Men's BB vs. EWU thread

TomCat88 · Post by **TomCat88** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 9:16 pm

Not going well. MSU down 37-29 at halftime. Down by 13 (44-31) early in second half.

ewuranger29 · Post by **ewuranger29** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 9:29 pm

Strange game. Lots of fouls.

TomCat88 · Post by **TomCat88** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 9:40 pm

63-51 with under 9 minutes to play. MSU has cut it to nine a couple times, but hasn't made a serious run. EWU has a good team. All of their losses are to good teams. UCLA is probably the worst team they've lost to.

TomCat88 · Post by **TomCat88** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 9:49 pm

UM has its game vs. PSU wrapped up 71-60 with just a few seconds to go. They were up by a lot more earlier. PSU is a decent team this year, but not in UM's league. UM is about the only team that has a shot at Weber this year and could easily do it if WSU doesn't shake the injury bug.

jon · Post by **jon** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 9:55 pm

MSU having a big turnover problem in this one, and EWU hitting some shots. EWU lead 73-60, 3:26 to go.

On the bright spots, Christian Moon has been excellent for them, 20 so far and hitting some shots.

Crowd looking sparse for this one to say the least.

TomCat88 · Post by **TomCat88** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 9:57 pm

22 turnovers so far. Down 13 about 3 minutes left.

ewuranger29 · Post by **ewuranger29** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 9:59 pm

Lot's of TO's for both teams, lots of fouls. Pretty ugly game.

ewuranger29 · Post by **ewuranger29** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 10:05 pm

82-66 final. Far from a perfect game for EWU, but I'll take it.

TomCat88 · Post by **TomCat88** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 10:07 pm

ewuranger29 wrote:82-66 final. Far from a perfect game for EWU, but I'll take it.

Yes, any road win in Montana is usually good, but I think this might be a good year for BSC teams to get those in Bozeman. Still a 16-point road win. That's nothing to sneeze at.

BelgradeBobcat · Post by **BelgradeBobcat** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 10:39 pm

A coach can make a big difference. EWU is vastly improved from the Earlywine era. Very athletic and good shooters. The Eagles should be a factor in the league.

As for MSU...I think I like the white uniforms at home a little better. The gold ones are a nice change now and then though.

Helcat72 · Post by **Helcat72** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 12:07 am

The four piece band was excellent even though they were under sized and out manned by the cheerleaders!

I'm not sure what sport Huse recruited these guys for, but I don't think it was basketball...they are very athletic...but jumping and running are track attributes....in order to play basketball you need to be able to put a ball through a hoop! Usually I'll feel like trying to analyze the team's play and suggest what they could work on....but I think they need about 5 years of playing basketball....they've got the athleticism down pretty good!

ilovethecats · Post by **ilovethecats** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 10:03 am

gonna be another rough one i'm afraid. couldn't post last night as i wouldn't have had many good things to say.

as was mentioned, this team needs to learn how to put the ball in the basket. we played "ok" defense yesterday. several breakdowns that led to easy ewu buckets however. and many times we found ourselves so out of position that the only thing to do was to foul them. however, at times we showed very good communication on d, and were very active forcing turnovers. that said, it doesn't matter if we force 100 turnovers.....if we ourselves are going to turn it over 99.....

offensively, it's just more of the same. we still don't have a go-to guy. we don't have that offensive weapon that can go get buckets when we need them the most. and as far as i'm concerned, we don't even have an average shooter on this team....let alone a star shooter. seems like every team we play has that one or two guys that every time they put the ball up.....you'd bet money it's going in. if we even had one guy like this that other teams had to respect it would really open things up. but we don't. we have a very undersized group of athletic dudes....none who can actually shoot the ball. the good news is, shooting can be improved throughout the season.

one thing i looked at this morning to see just how bad we've been playing lately. over our last 3 games we are averaging just over 48 points a game. meanwhile, over this same stretch, we are giving up 77 points a game! nearly a 30 point difference. i don't have a problem with the points allowed too much. i'd prefer it to be in the high 60's or low 70's....but 77 isn't terrible. however, averaging 24 points per half is just awful. if we continue to only score around 50 a game.....we're gonna lose A LOT of games.

if nothing else, i am excited to see how this team hold up throughout the year. i think it's going to be a tough season, and i'm very curious as to how the guys as well as the coaches will respond. will they pack it in? turn on eachother? or will they continue to improve and treat losses as learning experiences? easier said than done. but it's not ALL bad right now. i saw some decent play at times last night, and there is no reason to assume that this team can't improve as the season progresses. hopefully they show us a little more against psu tomorrow.....