Montana/MSU Road Trip

[SDHornet]

EWU knocked off ISU 69-67 and now have a 2 game lead on the Hornets with 5 games left. MSU has hit the skids and are also only ahead of the Hornets by 2 wins. There is still hope but the Hornets are going to have to pull an upset on the road for any chance at the BSC Tournament. The Hornets travel to Montana and Montana State this week. Both Montana schools have been in a bit of a funk lately.

Montana had a firm grasp on the BSC Regular Season Championship a few weeks ago and have struggled since and lost their last 2 games. The Hornets will be on the road and have not won on the road all season. The good news for the Hornets is that Montana’s leading scorer and point guard Will Cherry has a severely sprained ankle and will probably miss this game. However the Hornets will still have to find a way to slow down center Qvale and forward Selvig.

Key Players:

• • Cherry, PG: 15.5 ppg; 2.9 spg; 4.2 apg; 3.5 rpg. (INJURED)
  • Qvale, C: 14.5 ppg, 3.1 bpg, 8.9 rpg
  • Selvig, F: 10.8 ppg, 2.9 apg, 5.6 rpg
  • Steward, F: 8.9 ppg; 1.2 apg; 3.8 rpg
  • Jamar, G/F: 6.8 ppg; 1.5 apg; 4.6 rpg
  • Wood, G: 3.3 ppg; 1.1 apg; 2.1 rpg

No other UM guard has averaged nearly as many minutes as Cherry and has nowhere near as many points per game. The Hornets should attack this deficiency and employ a full court press and force the inexperienced UM guards to beat it.

UM has a lot of capable big men but the question is can they get them the ball without an effective point guard. Montana isn’t that great of a FT shooting team so maybe a “hack a Qvale” strategy can be taken if he starts to dominate. I think the Hornets will have a hard time defending UM’s big men so the Hornets should attack them on the other end and try to get them into foul trouble. Given UM’s recent struggles, the Hornets have a shot in this one, but they will need to find a way to win on the road. We need to get over these road woes eventually.

 

[Green Cookie Monster]

Baseball opens up in a few weeks. This season is over in BB.

We make it to the BB tourney and get bounced first round, whooppee. I'd rather save the money we would have spent going to the tourney and use it for adding electricity to the gym. Or maybe running water.

 

[SDHornet]

Making it to the BSC Tournament would show that Katz is making strides with this program. We aren’t going to go from the BSC basement to NCAA Tournament Cinderella in one offseason. I pretty much figured getting to the BSC tournament was a stretch when the Hornets started BSC play with two road losses to an awful ISU and a struggling EWU program. Right now Katz has matched last season’s abysmal BSC win total. As far as I’m concerned, he has 5 chances to surpass last season’s success and make a case for himself that he is improving this program.

 

[Sutterstinger]

"I'd rather save the money we would have spent going to the tourney and use it for adding electricity to the gym. Or maybe running water."

LOL....you know, you actually make a very valid point. I think the officials here are truly kidding themselves if they think the facility is going to cut it. The Hornet program is simply waiting to happen, but the back office politics, the lack of funding being channeled this way, has severely kept the program way down. It's like the big pink elephant in the room, the gym is a travesty. Startling. The program can vault to a whole new level with some new facility. Sad man.

One other valid question: The 2010 Destination....was supposed to include a new arena. Wtf...whatever happened to that? Sounds like more static. BS.

 

[Kadeezy]

"I'd rather save the money we would have spent going to the tourney and use it for adding electricity to the gym. Or maybe running water."

LOL....you know, you actually make a very valid point. I think the officials here are truly kidding themselves if they think the facility is going to cut it. The Hornet program is simply waiting to happen, but the back office politics, the lack of funding being channeled this way, has severely kept the program way down. It's like the big pink elephant in the room, the gym is a travesty. Startling. The program can vault to a whole new level with some new facility. Sad man.

One other valid question: The 2010 Destination....was supposed to include a new arena. Wtf...whatever happened to that? Sounds like more static. BS.

SS,

SD and myself were baited into voting for Destination 2010 with the Arena as the crowing jewel. Sure there's been improvements to facilities and academic buildings, but we were outright lied to, and many believe there's $25M still floating around out there...

 

[SDHornet]

This has been discussed a lot here but I think the money that was slated for the new arena was put to use on the Broad Fieldhouse. Also the Destination 2010 (and the country) really hit the skids when the economy blew up in ’07 and everyone is still trying to recover. Although Gonzales has performed some questionable moves, he has been pretty good about getting new facilities on campus (both academic and athletic). I don’t think he has forgotten about the events center and various other facility projects associated with D-2010.

K, for the record, even with everything going down the way it did, I still wouldn’t change my vote for the RWEC initiative that was on the ballot in ’04. :nod:

 

[Green Cookie Monster]

Phil Jackson couldnt win in Hornet gym. Much less Brian Katz.

That dump is the most detriment issue facing better success.

That gym and the City of Sacramento was just rated the fifth most miserable city in the country to live, has recruits lined up.

http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/americas-most-miserable-cities-2011.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[SDHornet]

Katz’ predecessor had some success with the same facilities and the same, if not less support from the admin. I agree that The Nest is awful, but I’m not willing to throw my hands up in the air and let that be the excuse for a lack of production and execution every year. There are other programs that have terrible facilities but are able to find some success and there is no reason that can’t happen at Sac State.

Aside from that article pointing out the collapsed Sac (and Central Valley) housing markets, I have no idea why you linked that article.

