• Hi Guest,

    We've updated the site to combine all the forums that were part of the Big Sky Fans Network into one location. This will make it easier to navigate and participate in all the discussions for each school without having to have multiple accounts, etc. We are still working out some tweaks but please let us know if you notice anything.

    With the migration, in some circumstances, your username could have been merged with one of your other usernames from the other forums. If this is the case, you can request to change your username in your account details page of your profile.
  • Hi Guest, want to participate in the discussions, keep track of read/unread posts and more? Create your free account and increase the benefits of your eGriz.com experience today!
  • Guest, do want an ad free experience on BigSkyFans.com among other benefits? Upgrade your account today!

    Simply click your profile name > account upgrades > BigSky Club > choose between the year long subscription (two free months) or month to month

    Thanks for the continued support. Cheers!

M: at Idaho & Eastern Washington

SDHornet

SDHornet

Moderator
Staff member
M: at Idaho
The Hornets (8-9, 1-5 BSC) hit the road to face Idaho (12-8, 4-3 BSC). The Vandals had an outstanding non-conference performance, and have had 5 of their first 7 BSC games on the road. I feel that the Vandals will snag one of the 2 remaining top 4 BSCT seeds left if they can return to early season form. Per the game notes, the Vandals didn’t have their top 2 scores in their loss to Montana State last weekend.

The Vandals are a fueled by guards Victor Sanders (16.4 ppg, 3.2 rpg) and Perrion Callandret (14.4 ppg, 4.0 rpg). No one else on their team comes close to their scoring production. The bad news for the Hornets is this plays right into the Hornets weakness (backcourt). The Vandals don’t have much size so this should negate Stuteville’s effectiveness and put the onus on Strings and Hornsby to control the paint.

Comparison: Hornets - Vandals
Points/Game: 73.3 – 70.5
Rebounds/Game: 36.1 - 37.5
Assists/Game: 14.8 – 12.2
Turnovers/Game: 12.6 – 16.2
Points Allowed/Game: 72.2 – 66.6

If the Vandals are still down their top two players then the Hornets have a chance, otherwise this will be a loss. The Hornets really need to see the younger players start to turn a corner sometime in the next few weeks. If Demps can go, the Hornets chance for a win is a lot better.
 
Sanders and Callandret are both out tonight. Sanders had been on an absolute monster streak before he injured his wrist in a freak accident off the court. Mkrtychyan also only played a combined 12 minutes on the Montana road trip, he has had a tough year after a knee injury early in the year. Those are their three best players so this is a very winnable game if the Hornets come to play.

Chad Sherwood is the only three point threat that Idaho has that will play tonight so Sac State needs to focus on him. The main strength of this Idaho team is defense and rebounding. It is very important to clear the defensive glass, something Sac State has struggled with this year and hopefully push the ball in transition with the way Idaho crashes the offensive glass. Would love to see Graves take advantage of this he is great in the open court. Would also love to see Graves be more aggressive attacking the rim in the halfcourt nobody can stay in front of him, hope he gets his confidence back I don't think he realizes how good he is right now.

The one thing that you know you are always going to get from a Don Verlin coached team is energy and effort, his teams play tremendously hard and with the injuries I expect nothing less. After the effort on Saturday I hope the Hornets will match that same energy and effort.

One last thing to keep an eye on tonight is the Idaho offense. I'm interested to see how they run their offense with so many guys injured because they run a complicated set of motion offense. Verlin is a Morrill disciple who is known for running tons of sets on offense (I would like to see Sac State incorporate a few more sets instead of floppy, floppy, and more floppy). The Morrill flashcards will be out tonight in Moscow.
 
Hornets escape. In what should have been a blowout win, Hornets let this game get interesting with poor play down the stretch and horrid FT shooting that otherwise should have put the game away for good (why was Stuteville even in the game?!?)...fortunately the Vandals just didn't want to win at home.

Graves carried the team tonight (18 pts, 9 assists, clutch FTs to preserve the win) with Strings (18 pts) and Barlett (10 pts) the only real producers on the night. Hornets were dominated on the boards yet again.
 
I only watched about the middle 20 minutes but this game was closer than it should have been as EWU went 1/20 from 3. It would have been nice to steal another road win. Hornets had no answer for Jois as Stuteville is just not athletic enough to hang with him and Strings and Hornsby don't have the size to defend him inside. Graves looked solid and Wu had a nice night.

Overall a good effort though and a good bounce back road trip following the atrocious PSU game. I'll take a road split any time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top