Can I get my money back?

[mslacat]

******* I temporarily interrupt my sabbatical *******

I have been attending MSU basketball games since 1980. I have seen 100’s of men’s games and 100’s of women’s games, and in all that time I never ever walked out on a Montana State basketball game. That was until last night. I have driven my ex-wife, kids, and even friends crazy for insisting that win or lose, close games or blow outs staying until the very end. After catching myself 3 times almost dropping f-bombs and being most frustrated with the player than I have ever been upset at refs mid way through the second half I had to leave. Plain and simple I did not need to make any more of an ass of myself, and the people around me did not need to listen to me. It so reminded me of when my Dad – the screen play writer- would walk out of a movie leaving the rest of the family in the theater.

I have had the pleasure of knowing and talking to a lot of Big Sky coaches, and there is one common piece of wisdom that they all have told me. Come deep into conference season the impact a coach can have on a team is lessened and lessened and talent becomes THE major determining factor in the out come late season games. Well after watching last nights game I have found a big flaw in that ultimate theory.

Mslacat’s new addendum common basketball theorem is that:

“A team has to want to win” - Is the biggest determining factor in the out come of a game.

Now I have to admit that in most case this new theorem does not have impact 99% of the basketball teams/games. That is because it almost impossible to find a team of 13 plus member that has absolutely no drive to win, You may have 1, 2 or maybe 3 players on a given team that really do not care but it is pretty difficult to find 13 player who all share this trait. It is common sense, that if that did they most likely have not reached the D-1 level if they did. Furthermore usually on a team you hopefully have a leader. Someone like a Danny Sprinkle or Jason Erickson, who will not settle for just being mediocre. While I admit that it is hard to see examples of this theorem, it an absolute; that wanting to win is the main, biggest, and most important factor in success in the conference season.

At the beginning of the season you may remember me boasting about how this team, will not give up. They always seem to come back, they hang in there, and put themselves in a place to win the game in the end. Remember that? Then a very concerning thing happened, they started to play that way for every game. Tough competition, weak competition, they would play just well enough to stay with 3-4 points either way. If they were playing a tough team their shooting percentage went up if it was a bad team it went down. They would shoot just well enough to keep with in 3-4 points. And then wait to see if they could hit a shot at the end. Have they had a 10 plus win yet this season? This team consistently undermines it self, and keeps itself from winning. They can not even take advantage of free be like free throws. Given a close game and they get 32 free throw attempt and they will miss 16 Another important basketball theorem is that you have to take what the competition is giving.

Now a few individual awards:
Erik if you drive to the basket and find yourself in the air above the rim with in 5-7 of the basket with you man (men) beat do not pass the ball to Mbunga. 1 you have just brought 1-2 players with you into the paint, Mbunga already will have 2 players on him, passing to him will either result a defection out of bounds or Mbunga getting stuffed with 4 guys draped all over him. 2 You had you man beat! 3. Basketball 101, passing in while in the air will result in a bad result 9 out of 10 times. Take the F*#%ing shot. I realize you want to be a team player, blab la bla, but enough.

Bobby in a close game and a chance to tie the game the power forward taking a 30 foot 3 point shot at the top of the key, with 30 seconds on the shot clock with no one in rebounding position is not the best option. How many 30 footers have you made this season period?

Brad, I truly believe you are a better coach than Tinkle, but he has your number down pat. You need shake things up. By the way now the rest of the conference coaches have your number.

I think I have said enough, and yes you are all right I need to take chill pill.

[CelticCat]

You aren't alone. I stopped watching on TV. The team doesn't play together and seem to have no drive half the time. Sometimes we play together and it shows. But most of the time we just look lost out there. We have talented players but we don't have that Carlos Taylor type player who can take over a game. When the chips are down, everyone looks at everyone else for that spark, but no one responds.

