The Bobcat Nation

Down by two... wide open shot by the greatest 3 point shooter in conference history... air ball...

I don't know how to feel right now...

Lots of close games this year. No Hall next year so will have to have more shot makers. Could probably have used Ricketts, but Blevins stepped up.

Actually I do. I feel exactly like I did when the ball hit the ground in the 3rd overtime when we had like 8 chances from the 1 to put the ball in against EWU in 2014...

technoCat wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 14, 2019 9:56 pm

Down by two... wide open shot by the greatest 3 point shooter in conference history... air ball...

I don't know how to feel right now...

Took that shot a little early. He might have been open, but that was NBA 3 plus about 6 feet.

Fired.

Wth happened on hall's 3 to take the lead? Did it just come out of his hand weird? I don't know if I've ever seen him just flat airmail one. Too bad, but I find no fault with him or anybody else, great college bball game.

technoCat wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 14, 2019 9:56 pm

Down by two... wide open shot by the greatest 3 point shooter in conference history... air ball...

I don't know how to feel right now...

But technically it was a bad shot. Only down by 2 didn't need the 3. Drive to the hoop!

grizzh8r wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 14, 2019 9:59 pm

technoCat wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 14, 2019 9:56 pm

Down by two... wide open shot by the greatest 3 point shooter in conference history... air ball...

I don't know how to feel right now...

But technically it was a bad shot. Only down by 2 didn't need the 3. Drive to the hoop!

The lane was open. Don't matter now. Fish needs to go.

GoldstoneCat wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 14, 2019 9:47 pm

CelticCat wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 14, 2019 9:44 pm

catsrback76 wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 14, 2019 9:43 pm

Hall has completely disappeared!

They are literally double teaming him and not guarding some of our guys.

Yeah not much you can do against a junked up defense but let someone else take the reins.

I saw that. I also saw that he was not looking to shoot until the last 5 mins even when he got the ball. I get the unselfish nature of team ball, but when you have the best all time BSC player who can literally score at will at times, call some sets to pass and let fly and live or die on that. Might not have been a different result likely.

KB had a career night!

And, huge congratulations to Tyler Hall for ending his career with unmatched results in shooting and 3 point shots!

Coach Fish get a congratulations on gaining a BSC tourney win and for making it into the quarterfinals!

This program-this team can't catch a break. There's no shock that we missed the go-ahead shot-it's Bobcat basketball. That's what we do. All season long, this team's inability to play good defense killed us. Everybody we played launched shots with impunity and hit everything they threw up. Watch tomorrow-EWU will be hucking bricks. It is just not meant to happen for this team.
Great effort all-around. Just not in the cards for this outfit. Tough to see it end this way.

First time I’ve seen the Cats play in-person in a few years, and overall I was pleased with the effort, but our defense is just atrocious. Rebounding too. It wasn’t that we played lazy, it just looked like really poorly-coached team defense. Eastern gave us a lesson in how to play defense. Every shot we hit was contested and we had very few lay-ups, while they probably scored half their points on layups and put-backs. It was a fun game to watch, at least.

Looking back on the game, I thought our O was pretty good. Blevins had a big night.

What killed me was watching EWU kill us on the boards. Also, EWU's incredible shooting.

I thought that when MSU had shots they were mostly contested. However, EWU's shots were mostly
uncontested. So that's two huge weaknesses: Lack of rebounding and ability to play intense defense.

I know that we are not that tall, but there is an art to rebounding. Anyone who ever watched Charles Barkley
play in college and in the pros could understand that. He put on a clinic as to how to box out. The guy was
only 6'4" but he owned the paint.

Our guys just don't seem to know how to do that. That's coaching. Same with the lack of intensity of defense.

All that said, I think EWU was damn lucky to have so many of their shots go in. Look at their record all year.
They obviously don't shoot that way very often.

You can't give up 90 points and expect to win....

Frankly I have really mixed emotions about this game, this season, Fish as a coach, and MSU MBB in general. We almost beat the 3rd place team in the conference...that's pretty good. But we really should have beaten them, if we had been just somewhat better than atrocious playing defense and rebounding....not so good. We did better in conference than I expected at the beginning of BSC play, finishing above .500 at 11-9...that's pretty good. But we dropped the last 2 against middle of the pack teams, when we really should have gotten at least a split...see above about defense and rebounding, dropping us from 3rd to 6th....not so good. We won a game in the tourney for the first time in 10 years, and for only the 2nd year in the last 20 years...that's pretty good. Although keep in mind that was a 1st round win in an era when all 11 teams make the tourney. Before 2016, when only 6 teams made the tourney, just getting into the tourney meant we were already in the QF, without having to win a game, so we really didn't advance any further than we did all those years pre-2016 when we made the tourney, but lost our first game...not so good.

Most of us, including me, are generally pretty happy with the way the season turned out, as we were definitely much improved over last season...that's pretty good. But think about this...we've still only advanced as far as the semi-finals 3 times in the last 20 years (we made the semi-finals 3 times in 5 years from 1995-1999), only once in the last 14 years, and not even once in the last 10 years...that's downright abysmal. I don't think Fish should be fired, coming off the best season of his 5 year tenure, but if most of us are fairly pleased with the results of this season, when we were no better than one of the top 8 teams in an 11 team conference, which is all we are when we lose in the QF, that's a pretty sad commentary on the state of the program.

ddlalum wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 15, 2019 9:43 am

You can't give up 90 points and expect to win....

You are right. It felt to me like we were content to try and outscore them rather than to limit them. And, in the end...we didn't!

For not the first time, I watched as Tyler was pretty much left on an island to create his own shot. Why did we do this? Why was his closest defender able to stay on him like glue all the time? Run him into a few picks by Sam and he might not be as eager.

Bobcat4Ever wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 15, 2019 12:16 pm

For not the first time, I watched as Tyler was pretty much left on an island to create his own shot. Why did we do this? Why was his closest defender able to stay on him like glue all the time? Run him into a few picks by Sam and he might not be as eager.

I thought the same thing. You have the best scorer in conference history and you can't make it hard on the D by making them go through single and double screens to get him open (textbook basketball). EW was playing a 2-2 Zone and a free guy on Hall (Box and 1) and they can't screen for him? Hall should have been destroying them off the screens all night when they were running that.

CARDIAC_CATS wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 15, 2019 2:54 pm

Bobcat4Ever wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 15, 2019 12:16 pm

For not the first time, I watched as Tyler was pretty much left on an island to create his own shot. Why did we do this? Why was his closest defender able to stay on him like glue all the time? Run him into a few picks by Sam and he might not be as eager.

I thought the same thing. You have the best scorer in conference history and you can't make it hard on the D by making them go through single and double screens to get him open (textbook basketball). EW was playing a 2-2 Zone and a free guy on Hall (Box and 1) and they can't screen for him? Hall should have been destroying them off the screens all night when they were running that.

Eastern Washington ran a box-and-1 or a diamond-and-1 all night, making it possible for defensively average players like Jack Perry and Ty Gibson to hang with Tyler Hall and Harald Frey. Jack Perry can't deny Frey. But he did all night because of the scheme. It's why Keljin Blevins shot 15 3s despite entering the game with 15 made 3s all season.