MBB @ Portland State

[luckyirishguy25]

I watched the entire game and I thought is was pretty well officiated. 100x better than the last home game. We lost interest in playing the last 3 mins, we had the win and the boys basically walked off the court. Ford is the only Cat out there playing like fire 100% of the time, I am unimpressed by the rest of the roster, no interest in playing hard. College basketball has gotten lazy, not just the Cats, teams of the 90s would absolutely smoke todays teams with twice the talent because they play twice as hard and twice as physical.

[hokeyfine]

I was at the game so my perspective follows. Ford is the only ball handler that the bobcats have. When he fouled out no one stepped up and the fate of the cats was sealed. I watched gorack (sp) throughout the game and I see someone who is very uncomfortable when he gets the ball.
You know as a player that when an opposing team is down the intensity is going to elevate. You must match and exceed it. I saw no one wanting to be the person to step up and lead the team when Ford left. Why Turner is taking the ball out, I have no idea.
The cats have talent , and are a pretty good team. They need more ball handlers.
Ford is awesome and the refs weren't the cause of the loss.
The PSU facility is pretty nice and the fans were excited and loud.

[mslacatfan]

Ford is arguably the big sky mvp this year…. The cats are completely lost without him.

With him, they can beat anyone. Without him I’m not sure this team wins a single big sky game. Ha

[aucat]

I watched the entire game and we really do rely greatly on Rob Ford. We have a lot of weaknesses but what do you expect after our coach left last year and most of our players are gone. I listened to Logie after the game and while I know he was livid at the Refs, he was MORE upset that his team could not close the deal. I really think that Logie is a winner and better times are ahead. I'm amazed at what he has been able to accomplish given the situation that Sprinkle left him.

[AFCAT]

Ford is arguably the big sky mvp this year…. The cats are completely lost without him.

With him, they can beat anyone. Without him I’m not sure this team wins a single big sky game. Ha

Can you imagine what this team would look like had he been able to transfer when he wanted to? A complete disaster.

[tetoncat]

The refs want to be the stars of the show in this game. How does Nduka get a technical on that?

I guess rocking the baby is some kind of taunt?

He has done it multiple games so if taunting you would think the league would pass that along.cant let him do it for 7 games then call it.

[Bobcat4Ever]

Should have put Jed Miller in instead of Geron. I don't understand that. Miller is a better ball handler. Turner has been a turnover machine all season.

I also wondered about that. At the risk of being named an armchair coach (I don’t even own an armchair) can I ask if anyone has any insight? We are definitely short of ball-handling guards but with our known weakness against the press some guys need to be sharpening their ball handling. I was surprised Portland State didn’t press earlier like the last four minutes into halftime. Robert Ford the-third is having a great year but he needs some help.

[MinnesotaBobcat]

I watched the last 2 minutes, and PSU could have been called for a couple fouls, but the Cats basically stunk up the gym. They just seem lost when going up against the full court press. They really need to find someone else to handle the ball when Ford isn’t in there. On a positive note, getting a toad split in the Big Sky is good, but we should have had a sweep. This game might loom large in trying to get a bye in the tournament, which is huge. I wouldn’t expect the cats to win the tourney, but if Eastern flames out that automatic bid would be up for grabs.

[WalkOn79]

Anyone who thinks the refs were responsible for that outcome is insane. PSU played the last four minutes masterfully to extend the game, and MSU couldn't handle the pressure without Ford. Simple as that. All of those turnovers were the correct calls.

Well, who but the refs fouled out Ford? His last call was questionable and the beginning of several others. I agree we are weak at the press for sure. But at least one of those should have gone our way and would have given us a chance at seeing an actual.shot go up..

Ford's last foul was 100% correct, he ran right into the guy. Bad luck but the ref has to call that.

For the record, I am a "don't blame the refs" guy. It's just quite hard to not do it this time, if it's not hard for you I don't understand. I'm pulling for this team and they played a great game. It sure feels like an injustice, but they will gain plenty from this experience.

