The Bobcat Nation

Portland State eeks out a 75-74 win over Northern Colorado in their last regular season game. UNC missed the front end of one-and-ones twice in the last 30 seconds to allow the Vikings to get the win.

The keys to both Bobcat wins in the regular season was Odum and Tapscott getting in foul trouble-and us hitting a lot of outside shots.

well, i can't see any reason why this team can't go into psu and get a win saturday night. we have been playing poorly obviously....but who cares? this is a new season, and no one expects us to win. playing in their gym doesn't scare anyone. for as bad as this year has felt, and as bad as i think um would beat us if we met again.....i still think we could sneak one out this weekend and give me just enough hope to think we might be able to compete in the tourney. this team has been getting bashed all year and i'm sure they are sick of it. they hear everything that is said, so just maybe that will give them some motivation. and let's not forget....this is a team we swept this year.

GO CATS!!!!!

ilovethecats wrote:well, i can't see any reason why this team can't go into psu and get a win saturday night. we have been playing poorly obviously....but who cares? this is a new season, and no one expects us to win. playing in their gym doesn't scare anyone. for as bad as this year has felt, and as bad as i think um would beat us if we met again.....i still think we could sneak one out this weekend and give me just enough hope to think we might be able to compete in the tourney. this team has been getting bashed all year and i'm sure they are sick of it. they hear everything that is said, so just maybe that will give them some motivation. and let's not forget....this is a team we swept this year.

GO CATS!!!!!

Yeah, may as well go all in. Remember 2002 when MSU beat UM by 20 points in both games during the regular season, then led by 15 with 10 minutes to go in the semi-final game of the tourney, but UM came back and won, then won the tourney? In 2009 UM beat MSU by 14 and 15, then MSU beat UM in Missoula by two and went to the BSC title game after losing five straight and seven of last eight.

Why do you think they'd beat us bad? They only won by 10 and 9 and MSU was within striking distance in both games. We just held them to their second lowest scoring output of the year last week.

Been a frustrating season...but it's now a clean slate. A run in the BSC tourney would make the year feel a whole lot better!

First- I have a pre-K knowledge of basketball.

With that said, I've only watched the team play one time this year; last weekend's cat/griz game. The guys played very hard and gave it their all. After years and years of coaching, and spending more time in recent years of looking at the psychological side of things, all this team needs to do is believe in themselves a little. The release of tension after the win on Monday was palpable in the player's interviews after the game.

I'm not calling for a run to the final four. But, if this team will play with that level of intensity and bring a little confidence (playing to win and not playing to not lose), I really believe great things could happen. Coach Huse, staff, and team good luck!

TomCat88 wrote:
Why do you think they'd beat us bad? They only won by 10 and 9 and MSU was within striking distance in both games. We just held them to their second lowest scoring output of the year last week.

mainly because i feel they are WAY better than us. and they have been getting better and better every week. even in the two meetings with us, when i thought they played poorly...they beat us. if we ran into that buzzsaw i saw play weber last night, they'll beat us by double digits. let me put it this way, if we sneak past weber and we play um in missoula, they'll be about 12 point favorites. not the 15 point favorites they were last week, but they'll still be double-digit favorites to win.

i also think this is the best griz team i have ever seen in person. yes i'm only 31 so i'm aware there might have been better teams. i also think this might be the best team i have seen in the big sky since weber and the show in the late 90's. and frankly, i think this griz team would give those teams all they can handle.

if i was a griz fan, i would be very excited right now by the idea that they just might have a team good enough to no only win the opener in the dance, but maybe even win another game and reach the sweet 16. i wouldn't bet money on this happening, but they do everything you need to do in the tourney to upset teams. they have size and athleticism. they shoot the ball at a high percentage, and their defense has been amazing.

just my opinion of course. if the cats should win, i'll be in my seats in dahlberg screaming my ass off with all the other cat fans hoping and praying for a win!

Lots of sunshine pumping going on here, but, hey, that's OK with me. You have to hope for something. And my hope is, we end the season on a strong note in the tournament, and come on strong and have a great year next year. Down deep, I really don't expect this to happen, but there is always hope. Go Cats

I think we'll beat PSU just because we're due to get hot. I like EWU over ISU in the other opening round game. Then we play UM and EWU plays WSU. I think its a crap shoot at that point. The Big Sky tourney has been about a 50-50 deal for sending the regular season champ to the NCAA tourney. The lower seeded teams are so relaxed and if they get off to a good start it really messes up the top teams. I wouldn't bet on it, but I wouldn't be surprised if neither UM or WSU makes it to the championship game. Weber just gift wrapped that game for UM last night. 3 for 26 shooting threes and barely 30% for the game. And it wasn't like they didn't have plenty of open shots, they were just missing.

ilovethecats wrote:

TomCat88 wrote:
i also think this is the best griz team i have ever seen in person.

