"This is f***ing March:" A night to remember
What it's like on the outside looking in at a tournament bid
17 seconds sit on the clock. The score is tied, 63-all. For the 2,992 fans packed into Bowling Green State University’s Stroh Center, the tension is palpable. For both teams.
You see, this year’s Mid-American Conference men’s basketball standings are, for the lack of a better term, a crapshoot. Despite this being the last night of the regular season, two of the eight spots in the MAC Tournament were vacant and all but the top two seeds were locked in. That night, there were three teams competing for those final two slots.
Two of them are right here, tied up in the Stroh Center. The home Falcons and the visiting Western Michigan Broncos.
For all intents and purposes, both teams’ seasons are on the line. Win and you head to Cleveland for the conference tournament. Lose and your season comes to a close.
With the stage set, this has been a grinding back-and-forth game. Neither team has mustered a large lead. And here we sit, tied with just 17 seconds to go. Western Michigan has the ball in the hands of point guard Chansey Willis Jr., who’s scored 11 on the day and been an effective passer, notching five assists.
The shot clock is turned off, so the Broncos are going to get the last shot. Willis is clearly the one to take it as he dribbles out the clock just beyond the three point line. The clock ticks down. With just under five seconds left, Willis makes his cut. He drives down the key to the basket. A number of Falcons step in his way. The path to the cup - and a win - isn’t easy.
Then, the ball comes loose. Guard DaJion Humphrey comes up with it. He has a clear path to the basket and the win. But then, a stoppage. A whistle. A foul was called on BGSU’s Derrick Butler on the steal attempt. Willis heads to the line.
The life was drained out of the Stroh Center crowd. Willis hits one of his two shots and the Broncos move on.
At this point, the team leaves the court and heads back to their locker room. I could see the emotions and sadness on their faces, the season was done.
Wait, let’s take a step back. I should probably tell you here that I worked this game as a freelancer for Bowling Green, helping their strategic communications department stat the game. I sat courtside and, as the game ended, experienced one of the most captivating, improbable roller coaster rides that makes college athletics and March, in particular, special.
The team retreated to their locker room after the game. But not all hope was lost. Remember that third team vying for a spot in Cleveland? That would be Central Michigan, who was hosting Northern Illinois, who is set to depart to the Horizon League after the 2026 season and sits at 5-25 overall and 1-16 in MAC league play.
During the game, we were set up immediately next to the Falcons bench. Since I was working with the BGSU basketball SID, scoreboard watching became part of the job description. Before the game, the tiebreakers were all mapped out. If the Falcons were to lose, both Ball State and Central Michigan also needed to lose for Bowling Green to nab the eighth and final spot in Cleveland. Luckily for us, Ball State did their part and the loss went final when we hit halftime in the Stroh Center.
But Central Michigan against NIU tipped off at the same time as this Bowling Green game. In each timeout, we would feverishly pull up the live stats of that game, seeing how much of the Falcons’ destiny relied on this game.
As the seconds wound down in Bowling Green, members of the BGSU coaching staff were asking us for periodical score updates each timeout. Everyone was invested. But the focus remained on the hardwood in Bowling Green, Ohio.
That changed when a Humphrey shot went errant as the buzzer sounded and Western Michigan punched their ticket. Then, everyone’s attention turned to Mount Pleasant, Michigan where Central Michigan and Northern Illinois were also engaged in a dogfight.
Once the game ends, my job was to run copies of stats for each teams’ coaches and the media members in attendance. The copier sat in a small nook amidst the coaches’ offices, sharing a wall with the conference room and the cubicles that most of the student assistants occupy. As the copier whirred through 20 copies of game books (for any SIDs or coaches reading this, you know how long that takes to print. For those that don’t, it’s about 200 pages), the entire support staff - all the trainers, Director of Basketball Operations, video coordinators and student staff - were huddled around one cubicle. One student had his phone out, the NIU game on.
The tension was palpable. I don’t even thing he had the sound on of his phone. There wasn’t a sound in the room aside from the soft whirring of the printer the next room over. Everyone was just quiet. Watching. Hoping. Waiting.
Seconds were ticking down. With 11 seconds left, Central Michigan called a timeout to draw up their winning play. A bucket here would put the Chippewas into the MAC Tournament. A miss would send it to overtime. Central Michigan inbounded the ball and lined up a shot for Jakobi Heady. It was a midrange jumper, not the best shot selection but one he’s knocked down before. One of the coaches I was watching with broke the silence. “It was a hell of a season, boys,. Be proud of that,” he said, walking away. He, like everyone else assumed the worst and that Heady would hit the jumper.
Except he didn’t. It clanged off the rim. We were going to overtime.
You can’t neglect your own job, though. Even if the season hangs in the balance. I had to run the stat books and start tearing down our setup. So I did, dropping off a pile of stats with the Western Michigan SID and putting away the headsets we use to call the stats. I took those back to the media room, hoping to get in with the equipment before the door locks for a press conference. I did, setting it down and distributing stats to the media.
Except, the press conference wasn’t coming. The standard 10-minute cooling off period passed with no mention. Not that anyone in the room cared, NIU and Central Michigan were still in overtime, after all. By then, the five-minute overtime period had dwindled down to just over a minute left. And the game was still tied.
So we waited.
The media room was growing a little restless. Not in a bad way, but most of the reporters had deadlines sitting around 10:30 p.m. As the clock was clicking towards 9:30, 9:45, they were getting worried. Texts were sent to editors saying that the deadline wouldn’t be reached.
A question from the SID on if they wanted to do a press conference before the CMU-NIU result was floated, but shot down. Everyone agreed that the press conference would need to wait. After all, they wouldn’t be doing their readers or viewers a service if they didn’t ask questions about the results of that game.