[Helcat72]

Erik if you drive to the basket and find yourself in the air above the rim with in 5-7 of the basket with you man (men) beat do not pass the ball to Mbunga. 1 you have just brought 1-2 players with you into the paint, Mbunga already will have 2 players on him, passing to him will either result a defection out of bounds or Mbunga getting stuffed with 4 guys draped all over him. 2 You had you man beat! 3. Basketball 101, passing in while in the air will result in a bad result 9 out of 10 times. Take the F*#%ing shot. I realize you want to be a team player, blab la bla, but enough.Good point!

Bobby in a close game and a chance to tie the game the power forward taking a 30 foot 3 point shot at the top of the key, with 30 seconds on the shot clock with no one in rebounding position is not the best option. How many 30 footers have you made this season period? Good point #2

Brad, I truly believe you are a better coach than Tinkle, but he has your number down pat. You need shake things up. By the way now the rest of the conference coaches have your number. Yea...play a zone against the Cats..they have no one who can shoot you out of it!

Until we get someone who can knock down over 50% of his shots when he gets a good look...we will see zone after zone...and shooting percentages in the low 30's. We also need a big power forward or a center or both who are athletic to jam the ball when they get it next to the bucket.

[BelgradeBobcat]

Now a few individual awards:
Erik if you drive to the basket and find yourself in the air above the rim with in 5-7 of the basket with you man (men) beat do not pass the ball to Mbunga. 1 you have just brought 1-2 players with you into the paint, Mbunga already will have 2 players on him, passing to him will either result a defection out of bounds or Mbunga getting stuffed with 4 guys draped all over him. 2 You had you man beat! 3. Basketball 101, passing in while in the air will result in a bad result 9 out of 10 times. Take the F*#%ing shot. I realize you want to be a team player, blab la bla, but enough.

Bobby in a close game and a chance to tie the game the power forward taking a 30 foot 3 point shot at the top of the key, with 30 seconds on the shot clock with no one in rebounding position is not the best option. How many 30 footers have you made this season period?

Brad, I truly believe you are a better coach than Tinkle, but he has your number down pat. You need shake things up. By the way now the rest of the conference coaches have your number.

I think you are spot on. Even with the game still relatively close in the second half I had no sense that were would be able to comeback. Even Huse's body language showed he was out of ideas. Durham was often befuddled by that griz zone that we have seen for oh-so-many years-I had hoped Huse's experience at um would provide a solution-it obviously hasn't.

Rush needs to realize that this team is built around him and he needs to take it over. Bynum was trying to do what Rush should have been doing. Taking them off the dribble and getting to the line. But Bynum does not have the offensive arsenal that Rush has and Bynum is a poor free-throw shooter. Take the ball in the lane, use your terrific jumping ability to rise above the defender and shoot the dang 10 foot jump shoot!

MBunga-for all his qualities, is a clumsy player. He doesn't have the hands to catch those quick dish-offs from Rush. If an opponent gets a finger nail on the ball it gets dislodged and all hell breaks loose. Give MBunga the ball with is back to the basket or take the shot and leave him in position to rebound.

I don't know what to make of Howard. He was trying harder than anyone out there. But I think when he tries harder his game self-destructs. The 30 footer at the top of the key was a good example.

And finally-I agree, Tinkle has got Huse figured out. He needs to add some wrinkles.

P.S. Please come back to the basketball discussions Msla-we need you.

[DawsonPirate]

WOW ----- Folks I got ripped for my comments at the beginning of the year and predicted an overall record of two games below .500. Longhorn 22 loved giving me the business. Bobcat faithful have more trust in Huse.... I have watched them play several games in person and on TV. I can flatout tell you one real problem in the infrastructure on this men's program.

