The Bobcat Nation

after having some time to let this one set in, i have some thoughts on todays game. griz have a good team. the crowd was pretty decent but could have been better. after the griz hung around and hung around, and tied it at 50, those two steals in a row and the four point lead was just too much momemtum for a good griz team. i was almost afraid to read these boards because of the stuff i knew i'd hear. only after losses! i feel really bad for casey today. like always, he played his ass off, scored his season high which is to be expected against the griz, but probably feels like he let his team down. despsite guys like papa g who keep making sarcastic posts about how you can criticize anyone on the team but casey, and i am smart enough to know that there are directed at me, this has never been the case. my entire point was when the cats were playing so poorly, the only person that many of us posters blamed was casey, and i didn't think it was fair. i still dont. so criticize away, that's fine. let's not make any mention of teds poor play down low, marvins questionable shooting, the entire teams passing, and jarons 3-11 shooting. instead lets just focus on caseys 4 turnovers, which for the record cant be right. unfortunately i think 4 is pretty generous. but like someone else wrote, who else is gonna play the point? maybe jaron could bring the ball up. i dont know. i feel good knowing that we played so bad in the second half, and first for that matter, and were right in there 'till the end. but the griz have a good team. virgil is good. that ellis off the bench is good. and imo, dlouey(sp) is their best player. i like his game, and how he carries himself. i was pretty amazed to see that casey and martin were talkin' crap all the way down the floor after the game. obviously casey didn't play his best, but come on martin, you played a minute and a half! what could he be talking trash about. and if virgil and ellis play like they did today, he can get used to a minute a game. anyway, i know for some "fans" this season is over, mick needs to be fired, and casey only plays because his "daddy" made sure that he had no competition. but as for this cat fan, i think the big sky is going to be wide open to the very end, and i'm looking forward to thursday at a good sac state team, and eventually a rematch with the griz in their place and try to even things up. well, blast away at me and my constant "criticism" of everyone but casey as it's been said!

I thought Casey shot very well until he got tired late in the game...He's a good shooter but not a great point guard. Can't blame him for the loss...

Frankly, this team has had more drama the past 2 years than any other program in the BSC. I'm amazed they are above .500. I think cat fans need to take a realistic look at this team and be pleased they are still in the running...

(one for each person above)

There's no question that the guys fought as hard as they could to win the game, but sometimes efforts fall short. I know there's probably no feeling worse than losing to your rival on your homecourt for the players. Or some of us fans. I said that yesterday's game, at the end, was as fun as 4 1/2 hours at the dentist's office. But life goes on, and the Cats are by no means out of the race. This team has endured a lot of turmoil in the last 2 seasons. I hope they can pick it up. If the Cats can catch fire and win 8-10 of their last 11 conference games, they'll be right in the thick of it. Good luck next week, fellas. It's a big road trip.

IMO the one thing we need to do is to retain players. we can't keep losing two or three a year and then scour the brush for some last minute JC's to fill out the roster. It does't make for a stable program. This next group of kids will be young, but if they stay together maybe we can develop a team like the Griz with all of that depth...time will tell!