be saying farewell to Anderson Arena with more home games in the non-conference than we’ve had in almost 30 years! Of the 13 non-conference games we’ll play in 2010-11, 7 will be at home! As Coach Miller, the architect of the schedule, says:
“I’m very excited about playing seven non-conference home games in the final season at Anderson Arena. We feel we have put together a very challenging schedule to prepare us for the grueling Mid-American Conference schedule.”
In dissecting this year’s non-conference schedule, it will be more than challenging. Six of the 13 teams on the non-conference slate advanced to national post-season play last year; eight of these 13 won at least 17 games last year, and five of these opponents won 21 or more in 2009-10.
The best coaches understand that scheduling is a vital aspect to a program’s success, and hence it’s no surprise that Coach Miller does a fantastic job scheduling games that fit the needs and goals of our team every year. As he says about the November portion of the schedule:
“We have a very heavy November schedule. We have a veteran team, with six seniors, and they will have to be ready to go right out of the gate.”
That November schedule:
November 12th - At Evansville (Missouri Valley Champions 2 of last 3 years)
November 15th – Vs Creighton (21-11, WNIT 2nd Round last year)
November 17th – Vs Youngstown St (former Akron Asst. Bob Bolden 1st yr as head coach)
November 20th – Vs Oakland (17 wins last season)
November 24th – Vs Detroit (17 wins last season)
November 26th – vs Arkansas Little Rock at Seattle Tournament (27-7 last year, advanced to NCAA 2nd round, and returns entire roster).
November 27th – vs Seattle / Montana State (Montana St winners of 18 games last year, with Seattle being the tournament host)

The UALR game will be one of the most challenging of the season, as Coach Miller says:
“The Arkansas Little Rock game is a great matchup. UALR has gotten some early accolades from various websites, and they are being recognized as one of the top mid-major teams in the country. They return almost their entire starting lineup, including a Wade Trophy watch-list player in Chastity Reed.”

December may have fewer games, but the competition is no less formidable, with three home games and three road games during the month:

December Schedule:

December 1st – Vs Vanderbilt (SEC and national power won 20+ games for the 11th straight year, and has been to the NCAA Tournament 11 straight years.)
December 4th – Vs Cal-State Fullerton (won 15 games and graduated just 2 seniors)
December 9th – at Western Kentucky (WNIT, 21-11 last year, with 11-4 home record)
December 11th – at Austin Peay (NCAA Tournament team)
December 21st – Vs Canisius (perennial MAAC power)
December 29th – at Butler (23-10, WNIT, and a 12-2 home record last year)


Vanderbilt may be the ‘big name’ on this season’s schedule, but it is the quality mid-major opponents that make this year’s non-conference schedule so challenging. As Coach Miller goes on to say:

“Our schedule is filled with some of the best mid-major programs in the country. I am pleased to be able to play a lot of games against teams that will have a great chance of winning their respective conferences.”

Our program hopes two things will come of this schedule – 1) that it will prepare us for a run at a 7th straight Mid-American Conference Regular Season Championship and a run to a MAC Tournament title, and 2) that it will get YOU as excited as we are and get you to come out and support us in Anderson Arena’s final year!

Come help us Close the Doors on the House that Roars!