MSU vs. Weber game thread

[TomCat88]

Big game tonight vs WSU. MSU is tied for third with four teams and is 4-3 in the month of February. Only one game separates eight of the 11 BSC teams. A win will give MSU some tiebreaker edges, if needed. MSU has a win over no. 2 UNC. The Bobcats play winless in the BSC So. Utah next and finish with three straight road games vs. UM, NAU, and SSU.

[Colter_Nuanez]

Don't look now, but IF Montana State wins tonight, the Bobcats will be 9-7 in conference play, two games behind Weber for first place with four games to play...

[Colter_Nuanez]

At halftime, Weber leads 39-30. Cats are lucky to be that close. They let Weber shoot uncontested 3s the entire first half. They were in zone, but they weren't coming close to playing it well. Weber hit 6-of-12 3s. Jordan Richardson had five uncontested looks. He only hit 2, but he still scored 12 points. Freshman Richard Gittens came off the bench and hit 4-of-5 shots for 10 points.

MSU hit 13-of-29 shots and only committed 3 turnovers, but only got 14 stops in 30 possessions and only once did the 'Cats convert that stop into points.

[CelticCat]

Nothing like getting blown out at home.

[wildkyle]

Nice road win for Weber. We needed that.

[Colter_Nuanez]

Excellent execution lifts Weber past Montana State
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[BelgradeBobcat]

We can't put up a better fight than that on our home court? The coaching and talent discrepancy between Weber and MSU is light years apart.

[ndvet]

Not going to win when the opponent shoots 10-17 from the arc. The talent level on the perimeter for weber far exceeds msu's. Plus weber has the bigs. I figured this one wouldn't be good. Looking at the remaining schedule there isn't anyone we can't play with. Unfortunate that last 3 are on the road. Sure won't be easy.

[Colter_Nuanez]

We can't put up a better fight than that on our home court? The coaching and talent discrepancy between Weber and MSU is light years apart.

Montana State has more talent than almost every team in the league. Weber's top seven players would be Montana State's best player. All Weber's guards, including two true freshman, are among the most talented players in the league I've seen this year. Honestly, after watching Weber last night. I'm shocked they are not 16-0 in conference. They are so much more disciplined, patient, well coached and talented than every other team in the Big Sky.

[bozbobcat]

I thought the Bobcats didn't play a terrible game offensively but Weber played a great game overall. Someone must have mentioned that their grip on first place was slipping away. I think that a Weber is a team on a mission to finish the job and win the conference, doing something they've been so close to doing the last couple of years. They played like the best team in the Big Sky last night.

As for the Bobcats, I expected them to play and compete better last night. They got waxed on the defensive end of the floor and still didn't put in enough good shots. The game against Southern Utah is huge. If they don't win, forget about it. If they do, we stay alive in the race to make the tournament. I expect the Cats to put out a much more polished effort on Thursday night.

[BelgradeBobcat]

Montana State has more talent than almost every team in the league.

Maybe collectively, but we don't have one single player that will be anywhere close to all-conference. We don't have an offensive player that commands any extra attention. None of our playes forces an opponent to change anything of what they're doing the way Chris Hansen of ISU made Huse use a completely different defense against them. Most every other team has that, i.e. Bardon, Garrity, Jamar, Huff, Barry, etc.

We'll probably dominate the conference honorable mention list, but that's not going to get anywhere near a championship...or a winning season.

[ilovethecats]

We can't put up a better fight than that on our home court? The coaching and talent discrepancy between Weber and MSU is light years apart.

Montana State has more talent than almost every team in the league.

[John K]

We can't put up a better fight than that on our home court? The coaching and talent discrepancy between Weber and MSU is light years apart.

Montana State has more talent than almost every team in the league. Weber's top seven players would be Montana State's best player. All Weber's guards, including two true freshman, are among the most talented players in the league I've seen this year. Honestly, after watching Weber last night. I'm shocked they are not 16-0 in conference. They are so much more disciplined, patient, well coached and talented than every other team in the Big Sky.

