Men's Basketball vs. Oregon St.

4everacatfan · Post by **4everacatfan** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 12:10 pm

1BadBobcat wrote:Just got back from a fantastic sports weekend in Bozeman after watching the Cats b-ball team play a close one with Oregon State. My rant: where in the hell where the fans? The announced attendance was a little over 2,000, and I think they were counting people and their shadows. I have posted this a couple times last season, but I am extremely disappointed with the support given to our hoopsters. Sure, you can lay out all the excuses you want (bad weather, students on Turkey break, people heading home after long weekend, bad team, etc.), but IMHO there is just absolutely no reason why there shouldn't have been at least 4-5,000 fans there today.

There were two key ingredients that could have really helped in pushing fans to the b-ball game. One was the football playoff game. Enough people went to Bozeman for that game that they could have taken the opportunity to watch a basketball game as well. It's very rare during the season that you get both events in one weekend, let alone an afternoon tip-off. Second, we got a PAC-10 team to come to Bozeman (granted, a bad one, but PAC-10 none the least)!!!! The last time a PAC-10 team played in Bozeman was 1987!! And all we could draw today was 2,000 fans. To be honest with you, I was embarrassed by that effort from our fans.

So who's to blame? Sure we don't that great of a team, but we are truly in a re-building phase. Don't withhold your support because of our players. They played hard today - they made some mistakes and it cost them the game. And they have a long road ahead of them with games at Fresno State on Wednesday and against Wyoming on Saturday in Billings. I point the finger at our athletics department. They do a very poor job of marketing. This b-ball game really could have been sold or promoted in conjunction with the football game. There was only one mention of it over the PA system yesterday during the game. They could have offered discount ticket prices to anyone holding a ticket stub from the football game. The list goes. My point is that I am sick and tired of going to b-ball games and seeing the poor turnout. Our student-athletes deserve much better, as do our our coaches. End rant.

I totally agree I brought my kids and wife from Spokane not only for football but we saw two pretty good Women's basketball games Saturday and despite the outcome on Sunday we also saw a good game Sunday as well. I do blame the Bobcat Marketing Director for the lack of support at both the Men's and Women's games. When I called on Wed. to get my football tickets I asked if there were any package deals for the men and womens games this weekend and the ticket lady was really nice but said no there wasn't and when I said that it would have been a nice deal she said, " Yes that would have been a nice idea."

I also have a gripe with the Marketing people who ar running the promotional things at the game find some new ideas to get the crowd involved. Every game I watched the same thing kids run out to half court put on a uniform and then try to shoot a layin. We have an excellent School of Business why not go over to Reid Hall and get some of those Marketing students to come up with some promotional things. I'm sure they would love the work since the Bobcat marketing department has decided the only sport worth marketing is football.

Now I am done with my rant. Overall this past weekend was a great one for Bobcat sports junkies

Post by **rtb** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 12:24 pm

I don't think there currently is a marketing director and they may be part of the problem. There is a position open for that right now and a professional sports marketing company starts marketing the Cats in 2007. I hope that once the position is filled and the sports marketing company is in charge we will see a major improvement in the marketing of the Cats.

4everacatfan · Post by **4everacatfan** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 12:49 pm

rtb wrote:I don't think there currently is a marketing director and they may be part of the problem. There is a position open for that right now and a professional sports marketing company starts marketing the Cats in 2007. I hope that once the position is filled and the sports marketing company is in charge we will see a major improvement in the marketing of the Cats.

That would explain a lot thanks rtb.

MSU999 · Post by **MSU999** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 1:45 pm

mslacat wrote:This was the game when the schedule came out that I circled as the one can not miss game of the season. Unfortunately Saturday and Sunday I was sicker than a dog with food poisoning thingy. I did not even get to listen to it from the net. I was flat on my back in bed! I thought we had a real chance of knocking off a Pac-10 school Sunday, but no go. Taylor and Davis were recruited to answer our point guard problem, but we are still not their yet. Casey is a decent point, Taylor seems to be OK, but still more of an off guard, and Davis is struggling mightily. I think we still need to build some stability their.

Jack McGillis was the other reason I wanted to make it down to Bozeman Sunday. First he is a Montana Kid, second he is a Missoula Hellgate kid, third I conversed quite a bit with a few of Jacks "family members" during his recruiting. I always admitted I was bias in this issue, but I though Durham, and Tinkle made a BIG mistakes by not offering this kid. From January to mid march of 2006 he was a Bobcat in waiting all Durham had to do was offer. From mid March to the end of April (after Durham pissed off Jack) all Larry K had to do was offer him a scholarship also and he would have been a Griz. Once Romar from U. of Washington moved in it was History for both Montana Schools. He ended up with offers from OSU, WSU, Idaho and I think Utah State. Plus a handful of D-1 Schools were offering to place him in a JC for a year and sign him the next.
Durham Quote: "If McGillis is so good why is not Montana recruiting him"

BTW: I forget who posted it above, we indeed did sign Edmonds in favor of McGillis. The question was do we go JC or High school. Durham chose JC.

Alot of recruiting has to do with "needs" not specific players. I think this was the case at both UM and MSU as they had plenty of players in the position they felt McGillis would play. I was at the game and he seemed to enjoy his team....good for him!

Egg Salad · Post by **Egg Salad** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:44 pm

One thing I forgot to mention about on the court stuff is that I was a little dissapointed in how we used our timeouts. We called one, then during the ensuing possession, a shot clock violation. Another time, we use on, and the next play the ball is thrown away. Hopefully that improves.

grizzh8r · Post by **grizzh8r** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:57 am

Egg Salad wrote:One thing I forgot to mention about on the court stuff is that I was a little dissapointed in how we used our timeouts. We called one, then during the ensuing possession, a shot clock violation. Another time, we use on, and the next play the ball is thrown away. Hopefully that improves.

In the postgame show, Coach alluded to those plays. He was frustrated with the player's lack of execution after those timeouts. Chalk it up to (again) a young team.

I fully expect this team to do nothing but improve as this year goes on. If Dissly can consistently score 15-25 a game (and have his usual stat line), Tayor limit turnovers and score in double figures, Durham distribute the ball, and Morris contribute a double-double, the rest will fall into place. The bench is young, but they have made a significant contribution in the wins and the close losses.

Watch out for the Cats in conference play, and come tounament time (if they make it), they could play spoiler.

mslacat · Post by **mslacat** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 8:02 am

grizzh8r wrote:
Egg Salad wrote:One thing I forgot to mention about on the court stuff is that I was a little dissapointed in how we used our timeouts. We called one, then during the ensuing possession, a shot clock violation. Another time, we use on, and the next play the ball is thrown away. Hopefully that improves.
In the postgame show, Coach alluded to those plays. He was frustrated with the player's lack of execution after those timeouts. Chalk it up to (again) a young team.

I fully expect this team to do nothing but improve as this year goes on. If Dissly can consistently score 15-25 a game (and have his usual stat line), Tayor limit turnovers and score in double figures, Durham distribute the ball, and Morris contribute a double-double, the rest will fall into place. The bench is young, but they have made a significant contribution in the wins and the close losses.

Watch out for the Cats in conference play, and come tounament time (if they make it), they could play spoiler.

Good post, I would simply add to what you posted about the freshmen is our next big step will happen when we can get a little more consistencey from them. Inconsitency is the hallmark of freshman. When Rush, Johnson and possibly Piepoli can give us dependable points, rebounds, and defensive minutes it will sure go a long way to developing some depth off the bench. Right now they are extreemly erratic.