It's not your fault that you are so young. I remember when UM had 2.5 players name Michael Richardson. Michael Ray was worth 2 and Michael John was worth .5.

aucat wrote:Lots of sunshine pumping going on here, but, hey, that's OK with me. You have to hope for something. And my hope is, we end the season on a strong note in the tournament, and come on strong and have a great year next year. Down deep, I really don't expect this to happen, but there is always hope. Go Cats

Well you couldn't hand pick a better team to play first. We did beat PSU twice and one-win NAU is the only other team we beat twice this year. It isn't like we get blown out of the water every game.

This is the best draw we could hope for in the tournament a team we have beaten twice this season. PSU has not exactly been blowing people out and they are a lot like us very unpredictable on which team will show up to play or not show up.
Go Cats and Good Luck!!!! Hoping for the win!!!

4everacatfan wrote:This is the best draw we could hope for in the tournament a team we have beaten twice this season. PSU has not exactly been blowing people out and they are a lot like us very unpredictable on which team will show up to play or not show up.
Go Cats and Good Luck!!!! Hoping for the win!!!

Luckily PSU had a second half meltdown against us the last game. They whooped up on us for much of the game.

All things considered, I think the Bobcats are finally headed in the right direction.

We lead the conference in blocks (when was the last time that happened), we have a super athletic power forward that is only going to get better in Tre Johnson. Budinich is developing into a nice all around player. We have a freshman point guard that is very quick and can score from the outside. Reid is turning himself into Rush 2.0. The team in general is starting to play together well and they aren't playing with their best player in Blount and to a certain extent (preseason hype of Stewart).

We only lose Singleton next year...

For this tournament I hope we can make it to the semi's.

One thing to remember, Blount played in both Portland State games. The Vikings have won six of seven. Just more facts. I'll have a pre-game blog by Saturday morning.

Gidal Kaiser wrote:One thing to remember, Blount played in both Portland State games. The Vikings have won six of seven. Just more facts. I'll have a pre-game blog by Saturday morning.

I think that's going to be a big problem. PSU is not particularly tall, but they have stocky athletic guards. I don't know who guarded Odum the most in the regular season, but that job falls squarely to Singleton in this one. I don't think Dison, Moon, or Reid will be able to handle Odum for very long.

Inside, we seem to match up pretty well. Tapscott is an awesome player, but he's only 6'5" and we are pretty long and athletic inside. The key inside will be foul trouble. Allou, Fall, and Johnson need to be physcial and yet keep it clean. PSU led UNC 30-6 at the foul line last night. I hope that crew isn't calling our game.

TomCat88 wrote:

ilovethecats wrote:well, i can't see any reason why this team can't go into psu and get a win saturday night. we have been playing poorly obviously....but who cares? this is a new season, and no one expects us to win. playing in their gym doesn't scare anyone. for as bad as this year has felt, and as bad as i think um would beat us if we met again.....i still think we could sneak one out this weekend and give me just enough hope to think we might be able to compete in the tourney. this team has been getting bashed all year and i'm sure they are sick of it. they hear everything that is said, so just maybe that will give them some motivation. and let's not forget....this is a team we swept this year.

GO CATS!!!!!

Yeah, may as well go all in. Remember 2002 when MSU beat UM by 20 points in both games during the regular season, then led by 15 with 10 minutes to go in the semi-final game of the tourney, but UM came back and won, then won the tourney? In 2009 UM beat MSU by 14 and 15, then MSU beat UM in Missoula by two and went to the BSC title game after losing five straight and seven of last eight.

Why do you think they'd beat us bad? They only won by 10 and 9 and MSU was within striking distance in both games. We just held them to their second lowest scoring output of the year last week.

Yep I thought we played as well or better against UM than Weber did. All the records are 0-0, the new season has arrived. The Cats are playing with house money so let it all RIDE!

I have some lame birthday party to go to Saturday night.

Bummer, I'd really like to go to this game.

Game is on the web at 8pm local time:

http://b2tv.com/upcoming_events.asp?q=v&value=bigsky" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I think it starts about 10 minutes before tipoff. Go Cats!

Opening the game heaving up threes with no regard for any other open man on the court. I guess we wouldn't want to change anything.

There just an audio link for this game?