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Final 2010 Road Trip

SDHornet

SDHornet

Moderator
Staff member
Men’s hoops face Montana State tonight. The Hornets pretty much need to win out the rest of the season to have any chance at the Big Sky Conference Tournament. MSU has been hit or miss the last 5 games or so but will have home court advantage tonight. MSU got to the stripe a whopping 33 times in the first game which was the difference. Looking at the stats it doesn’t appear that the Hornets can key in on one guy as MSU has 4 players who average double digit points per game.

-Bobby Howard, F, 14.1 ppg. He has the lowest FT % of the 4 at 56.1%.
-Erik Rush, G, 11.3 ppg.
-Marquis Navarre, G, 11.3 ppg and has a 44.6% 3-PT shooting percentage.
-Branden Johnson, F, 10.2 ppg.

All four have comparable field goal and 3-point shooting. The Hornets will need to box out Howard and Johnson if they want to have a chance at winning the boards. They both average over 5 rebounds per game. MSU is 2-4 over their last 6, but all of the losses have come on the road. The Hornets will have to have their “A” game if they want to pull this one out. I expect this game to be the closer of the two.

The Hornets will then have to travel to the un-friendly confines at Montana and face a team that is coming off of a close loss at EWU. Montana has been on fire the second half of the season and I find myself having a hard time thinking the Hornets can stay in this one. Montana only has 2 games left in the regular season and only one game to focus on this weekend (the Hornets). IF (HUGE IF) the Hornets want to have any chance, they will need to find a way to slow down guard Anthony Johnson who is averaging 18.4 ppg and is just down right dangerous from any part of the floor. The other UM player averaging double digits is center Brian Qvale with 10.3 ppg. I’d like to see Katz feed Eller in the paint and attack Qvale to draw some fouls. This would take away one of UM’s inside threats and let the defense focus on containing the UM guards.

If the Hornets drop the MSU game, I’d like to see Katz give Lopez and a few of the other younger players some considerable playing time. This would be a great learning experience for them: a hostile environment facing a talented team. As good of a fight the Hornets have put up in many games this season, it’s time to start looking and preparing the returning players for next season.
 
Well said SD. I would like to see us get if nothing else one more win this year to double digits. After what has happened the past 3 years, I think it would be an incredible shot in the arm for the program psychologically (just seeing two digits in the win column). I already know how good of a coach Katz is as this season has gone beyond what my expectations were.

Go Hornets!!!!
 
Good analysis, SD. However, I fully believe the Kitties are better than the Griz in MBB this year and I expect that to play out in the final spreads. I'm thinking the Kitties will double-digit us and the Griz will win by about 5, though I do think that if we have chance at a split here, it will be vs the Griz.

BTW, this is because I'm afraid that Rush and Navarre will eat our defense alive, particularly Rush.
 
Yeah I am pulling for a victory somewhere, I just think the game Montana dropped at EWU will make them even more determined to get it together against us.

And no offense SH, but you’ve been hyping up Rush all season long and he just hasn’t lived up to it. It’s obvious that based on the numbers, MSU likes to spread the ball around and not depend solely on one key player. If a team has good players, like MSU does, it makes sense to attack an opponent from different angles and keep the opposing defense off balance.
 
SDHornet said:
... it makes sense to attack an opponent from different angles and keep the opposing defense off balance.
Click to expand...

Which if you have noticed, that is the kind of philosophy Coach Katz has been implementing into the program. Hence why for the first time in the D-I era we finally had 6 guys score in double figures in a game (that home Seattle game back in Jan.).
 
Not surprisingly the Hornets weren’t able to pull down a win on the Montana road trip. They did almost pull an amazing comeback at MSU but it came up short right at the very end. The Hornets were then rolled by UM and are now looking at closing the season with 2 home games against NAU and UNC on back to back nights.
 
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