The Bobcat Nation

I was legitimately curious, check that, stunned when I looked at the bobcat preseason schedule. I know that you guys are the favorite this year and because of that, I thought that you guys might schedule a couple games which could help you make a name for yourselves. Were your coaches trying to beef up the record for an NIT bid if you lose in the BSC tourney? I mean most the other teams in the conference play at least one school from a power conference. Honestly though, as fans are you at least a little disappointed that your program decided to have Denver and Wisc. G.B. as it's "tough" games? I guess you have to throw the stats out the window when you play Wayland Baptist University...

Kadeezy wrote:I was legitimately curious, check that, stunned when I looked at the bobcat preseason schedule. I know that you guys are the favorite this year and because of that, I thought that you guys might schedule a couple games which could help you make a name for yourselves. Were your coaches trying to beef up the record for an NIT bid if you lose in the BSC tourney? I mean most the other teams in the conference play at least one school from a power conference. Honestly though, as fans are you at least a little disappointed that your program decided to have Denver and Wisc. G.B. as it's "tough" games? I guess you have to throw the stats out the window when you play Wayland Baptist University...

We are taking lessons from the griz football program.

Kadeezy wrote:I was legitimately curious, check that, stunned when I looked at the bobcat preseason schedule. I know that you guys are the favorite this year and because of that, I thought that you guys might schedule a couple games which could help you make a name for yourselves. Were your coaches trying to beef up the record for an NIT bid if you lose in the BSC tourney? I mean most the other teams in the conference play at least one school from a power conference. Honestly though, as fans are you at least a little disappointed that your program decided to have Denver and Wisc. G.B. as it's "tough" games? I guess you have to throw the stats out the window when you play Wayland Baptist University...

Yep. Most BBall fans would agree with this. Pretty weak SOS, in anyone's book. I was definately unimpressed.

We've got a couple of potential tough matchups at the Top of World tourney in Fairbanks, Alaska this weekend.

Wayland Baptist had me in the seach engine. I had never heard of them and I thought I had heard of everyone. But we always play a couple NAIA teams every year.

It's not easy getting top level teams to come to Bozeman-probably almost impossible and we want to play a few home non-conference games.

Ugh ... I just looked at the slate for the Top of the World tourney ... this one sure has lost its luster from the days when Duke was a regular, hasn't it?

There aren't many "name" teams up there, either. The Cats need to come out of there with some wins.

http://www.towc.org/

I agree with the original post -- I wasn't impressed with the schedule when it came out. The Cats need to win a lot of games this year to impress anyone, because there aren't many opportunities to impress with wins over really tough teams.

I might have misspoken -- Duke must have been a regular at one of the other tourneys -- I don't see them listed in the archives of the TOTW site. But it does look like there were a lot more major programs in the tourney in the past.

Does this have something to do with changes in preseason tourney rules? Didn't it used to be possible to play extra games in preseason only if it was outside of the continental U.S. for some reason?

You might be thinking of the Great Alaska Shootout in Anchorage. That's usually a little more high profile.

Personally, I would have liked to seen the bobcats play someone like Washington, Utah, or Oregon (or OSU). Do you think that playing an easier preseason will set them up for a rough start to BSC play?

gtapp wrote:We are taking lessons from the griz football program.

You could do worse.

This schedule does seem a little light, but there might be some tough games at the TOW Classic and maybe the trip to UWGB. Wyoming is always tough, especially on MSU. But I noticed right away that we didn't have any so-called "big schools" on the schedule. I think it's a good idea to play the "big" regional schools, such as Oregon/Oregon St., Wash/Wash St., Utah/Utah St./BYU, or even Boise St. The problem is those always have to be away games, except maybe Utah St. and Boise St. But, 25 wins or so would look good going into the NCAA tournament.

Here at CSUS we are playing the #3 Texas (provided an opening round win over Samford), #18 UCLA and #22 Nevada, Denver and NIT surprise USF. We definately have our plates full...

gtapp wrote: We are taking lessons from the griz football program.

I would love to hear gtapp's foundation for the weak griz schedule argument, keeping in mind that in recent years MSU has played the now defunct St. Mary's, Gardner-Webb, Adams State, and Central Washington (ahh. the glory of a D2 homecoming loss) among others. One game against Ft. Lewis does not make a perenially weak schedule.

And hell's bells, where is the "move this to the smack board" plea? Clearly gtapp is trying to hijack this thread about MSU hoops with griz-related material.