 

[Green Cookie Monster]

Its not collapsed housing markets only, it is crime, employment, standard of living, taxes, raising a family in a safe stimulating environment, etc. The link showed that among a crappy gym, limited school support and the 5th worse place to live in the country, makes the Sac State basketball coaching job even more daunting.

 

[SDHornet]

You’ve just described every urban area across CA and probably the country. With shrinking tax revenue due to the diminished spending of a cash strapped working class, incompetent leadership, and politically entrenched public sector labor unions, there will be plenty of blight to go around for the near future. hno:

 

[SDHornet]

To try and get this thread back on track, here is the Hornetsports preview for the UM game:
http://www.hornetsports.com/sports/mbball/release.asp?release_id=9371

 

[SDHornet]

33-23 UM at half. I caught the last 2.5 mins of the first half and the Hornets looked completely awful on offense, however UM hasn’t put this game away either. This has been a foulfest according to the douchebaggy announcers. Qvale is in foul trouble, Katz was T’ed up, and the Hornets have been in a full court press from what I saw.

Dickson is sucking it up. That's the second travel by him in about 3 mins of play.
40-23 UM with 16:59 left. The Hornets have yet to show up from the locker room. Qvale and Selvig have been unstoppable in the paint so far. Timeout Hornets.


Alpha scores on a nice play out of the timeout. Qvale answered off of an easy shot in the paint. TB answers with an embarrassing pass that is stolen. Everything going UM’s way. In a game where the Hornets could have put up a fight, they have completely given up and have yet to show up this half.
44-25 UM 15:04 left. This is turning into a laugher. Groom is in. Dickson with a turnover. Dickson misses a shot and then commits a foul. Groom is out after TB gets his complementary rest for the game. UM just embarrassing this defense now. Hornets had some good movement but everyone is too afraid to take a shot. The Hornets will be lucky to score 40 in this one.
50-25 UM with 11:56 left.

The Hornets have no answer for the UM 2-3 zone. They have resulted to just throwing up low percentage shots. Rak is in, is fouled and misses both FT’s. Gotta make it count if you want to see more time Rak. Rak makes a shot in the paint. UM is having no problem breaking the press and getting open shots. Duro makes a shot in the paint. TB drills a 3. UM can’t miss and Qvale drain a midrange jumper. The Hornets are trying to press but UM has it figured out. Groom is back in after 2 made TB FT’s. Hoffman with a steal and a drive the length of the court to the hoop in a 1 on 1 situation ended in a desperation toss to the rim. 54-34 UM with 7:42 left.

59-40 UM with 3:23 left. Groom has seen some significant time, finally but has looked hesitant. All he has done is pass is around the perimeter like every guard does for the Hornets. Carbajal and Duro had a nice give and go that Carbajal put in on a nice drive. Hoffman has done absolutely nothing. I have yet to see him take a shot, it’s been all pump fake and pass.


McCarver has done nothing but foul from what I have seen. A lot of Hornets are gassed from the press as this one winds down. I don’t think Groom ever took a shot or even stepped inside the arc.
64-44 UM final. UM ran away with it from play by their bigs right out of the half. They went on a big run and put this one away. UM prepared well and had some good passing that beat an aggressive hornet D. There was a lot of running around by the Hornets and it didn’t look good. Once UM broke the press, the Hornets never settled into a defensive set and UM would just pass it around until they found the open guy. I most of the first half but it looked as though UM made all the adjustment they needed to and the Hornets did not.

 

[williestarbuck]

I missed the 1st half but saw all of the 2nd half and we looked like a team who hasn't won on the road. Groom seems to play not to make a mistake. He's not aggressive and doesn't take chances. That could be psychological and a result of lack of PT. He stays too much to his right and that can be taught. Montana extends their zone with confidence knowing the bigs are guarding the basket. I saw an adjustment that might have worked but we stayed with the same offense the whole 2nd half.

We stayed with the same man2man defense for the whole 2nd half too. The only change we made was adding full court pressure and rotating different guys in to do the same thing as the guys they replaced. From the offense I did see a high post pick and an aimless roll to the basket but the guard never looked to make a pass off of it (my feeling is if the pick and roll was emphasized in practice it would be run with a purpose in the game).

I hate to get on this blog and act like a know it all, but I just see so many things we can do better. Montana played zone the whole 2nd half. We ran the offense to the right almost each time with the exception of maybe 3 or 4 times that I could count. In a 1-2- 2 zone defense, the point will anticipates the play going to his left and that makes him just a little quicker defending to that side. The best defensive ball hawker is on the left wing. This is because most all PG's are right handed and will start the offense to the right side. So when we rotate the ball to the left it's a result of the defensive pressure we dribbled into on the right, not because we are dictating what we want to do. As a result the swing pass is slower and the defense can shift faster.

So everytime down we ran the ball into the strength of their defense all except maybe 3 or 4 times. I know this is a subtle thing, but when you execute offense poorly or even predictably it's no coincident you shoot below 20%.

Yet another reason I cannot say Katz is a good X and O's coach.

This isn't the reason we lost. We lost because Montana is a better team. But I do believe we can play better than we are. I don't mind losing, but I'd feel more comfortable if we did thing technically correct.

 

[SDHornet]

I’m glad you were able to see what was going on because it looked chaotic to me. UM is a good team and they obviously used the week to get use to Cherry being out. I’m more bothered by the fact that the offense struggled to get open shots more than the loss. UM is a top BSC team and it would have taken an amazing night to pull an upset, I just never saw the offense get it together and get many open looks and so most of the shots looked forced. Hopefully Groom and Rak will see a good amount of time in these last few games.