NDSU v. Montana State -- Chapter 2!

[PapaG]

One more thing. With 4.4 seconds left on the clock, there is time to drive the entire length of the floor (see UCLA, 1994, final four, against UW, I think). Instead, Casey puts up a leaner 3 with 2 seconds left...... I was not impressed.

And why is Casey taking this shot anyways? I give the ball to Ja'Ron, or insert Jaques Wilson for some quickness to get down the court. Casey is a roll player, not a starter, and definitely not a kid you want to have the ball in his hands with the game on the line.

Jaques in there instead of Casey? Were you at the game last night? Casey was maybe the biggest reason why we made the run. I'm not a huge Casey Durham fan, but he won the game against Portland for us, and he damn near won this one for us.
It looks like someone has a case of sour grapes.

Yeah, what would the 'Cats have done without his 1-6 shooting, 2 assists, and 3 TOs in 31 minutes against Portland!

He hit a lucky shot at the end, but to say he 'won the game' without assessing the rest of his night smacks of favoritism.

I really hope he turns his season around. I am pulling for the kid, but he had another miserable shooting night yesterday.

The good news is the season starts over again next week. Win out, then win the tourney, and I can't wait for the NCAA play-in game against Bethune-Cookman in Dayton, OH.

[WYOBISONMAN]

Can we get into the Big Sky now......pretty please......I guess our BB team is a little better than we thought at first.....you know we are much more of a football school.....

[whitetrashgriz]

One more thing. With 4.4 seconds left on the clock, there is time to drive the entire length of the floor (see UCLA, 1994, final four, against UW, I think). Instead, Casey puts up a leaner 3 with 2 seconds left...... I was not impressed.

And why is Casey taking this shot anyways? I give the ball to Ja'Ron, or insert Jaques Wilson for some quickness to get down the court. Casey is a roll player, not a starter, and definitely not a kid you want to have the ball in his hands with the game on the line.

Jaques in there instead of Casey? Were you at the game last night? Casey was maybe the biggest reason why we made the run. I'm not a huge Casey Durham fan, but he won the game against Portland for us, and he damn near won this one for us.
It looks like someone has a case of sour grapes.

Yeah, what would the 'Cats have done without his 1-6 shooting, 2 assists, and 3 TOs in 31 minutes against Portland!

He hit a lucky shot at the end, but to say he 'won the game' without assessing the rest of his night smacks of favoritism.

I really hope he turns his season around. I am pulling for the kid, but he had another miserable shooting night yesterday.

The good news is the season starts over again next week. Win out, then win the tourney, and I can't wait for the NCAA play-in game against Bethune-Cookman in Dayton, OH.

papa your constant negativity is getting tired. the comment that he won the portland game was because he hit the final shot at the buzzer that gave the cats more points than portland! had he missed that shot, we would have had less points than portland, and another loss. so by your theory, a game winner isn't a game winner unless you make every shot of the game? and no turnovers? but whatever, this is getting old. you can wish for the rest of the season that casey turns it around. and i will continue to think that he is playing better and harder than anyone else. your comments show that you are "not behind this kid." how come no mention today of jarons 4-13 shooting? or marvs 5-15? because those are really that good? how 'bout when the team was making a run, and these two took the loud crowd right out of it will very ill-advised threes? one was an airball? no mention of this though. just mention of how bad a coach mick is, and how casey doesn't belong.

[BelgradeBobcat]

Can we get into the Big Sky now......pretty please......I guess our BB team is a little better than we thought at first.....you know we are much more of a football school.....

You're pretty much preaching to the choir here-all the way up to the President of the university.

[CelticCat]

Papa must not have seen the game against SJSU. Casey played pretty much better than anyone overall. Made back-to-back steals that put us back in the lead.

[grizzh8r]

Ok, lets clear the air about Casey;

1) He plays hard and is a great, no tenacious defender. He has won numerous games for us with his defensive pressure. He does need work on his passing skills, as he has missed streaking players a few times this year, including last night (pass to Al)

2) I won't dispute the "20 threes in a row" comment, but was it in a game? Game pressure changed everything, and his stats show it. He is a 28% shooter this year, and a low 30% shooter last year. He makes some, but takes way too many, early on in the shot clock.

Basically, Casey needs to be a point guard, a 1 guard. He needs to distribute the ball and defend well. He and Al have the best attitudes on the team. He is always trying to get the crowd into the game when it is close. He is D-1 material, but is still young. He needs to shoot less, pass more. His shot will come along as he grows older and matures. Jason Ericson's did.

My comment about him getting the ball with 4.4 seconds left might have been a bit harsh, but is still true. Granted the game should not have come down to a last second shot, but it did, and in a situation like that, the best thing to do is drive the court, even if there are people in the lane. We all know that the probability of making a shot increases dramatically as you get closer to the hoop. It follows then, that when you are down by only one point, get to the basket and take the most high percentage shot possible. If you miss, you hope for a foul. If you don't get fouled and miss, no one will comment on your lack of effort, or talk about how you should not have spotted up for a three.

If I remember correctly, In that UCLA - UW game, the player came all the way down the court after a made freethrow, after an inbounds pass (same situation, no timeouts left). However, Durham was about 10 feet from half court when he recieved the pass from Dissly (further along than the UCLA player was). He had plenty of time to drive to the hoop. Instead, he spotted up for three, but he rushed the shot, and it was a leaner. He had time to set his feet, as he released the ball with about 2 seconds left, but didn't. Just some clarification on my point.