Fair enough. Personally I didn't see any calls the refs missed against MSU in the last minute. I could be wrong, wouldn't be the first time! I agree that this will be a major learning experience. Logie was PISSED in the post game interview although way too professional to say anything he shouldn't have.

Neither did I. Hard to win with your hands placed firmly around your own throat.

[WalkOn79]

As the MSU announcer said "Cats Crumbling late." Pretty much sums it up.

13 point lead with 4 minutes to go?

Cats:
Hold my Beer.

12 with two minutes to go. Turner had three turnovers in the final two minutes.

I've been unimpressed with Turner all season. Don't know if he was supposed to run the clock down then drive and shoot or not, but he hasn't been good at shooting in a crowd.

And why in the hell do you run it down to 5 on the shot clock and THEN burp it up!! Maddening!!

[John K]

As the MSU announcer said "Cats Crumbling late." Pretty much sums it up.

13 point lead with 4 minutes to go?

Cats:
Hold my Beer.

12 with two minutes to go. Turner had three turnovers in the final two minutes.

I've been unimpressed with Turner all season. Don't know if he was supposed to run the clock down then drive and shoot or not, but he hasn't been good at shooting in a crowd.

And why in the hell do you run it down to 5 on the shot clock and THEN burp it up!! Maddening!!

I questioned that strategy too. I believe there was about a 12 second differential between the game clock and the shot clock, so PSU was gonna get the ball back with plenty of time to get off a good shot, even if we had run the shot clock all the way down to zero. We didn't even really look for a shot, until the clock was down to about 5. That might have made sense if there was only a few seconds differential between the game clock and shot clock, but that wasn't the case.

[WalkOn79]

As the MSU announcer said "Cats Crumbling late." Pretty much sums it up.

13 point lead with 4 minutes to go?

Cats:
Hold my Beer.

12 with two minutes to go. Turner had three turnovers in the final two minutes.

I've been unimpressed with Turner all season. Don't know if he was supposed to run the clock down then drive and shoot or not, but he hasn't been good at shooting in a crowd.

And why in the hell do you run it down to 5 on the shot clock and THEN burp it up!! Maddening!!

I questioned that strategy too. I believe there was about a 12 second differential between the game clock and the shot clock, so PSU was gonna get the ball back with plenty of time to get off a good shot, even if we had run the shot clock all the way down to zero. We didn't even really look for a shot, until the clock was down to about 5. That might have made sense if there was only a few seconds differential between the game clock and shot clock, but that wasn't the case.

We were always coached to go at 10 or 12 seconds, even at end of half or game situations. We even had a chance to get a two for one, so why not just go try to set up your best play and score! Frustrating.

[84CatGrad]

I know I'm gonna piss some people off by saying this, but I get sick to death of people on BN whining incessantly about how we get screwed by the refs, seemingly every single game. Are there some bad/questionable calls that go against us sometimes...of course there are. Is it likely that that are approximately the same number of bad/questionable calls that go against our opponents in most games...of course it is. I highly doubt that there is some grand conspiracy among BSC refs to screw over the Bobcats as much as possible, every chance they get. It's part of the game, so get over it. We blew this game, the refs didn't steal it from us. It made me sick to my stomach, to watch us piss that game way. It would seem to be almost impossible to lose a game we led by 15 with four minutes to go, by 12 with two minutes remaining, and by 9 in the final minute. We better learn some things from this one, or the 2nd half of the conference season might not go nearly as well as the 1st half did. On the bright side, at the beginning of conference play, I think most of us would have been ecstatic if someone told us we'd be 5-3 after our first 8 BSC games.

I'm with you. Get very weary of all the whining about holding on the football threads.

[84CatGrad]

It was a bad loss but how many of us thought we'd be in a position this year to be criticizing this team over a tough road loss? Frankly I thought we'd win 4-5 Big Sky games, tops. Lets enjoy what coach Logie is doing with this squad. We'll be a tough out in the BS tourney.