WBB vs Sacramento

[Ilikecats]

No doubt this is a strange season, but Sac couldn’t have come at a better time to get ready for the tourney.

You can’t help but wonder if Binford going to shorten her bench to get ready for the tournament or move Jackson into a starting role. With her length and quickness she’s tough on the oppositions best scorer.

In the tourney defense wins championships. Although I really like our offense, rebounding and interior defense is going to win this thing. Have to figure out how to protect Kola against foul trouble. I think we got a great chance to win this thing and move on to the NCAA’s. Our Freshmen are no longer freshmen...., although chaotic they got a season under their belt and they play with confidence. It’s not a matter of if someone is going to step up! It’s more like who?

[MSU01]

Crossing my fingers that the Covid testing goes well this week! Having two weeks off consecutively before the tournament seems like it could be pretty disastrous.

[mslacatfan]

It’s crazy how deep and talented this team is..... and they are all basically freshman and sophomores! Ha.

Fun to watch!

[BobcatDel]

No doubt this is a strange season, but Sac couldn’t have come at a better time to get ready for the tourney.

You can’t help but wonder if Binford going to shorten her bench to get ready for the tournament or move Jackson into a starting role. With her length and quickness she’s tough on the oppositions best scorer.

In the tourney defense wins championships. Although I really like our offense, rebounding and interior defense is going to win this thing. Have to figure out how to protect Kola against foul trouble. I think we got a great chance to win this thing and move on to the NCAA’s. Our Freshmen are no longer freshmen...., although chaotic they got a season under their belt and they play with confidence. It’s not a matter of if someone is going to step up! It’s more like who?

I was wondering the opposite on her bench....i.e. rest those who are leg weary/nursing a lingering injury and give more playing time to others to work their game time experience up. Particularly if games turn into a runaway. And remember the 15 min rule on Covid contact issues....i.e. if a player plays more than 15 minutes, in a game where someone from the opposing team post-game test is positive, than those players in the game for more than 15 min. must sit out next games under Covid protocol. No reason to risk not having someone available for the tourney in the games at Sac State if they are meaningless in terms of standings (it will be interesting if Tricia does manage the game with a Covid protocol issue on her mind). Most of the weekends this season have been 5 day turnarounds....this will be a 4 day turnaround from last Sac State game to first tourney game.....maybe the difference is insignificant?? Of course, if she is still working on different alignments for tourney then you are correct...but my opinion is she doesn't change horses the last games before tourney and the deeper you get into the tourney the deeper the bench will benefit you...but thats just my opinion. We can watch and see.

I am not so much worried about the defense (maybe I should be?). The Lady Bobcats rank second in the league in scoring D at about 63 PPG allowed...they would fall just outside the top 10 all time best season defensive efforts by a Lady Bobcat team. Only Idaho State is better at just over 60 PPG allowed. And remember the weeks before the ISU games, for 3 consecutive weekends in a row we held teams to the lowest totals of the season.

However, you hit it on the head with rebounding. We are very much in the middle of the pack on rebounding margin...muddling in and around the breakeven mark on rebounds vs. opponents rebounds. We just don't have the muscle in the middle like we had last year due to youth and injury (Skye). And in close tough games the boards are a key factor!

Looking more and more like #3 seed is going to be it for MSU. Southern Utah lost one game so they no longer can reach a #2 or 3 seed. Idaho and Montana are only going to get in one game...Idaho Covid protocol is canceling the Wednesday game. If Montana, by chance, would beat Idaho and we sweep Sac. State then we get #2 seed. Idaho State plays Eastern Washington at home....guess stranger things have happened but ISU is NOT going to lose to EWU twice (you heard it first right here).

Oh well...lets get it going.

[Catlady]

It’s about to happen! There’s some unfinished business in Boise! I know we still got to give the appropriate respect to Sac State, but I’m excited about the tourney!

I felt like we got the bad end of the Covid stick by not playing the championship game and getting a favorable seed in the NCAA’s. This is a new season and new team, but feel like we got some unfinished business. I like our balance and that on any night any of our players can be the leading scorer. If Skye is healthy, we might be able to dominate the tourney. We need her presence in the interior to take down Idaho and Idaho State!