1. During practice and individual fundamental workouts --- who is responsible for guard and parameter shooting and improvement on FT?
2. Everyone keeps mentioning how young this team is. --- Folks the majority of this team is made up of JUCO and redshirts and these players should be farther along in terms of play and their basketball IQ. Plus, majority of these players were recruited by Huse and the previous staff.
3. When have you seen a program, when the entire coaching staff Orten, Dirden and Sprinkle leave all at once. --- Granted reasons were either for personal or finanacial/basketball step-up. However, that kills a team chemistry and truly the names mentioned the players truely loved probably being around. The MSU assistant current staff watching, from the sidelines or on TV, seems very bland both in on floor coaching (no emotion), very little interaction with players during game and don't seem to help Huse with input. Huse I observe is 100% about control and is that because of his style or little faith in staff. Carson is a basketball operations guy pure and simple --- However what is Starr and Priebe contribuing?
4. Next six games are rough ----- The NAU game I believe will determine the final stretch. 3-3 is probably the final course. PSU, ISU, Weber State are (L) NAU and UNC is a toss-up and Sac St (W), give Huse a chance..... I still think his loss of Sprinkle has hurt this program immensely. Chemistry and Huse is rough and fair ---- Sprinkle was the soft side and the motivator and that is a great reciepe for success.

RIP me but if you run off Huse you will regret for many years. Get new blood assistants that can coach and motivate!

[WiZaRdOfOz]

Every fan always has the answers huh? I love the passionate support for MSU athletics, but often times things go crazy on this board. I quit contributing for quite some time because I couldn't even stand to read some of things you fans write on here. Support the athletes instead of giving them coaching tips...or perhaps try and apply for the basketball job whenever it comes open again. Montana has a very solid bball team and they shot it extremely well, especially in the first half and early second. And then when they needed some plays their star stepped up and finished the game. People want to say this MSU team isn't young but they are inexperienced playing as a unit and sometimes it takes longer than you may want for them to mesh. If you really watched that game, which apparently some of you bailed on it so maybe you didn't watch, you can see that Montana is comfortable with each other. They know where their teammates are going to be on the court and they trust each other. This MSU team is still trying to figure that out and maybe it will be next season when every player except one returns. So relax and stop quitting on these kids.

[TIrwin24]

I don't think anyone has quit on this team...yet. We are just disappointed in the fact that this team has had sparks of greatness but has yet to make that greatness consistent. After watching many of the Bobcat games this season, it is very apparent that no one person on the squad wants to be the team leader as well.

This team could be really good, but in order for that to happen, a player, any player, has to step up and start putting some fire under his teammates asses.

[Hell's Bells]

I dont honestly know what to say about this, although i do see that we were out mussled by the griz, again. Mbunga got killed by Qualle/Hasquet...ect, where was Bj?, Anderson played like expected, Howard could not guard Hasquet and at 6'7 should be playing the 3 against these guys...

I wonder why Huse was not working the reffs tonight? Whenever you saw Tinkle he was jawing at/talking to the reffs when he had the opportunity, which made him look like a ass, but i often wonder if that was the reason why some of the calls were going UMs way

[GrizinWashington]

that was the reason why some of the calls were going UMs way

39 FTs vs. 23 (more than half of which came in garbage time)?

[Old Skool Cat]

I agree with wholeheartedly with mslacat and I am pissed! I too walked out early last night, as what I was witnessing was pathetic. And no, I am not giving up on this team, nor is anybody else on this board who has verbally expressed their disgust. Rather, it's just simply an outburst of disgust, which is a right for us as fans and as boosters. Last night's piss-poor display was not just from the players, but the coaches as well. For the life of me, I cannot believe why this team, as well as Bobcat teams from the past, continuely piss down their legs in a big game, and most notably when we are playing the griz. Are our athletes so intimidated by the griz that they are completely thrown off their game plan? Because it would seem that way. We can beat Weber in their house and then let the griz dominate us in ours? How many freakin' years have we watched that griz zone beat us? Huse used to coach for the griz crying out loud! You'd think he would be somewhat familiar with it! Huse's performance on the bench last night was miserable. Case in point: Bynam was clearly stinking up the joint. Why not sit his ass and play someone who could do something? Brown and Piepoli were hardly given a chance last night. Let them get the minutes if Bynum is continually turn the ball over. And speaking of Will, try this - dribbling with your head up. Basketball 101. Also, Will, if you are going to continue driving the lane and drawing the foul, hit a free throw now and then! Also coach, what's the deal with letting Cody Anderson jump out top and try to defend the shooter? Everytime he did that, all the griz did was dump it down low immediately for the easy two. And Cody did that over and over and over. Pull his ass and let Brandon play!

