The Bobcat Nation

So the Bobcats are in first place in the Big Sky after the first weekend-so it's pretty much inevitable that we'll be hosting the Big Sky men's tourney this year. Are tickets available yet? Are there going to be any conflicts with high school tournaments?

But seriously-great start to the conference season. Yeah sure-we've kinda been down this road before. But we certainly don't want to break that trend by losing early in the conference season too.

Go Cats.

I'm awaiting with bated breath my postseason tourney ticket information from the ticket office, I'd guess it would be in the mail by Tuesday right? It is nice to see our team be able to hammer a team they should have hammered, and finish off a win against a team that had just won in Missoula (how good NAU is I'm not actually sure, but winning in Missoula counts for something). Be interesting to see how we handle our first conference road trip, against 2 teams that look maybe fairly similar to us in terms of wins and non-conference schedule, although EWU's was indeed tougher than ours, they didn't handle it too particularly well. Maybe...just maybe...ugh here I go again down January basketball-hopeful road...I never learn!

I think if Davis and Egwuondu(sp?) are factors (rebounding/inside scoring) MSU is in every conference game.

TomCat88 wrote:I think if Davis and Egwuondu(sp?) are factors (rebounding/inside scoring) MSU is in every conference game.

Agreed, Davis is a bit of a match-up problem for a lot of the league, due to his ability to step out a little, hit a mid-range shot, and even work off the dribble. That, coupled with the quickness of our guards, should put us in a position to be competitive with most everybody, especially in a conference that appears a bit weaker than in the past (hard to imagine that, only a few years ago Weber and UM were 12 seeds in the dance, maybe in 2 consecutive years). Still, nice to have something to get a bit excited about with our basketball program.

It looks like the Class B boys' and girls' combined tournament is at the Fieldhouse from March 13-15, but I think the Special Events Center in Belgrade is available if push comes to shove.

We know that the Cats have great potential. The guard play is really good, they have a deep bench, and if the forwards can contribute inside with rebounding and defense, the Cats have the ability to go far this season. It could be a lot of fun. The next three weeks will tell whether the Cats will be a legitimate contender in the Big Sky. They'll be at Portland State and Eastern Washington this coming week and both of those games are winnable. The next week, Northern Colorado and North Dakota come to the Fieldhouse. UND was picked high in the conference and UNC is off to the best start this season. Winning those games would be big. After that, the Cats travel to Weber State and Idaho State. MSU played Weber very well last year, but it's tough to win in Ogden and the Cats haven't done it that often. They'd also have to solve Brad Huse's house of horrors in Holt Arena. For whatever reason, we don't play well there. In three weeks, we'll see where the Cats are at and if they're doing well, we can be hopeful, I guess. I'm not going to make any bold predictions as to how the Cats will finish or if history will repeat itself. I'm going to enjoy the ride as it comes.