MSU - Big Sky Tourney

[John K]

BB still cares enough to be upset about the state of the men's basketball program and post about it. That's pretty rare among Bobcat fans these days. I'd say that's a backhanded compliment to the men's basketball program, all things considered.

That's an excellent point BAC. Maybe the most significant indictment of the MBB program is that there's so little basketball-related activity on this board. Very few MSU fans even care about hoops anymore, and that's much worse than having BB or anyone else come on here and express criticism towards the program. That's precisely why something needs to change...sooner rather than later.

[MSU01]

In the interest of getting this thread back on topic. The Big Sky Conference's weekly release has a lot of conference tournament details, including tie breaker senarios and where each team could end up (scroll down to page 4). Also there's the tournament bracket on page 5.

http://www.bigskyconf.com/documents/201 ... 3Notes.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks for linking to the tiebreaker rules, I was wondering if they had changed at all. So the options for MSU are:

1) MSU sweeps, finishes 10-10, and is the 4 seed regardless of other results. In this case, MSU could either be alone in 4th or end up tied with either UNC or SUU. MSU wins the tiebreaker with either (MSU swept SUU, and split with UNC but has a win over Weber while UNC was swept by Weber).

2) MSU splits and finishes 9-11. In almost all scenarios, MSU is in the tournament at 9-11 because somebody else will finish 8-12 (likely the team MSU beats, assuming they also lose at UM). The only way MSU doesn't make it is if the team they beat this weekend turns around and beats UM to also get to 9-11, and also if SUU wins one game to finish 9-11 themselves. Then the tiebreaker could come down to RPI depending on head to head records of the tied teams, where MSU is at a disadvantage. However, reading the tiebreaker rules I don't think they would have to go down to RPI. I think MSU could potentially still get the 4 seed even with a split (see second scenario below, if my reading of the tiebreaker rules are correct). Here are a couple "likely" scenarios for example:

UNC over SUU
SUU over UND
MSU over Sac
NAU over MSU
UM over NAU
UM over Sac

UNC 10-10 4th

MSU/NAU/SUU 9-11 --> MSU, SUU, NAU all 2-2 head to head so MSU gets 5 seed via win over WSU and then SUU gets 6 seed via sweep over NAU, NAU is 7 seed

Sac 8-12 out

OR

SUU over UNC
UND over SUU
MSU over Sac
NAU over MSU
UM over Sac
UM over NAU

UNC/SUU/NAU/MSU 9-11, all have 3-3 head to head record against each other so MSU is 4 seed (?) via win over Weber, then SUU is 5 seed due to 3-1 H2H record over remaining teams, then who the hell knows with NAU and UNC.

3) MSU gets swept and finishes 8-12. In this case, MSU only gets in if SUU is also swept to itself finish at 8-12, which would give MSU the last spot due to its sweep over SUU.

[ilovethecats]

BB still cares enough to be upset about the state of the men's basketball program and post about it. That's pretty rare among Bobcat fans these days. I'd say that's a backhanded compliment to the men's basketball program, all things considered.

That's an excellent point BAC. Maybe the most significant indictment of the MBB program is that there's so little basketball-related activity on this board. Very few MSU fans even care about hoops anymore, and that's much worse than having BB or anyone else come on here and express criticism towards the program. That's precisely why something needs to change...sooner rather than later.

i was going to say something similar but didn't want to derail the thread even more than it already was! but i guess one could make the argument that the "good" fans are those of us that are fed up with people being ok with a crappy program. all i want is for expectations in hoops to be what they are in football. if ash had the same amount of success as huse about 98% of this board would be up in arms. but because it is the little helpless brother that is bobcat basketball we should just all be nice and say how great everything is. it doesn't work that way....sorry.

people can call me a bad fan or whatever else. it doesn't bother me. but i'm simply not in a place in my life where i can afford to keep paying good money to go to games in which i scream in frustration for two hours before going home! i love msu and the 'cats. but if athletic programs want support of the ENTIRE community they need to do their part and put a product worth watching on the field/court. and this is just reality. look at football. now look at basketball. it's clear which one is headed in the right direction and which one is not.

there would be a lot less whining and negativity on this board if we took the steps necessary to be a strong program and not at the bottom couple teams of a VERY weak conference.

