The Bobcat Nation

I'll start it. We've lost 5 of our last 7. We lost to the worst team in the league twice. Is Huse on the hot seat yet? These talks were prolonged last year because of our miracle run through the tourney, but I'm getting real sick of being a .500 Big Sky team.

I'm just tired of these late season collapses and stupid stupid play from our team. Navarre does not know how to be a true point guard. And if players are unwilling to play the roles they were recruited for(Navarre, Rush, Anderson...) then I think that falls squarely on Huse's shoulders. He should know the character and style of these guys before they ever get on the hardcourt for MSU.

I haven't been impressed with his recruiting much either. Not much youth right now we can bank on stepping up.

bcats wrote:I haven't been impressed with his recruiting much either. Not much youth right now we can bank on stepping up.

I've gotta agree with you. We lose three starters so next season is more of a rebuilding year. Rebuilding what-I have no idea.

It must be hard to recruit to MSU with the academic standards that we have. I hope that is the reason! At least we are not in trouble there! (looking for a silver lining!) I can hardly wait for football

I think there is a real problem when people can come on this board and know a guy that we have signed will be a bust. Swita? I don't even think we have signed the right kids out of Montana.

Helcat72 wrote:It must be hard to recruit to MSU with the academic standards that we have. I hope that is the reason! At least we are not in trouble there! (looking for a silver lining!) I can hardly wait for football

Did we turn into an ivy league school or something? Our admission standards can't be any harder then every other State school in the US can they?

bcats wrote:Swita?

They probably saw him hit a three pointer while warming up and knew we just had to have him. You just can't have enough three point shooting centers.

Everyone keeps saying we lost to the worst team in the league, what did we lose to ourselves again. I think Huse the savior needs to go, he is not getting it done. Sorry if I offended anyone but we suck, hard to watch.

I have to agree. If a coach hasn't gotten it done within his first four seasons, the chances are very slim that he will ever get it done. And if you read through the comments in previous MBB threads, it seems to me that most of the criticisms are about characteristics of this team that are (or at least should be) coachable, versus a lack of talent. Although frankly, even if we are lacking talent, that falls on Huse as well, because he should have been able to assemble adequate talent by his fourth year on the job. I really thought that last season's surprising run through the BSC tourney might be a springboard for regular season success this year, just as our 1986 BSC tourney championship led to a regular season title in 1987, but....

It really is baffling how they somehow manage to completely and utterly fall apart in February EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR. I stopped trying to figure out why a long time ago, it's much less stressful that way.

MSU01 wrote:It really is baffling how they somehow manage to completely and utterly fall apart in February EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR. I stopped trying to figure out why a long time ago, it's much less stressful that way.

I have seen no games in person, only the four games that have been on TV, so maybe I'm not qualified to comment on this. But the answer that comes immediately to mind, is simply that the other coaches in the league make much better adjustments during the second half of the BSC schedule than does Huse. The other teams would seem to be figuring out how to play us better after having seen us the first time around. And Huse maybe isn't doing nearly as good of a job at figuring out the other teams after playing them the first time.

I'm surprised that no one has come to Huse aid yet.

Yes I see some things I like about this team. Yes they continue to fight night in night out. But at some point that isn't enough any more. MSU has more public support than most of the big sky put together. I see the empty gyms on away games and I think about people complaining about 2000 at our home games. We have so much potential and this continual mediocrity is keeping us from elevating our program. People say it is so hard to recruit to MSU but you can't tell me that we wouldn't be extremely attractive to "tweeners"(guys that are good enough for "big" conference teams but know they won't start) if we started winning the Big Sky and making the dance every year. I believe we have some damn good talent on this team but they aren't living up to their potential, whether that's because it's not "in their games" or they aren't being pushed or whatever. I still think Rush and Anderson could be all conference with the right couching. Rush doesn't have the will and Anderson has not been pushed to use his god given talent to become dominant. I've seen flashes from both so I know it's possible. This is turning into a rant so I'll finish with a positive. At least Huse played Louffe(sp?) some minutes tonight cause Navarre is not getting it done. Nice coaching!.....

technoCat wrote:I'm surprised that no one has come to Huse aid yet.

Just saw this thread. Huse is a good coach, imo. I don't know if he's a good or bad recruiter, because I know players aren't falling all over themselves to come to MSU right now. I don't think it's due to academics, because MSU's academic support system appears to working well. MSU should be able to bring in students with marginal grades as long as they're mature and have a desire to graduate. The bigger problem is probably the mediocre track record over the years.

