The Bobcat Nation

What's more rarely sighted? The Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot, UFO's...or a Bobcat men's basketball game in December.
According to my cable guide the game will be on Altitude Network tomorrow night (channel 538 on Bozeman/Belgrade cable). Tune in for a rare look at our men's BB Bobcats against the DU Pioneers.

The game will actually be televised on Altitude2 and thats channel 141 on Spectrum.

There should be a few Bobcat fans in the crowd. I'm taking the family and the neighbors' kids, meeting a cousin. I won't post during game, but will try to give a recap tomorrow morning. Good to hear it is on Altitude.

DU knocked off Wyoming last week, but has been hit/miss most of the year. Hopefully the Cats can put together a good game and get some momentum heading into conference season.

I asked the Alumni Association to send out a "reminder" email to Denver area alumni....not sure if it happened. They responded that usually the Athletic Dept does that kind of thing. MSU has great support when they play football at UNC (Greeley), you'd think we could bring some people out for a game in Denver metro.

Just tuned in, Denver is leading 20-7 with 11:25 left in the 1st half. BOBCATS are shooting 2 of 12 from the field.

We can't get the ball to even hit the rim! 28 -7. 7 minutes left in 1st half.

Are we ever going to take a good shot? Seems like we are forcing everything.

Nothing going our way, we start to shoot a little better and Denver just keeps hitting more 3's. Denver 46, MSU 22 @ half.

If Frey and Hall aren't red hot and the opposing team doesn't forget to guard them we have no chance. Denver is a middle of the pack Big Sky team at best.

It looks to me like none of them know their role on the team.....and no leader to show them. We expect 80% of the points from Frey and Hall....but no one else seems to have adopted a role. They look disjointed.

I haven't really followed the team at all so far this year, but for those of you who have, what are our prospects once conference play starts? Do we have any chance at finishing in the top half of the league standings, or having a record of .500 or better in BSC games?

Terrible start....clawed back.

This team is not good enough to spot anyone 25 points. I'm guessing the week off (maybe finals) and the travel had the team sluggish. They came out very flat...10-0. Our first few shots were off, which threw the whole team into a funk.

The contrast in DU vs. MSU was clear. Their offense was fluid...ours was sluggish. They kept the ball whipping around the perimeter, would move it inside, then kick it back out for a wide open three. Our guys would slowly pass the ball around the three pt line, with each player holding it for 3-4 seconds, eventually shot clock would wind down & we'd chunk up a bad 3.

Our zone defense was lazy. Watch Syracuse play zone....hands are always extended (up or out) and the zone is constantly flexing. Our guys defend the ball handler from 5-6 feet away (allowing in your face 3's) and the off ball defenders sag with their hands at their sides. When a 3 does go up, we are lazy blocking out and allowed the shooter to get his own rebound a couple times. In a zone it is more difficult to block out the non-shooters....because you have to go find them....there should be no excuse to not block out the shooter.

Bright spot was Ricketts. In the first half, he was the only one to be aggressive and drive the ball to the rim. He's a very solid player. He had good defensive intensity throughout. Blevins and Neuman played well.

Hall is frustrating to watch. He plays as if he is so naturally talented that he doesn't have to work offensively. He expects defenders to "allow" him to catch passes with space. If someone pressures him, they can take him mostly out of the game. Defensively, not good. Hall plays defense as if he is continuously scoring 45 points a game, so it's ok if his man scores 20. FALSE.

2nd half we cranked up our defense. We pressured the ball and trapped. It could be that DU got lazy, because they had such a big lead. It would have been nice to see us keep it close early....to see if we could actually play with DU when they were playing hard.

Fish is an intense guy....if he can't stick a boot up these guys' rear, not sure anyone can. We didn't have the athletes of DU, but we weren't too far off. When everyone is clicking, we have very close to the same skill/talent as DU.

John K wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 19, 2018 7:26 am

I haven't really followed the team at all so far this year, but for those of you who have, what are our prospects once conference play starts? Do we have any chance at finishing in the top half of the league standings, or having a record of .500 or better in BSC games?

In my honest opinion, I'm afraid the answer is no

John K wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 19, 2018 7:26 am

I haven't really followed the team at all so far this year, but for those of you who have, what are our prospects once conference play starts? Do we have any chance at finishing in the top half of the league standings, or having a record of .500 or better in BSC games?

I agree with aucat.
We are going to struggle to finish above .500 in conference play this year. and will lose our one game in the BSC tourney.

It sorta seems like Fish's tenure is following the same script as Huse's. With both of them, we showed some promise during the first 3 years of their tenures, before falling off the table again. In his 2nd year Huse got to the title game in the BSC tourney, and in his 3rd year, we were 10-6 in conference and finished 3rd, and even though we lost in the 1st round of the tourney, people were really optimistic about the future. But things just went downhill after that. Fish's 3rd team was 11-7 in conference, and finished the season really strong, before flaming out in the tourney as always. Again though, things seemed to be on the upswing. Then we took a big step backwards last season in his 4th year, and it sounds like our prospects aren't looking much better this season. Are things ever gonna change?

WolfPtCat wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 19, 2018 7:52 am

Terrible start....clawed back.

This team is not good enough to spot anyone 25 points. I'm guessing the week off (maybe finals) and the travel had the team sluggish. They came out very flat...10-0. Our first few shots were off, which threw the whole team into a funk.

The contrast in DU vs. MSU was clear. Their offense was fluid...ours was sluggish. They kept the ball whipping around the perimeter, would move it inside, then kick it back out for a wide open three. Our guys would slowly pass the ball around the three pt line, with each player holding it for 3-4 seconds, eventually shot clock would wind down & we'd chunk up a bad 3.

Our zone defense was lazy. Watch Syracuse play zone....hands are always extended (up or out) and the zone is constantly flexing. Our guys defend the ball handler from 5-6 feet away (allowing in your face 3's) and the off ball defenders sag with their hands at their sides. When a 3 does go up, we are lazy blocking out and allowed the shooter to get his own rebound a couple times. In a zone it is more difficult to block out the non-shooters....because you have to go find them....there should be no excuse to not block out the shooter.

Bright spot was Ricketts. In the first half, he was the only one to be aggressive and drive the ball to the rim. He's a very solid player. He had good defensive intensity throughout. Blevins and Neuman played well.

Hall is frustrating to watch. He plays as if he is so naturally talented that he doesn't have to work offensively. He expects defenders to "allow" him to catch passes with space. If someone pressures him, they can take him mostly out of the game. Defensively, not good. Hall plays defense as if he is continuously scoring 45 points a game, so it's ok if his man scores 20. FALSE.

2nd half we cranked up our defense. We pressured the ball and trapped. It could be that DU got lazy, because they had such a big lead. It would have been nice to see us keep it close early....to see if we could actually play with DU when they were playing hard.

Fish is an intense guy....if he can't stick a boot up these guys' rear, not sure anyone can. We didn't have the athletes of DU, but we weren't too far off. When everyone is clicking, we have very close to the same skill/talent as DU.

Been frustrating to watch talented players with lack of enthusiasm.
Seems to be a disease on the team at times.
When ball movement is good and we attack on defense, results are 180 opposite.