The Bowling Green State University men’s basketball team will travel to Mount Pleasant, Michigan, for a matchup against the Central Michigan Chippewas on Saturday, January 31. The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start and will be available to stream on ESPN+ with radio coverage by Todd Walker on WFRO Eagle 99.
This meeting marks the 91st time the two teams have faced each other in program history. Bowling Green currently leads the series 46-44, but Central Michigan has a stronger record when hosting, with a 26-19 advantage at home. For the second consecutive season, the teams will play only once during the regular season, with Central Michigan hosting both times.
Bowling Green enters the contest with a 13-8 overall record and stands at 4-5 in Mid-American Conference (MAC) play. Central Michigan holds a 6-15 record and is 2-7 in conference games. Head Coach Todd Simon will face his alma mater for the seventh time as a head coach and fifth time while leading Bowling Green.
A win for Bowling Green would mark its 20th all-time victory in Mount Pleasant and first since January 24, 2023. It would also bring their MAC record to an even .500 at 5-5 and keep them above .500 on the road this season. Additionally, it would be Coach Simon’s 48th win at BGSU as he approaches his fiftieth victory milestone.
Javontae Campbell continues to make an impact nationally with his scoring performance this season. He has accumulated 403 points so far, ranking him 37th nationally and second in the MAC for total points scored. Campbell averages 19.2 points per game overall—second in the conference—but that number rises to a MAC-leading average of 24.4 points per game against conference opponents.
Central Michigan comes into Saturday’s contest after defeating Eastern Michigan at home by a score of 100-65, bringing their home record to five wins and four losses this season. Their other conference win was against Kent State earlier this month.
Looking back at recent matchups between these teams, Central Michigan has won four of their last five meetings with Bowling Green’s most recent win coming during last year’s MAC Tournament. In that tournament game, Javontae Campbell led Bowling Green with seventeen points along with two assists, two steals, and one rebound.
Troy Glover II has shown strong form over his last six games for Bowling Green, averaging nine points and nearly nine rebounds per game during that stretch. He recorded double-doubles against both Eastern Michigan and Buffalo recently and has led or shared in team rebounding over each of those six contests.
Campbell also leads BGSU in assists; he has topped or tied for team-high assists in fourteen out of twenty-one games this season and averages just over five assists per game—ranking fourth among MAC players overall—and increases that average to nearly seven assists per game during conference play.
Defensively, holding opponents under seventy points remains key for Bowling Green’s success: they are undefeated (11-0) when keeping opponents below that threshold this year but have lost eight out of ten games when allowing more than seventy points.
Additionally, an upcoming road game at Miami (OH), originally set for February twenty-first, was moved up one day after being selected for national television broadcast coverage—the team’s second such appearance this season—continuing an eleven-year streak of regular-season national TV broadcasts dating back to the 2015–16 campaign.
