Bowling Green State University first-year mens basketball coach Todd Simon. (BGSU Athletics)
The Bowling Green State University mens basketball team will open the 2023-24 season and the Coach Todd Simon Era on Monday inside the Stroh Center as the Falcons host the Chicago State Cougars.
The Falcons and Cougars are set for a 7 p.m. tip, marking the 109th season of Bowling Green men’s basketball.
The Falcons and Cougars will be meeting for the fourth time in program history in Bowling Green hosting all four games with victories in all three previous meetings.
This will mark the second consecutive year that Bowling Green will open the season at home for the first time since the 2018-19 and 2019-20 campaigns. The game will be the start of Simon’s tenure with the Falcons, the 18th head coach in program history.
A Bowling Green win would make Simon the 10th coach in program history, and the third straight, to win his first game at the helm of the Falcons, keep BGSU undefeated against Chicago State all-time, and give BGSU a home-opener win for the sixth straight season.
Rashaun Agee will be back for the Falcons during the 2023-24 season after leading the Falcons in blocks during the 2022-23 campaign with 36.
Agee will be joined by a force underneath with transfer senior Jason Spurgin joining the Falcons from Southern Utah, following Simon to Bowling Green. With the Thunderbirds, Spurgin recorded 63 rejections last season, second within the WAC.
Toowoomba, Australia natives Jason Spurgin and Greg Spurgin will enter the 2023-24 season as one of 38 brother pairings on the same team in Division-I for the NCAA.
Both brothers are new to the program this year, transferring to Bowling Green from two different schools. Jason came to BGSU from Southern Utah while Greg arrived from Westminster, a Division-II school in Utah.
BGSU will welcome 10 newcomers to the roster this season, including nine transfers. The Falcons are one of 10 teams in the nation to have double-digit newcomers entering the season.
Tarleton State has the most in the nation with 16 newcomers on their 2023-24 roster, including seven transfers. BGSU’s nine transfers are tied for the fourth-most in the nation behind Northwestern State’s 12, New Mexico State’s 11 and Detroit Mercy’s 10.
The Falcons will welcome two newcomers this season who finished the 2022-23 campaign inside the Top 20 among JUCO players in the nation, according to JUCORecruiting.com.
Guards Marcus Hill and DaJion Humphrey were both named to the list. Hill was ranked No. 16 after scoring 780 points during the 2022-23 season alone for Southern Union State CC. As for Humphrey, he was ranked No. 19 after leading Garden City CC in points per game (17.2) and three-point percentage (43.5%) last season.
With the arrival of Simon comes an explosive offense to the BGSU Falcons. A season ago, Simon’s Southern Utah Thunderbirds were ranked fourth in the nation for scoring offense, averaging 82.8 points per game behind only Gonzaga, Toledo and Oral Roberts.
Additionally, SUU averaged 12.32 fastbreak points per game, ranked 41st in the nation.
Chicago State is coming off a 2022-23 campaign that saw them finish with an 11-20 standing overall during their first season playing independent.
The Cougars won three in a row late in the season, but finished the year with back-to-back losses to Gonzaga and Fresno State.
They will enter the season with six newcomers, splitting evenly with three transfers and three freshmen. The transfers are all juniors; Noble Crawford from Long Island, Cameron Jernigan from Tarleton State and Alex Raiford from Northern Oklahoma.
Bowling Green and Chicago State have met three times previously in program history with all three going to the Falcons. The first game between the two came on Dec. 1, 1970 with the Falcons picking up a 107-70 win.
The series was put on hold for 44 years with the next meeting being on Jan. 3, 2015 with a 58-35 BGSU win. The last meeting was on Nov. 28, 2021 with a 75-57 final.
The win in 2021 marked the 100th in the Stroh for the Falcons and featured Daeqwon Plowden breaking the program’s record for career games played.
The 2023-24 season will mark a new era for Bowling Green basketball for both men’s and women’s. In addition to Simon taking over the men’s program, the women’s team welcomes new coach Fred Chmiel this season.
Across the country, Bowling Green is one of nine Division-I schools to have a new head coach for both men’s and women’s basketball this season. BGSU is joined by Fairleigh Dickinson, Georgetown, Idaho, Nicholls, North Texas, Providence, West Virginia and Wichita State.