Well, I would like to say that in my time at Sac St. I've encountered both Griz fans and Cat fans at various sporting events. I've been overwhelmingly impressed with the cat fans. Last year when I arrived at the Cat/Sac football game I was offerred a braut by a group of cat fans when I was walking to the gate with a couple friends. I obliged at chatted BSC for a couple minutes. Totally cool. On the other hand, last night I took my cousin to the Griz/Sac game and I had to wait in line with about 500 drunken griz fans in crimson and camoflouge. I felt surrounded with my little cuz. Nothing but foul language, spitting tobacco, and talking about "bitches." Anyways, I'm not saying all griz fans are like that, but I thought I'd put in my two cents.

Kinda off topic, but Sac State will be on ESPNU on Wednesday playing either Southern or (2)Texas depending on tomorrows game vs. Samford. Just in case you guys want a sneak peak at our hornets.

This is the weakest basketball schedule I can ever remember. When it was announced early this summer it went over with a thud. Johnny brown I am told put the schedule together and when i talked with him at a booster function he thought it was a perfect schedule to get us into the NCAA tourney with a good record. He felt we had the chance to enter conference with with an out standing record and "Battle tested". If we could win the conference with this loaded team we could possibly get a better seeding that 15-16. That said, I do not like the thought process at all. I am really afraid we will not have enough quality teams on the preseason schedule that we will be ready for conference when it comes up. With an experianced team i think we need a tougher schedule than this Some times a loss to a big name team that we play tough is a hell of a lot better than an easy win over a a school of cosmitology. I have heard rumbings of complaints from the boosters and folks at MSU.

mslacat wrote:This is the weakest basketball schedule I can ever remember. When it was announced early this summer it went over with a thud. Johnny brown I am told put the schedule together and when i talked with him at a booster function he thought it was a perfect schedule to get us into the NCAA tourney with a good record. He felt we had the chance to enter conference with with an out standing record and "Battle tested". If we could win the conference with this loaded team we could possibly get a better seeding that 15-16. That said, I do not like the thought process at all. I am really afraid we will not have enough quality teams on the preseason schedule that we will be ready for conference when it comes up. With an experianced team i think we need a tougher schedule than this Some times a loss to a big name team that we play tough is a hell of a lot better than an easy win over a a school of cosmitology. I have heard rumbings of complaints from the boosters and folks at MSU.

Even if the Bobcats should end up 26-3 or something close to that and also win the Big Sky their schedule will most likely kill their RPI ranking. Their only hope is that the other Big Sky teams pull off a few big OOC wins against major college teams and then the 'Cats dominate the Big Sky.

26-3 would get this team, with this schedule, a 14 seed at best IMO. And 26-3 is a hypothetical pipe dream, so I don't want anyone thinking this is my prediction for the season.

I really don't have a problem with this schedule. I don't think there's a single game on it that we don't at least have a chance of winning. We'll have a better chance at a 20 win season so if/when we fall apart in the Big Sky tourney again-we'll have a better chance at an NIT game.

Wisconsin Green Bay and Wyoming will be reall tough tests, Denver has a future NBA center and is really tough, South Dakota State is coming to Bozeman right before conference-they lost to #1 (or is 2) Kentucky something like 71-54 which isn't all that bad-they'll be a Big Sky calibre team. Our tourney will feature San Jose State and Nothern Illinois-along with North Dakota State so we'll get either a WAC team or a MAC team on the second night. And who knows who we'll get for the bracket buster-but we do know it will be at home.

BelgradeBobcat wrote:I really don't have a problem with this schedule. I don't think there's a single game on it that we don't at least have a chance of winning. We'll have a better chance at a 20 win season so if/when we fall apart in the Big Sky tourney again-we'll have a better chance at an NIT game.

I don't think we're going to blow it this year. It's just not going to happen. This team has every tool possible to go far, so the schedule sets them up to do that. It is weak but there will be no collapse into the NIT this year.

bozbobcat wrote: I don't think we're going to blow it this year. It's just not going to happen. This team has every tool possible to go far, so the schedule sets them up to do that. It is weak but there will be no collapse into the NIT this year.

I don't have the faith you do, but gosh I hope you're right! It drives me crazy to see our teams play free and easy and then tournament time rolls around and the hoop seems to shrink a few sizes.

My only concern with this team so far-they've been pretty off on their three point shooting in both exhibition games. Outside shooting should be this team's strength. Sure Al has been filling it up-but he won't so much against better competition. I did note that Edmonds had something like 8 points in 12 minutes. I think we'll slowly start to see more of him as the season progresses and he'll be starting or close to it by conference.

ESPN Preseason Bracketology, has MSU representing BSC...

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/bracketology