I'm sorry - I promised myself I would cool down a few days before posting. But when I see mslacat, who is probably the single most knowledgable and die-hard Bobcat fan around, post his feelings and get flamed for it, then I am jumping into the fray. I support and love the Cats as much as any of you guys, but to sit back and accept this crap year in and year gets really old. Please, don't accuse someone else of not being supportive just they because they are emotional and speak their mind. I would rather have that type of fan on my side than one who does nothing.

[Billings_Griz]

Ever stop and think you got beat by a better team? Not intended to be smack although since I have "griz" in my name it will be taken that way.

Keys to the Griz win:

Your guards are very good, but AJ handled the pressure and hit many FT's inside 3 min. He is the real deal.

Shot selection...WOW. As mslacat pointed out, the 30'er w/ :30 left on the shot clock. That wasn't the only bad shot he put up. Granted, he's only a soph but he should know what is a good shot and what is a bad shot. I guess if they drop he's the next Ray Allen... BH wasn't the only one puttin up bad shots. I'd give a little credit to the Griz "D" and blame some on just not hitting shots.

And lastly, the cats FT shooting. Like it's been all year, nasty.

Also, no need to hang yourself mslacat, keep in mind these are just kids--and it's just a game. It could be worse (for you), McCain/Palin could have won the election.

[Old Skool Cat]

Ever stop and think you got beat by a better team? Not intended to be smack although since I have "griz" in my name it will be taken that way.

Keys to the Griz win:

Your guards are very good, but AJ handled the pressure and hit many FT's inside 3 min. He is the real deal.

Shot selection...WOW. As mslacat pointed out, the 30'er w/ :30 left on the shot clock. That wasn't the only bad shot he put up. Granted, he's only a soph but he should know what is a good shot and what is a bad shot. I guess if they drop he's the next Ray Allen... BH wasn't the only one puttin up bad shots. I'd give a little credit to the Griz "D" and blame some on just not hitting shots.

And lastly, the cats FT shooting. Like it's been all year, nasty.

Also, no need to hang yourself mslacat, keep in mind these are just kids--and it's just a game. It could be worse (for you), McCain/Palin could have won the election.

BG - I know we got beat by a better team. But that's not to say we couldn't have won the game or even played better. We've beaten teams this season that are "better" than us - Colorado, Oregon State, Weber State, Portland State. It's not so much that we got beat by the griz as it's how we have performed in these games. I understand your guard play is better than ours. I understand your interior play is better than ours. But if you watched the game objectively, we played very poorly regardless of the level of our competition. We have trouble just completing the fundamentals - passing, free throw shooting, screening. Our team has absolutlely no leadership - ZERO! We ran around last night like five individuals instead of one team. I have been saying the same damn thing all season; you'd think it would have improved by now, but with only 6 games left in the season, we look as lost as a team as we did in December.

[Billings_Griz]

Old Skool, oh I understand you could have won. Hell, I thought you WOULD have won. You said (I did too...)our guard play was better. They were on THIS night--take away one of our guards (AJ) and your guards are better than ours, IMHO.

I understand your disbelief, if you will, on your teams performance. Now you know what Griz fans felt like a month ago.

I still like your team and I really like Huse. For his sake, I hope he turns it around.

I didn't see much patience on "O" from MSU. Like you said, it looked like 5 individuals and not a team out there like the team we saw against Weber (i watched on big sky tv).