So are you saying that WSU is just that much better than every other team in the BSC? They certainly haven't dominated the league, with four conference losses already. At least not like UM did the past two seasons, when they lost only one game each year. And if MSU is really more talented than most of the other teams, what does that say about Huse? If that's really true, our record should be a lot better than 8-8. By the way, what was the attendance on Saturday night? I was surprised to see that UM drew only 3,400 for their game against WSU on Thursday night.

[Colter_Nuanez]

We can't put up a better fight than that on our home court? The coaching and talent discrepancy between Weber and MSU is light years apart.

Montana State has more talent than almost every team in the league. Weber's top seven players would be Montana State's best player. All Weber's guards, including two true freshman, are among the most talented players in the league I've seen this year. Honestly, after watching Weber last night. I'm shocked they are not 16-0 in conference. They are so much more disciplined, patient, well coached and talented than every other team in the Big Sky.

So are you saying that WSU is just that much better than every other team in the BSC? They certainly haven't dominated the league, with four conference losses already. At least not like UM did the past two seasons, when they lost only one game each year. And if MSU is really more talented than most of the other teams, what does that say about Huse? If that's really true, our record should be a lot better than 8-8. By the way, what was the attendance on Saturday night? I was surprised to see that UM drew only 3,400 for their game against WSU on Thursday night.

I'm talking pure athletic talent. Antonio Biglow is one of the best point guards in the league, but MSU puts the reigns on him so much that he can't do anything. The last two weeks, it's been a little different in crunch time. He won the game against Idaho State for them. But he didn't break into the starting lineup until Calen Coleman fell out of favor. Paul Egwuonwu is the biggest physical specimen in the league besides Weber's Joel Bolomboy. But you never know which Egwuonwu you are going to get. When he plays like he did against Portland State and puts up 21-10, MSU is one of the best in the league. When he gives you 3 points like he did against Montana, you lose to a team that doesn't have a good front court player on its entire roster. MSU is the hardest matchup in the league because they have threats inside and out and they have unorthodox players like Mike Dison (small, left handed, quick as lightning) and Flavien Davis (undersized, unathletic, strong as hell, can get in the lane on anyone). They have a slew of lefties and can play a ton of different lineups. The fact that they are 8-8 speaks to their complete lack of consistency and mental fortitude. You tell me what that says about the coaching?

I'm not sure how Weber lost four games. Idaho State and Montana have good home-court advantages, as does Northern Colorado. Sac State beat them on a 3-quarter court heave. Davion Berry is the best pure scorer in the league outside of UND's Troy Huff and ISU's Chris Hansen. Jordan Richardson is the savviest point guard in the league outside of Biglow and EWU's Tyler Harvey. Bolomboy is the most influential inside presence defensively in the league. Kyle Tresnak is the most polished post scorer. Jeremy Senglin is averaging 11.3 points per game as a freshman and is splitting the point duties with Richardson. Freshman Richaud Gittens has as much upside as any young guard in the league. And Randy Rahe is the best coach in the league. It's hard to explain how they are 12-4.

UM dominated the league so much because Will Cherry is the perfect compliment to Kareem Jamar. Cherry has to be one of the best regular-season players the league has ever seen. His performances in the NCAA tournament significantly hindered his legacy. But he guarded arguably the most talented player in the history of the league (Damian Lillard) better than almost anyone has since, including NBA players. There's no one in the league on Lillard or Cherry's level this year. And Cherry was such a flashy, charismatic personality that he helped fill the seats in Missoula, making Montana's home court advantage tremendous the last few seasons. That's something that, outside of Weber and UNC, doesn't really exist in the league now.

If Montana State could shoot free throws, they'd have won at least three more league games. (at EWU, vs North Dakota, at Idaho State). They'd be a game back of Weber with four to play. There's a great deal you can blame on this and that and coaching and everything else, but if your players can't make free throws, that's completely on them and a referendum to their mental fortitude as competitors.

The announced attendance Saturday was 2,437. I doubt there were 2,000 people there.