I really don't think this team is tooled for the long haul due to its lack of size and strength. It could be that Navarre isn't a true point guard, but it's hard to rack up assists when you drive and there's no one underneath to dish to. It's not for a lack of effort, but the big guys just aren't strong enough to muscle their way to the basket and none of the guards are pure shooters.

If I was going to give something else a try I'd put Piepoli at shooting guard and bring either Bynum or Rush in off the bench. That decreases strength, but gives MSU an true outside threat w/o taking a big (er, medium) away from the basket and possibly spreading out the defense. I'd give Anderson more minutes (20-25/game) with explicit instructions to stay under basket, use his bulk and be aggressive...i.e. play to his strength. All that, however, may create more problems than it solves.

I believe a large part is that Huse is not doing a good enough job recruiting, we do have one of the greatest fan bases in all of the Big Sky, one of the Best gyms and we can not bring in difference makers. Sure Howard is a stud, and Rush has the potential, but other than that I am very dissapointed. I think that Austin Brown could emerge into a threat on the offensive side to attribute to his thrashing defense, but he is not given enough minutes to contribute. Correct me if i'm wrong but bringing in the two JC guys bynum and Navarre was really not a very good idea, it is making it very difficult for our young guys to get the minutes they need to mature into their sopomore and junior seasons. It may be different if Bynum or Navarre were putting up 16-20 a night but that just is not happening. It is really hard to say whether or not he is a good coach or not, but on thing can be said is that if he does not pull a miracle to end the season and get us MSU to the dance, where we should be getting to year after year, his time should probably be up here at MSU.........Thoughts

I'm a Huse fan. If Fields would have hired anyone other than Huse-when Durham left-I would have been screaming.

I really thought we'd only have him for 5 years or so-because he'd be moving up to a bigger program.

But facts are facts. If Ash's first four seasons were of the same quality as Huse's this board would have been howling.

If a Weber or Montana coach had Huse's results they would be gone after this season-no question about it. Montana State won't do that. And I doubt any of our fans are putting for sale signs in his front yard. But for crying out loud-we should be able to expect a little better than this!

Its recruiting! As mentioned, the academic support system is in place for everyone, low gpa's included. Example in recruiting, I believe the player from Billings Skyview (Little) a junior has verbally committed to the Cats? This guy is a serious project IMO, maybe a Frontier Conference player! Recruit nationally and globally!

I agree, Not knocking down on Little, but his caliber of player seems like a frontier conference player for sure. We are a great program with awesome fan base and we do not deserve mediocore seasons year after year after year. It is gettting very old going to games and beating a top notch team one night such as the Griz and then loosing to the bottom of the barrell teams. I am not a coach by any means but something needs to change, and needs to change somewhat quickly, whethere it is with a change of personell, recruiting, coaching method. Also the recruits we have coming in; Jordan Salley, sure he is a highly regarded prospect, but he has not played in over a year because of an injury, seems like a huge risk to me. Trujeque, I have not heard to much about him, he is very small but seems like he has the tools to be a true point guard which is what MSU is lacking. Chris MCcal and Shawn Reid could be great additions, but who knows, it hasnt seemed like Huse has brought in very many difference makers thus far so it is difficult for me to be optimistic untill he proves me wrong.

Surprised to see this post with so many people in agreement. I made a similar post a while back and most comments were totally oppisite of those posted today. One even said he would prefer 4.0 students even if we never won a game.

You must have players that can stay eligible, but do they all have to be honor students? What's wrong with recruiting kids who can maintain C's and above and can play the game. Acedemic help is also available for all teams.

Does anyone think the coaching is hurting the players after they get to MSU? Our talent is lacking for sure, but so is the fundamentals of the game. Terrible decisions are often made on both ends of the court and result in turnovers or easy baskets.

I get to to games early and watch our players shooting around. Practicing slam dunks (with some of the coaches assisting) is common and long three pointers. NEVER FREE THROWS, that would make to much sense. Never practicing a shot off the dribble or just a plain and simple jump shot.

If you attend girls games things are preety similar. Both teams have terrible fundamentals in many phases of the game. Most seem to be things that are coaching correctible,

It's hard to understand that with all the coaches both teams have we don't seem to get better at making adjustments during the games.

Coaching changes for both seem to something worth considering. I don't see us improving if this doesn't happen.

Eric Rush had a guy under 6 feet tall guarding him all night...he had four points. There is something odd about that.