UM/MSU Road Swing

[martymoose]

Must have a split on this trip.

UM is up to 14th on the mid-major poll and rolling. I do think that there's some added pressure for them as their wins continue to pile up. However, we're likely without North, and who knows if Tucker will play.

MSU, we *should* beat.

 

[bigskyconf]

Hard to say if it is any easier to get a win in basketball in Missoula, or a win in football. When the Griz are rolling in either sport, they are a tough team to beat. And the local treehuggers make it extremely difficult to keep your emotions under control. Even without North, we still have more talent on our team to get the win, but everyone needs to show up (and play under control).

As for the Cats, I was having a debate with some of my friends as to who is in a worse funk right now between us and MSU. Us because of great things expected from our awesome showing in non-conference, and the Cats based on them starting the conference season 4-0.

It would be nice to gain the sweep. We can do it, but we need to play smart and under control.

 

[martymoose]

We're in the double bonus with with well over 11 minutes to go in the first half.

This conference is so biased.

 

[bigskyconf]

Tough go at Montana with the Viks on the losing end, 80-60. Derek Brown led the team with 16 ponts. Tough second half doomed the Viks.

Other conference scores,

Weber State 84, North Dakota 76
Montana State 92, Sacramento State 76
Northern Colorado 85, Idaho State 72

 

[bigskyconf]

Halftime in Bozeman, Viks down 39-35. Interesting chain of events at the end where the officials missed a goaltending call, then the Cats come down and hit a three as time ran out. Viks have some work to do, if they want a win.

MSU fans can complain all they want about Tommy Hewitt being a homer. These announcers are terribly biased towards Montana State. That and showing replays while PSU is on the offensive end. I am beginning to see why I prefer watching the NBA over college.

 

[martymoose]

Halftime in Bozeman, Viks down 39-35. Interesting chain of events at the end where the officials missed a goaltending call, then the Cats come down and hit a three as time ran out. Viks have some work to do, if they want a win.

MSU fans can complain all they want about Tommy Hewitt being a homer. These announcers are terribly biased towards Montana State. That and showing replays while PSU is on the offensive end. I am beginning to see why I prefer watching the NBA over college.

Sloppy game today by us. Quite a few ugly turnovers and two guys with four fouls with twelve or so minutes to go. Going to need a good stretch here to have a chance.

 

[bigskyconf]

Viks win, 80-77! Eat it, Cats!

 

[martymoose]

Nice BSC road win.

We seemed tired and a little off, but tightened things up down the stretch for the win. We got our weekend split.

Some thoughts:

- There's no way Canda (or "Canada" as the one MSU announcer was saying) is missing that three with that much space to shoot at the end. Clutch.

- Brown, that mid-court line is in the same place with four seconds to go versus four minutes to go. That turnover could have cost us. I was a bit surprised that the officials put 1.4 seconds back on the clock, but with the feed only showing replays of made shots by MSU all day, we didn't get to have another look at it.

- Good call by our coaching staff to slow this thing down late in the second half. Things were not working, although it's weird to see us burn clock on the offensive side of things.

- Man, how many 30-50' passes did we let MSU get over us for easy buckets. Or dribble penetration right to the rim for that matter. Oh well, we were able to get the stops late.

- Hollins was a beast today. Nice double/double.

Well, Weber on Thursday. Big game for seeding since we have only regular season conference games left.

 

[bigskyconf]

Scores from around the conference

Southern Utah 64, Northern Arizona 53
Weber State 71, Northern Colorado 66
Idaho State 82, North Dakota 67
Montana 71, Sacramento State 69

 

[Pounder]

The best news on the back end is the schedule gets "lighter" and the "tougher" games are at home.

OTOH, conference play seems to bear out a sense that Pamplin is kind of soul-killing for the program this year. Fortunately it's only this season.

I think 5-1 is realistic, 4-2 is probably a better bet, but PSU hasn't swept a weekend. They have the tools to get that 4-2 or 5-1 and be in a better seed for the conference tournament.