No dissin' the cats here, I pull for them almost all the time.

[CARDIAC_CATS]

After watching the game this past weekend I think the biggest thing this team is lacking (besides another big bruising big man with inside presence) is discipline on offense. There are way too many wasted trips, guards slashing down the middle and going into the air and either 1) passing late to a big guy already blocking his guy out and turning 2) Getting it blocked because no one to pass to and in the air 3) Traveling because no one to pass to and in the air. You could tell the Griz were way more disciplined and physical team. That is the style that wins in the second half of the season/tournament.

Also, why does Bynum curl the ball into his elbow and carry it when he is driving past another player? If you do that you have no control and cannot pass to a cutting player fast (it makes you easy to guard and you have to either roll it down your hand for a shot or stop and catch back into both hands? Have the coaches addressed that?

I know this is a young team, but we get way too hyper/impatient when we play the Griz that is for sure. We can beat good teams, but have to calm down and play like WE are in control and dictate to the other team. The last 2 Griz games we looked rushed and frenzied.

[Old Skool Cat]

After watching the game this past weekend I think the biggest thing this team is lacking (besides another big bruising big man with inside presence) is discipline on offense. There are way too many wasted trips, guards slashing down the middle and going into the air and either 1) passing late to a big guy already blocking his guy out and turning 2) Getting it blocked because no one to pass to and in the air 3) Traveling because no one to pass to and in the air. You could tell the Griz were way more disciplined and physical team. That is the style that wins in the second half of the season/tournament.

Also, why does Bynum curl the ball into his elbow and carry it when he is driving past another player? If you do that you have no control and cannot pass to a cutting player fast (it makes you easy to guard and you have to either roll it down your hand for a shot or stop and catch back into both hands? Have the coaches addressed that?

I know this is a young team, but we get way too hyper/impatient when we play the Griz that is for sure. We can beat good teams, but have to calm down and play like WE are in control and dictate to the other team. The last 2 Griz games we looked rushed and frenzied.

Again, all your points lead to a lack of leadership on the floor. We just don't have that one guy who can slow things down, calm everyone around him, and get the team re-focused. We had that in Casey Durham the past few years, and we got spoiled. I really didn't expect Mbunga to fill that role even though he's a senior just because most of the time you will find those leadership qualities in your point guard or even a forward. I guess I am disappointed in that neither Bynum or Navarre haven't stepped into a leadership role. Granted, they are new to the team this year, but they are junior transfers with plenty of experience, so this ain't their first rodeo. And at this point in the season, everyone is a veteran. I have to say that even though Hennessy isn't the scorer that the other two guards are, right now he has the most potential, IMHO, of leading this team. I really think that this could be Erik Rush's team as well, but he's shown some reluctance in taking over.

[urcrackinmeup]

Mslacat - I thought as classy posters/adults, we choose not to call out individual players. You take a couple and completely rip on just them? If you are going to do that kind of thing, then why don't you rip on all of them... because you could find things about each player that weren't great during that game. And then why don't you take your posts over to e-griz and keep it there. Yeah - it was a frustrating game. We all get that! These are college kids who are trying hard. You should take the high road or go back on sabbatical.

[CPACAT]

Every fan always has the answers huh? I love the passionate support for MSU athletics, but often times things go crazy on this board. I quit contributing for quite some time because I couldn't even stand to read some of things you fans write on here. Support the athletes instead of giving them coaching tips...or perhaps try and apply for the basketball job whenever it comes open again. Montana has a very solid bball team and they shot it extremely well, especially in the first half and early second. And then when they needed some plays their star stepped up and finished the game. People want to say this MSU team isn't young but they are inexperienced playing as a unit and sometimes it takes longer than you may want for them to mesh. If you really watched that game, which apparently some of you bailed on it so maybe you didn't watch, you can see that Montana is comfortable with each other. They know where their teammates are going to be on the court and they trust each other. This MSU team is still trying to figure that out and maybe it will be next season when every player except one returns. So relax and stop quitting on these kids.