[grizzh8r]

In the interest of getting this thread back on topic. The Big Sky Conference's weekly release has a lot of conference tournament details, including tie breaker senarios and where each team could end up (scroll down to page 4). Also there's the tournament bracket on page 5.

http://www.bigskyconf.com/documents/201 ... 3Notes.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Holy cow. If that PDF isn't an indictment of just how mediocre MSU is, I don't know what is. Just look at all the individual and team statisitcal categories. NO ONE stands out, other than Marcus Colbert has the highest freshman 3pt% of .420. The only team stats where MSU is in the top 100 nationally is turnovers per game, turnover margin, and steals per game, and (SOMEHOW??!?!) scoring per game... such and odd stat. Then again, scoring is way down across all of college baskeball, so that could explain it. I remember under coach Durham when MSU struggled to score 66 or 67 points per game and that was bad (like sub 200 nationally). 4 or 5 points difference and suddenly MSU is top 100 in that area? strange.

[BLACKnBLUEnGOLD]

In the interest of getting this thread back on topic. The Big Sky Conference's weekly release has a lot of conference tournament details, including tie breaker senarios and where each team could end up (scroll down to page 4). Also there's the tournament bracket on page 5.

http://www.bigskyconf.com/documents/201 ... 3Notes.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Holy cow. If that PDF isn't an indictment of just how mediocre MSU is, I don't know what is. Just look at all the individual and team statisitcal categories. NO ONE stands out, other than Marcus Colbert has the highest freshman 3pt% of .420. The only team stats where MSU is in the top 100 nationally is turnovers per game, turnover margin, and steals per game, and (SOMEHOW??!?!) scoring per game... such and odd stat. Then again, scoring is way down across all of college baskeball, so that could explain it. I remember under coach Durham when MSU struggled to score 66 or 67 points per game and that was bad (like sub 200 nationally). 4 or 5 points difference and suddenly MSU is top 100 in that area? strange.

Scoring per game is a lame stat. A lot of it is related to pace.

Winning is all about efficiency. Offensive and defensive points per possession. I'd assume, based on the team's record and strength of schedule, that the Cats do poorly in those efficiency stats.

[BelgradeBobcat]

See...all the bitching, whining, and complaining paid off! The team obvisouly didn't want to piss off BelgradeBobcat any further and went ahead and swept their final homestand. Pretty good considering both teams we played were absolutely desparate for a win.

So not only did MSU make it into the Big Sky tourney, they're way up in the 4th spot! Which is about 4 spots higher than they were predicted to finish this season. All credit to coach Huse and the team for rallying down the stretch for a change!

So now we get Northern Colorado at 8PM on Thursday night in Missoula. We split against UNCU during the regular season, winning down there and losing here, but without Paul Egwuonwu and Flavian Davis. But we're still not at full strength with the injury to Xavier Blount. But it's about as good as bad can be.

[John K]

Is there any TV coverage for the first two rounds of the tourney? I believe the men's championship game will be on ESPN-U, but is that it? I thought when the contract with Root was originally announced, it was stated that they would televise the first two rounds of the tourney, but I didn't see any mention of that on the BSC website.

[CPrice91]

Is there any TV coverage for the first two rounds of the tourney? I believe the men's championship game will be on ESPN-U, but is that it? I thought when the contract with Root was originally announced, it was stated that they would televise the first two rounds of the tourney, but I didn't see any mention of that on the BSC website.

If what I'm reading (here: http://bigskyconf.com/sports/2008/6/13/ ... basketball) is correct, the first two days will be on the BSC's online feed.

[BelgradeBobcat]

Our chances: Not good...according to math.
http://kenpom.com/blog/index.php/weblog ... g_sky_log5" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[John K]

Our chances: Not good...according to math.
http://kenpom.com/blog/index.php/weblog ... g_sky_log5" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So you're telling me there's a chance...

[BelgradeBobcat]

So you're telling me there's a chance...

Oh yeah!
[youtube][/youtube]

[TomCat88]

Of the teams not named Wildcats and Grizzlies, I like MSU's and UNC's chances best. The Bears have won six of eight and the two losses in there are by a total of three points. They've won three straight. MSU seems to have re-captured the play that got them 7 wins in 9 games over the past two weekends as the Bobcats have won three of four with the only loss coming to UM by three. MSU also played WSU and UM better than any team in the BSC this year. Not only is MSU the only team with a win vs. either, but its losses were by 8 to WSU and by 3 and 5 in OT to UM.