The Bobcat Nation

Here's a link to the Big Sky Deep Dive we post at Montana-mint.com: http://www.montana-mint.com/2019/02/07/ ... t-the-top/

Cliff notes for Bobcat fans:
-I thought the win at UNC was a huge deal---the Cats hadn't shown they could beat the better teams in conference at that point (losses to Weber, Montana, UNC, and EWU), and they won a game played in a way that was UNC-friendly
-Tyler Hall made my First Team All-Big Sky, Harald Frey made Second Team All-Big Sky
-Frey's play is more or less the difference in most games between MSU being in the top third of the league, or MSU being at the top of the bottom 2/3s.
-Thoughts?

I don't think you can overlook the fact that we have Kirby in the middle. With him, teams can no longer just drive to the hoop and score. He has affected opposing offenses significantly this year.

Good job-that looks like a lot of work. Good luck figuring out the schizoid Big Sky. Portland State goes into Ogden and wins...then two nights later they lose to ISU in Pocatello! How can that even happen?
Montana State has been plagued by the "February Swoon" for years. But this year they've gutted out two tough wins over two of the league's better teams-UNC and a red hot EWU. It has helped that in these last two games our opponents have finally come back down to earth. Sure our defense has some holes, but teams were shooting ungodly percentages against us.
We'll see if they can keep it going and maybe steal another win that we're not supposed to get.

It looks like we have a couple more trends I think it's worth noting from the Bobcat perspective:
-EWU now has one total road win. That should matter when comparing them with the Bobcats in terms of how things should look in Boise. Give a huge edge to MSU here.
-Weber State might have some separate issues with health, but there are three teams that look to have their number (SUU swept, PSU kept both games close, and Montana looked just better). It seems feasible that Weber could be this year's version of last year's Idaho--finish second, but lose in the second round.
-Bobcats now have two solid league wins (EWU and UNC). Maybe they went through some of their struggles at the right time.

SonOfaGriz wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 08, 2019 7:12 pm

-EWU now has one total road win. That should matter when comparing them with the Bobcats in terms of how things should look in Boise. Give a huge edge to MSU here.

You've seen MSU's record in the Big Sky tournament? It will take more than a "huge edge", it will take tectnoic change in the make-up of the universe for the Bobcats to get a Big Sky Conference tournament win...against anybody.