Welcome back. I find that most of your posts are well thought out and reasonable even if I don't always totally agree.

Sometimes the other teams plays better than you and sometimes they are just better than you. Right now I think we are still working on finding our identity and a true court leader. Maybe it will happen this year maybe not. Either way, Go CATS.

[Ponycat]

Couple things:
Does anybody know if Austin Brown was in the dog house this week. Last week he was our spark plug and a big reason we won both games, nad he is hands down our best defender, but he got very limited time Saturday. I'm guessing there must have been a reason. I would have like to have seen Brown and Bynum teaming up for some of those traps, I think they didn't work as well as they have in the past because of who was doing the trapping.

to the poster that stated Bobby couldn't guard Hasquet, I missed that. Hasquet had 7 points and was in foul trouble the whole second half. I thought whe they were matched up, Bobby out played him like he has in 3 out of there 4 match ups. JMHO

There was about a 2 minute span where both Anderson and Mbunga were on the floor at the same time. It was the first time I'd seen it all year and would like to see it some more. With Anderson's outside shooting abilitly I really think it would create some mismatches and open things up on the inside for Mbunga.

As frustraing as it was to watch, I think it simply came down to the Grizzlies ability to play better team defense, and of course they had the best player on the court who was able to seal the victory.

This is a great article. The reason I am posting it is because I think the Griz beat us in most of these aspects, which is why they won.

http://insider.espn.go.com/ncb/insider/ ... %3d3868904" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[oldcatfan]

My guess is with Brown is that we had a match-up problem that wouldn't facilitate his playing a lot. Couple that with the fact that he is a freshman....also I heard there were several sick players on the floor Saturday. It is that time of year. Better now than in March.

[Helcat72]

After watching the game this past weekend I think the biggest thing this team is lacking (besides another big bruising big man with inside presence) is discipline on offense. There are way too many wasted trips, guards slashing down the middle and going into the air and either 1) passing late to a big guy already blocking his guy out and turning 2) Getting it blocked because no one to pass to and in the air 3) Traveling because no one to pass to and in the air. You could tell the Griz were way more disciplined and physical team. That is the style that wins in the second half of the season/tournament.

Also, why does Bynum curl the ball into his elbow and carry it when he is driving past another player? If you do that you have no control and cannot pass to a cutting player fast (it makes you easy to guard and you have to either roll it down your hand for a shot or stop and catch back into both hands? Have the coaches addressed that?

I know this is a young team, but we get way too hyper/impatient when we play the Griz that is for sure. We can beat good teams, but have to calm down and play like WE are in control and dictate to the other team. The last 2 Griz games we looked rushed and frenzied.

Again, all your points lead to a lack of leadership on the floor. We just don't have that one guy who can slow things down, calm everyone around him, and get the team re-focused. We had that in Casey Durham the past few years, and we got spoiled. I really didn't expect Mbunga to fill that role even though he's a senior just because most of the time you will find those leadership qualities in your point guard or even a forward. I guess I am disappointed in that neither Bynum or Navarre haven't stepped into a leadership role. Granted, they are new to the team this year, but they are junior transfers with plenty of experience, so this ain't their first rodeo. And at this point in the season, everyone is a veteran. I have to say that even though Hennessy isn't the scorer that the other two guards are, right now he has the most potential, IMHO, of leading this team. I really think that this could be Erik Rush's team as well, but he's shown some reluctance in taking over.

I totally agree....take Johnson away from UM and it wouldn't be long before they would be playing like they did in the first half of the season. His calming effect makes the rest of the team relax and know that if they are having an off night he will take over...hit the tough shots and make free throws. They didn't start playing well until he started taking over. we could use Carlos Taylor or Casey Durham. Every good team in the league has this type of player. Dominguez, Davis, McCoy, Johnson etc.