Bowling Green State University 6-foot-4, 180-pound junior guard Marcus Hill was not used to play in front of significant crowds before this year.

At Southern Union Community College, Hill led the NJCAA in points scored with 780 in 2022-23, shooting 49.7 percent from the field.

He tallied double-digit points in every game and averaged a team-high 26 points per game, which was third in the nation, making 10 field goals per game.

However, playing in front of thousands of fans his first season at the NCAA Division I level at BGSU was new to him.

“I felt like basically it was the fans — I wasn’t used to that, you know, it was smaller at the JUCO I was at,” Hill said. “But it was very fun. This is a dream — this is my dream ever since I was a kid. I loved it.”

Hill put together a historic first season with the Falcons, scoring 698 points and putting him fifth in program history for points in a single season.

He needs eight more points to move past James Darrow (705, 1959-60) for fourth all-time. Hill’s point total led the Mid-American Conference and is top 20 in the nation. Meanwhile, he is fifth in the nation for field goals made and third for field goals attempted.

Hill, who played high school basketball for Rockford Christian (Illinois), was a first team All-Mid American Conference selection and four-time MAC Player of the Week.

“He’s a special talent especially with being very coachable, very driven, and he’s got a competitive fire and his work ethic is fantastic,” BGSU first-year coach Todd Simon said.

“His best days are ahead of him without question. I don’t know where that ceiling is but I think it is very, very high and I think to do what he did in year one as a college basketball player is not normal, and we’re proud of him.”

Hill was one of two Falcons to appear in all 34 games for the Falcons, starting all 34 and averaging a team-leading 36 minutes per game. He recorded a nation-leading nine-straight 20-point games, finishing the season with nineteen 20-point games and three 30-point games.

Hill registered double-digit points in 31 of BGSU’s 34 games, and among his game higlights he scored a career-high 35 points in the MAC opener against Eastern Michigan.

Hill led the Falcons in scoring 22 times and assists 10 times and posted one double-double with 28 points and a career-high 11 rebounds against Western Michigan.

His team bests go beyond scoring as he tallied a career-high seven assists, the most by a Falcon in a game for the season, against Central Michigan. He also swiped a career-high five steals in the regular season finale against Ball State.

Hill finished the season leading the team in assists (87) and steals (35) while being third in rebounds (171)

He helped BGSU to a 20-14 season in Simon’s first year at the helm. Hill and 6-5 senior guard Da’Shawn Phillip, who hails from Baltimore and attended college across Chesapeake Bay at Maryland Eastern Shore before transferring, say the team first started to gel last summer.

“I feel like it was summer time, in the middle, even when we were switching teams every day, it was competitive,” Hill said. “Nobody really got the best (of each other).

“It was great. It was definitely ups and downs but I loved it and it was fun. The group of guys we definitely had, there wasn’t any hate toward each other, so that is what made it fun, going in, competing with the guys, and go out and get some dinner or something. That’s what made it fun.”

Hill said the personalities fit together like a puzzle.

“I just feel like that was a great group of guys so it was easy to gel, especially with (senior forward) Rashaun (Agee), he’s more talkative and I’m more quiet, (senior guard) Trey (Thomas) is quiet, (freshman guard) EJay (Greer) is a great person — it spreads it out. We are just all different but it was like a good gel, you know what I’m saying?”

Phillip added, “For me it was summertime. Just competing every day was competitive. Marcus would get the best of me and I’d get the best of Marcus, and all of the other guys in the locker room.”

After BGSU lost to Kent State, 73-60, in a MAC semifinal at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Hill was pleased that the Falcons got to play one more postseason game Wednesday in the College Insiders Tournament.

“To have all my brothers and just play, even though it hurt to lose that game (Kent State), but to go our and have fun with the guys because you never know if it’s going to be your last (game) or not,” Hill said.

“Coach just told us to go have fun, so you know, usually you go have fun, like at the Y or anything, and it felt good.”

The season would still not be over if BGSU didn’t lose the CIT game to Purdue Fort Wayne, 77-75, at the Stroh Center, and Phillip says the players are the ones to blame even though the Falcons nearly completed a second half comeback from 14 points down.

“We just battle through, that’s all it was,” Phillip said. “We just kind of came out lackadaisical as a collective. We’re competitors so we just started competing.”

For Phillip, his collegiate basketball eligibility has run out, but he is confident that the Falcons will be back next year stronger than ever.

“It’s tough going out like this, ending my collegiate career the way we did with this group,” Phillip said. “It was a tough loss, but coach Simon is going to get the next batch of guys and the returners ready to go for next year.”