[BelgradeBobcat]

Might be shaping up to play SUU in the 2nd round? SUU beat NAU this weekend. They're pretty good. They just haven't played enough games so they're seeded at the bottom.

[BobcatDel]

Might be shaping up to play SUU in the 2nd round? SUU beat NAU this weekend. They're pretty good. They just haven't played enough games so they're seeded at the bottom.

Yep SUU could be an upset team. They have played some real good games and lost others they shouldn’t.

The other thing about SUU, if they play and win both their games this weekend....they will get 10 games in and could move into 5th place and earn a first round bye....displacing Montana so that UM has to play an opening round game.

[MSU01]

Might be shaping up to play SUU in the 2nd round? SUU beat NAU this weekend. They're pretty good. They just haven't played enough games so they're seeded at the bottom.

SUU is pretty good, but I'm thinking MSU would much rather have them as a QF opponent than a team like NAU. SUU lost to Sac State and needed 2 overtimes to beat Weber, so they haven't exactly shown a whole lot when they've played the worst teams in the league. They do have the nice home win over NAU and a road win against UNC, which is pretty much it in terms of wins against decent teams.

With Idaho's series against the Griz cancelled this weekend, MSU actually has the chance to tie Idaho at 13-3 if they can sweep Sac State. The tiebreakers would be a little wonky because MSU didn't play SUU while Idaho won't have played UM. If it goes by head-to-head record against teams that both schools played, MSU would have the advantage with their sweep of NAU vs Idaho's split.

[thefrank1]

The men's UM-UI series was cancelled not the women's

[MSU01]

The men's UM-UI series was cancelled not the women's

Looks like I read wrong, the women's game was canceled for tomorrow but the one on Friday is still scheduled to be played.

[nevadacat]

Down 18-16 at end of 1st. Shooting about 20% from the field.

[BobcatDel]

Down 18-16 at end of 1st. Shooting about 20% from the field.

Getting out rebounded by 9 by a team that ranks 11th in the conference in rebounding!! WTH!

[CatBot]

CatBot's wife: how's that game going anyway?
CatBot: down 7 at the start of the 4th.
CatBot's wife: oh dear (sad face)
CatBot: lol. This game is in the bag.

[BelgradeBobcat]

Kudos to Sac State who really played their guts out. They were hitting threes, driving it in, and getting in our heads.
Thank goodness for KJ LImardo in that 4th quarter. A couple of big threes, including what ended up being the game winner, and lots of offensive rebounds.
As for rest of our bunch-really? Did we get that rusty after one off weekend? Airballs, missed free throws, missed point blank shots-just nothing was working. Good 4th quarter where we outscored them by 11 to get a very scary 4 point win.

[Catlady]

It’s a win...... but nothing impressive about it. Thank you Skye and Limardo for attacking the boards. I hope this young team learned that you have to bring it every night.

[CatBot]

This was an important exercise to go through ahead of the tournament. This team (as always) played 12 deep and kept the rotation even though the night wasn't going well.

What's that mean? That means our legs are fresh down the stretch, and we were perfectly primed to make the inevitable scoring run in the 4th quarter. This team doesn't panic and doesn't crumble. To anyone paying any attention at all, this 4th quarter domination will come as no surprise.

Nice job Cats. Let's roll them on Friday and come into the tournament red hot. That's my prediction.

[Bocephus]

29% from the field and a win, I’ll take it!

[Helcat72]

Did anyone notice that backward pass going out of bounds that White threw during the run? Amazing!

[Colter_Nuanez]

[Bobcat4Ever]

Did anyone notice that backward pass going out of bounds that White threw during the run? Amazing!

Oh, yes! I’m glad you mentioned it. Might have been the play of the game. She didn’t just give it a blind heave-ho, she knew Martell (I think it was) should be open in the other corner and she was. Unbelievable execution.

I also loved the hustle on the boards (but not all the shooting) when they missed a free throw for 1, got the rebound, missed about three put backs for 2, got the rebound each time, and finally hit a 3! Talk about high-grading.