@ Montanas

[weberwildcat]

i feel like the team is in a rut and have lost come confidence after those 4 big losses, but then again, what do i know? not much.

this is traditionally our toughest road trip. we dont always play both montanas in the same trip but when we do its extremely rare to beat both, even with past coaches in the last 20-30 years if not ever.

Rahe @ the montanas:
Really all you have to do is check how many wins we had in missoula since its just 4 as we know rahe owns the bobs. So its just 1 traditional sweep in the rahe era (15 years).

2007-08: @ montanas sweep
2008-09 @ montanas sweep - not in 1 road trip.
2016-17: @ montanas sweep - not in 1 road trip
2020-21: we played 2 games in missoula and won 1 but didn't travel to bozeman.

if rahe has only won both games at the montanas 3 times certainly the rest of the conference have done much worse.


Rahe vs bobs: 23-8
home: 14-3
away: 9-4 (69%)
neutral: 0-0

Rahe vs griz: 16-18
home: 11-3
away: 4-12
neutral: 1-2 (greeley, reno, boise)

WSU vs bobs all-time: 87-40
home: 54-9
away: 31-29
conf: 86-39
last 10: 8-2

WSU vs griz all-time: 72-62
home: 46-17
away: 24-38
conf: 70-53
last 10: 2-8

WSU over new yr's games (started in 2006-07 after UNC joined):
record: 11-5
record road: 6-4

yr by yr:
07: 2-0, @UNC/@NAU
08: none
09: none
10: 2-0, montanas
11: 0-2, @ montnaas
12: 2-0, isu/sac
13: none
14: none
15: 0-2, @ ewu/ui
16: none
17: 2-0, @ montanas
18: none
19: 2-0, @ ewu/ui
20: 1-1, ewu L, ui W
21: none
22: @ montanas

vs montanas:
10: 2-0, montanas
11: 0-2, @ montnaas
17: 2-0, @ montanas
total: 4-2, home: 2-0, away: 2-2

UM's travis is 10-6 (6-2 missoula) vs rahe
MSU's sprinkle is 2-2 vs rahe but 3 of the 4 were played in ogden.

 

[oldrunner]

I feel like the team can either look back on those 4 loses and hang their heads or they can look at it as a wake up call and learn from it. I feel that it will be the later. after that first horrible 10 minutes against Fresno, they picked themselves up, played harder, and played evenly against them the rest of the way.

I feel that the senor leadership on this team needs to step up and lead. So far we are being lead by a freshman. That's good for the future, but we need our seniors to step up, even if they are not the starters.

Right now, MSU is playing quite well. We match up well with them, but this game is at their place and that is usually worth about 10 points. UM has been up and down so far, but always gets up for us. Both teams are similar match ups, with MSU a bit tougher inside.

A split would be great, a sweep fantastic. Two loses would be bad, but not the end of the world. This is the toughest road trip in the BSC.

Honestly, a road trip is what our team needs right now.

 

[weberwildcat]

this is sprinkle's sort of 3rd season. anyone know if we should expect a new era of bobcat hoops and maybe they will be a new contender? griz and bobs both with great coaches would make this tough road trip even worse.

 

[oldrunner]

this is sprinkle's sort of 3rd season. anyone know if we should expect a new era of bobcat hoops and maybe they will be a new contender? griz and bobs both with great coaches would make this tough road trip even worse.

Yes, I think that sprinkle has that program heading in the right direction.

I also believe that our program has not hit its potential yet and will improve as the season goes on. Going through hardship can either beat you down or build you up. I think our guys have the character to use all of this for growth. At least that is my hope. I remember one of our teams from the past taking a huge beating from the UUs and then using that experience to run through the BSC.

 

[Chex]

Good win in the clutch time at Bozeman. Any win on the road is big. We’ll see what happens in Missoula….would be surprised if they could pull off a sweep as that is tough to do…and Rahe hasn’t had much success vs Montana.

I think Northern Colorado, EWU, and SUU look tough…those are the teams it will be interesting to see how the Wildcats perform against…especially on the road.

 

[oldrunner]

Good game, good win.

Of the two Montana schools, I would say that MSU is the most talented. UM plays a little tougher D, but overall talent goes to MSU.

UM had a cake walk against ISU today. They probably had to get on a stationary bike to break a sweat. We will see how our guys bounce back after a hard fought game in Bozeman. UM has had our number recently. However, I think we match up well with them.

Against MSU, we seemed to get some of our rhythm back and I thought we defended their post play quite well. Our trapping D seemed to get them out of sorts and created some turnovers. We still turned it over too much and if we had rebounded better it could have been a blowout. We certainly can and will improve.

 

[weberwildcat]

winning in missoula is almost always a sure loss. would be interesting to see how often we have won there at the end of a road trip. lets go cats!

 

[oldrunner]

UM poses a much different challenge than MSU did. Both teams have athletic, talented guards, but MSU has the dominant post player. Bello may well be the best post player in the BSC.

UM's strategy is to over play the outside and try to take charges on the inside. They will flop a lot. Their guards are drive first and shoot the three last. They try to use as much of the shot clock as they can. That alone seems to make their D look even better. The key to beating them is to stop their dribble drive, preshure them into mistakes, and out rebound them. They may try to double on our post players and if they do, we will need to knock down our outside shots. If they don't double, we need to take the ball to the glass.

To stop their driving, I expect we will see switching on almost all screens. Most of our guards can handle guarding almost any position for a short time.

I expect a hard fought game, no matter what the outcome is.

 

[Mousegriz]

Fun game to watch Saturday. Rahe has a tough time in Dahlberg Arena. Weber looked the better team but Griz shot well and played their usual hard nosed defense. McEwen and Jones two guys UM had tough time matching up with and overall Weber had more size at every position. UM enjoyed probably its best 3 point night of the year and made a couple pretty unexpected shots including the final mini alley oop.

Was nice to finally see a game where refs didn't dictate the action. Griz never hit 1 and 1 bonus all night and believe Weber only in the first half. Both teams' fans probably wanted a couple late fouls but I really thought the refs did a good job of swallowing their whistles.

Weber always "wins" the warm up line when playing the Griz. Watch them both warm up and it looks like double digit win for Weber.

 

[Mousegriz]

winning in missoula is almost always a sure loss. would be interesting to see how often we have won there at the end of a road trip. lets go cats!

Huh? Missoula is kinda weird but.....winning is almost always a sure loss?

I think Shorty's about 4 - 15 in Missoula. His Weber teams are 19 - 0 in warm up drills though. :thumb: