The Bobcat Nation

we have great fans when we win. everybody tells the cats how good they are and they lose to the toughest two teams in the conference on the road and everybody is back to saying how bad they are. just stay the course. don't just love them when they are good. the good news is we have 5 at home in the second half of conference. everybody go to the games and support them.

I will be here when we lose and when we win but I will criticize bad play when I see/hear it. And the Cats were just plain awful this weekend. I expect our team to play at minimum 'smart' basketball and we didn't rebound/turnovers/fouls/quick 3's AGAIN. If you watched the team from the beginning of the year they totally reverted back to their old play again. Yes, we were on the road and yes we were against 2 good teams .... but we played just sloppy in my opinion. Do I still think we can win the conference? YES I DO (read my posts on PSU gameday) ... but we need to play smart and hustle and do the little things like we had been doing the last few weeks. We actually were in the PSU game with 8-9 minutes remaining even though we were shooting horrendous from 3 point land.

In short I think this team can beat anyone in the league on a given night, but I don't think we are there a DOMINANT team yet OR the favorite as of yet to make the Big Dance unless we can host the tournament.

It also sounds like anyone breathing on Boxley was charged with a foul ... Big Sky reffing .. gotta love it.

Well said Cardiac. Criticizing poor play and preparation doesn't make for a fair weather fan. That was one lousy road trip from shooting to rebounding to hustle to effort, to attitude. Can we still win the sky? Absolutely considering we are 1/2 game out of first with 5 of our last 7 at home. If we play like we did this last weekend can we finish 5-9 or 6-10? Just as likely if we don't get back on track this weekend.

Bingo people! Even if the 3's arent falling, and I dont think shooting 34, or whatever it was, in a 2 game series is all that many. Particullary if those are open shots in the flow of the offense. But, if those shots are or arent falling, that is no excuse for any basketball team to roll over and give up. I saw no fight in this team at all on Saturday night. No rebounding, no hustle, average defense at best.

Just not the all out effort you'd expect from a 5-0 team fighting to stay in first place.

Cat Pride wrote:I saw no fight in this team at all on Saturday night. No rebounding, no hustle, average defense at best.

Just not the all out effort you'd expect from a 5-0 team fighting to stay in first place.

Exactly, the times when MSU was in the game we were moving the ball wall, cutting to the basket, all the right things. Then all of a sudden everyone stopped moving, started standing around and shooting with no time left on the shot clock. This team can easily win out, but they have to get fired up and hustle!! It should be exciting to watch as the second half of the season begins.

rtb wrote:This team can easily win out, but they have to get fired up and hustle!! It should be exciting to watch as the second half of the season begins.

How much of that is placed on the coaches and how much on the players? If the players cant get fired up for a match up with PSU and EWU, then there is something seriously wrong with the players and team leadership!!!! In the same breath, if Durham and his staff cant get their players fired up for this road trip, then there is something seriously wrong there too!!!!

Bounce back Cats! Lets go! There is no substitute for hustle and desire. Even the worst team in the conference can beat the best team in conference on defense, desire and hustle.

Show some heart Cats. Dont give away this great start to conference. Sweep at home this weekend and show PSU that the conference championship still runs through Bozeman!

I think that performance on the road is a direct result of the attitude the coach instills in his players. If he talks about it going to be a tough road trip...it will. If he talks about "trying to steal one" that's all the players hear is "try" and if one thing goes wrong, the other team makes a run...then well...at least we tried! It's an attitude. We have to have the attitude that we are going to punish people on the road or at home. Maybe we don't have the physical players to push anyone oaround...but we must have mentally tough players that won't give it up at the first sign of adversity.

I challenge this team to suck it up and play like men...not like a bunch of tired weaklings...the "poor us" types that want to come up with any reasons to justify playing weak, or the "I don't know what's the matter" types that look for forces beyond their ability to have an effect on the outcome. Prove to us that the "Usual February swoon" is not what you are all about on "this" team! here is an article from the IR that cites that familiar theme!

http://www.helenair.com/articles/2005/0 ... 105_01.txt

Helcat72 wrote:I think that performance on the road is a direct result of the attitude the coach instills in his players. If he talks about it going to be a tough road trip...it will. If he talks about "trying to steal one" that's all the players hear is "try" and if one thing goes wrong, the other team makes a run...then well...at least we tried! It's an attitude. We have to have the attitude that we are going to punish people on the road or at home. Maybe we don't have the physical players to push anyone oaround...but we must have mentally tough players that won't give it up at the first sign of adversity.

I challenge this team to suck it up and play like men...not like a bunch of tired weaklings...the "poor us" types that want to come up with any reasons to justify playing weak, or the "I don't know what's the matter" types that look for forces beyond their ability to have an effect on the outcome. Prove to us that the "Usual February swoon" is not what you are all about on "this" team! here is an article from the IR that cites that familiar theme!

http://www.helenair.com/articles/2005/0 ... 105_01.txt

Exactly HELCAT! Our team needs to go into each road trip with the mindset that they will win both games. They know they can do it as they have done it already. The great programs in the nation 1) take care of their home court 2) are not intimidatd by playing ANY team on their other home court. We still have a shot at hosting, but its time to buck up and playing ball EVERY NIGHT! I want players diving for lose balls/rebounding/guarding their guy/getting out on the break etc. EVERY GAME.

We take care of our homecourt this week ... 2 WINS! DEFEND HOME COURT.

Some of you fans have nothing positive to say about the Cats. A 5-0 start, and someone stated it best.......The student body needs to get their butts in the seats and raise some hell!

Homecourt advantage is just that..............the players need a rowdy crowd like all other schools put out.

I challenge the student body to get after it Thursday and let ISU know they are in Montana!

Question:

When is the last time a BSC team was last, or second to last, in rebounding and won either the regular season, or the tourney?

MSU88 wrote:Some of you fans have nothing positive to say about the Cats. A 5-0 start, and someone stated it best.......The student body needs to get their butts in the seats and raise some hell!

Homecourt advantage is just that..............the players need a rowdy crowd like all other schools put out.

I challenge the student body to get after it Thursday and let ISU know they are in Montana!

Nobody is disputing the outstanding start to the season this team has put forth. But that start is good for nothing if this team crumbles in Feb like they have so many years prior.

The students and rest of the crowd will show some support and get rowdy as soon as this team shows us some heart!

This team has a real chance to do something special this year. Step up and deliver Bobcats!

MSU88 wrote:Some of you fans have nothing positive to say about the Cats. A 5-0 start, and someone stated it best.......The student body needs to get their butts in the seats and raise some hell!

Homecourt advantage is just that..............the players need a rowdy crowd like all other schools put out.

I challenge the student body to get after it Thursday and let ISU know they are in Montana!

I have had many positive things to say about the Cats this year and coach Durham ... I also am not going to sugar coat things either. I have HIGH expectations for MSU and their BBALL program. When they put forth the effort and don't play sloppy I will commend them every time (win or lose). We have the BSC title in our grasp ... we now need to buckle down and go get it. To do that we need to play with passion/heart/grit. Even coach Durham told his players before the season that none of them were good enough to win the BSC championship by themselves. This 'team' goes as far as its TEAM play and hard work will take it this year. Its in our GRASP and we NEED TO PLAY BETTER THIS WEEK.

And I think we will.

Cats15 wrote:we have great fans when we win. everybody tells the cats how good they are and they lose to the toughest two teams in the conference on the road and everybody is back to saying how bad they are. just stay the course. don't just love them when they are good. the good news is we have 5 at home in the second half of conference. everybody go to the games and support them.

I'm sorry, I didn't know that fans who give up their Thursday and Saturday evenings to stay at home so they can listen to the Bobcat games on the radio classify as "bandwagon" fans. Give me a break.

Nothing that has been said on here is untrue or beyond reason. Any and every fan has a right to question questionable play - if there was no unrest, how would any program improve? Personally, I don't think that any of the criticisms were said in a mean or unfair way, I thought they remained constructive in nature. If you don't like it, tough sh*t. Go grab a lollipop and head over to egriz.com, where you can all sit around and pat each other on the back.

I was at the game on Saturday and had several observations. Defensively the Cats were hurt badly by the size differential. When Beye was out of the game PSU dominated the middle. The injury to the other big man hurt a lot.

PSU looked much quicker and stronger at the guard spots and dominated on the glass. The Cat's spacing on offense and ball movement against the press was really bad. Casey Durham looked like a freshman and was rattled during this game. He also looked a step slow on defense.

For a team that is playing small to fail to move the ball is death. For long stretches the Cats failed to get any penetration and ended up launching a long three as the shot clock wound down.

The dunk off the backboard was a back breaker and possibly one of the best "in game" dunks I have ever seen. Overall, I was unimpressed with this showing and hope that this was not an indication of the quality of basketball that MSU is putting on the floor.

I have been to several PSU / MSU games and for the first time felt like PSU had some level of fan support. Their facility is terrible, but if they start to win more consistently I would expect them to be a force in the conference. Based on recruiting talent in Portland alone, they have a leg up on the rest of the BSC.

Great first post, PortlandCat. If this is any indication of what you bring to the table, I hope you become a "regular" on the board! I like your insights, and I could not agree more with everything you said.


*And no, people, I don't know this person!!!

Yes that dunk off the back board was amazing!! It brought the energy in that place to a frenzy. I guess that makes up for not being able to see Dissly's dunk last week.