[PapaG]

One more thing. With 4.4 seconds left on the clock, there is time to drive the entire length of the floor (see UCLA, 1994, final four, against UW, I think). Instead, Casey puts up a leaner 3 with 2 seconds left...... I was not impressed.

And why is Casey taking this shot anyways? I give the ball to Ja'Ron, or insert Jaques Wilson for some quickness to get down the court. Casey is a roll player, not a starter, and definitely not a kid you want to have the ball in his hands with the game on the line.

Jaques in there instead of Casey? Were you at the game last night? Casey was maybe the biggest reason why we made the run. I'm not a huge Casey Durham fan, but he won the game against Portland for us, and he damn near won this one for us.
It looks like someone has a case of sour grapes.

Yeah, what would the 'Cats have done without his 1-6 shooting, 2 assists, and 3 TOs in 31 minutes against Portland!

He hit a lucky shot at the end, but to say he 'won the game' without assessing the rest of his night smacks of favoritism.

I really hope he turns his season around. I am pulling for the kid, but he had another miserable shooting night yesterday.

The good news is the season starts over again next week. Win out, then win the tourney, and I can't wait for the NCAA play-in game against Bethune-Cookman in Dayton, OH.

papa your constant negativity is getting tired. the comment that he won the portland game was because he hit the final shot at the buzzer that gave the cats more points than portland! had he missed that shot, we would have had less points than portland, and another loss. so by your theory, a game winner isn't a game winner unless you make every shot of the game? and no turnovers? but whatever, this is getting old. you can wish for the rest of the season that casey turns it around. and i will continue to think that he is playing better and harder than anyone else. your comments show that you are "not behind this kid." how come no mention today of jarons 4-13 shooting? or marvs 5-15? because those are really that good? how 'bout when the team was making a run, and these two took the loud crowd right out of it will very ill-advised threes? one was an airball? no mention of this though. just mention of how bad a coach mick is, and how casey doesn't belong.

I''ll tell you what. Let's all just say the kid has really proven himself to be an elite player, that Durham is the Big Sky's Coach K, and that there are no issues with the team at all. Or that the team is thisclose to making a run at the conference title, and that the declining attendance is offset because ticket prices have gone up.

There. Go team! Watch out Duke, here come the Bobcats! There is absolutely no reason to be negative about a team returning almost everybody playing like a a cellar-dweller. Let's just smile, make excuses, and repeat the same process next year!

[CatGrad00]

Marvin, Nick, and JaRon did not have good nights. JaRon came on at the end. The truth is, we can't survive a night where all 3 of these players don't have a good night. And when is Nick going to wake up?

I thought Casey played relatively well. Al Beye and Ted Morris had very good production inside. Derrick Edmonds did ok, too. I think Jacques Wilson and maybe Taylor Pratt need more playing time.

Durr needs more time! Look what he did in Denver when he got a chance! He certainly could have done as much as Moss did in the tournament. He is shooting well and playing great defense. He played 30+ minutes in the Denver trip and now is back to 10-15 minutes! Why?

[Helcat72]

You can say what ever you want about any of the players shooting more or less...but they still have to get open either because of the offense or by themselves. We have one player who can create opportunities for himself...Jaron Jefferson. the others have to get openings by having the ball reversed, spotting up and having the ball passed to them. I have yet to see Dissly, Durr, Moss or Edmonds (our main scorers other than centers) create a shot for themselves. that leaves the centers and the point guards to create opportunities. Casey is trying and once in a while penetrates and dishes. Jaquez hasn't played enough. So when the starters are in you have Dissly waiting for a pass, Al Waiting for a pass, Moss waiting for a pass, Casey looking to find someone open and if he gets it to Jaron he will drive the baseline if he has an opening. The result is more than likely a three pointer off a switch by a defensive player.

[wbtfg]

You can say what ever you want about any of the players shooting more or less...but they still have to get open either because of the offense or by themselves. We have one player who can create opportunities for himself...Jaron Jefferson. the others have to get openings by having the ball reversed, spotting up and having the ball passed to them. I have yet to see Dissly, Durr, Moss or Edmonds (our main scorers other than centers) create a shot for themselves. that leaves the centers and the point guards to create opportunities. Casey is trying and once in a while penetrates and dishes. Jaquez hasn't played enough. So when the starters are in you have Dissly waiting for a pass, Al Waiting for a pass, Moss waiting for a pass, Casey looking to find someone open and if he gets it to Jaron he will drive the baseline if he has an opening. The result is more than likely a three pointer off a switch by a defensive player.

Early in the season I think that was the case, but I really think that we're getting a lot of open shots right now, and most of them are on the low block with our big guys. If you look at our games recently, we really haven't taken that many threes...and the one's we have taken were pretty much wide open shots (Except for a few that Moss has taken). If Moss can be a little bit more patient offensively, and work hard to get good post position, rather than getting the ball 18 feet from the hoop and dribbling into a triple team or shooting a forced three, I think we'll be fine.

As for Dis, I would like to see him move a lot more without the ball. He isn't a great ball handler, and therefore isn't able to penetrate much w/o getting out of control.

Personally I would much rather see good ball movement/reversals/post feeds...etc and I could care less about players going one on one to create their own shots (although I realize that it is sometimes necessary). That's why I quite watching the NBA.