And it’s not like the coaches or players wanted to jump into a presser, either. The locker room was rising and falling with each basket, each pass, each dribble. Everyone in the program had their eyes glued to the game.
That’s when the game went off the rails. With the overtime period ticking away and the score still tied, Central Michigan drew a foul. And then another. Twice, DeCorion Temple went to the line. And he missed all four shots. Central Michigan’s Heady turned the ball over and James Dent Jr. heaved up a game-tying jumper that clanged off the rim with two seconds left. Everyone’s hearts were in their throats as Mo Sall jumped up and tipped the ball in, dropping through the net as time expired and tying the game.
We were heading to a second overtime.
Outside the media room, we could hear barks of applause as the game was tied. I don’t think it was the team, their locker room was too far away. But the staff working had their eyes on the game too. This wasn’t over yet.
Back in the media room, we were laughing. The CMU-NIU contest was descending into chaos with that tip-in layup as time expired and the missed free throws.
“This is f***ing March,” one media member remarked.
NIU got the first basket in the second overtime after a minute had already expired courtesy of Mo Sall. Then Central Michigan drew another foul and Heady headed to the line. He missed his first free throw.
In Bowling Green, we had abandoned the phone feed, instead opting to follow the live stats on one media member’s laptop that was somehow over 30 seconds faster. We all crowded at the front of the room, just in front of the table where Coach Simon and his players would give a press conference if this game ever ended. The lights were bright and trained right on us. Nobody cared.
After five consecutive missed free throws, Central Michigan finally righted the ship when Heady knocked down his second attempt from the charity stripe.
The game stayed tight throughout the second overtime. As we watched the live stats trickle in, chatter was emanating around the room.
“Someone needs to win this now.”
“I won’t survive another overtime.”
“Let’s keep the questions short once the presser starts.”
From my understanding, the locker room was a more somber, reflective mood. The players were just hoping for Northern Illinois, who holds a 1-16 mark in conference, to pull off the miracle. There wasn’t a lot of chatter there. Everyone was just watching the game, riding out their emotions with each basket. Because their season depended on it.
Elation grew as Northern Illinois opened up a four-point lead with a minute and a half remaining on a James Dent Jr. driving layup. Despair took over as Central Michigan erased that deficit and tied it once again at 83 with a pull-up jumper by Anthony Pritchard with 17 seconds left.
Then, March took over.
James Dent Jr. pulled up in a tied game with 1.5 seconds on the clock. To us in the media room after the fact, it looked less like a shot and more like an alley-oop attempt to find Mo Sall under the basket.
Either way, Dent’s laser attempt somehow, by the grace of the basketball gods, went in. Northern Illinois had done it. They upset Central Michigan. It was their first road win of the entire season.
Once again, the same media member repeated his earlier refrain, laughing and shaking his head. “This is f***ing March.”
The eruption that followed most certainly came from the locker room. We stepped out of the media room, onto the hardwood of Bill Frack Court in the Stroh Center at Bowling Green State University and listened to the celebration.
In fact, everyone listened. From the facilities staff working diligently to clean and turn over the arena for an Ohio High School Regional Tournament the next day to the media members and myself. The team was fired up. They were going to Cleveland.
A few minutes later, Coach Simon, DaJion Humphrey and Derrick Butler, who had that foul called on him with two seconds on the clock, entered the media room for their press conferences.
They described their elation. Their excitement to be included in the trip to Cleveland. The way they fought hard tonight and how that bodes well for their chances to shock everyone again in the MAC Tournament.
As the presser ended, I talked to someone who was in the locker room after the game. He told me that as soon as they got in there, they looked at Butler’s foul on what would’ve been the game-sealing steal provided Humphrey’s impending layup attempt went in. He told me that it was an even worse call than we saw on the floor. Butler never made contact. Willis just lost the ball.
Despite that, the team was happy. They got bailed out. The one time they needed help from another team in the league, they got it.
Humphrey was asked if he was going to send a thank you package to the NIU team and he laughed, thanking them profusely for their help in setting the Falcons off to Cleveland.
But even past that, there was a sense of unfinished business. Humphrey hearkened to it multiple times in his press conference. This team, that weathered season-ending injuries to their starting point guard, starting power forward and starting center/captain, made it to the tournament when everyone counted them out. The Falcons had won seven of their last 10 in conference play and four of their last five. Despite those injuries, they made it.
“We’re a team of destiny,” Humphrey proclaimed.
Boy, it sure feels that way.
Thursday, March 13, the Men’s Mid-American Conference Basketball Tournament will tip off at Cleveland’s Rocket Arena. All the first round games will be played that day on ESPN+, starting with the 1 v. 8 matchup at 11 a.m. Eastern that lands the Falcons against a vaunted Akron team that sits at 17-1 in the conference and has first-round NCAA Tournament upset buzz.
By every metric, this shouldn’t be a close game. Bowling Green backed their way into the tournament following an improbable upset. Akron has decimated nearly every conference foe they’ve come across.
Wait, did I say nearly?
Yes, I did. Because the Falcons and Zips went head-to-head one time this year in the very same Stroh Center way back in January. This was during a rough stretch in the Bowling Green schedule, kicking off a 2-7 stretch in conference play.
That cold Friday night, the Falcons hung with the Zips. In fact, Bowling Green led most of the way. Across the entire 71-68 game, Akron only led for the final 40 seconds. And that was with Bowling Green debatably at their worst. How will it go with them hot and hungry?
This Bowling Green team isn’t going to garner a lot of headlines. Even their run to get to this point wasn’t publicized much outside of Northwest Ohio. But Humphrey was right, this team does have the feel of a “team of destiny.”
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This was a cool experience — thanks for sharing! I’ll be rooting for you guys on Thursday.