Exhibition Opener...

[PBP]

Fans:

For the ISU women is this Saturday. Tip off time is at 11AM. You read that right... because of the home football and volleyball games later the same day.

I sincerely hope the fans will come out for the first few games. After that the team plays nine straight games on the road and won't be back at home until January 9th, which is the day before the Bengals played their first ever women's basketball game back on January 10, 1975. (This is the Ruby Anniversary season - 40 years for the Bengals)

This is such a new team, so many new faces, some returning players being asked to play more minutes than they've played before, that a good crowd can help from a confidence standpoint.

Please come on out if you can. If not the game will be on KISU starting at 10:40AM with the pregame show.

The University of Mary is the opponent. They are from North Dakota. Play in the Northern Sun Conference. Went 19-11 last season. Lost two career 1,000 point scorers from their team. Like to either push the ball all the way to the rim or shoot the 3-pointer.

It will be a good test for ISU.

Hope to see you there.

PBP

 

[Bandit]

PBP, please give a follow up on this, will you? Won't get it due to the fact that I will be in the mid-west this weekend. I am very interested in following the freshman point guard Sherise Portia who played for Centennial High School. I know her private coach very well. I'm not sure, but I think chosing ISU had a lot to do with being closer to her family.

 

[boisebengal]

I know Sherise's high school coach Cassie Bro fairly well, and I asked her about that and she said that she had quite a bit to do with Sherise's decision to attend ISU. Cassie had attended Lake City High School along with ISU o-line coach Matt Troxel, before playing for ISU for a year before suffering a bad leg injury. And I think she eventually resurfaced at the University of Alaska.

 

[Skippy]

The exhibition games for both men and women are going to be particularly important to the coaches this year, because they have so many new faces and so many unanswered questions. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Bengals lose an exhibition game or two this year, and I hope folks don't over-react if it happens. Both of these teams are going to be doing a lot of "sorting" of personnel and there are going to be a lot of new players learning the systems.

 

[sasquatch]

If the ISU men lose their exhibition game, it doesn't bode well for the rest of the season. Dickinson State is picked to finish dead last in the NAIA Frontier Conference. I don't care about margin of victory, because that can be affected by player matchups, substitutions, or experimenting with new schemes and plays. ISU should win this game on the athletic ability alone, and I expect they will.

If they lose to Dickinson State, I fear it 's going to be a season very similar to 3 years ago, when Joe and his team lost their exhibition game to Carroll College. That team didn't have a good season.

 

[PBP]

The women defeated University of Mary 75-54 putting up a big second half to do it. They trailed 35-31 at the half then exploded for 44 points in the second stanza.

Five players in double figures led by Lindsey Reed with 15.

Didn't shoot the ball particularly well, some poor shooting percentages by individuals and they only shot 61% from the free throw line but they hit eight, three ball's including two in a row to start the second half and that turned things around.

Lots of work to do, there's miles to go as the poet wrote but it's a nice start to a new chapter in team history.

Regular season opens Friday night with Black Hills State and a team that returns a player who averaged 17.2 points per game last year.

Tip time 7PM. Please come on out since ISU won't play a home game after November 11 for two months.

PBP