The Bobcat Nation

i saw it posted on another message board that they, as a team, suck. just look at the roster

33 Bosley, Shannon C 6-2 0 Fr Livingston, MT/Park HS
10 Buckless, Brandie G 5-5 0 So Whitefish, MT/Whitefish HS
34 Connolly, Whitney C 6-3 0 Jr Ennis, MT/Principia
2 DeHaan, Amanda F 5-11 0 So Bozeman, MT/Manhattan
30 Garcia, Nubia F 6-2 0 Fr Orem, UT/Mountain View HS
44 Goodman, Erin F 5-11 0 So Great Falls, MT/CM Russell HS
12 Heringer, Jenny G 5-11 0 Fr Billings, MT/Billings Central HS
20 Morton, Scotta F 5-10 0 Jr Bozeman, MT/Bozeman HS
24 Nelson, Alyssa G 5-5 0 Jr Edina, MN/Breck Academy
3 Phippard, Anne G 5-10 0 Fr Kirkland, WA/Lake Washington
4 Proietti, Katy F 6-0 0 So Merced, CA/Merced HS


total number of seniors = 0
total number of jrs = 3
total number of soph = 4
total number of frosh = 4

i wonder if part of the problem is lack of senior leadership this year...

Having seen all but one of the WBB home games so far, my thoughts are that the individual players are good, but they just haven't played as well together as a team as their opponents have. A lot of this surely has to do with the amount of true freshmen who are seeing significant minutes due to the total lack of a senior class. I'm hoping that they continue to improve, and start to win a few games by the time conference play rolls around. The loss of Buckless hurt a lot as well, as she would have provided some much needed outside shooting ability.

MSU01 wrote:Having seen all but one of the WBB home games so far, my thoughts are that the individual players are good, but they just haven't played as well together as a team as their opponents have. A lot of this surely has to do with the amount of true freshmen who are seeing significant minutes due to the total lack of a senior class. I'm hoping that they continue to improve, and start to win a few games by the time conference play rolls around. The loss of Buckless hurt a lot as well, as she would have provided some much needed outside shooting ability.

I've only seen one game and you can tell we are really lacking in outside shooting, ball handling and experience.

I think that within about 2 or 3 years that TB will have this program doing some great things.

The women's program has had little stability in the program and a lot of controversy in the program.

I don't think it is any surprise that the team is struggling and anyone bashing them should take this into consideration.

The men's program and its struggles thus far in 2005 are a different story.

MSU01 wrote:Having seen all but one of the WBB home games so far, my thoughts are that the individual players are good, but they just haven't played as well together as a team as their opponents have. A lot of this surely has to do with the amount of true freshmen who are seeing significant minutes due to the total lack of a senior class. I'm hoping that they continue to improve, and start to win a few games by the time conference play rolls around. The loss of Buckless hurt a lot as well, as she would have provided some much needed outside shooting ability.

Great analysis, MSU01. I've seen all but one of them and it seems to me that the team is not doing some things well. I don't think their ball handling right now is too strong and I see a lack of physical play. The bench is razor thin, especially with the loss of Buckless, who is a very good player. As for physicality, I've seen it mostly out of Erin Goodman thus far, and spurts out of others. The outside shooting isn't there yet except for the one or two games that Scotta Morton lit it up. There's a lot of potential, talent, and athleticism, but they're taking a beating by playing a very tough schedule. These girls are trying and they need our support. They've got my support and I know that Coach Binford and these girls will turn things around. The MSU women's basketball program needed not only tweaking, but total rebuilding. We just have to be patient.

And lets not forget that some of the same people bashing them are calling for mick's head in the men's program. Will they then bash that program as a new coach tries would try to assemble his type of players and might struggle in the first year. If we ask for changes we need to be patient

Yep, this team is very young and talented. They need to take it one game at a time this year and just try and improve each and every game. Work on the chemisty/team defense and they will be there next year. If I was coaching them I would be looking for them to improve each and every game which it seems like they have been as the year has gone on here.

They have the talent and will be a good team when the Chemistry/experience comes around. It will actually be fun watching this team grow over the next 2-3 years.

Also the women's team has 11 players on the bench, where as most other team's have 15. That's quite a disadvantage when it comes to resting players.

Who's been bashing on the women's team? I hadn't seen anyone doing so yet ... are there lots of people who don't understand what that program's been through and where it is (rebuilding) right now?

kcatz wrote:Also the women's team has 11 players on the bench, where as most other team's have 15. That's quite a disadvantage when it comes to resting players.

Actually it's only 10...Buckless went out for the season before it even began.

And 7 of those 10 are from Montana.

I took my girls to the Air Force game last Saturday (first WBB game of the year for us). We had a great time. I thought the team has some good potential, and will just take a little time to gel. Within a year or two, they could be pretty good. I was especially impressed with Nubia Garcia, the freshman from Utah...she held her own with the older and bigger Air Force players.

Go Lady Cats.

kcatz wrote:Also the women's team has 11 players on the bench, where as most other team's have 15. That's quite a disadvantage when it comes to resting players.

And now with Shannon Bosley's injury, we were down to 9 players at Portland.

I've been wondering about this for several years, when I see other teams come in with 16 players on the roster and 14-15 on the bench. Is this an MSU policy (costs?) to have short benches? The men's team has had a very limited number of players quite often as well. But this year every women's game I look up and it looks like we are severely outnumbered. And it is not just this year (I understand why we are short) but any year at the most we only have 12 players on the roster. Why?

This is a team (and staff) that is really trying. They are superb students and make the honor roll instead of the police reports. They really deserve all the support we can muster during this discouraging run. There are better things ahead for this team.