The Bobcat Nation

Looking forward to tonight's games! It will be interesting to see whether Idaho is back at full strength after their Covid issues, and if NAU can give them a run for their money. I always get jittery about watching MSU in conference tournaments, no matter how heavily favored they are to win. Will Sac State be able to carry over their intensity from the fourth quarter last night or will they run out of gas resulting in a comfortable trip to the semis for MSU? I'd bet on the latter but we shall see.

Sac State has ALWAYS been a crazy, scrappy team and fun to watch. I remember the year Peyton was on the team and we won the regular season so were the number one seed. We bought a plane ticket to Reno. Our women were upset. In fact BOTH men and women were "one and done." So there we were stuck in Reno for the rest of the tournament. We "adopted" the Sac State team and as I recall they made it all the way to the finals. It will be very tough to beat them a third time, just as the Lady Griz discovered. Sac State has a lot of momentum right now and remember they pretty much had their way with us for three quarters in that first game, until we turned around in the fourth quarter. I'm sure our ladies will be ready. I just hope the shots are falling tonight. Go Cats!

The griz were handicapped against Sacramento St. by their inability to shoot from the outside (4-31, 12.9%) and their relative lack of team speed/quickness which played into their difficulty in obtaining good shots. Only five griz players scored in the game!

How to beat the Hornets: Stop Menke who had 18 points and 14 rebounds, 12 on the defensive end which limited the griz in finding second shots. I’m betting that KJ will get the assignment, but whoever better get a lot of help. Menke played 39 minutes, the most of any Hornet. So we just need to play our game. Run. Limiting turnovers will be vital. Make the easy passes, move the rock. Spread the scoring. Multiple players need to make three-pointers. If so, we win.

Go ‘Cats!!

The best thing that ever happened was Sac almost beating us last week. I don't think our players will be looking past them today. I like our speedy perimeter players to keep them somewhat contained-Jackson, LImardo, White, Martell, and Ranson. If Sac beats us they'll have to shoot over us from way out. They have the advantage of playing in the arena yesterday. We have the advantage of being more fresh and also being much deeper. I think we'll roll them...but it's tournament time. Anything can happen.

ISU sends a strong message this afternoon-blowing out a pretty good Portland State team. The Bengals are on a mission.

I saw a betting line that has the Bobcats as 16.5 favorites over Sac. I think that is pretty accurate.

Announcers just said that Idaho is still down by two starters including Gina Marxen. Still a lot of talent there but that widens the door a bit for MSU on this side of the bracket.

I wonder what the betting line was in our first game with Sac State? Tournaments are weird. It’s about who gets hot and Sac State is hot right now! We have 7 freshmen playing in their first conference tournament. We don’t have any idea who is or isn’t going to show up tonight. I don’t want to be negative, but I don’t think this is going to be a walk in the park! I hope I’m wrong!

NAU looked like world beaters yesterday. Today they can't hit the ocean from a row boat. Unless something changes drastically in the second half the Vandals will be playing the winner of our game tomorrow night.

Last night I posted that it looked like Menke for SAC state looked like she was limping and grimacing in pain so I went back and took a look. With about 35 seconds left in the game there is a time out and if you watch her walk to the sideline and more especially as the camera is on her after the time out, she's got something going on. I do hope she's ok but the Cats should challenge her right off to see if she's at full strength or if it's something that will show up today. I don't know how to post a short clip of that section of the game here or I would do that.

The Big Sky website has the plus/minus statistic that is a measure of the point differential when players are in and out of a game. I think it’s a very telling statistic about how a players floor time effects the game. With a little manipulation on my part, the following table represents that stat for the players who had a combined 17 minutes or more in their two tournament games:

Minutes +/-
Van Sickle 17 23
Jackson 17 6
Deden 46 6
Ranson 16 5
Beattie 30 4
Mocchi 43 -6
Limardo 53 -8
Martell 66 -10
Lindsay 26 -22
White 63 -30

Deden and Van Sickle (albeit in limited minutes) were solid. Not to good of a tournament for White and Lindsay. If this stat was available for the overall regular season, I would be surprised if Deden didn't lead the team.

Tournament will be in Boise until at least 2026. I highly recommend it-it's a lot of fun and downtown Boise is very nice.

BelgradeBobcat wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 11, 2021 8:07 pm

Tournament will be in Boise until at least 2026. I highly recommend it-it's a lot of fun and downtown Boise is very nice.

This has been on of the better decisions the conference has made.

Bocephus wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 12, 2021 7:29 am

BelgradeBobcat wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 11, 2021 8:07 pm

Tournament will be in Boise until at least 2026. I highly recommend it-it's a lot of fun and downtown Boise is very nice.

This has been on of the better decisions the conference has made.

I like the atmosphere in Boise. But I hate that we went away from regular season champ hosting.

But I've beat that to death.

UI vs. ISU off to a rocking start. I don't think ISU has missed yet. Very early. As physical as these two teams are, it could be a blood bath!

ISU killing Idaho right now, as the Cats were doing too when it was a straight up basketball game. Let's see if Idaho deploys their "f*ck it let's just kick the sh*t out of them" tactic in the 2nd half.

ISU is just slicing Idaho up. It has been an impressive performance. The problem with getting physical with ISU-they absolutely love it. They're built for it.

arvcat2 wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 11, 2021 7:59 pm

The Big Sky website has the plus/minus statistic that is a measure of the point differential when players are in and out of a game. I think it’s a very telling statistic about how a players floor time effects the game. With a little manipulation on my part, the following table represents that stat for the players who had a combined 17 minutes or more in their two tournament games:

Minutes +/-
Van Sickle 17 23
Jackson 17 6
Deden 46 6
Ranson 16 5
Beattie 30 4
Mocchi 43 -6
Limardo 53 -8
Martell 66 -10
Lindsay 26 -22
White 63 -30

Deden and Van Sickle (albeit in limited minutes) were solid. Not to good of a tournament for White and Lindsay. If this stat was available for the overall regular season, I would be surprised if Deden didn't lead the team.

@arvcat2 Plus/minus is available on a game-by-game basis. I always look at it after the game. If you go to the Livestats for the game and choose the Home Box or Visitors Box, the minutes and plus/minus are there in the last two columns to the right. The Livestats for all Big Sky games can be found at http://www.statbroadcast.com/events/con ... 1&conf=bsc.

One really has to look at +/- per minutes played. Interestingly, Leia Beattie often shines in the plus/minus, for good reason.

BelgradeBobcat wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 12, 2021 2:05 pm

ISU is just slicing Idaho up. It has been an impressive performance. The problem with getting physical with ISU-they absolutely love it. They're built for it.

I think the Vandals used all their luck in the last game. Not saying they got lucky, but every break in the 3rd went their way.

Your right about getting physical with them. The Bengals thrive on it. I hope they get a decent seed and maybe win a game or two. That will be good for the Big Sky

Congratulations to Idaho State. Their non-conference record was stellar. They are this year’s best team, and will represent the Big Sky in the NCAAs very well.

They got in a reasonable number of games and finished with a 21-3 record. Their only non-conference loss was to Nebraska, 64-51 in just their second game of the year. The only other teams to defeat them were Idaho and Montana State. They defeated Utah State and Kansas State, both by very comfortable margins.

Well, that was night and day difference, not a physical game at all. Play was very clean throughout. Idaho was whistled for only three (3) personal fouls. Idaho State got 14, pretty typical. Well-officiated IMHO. They called what happened and not much happened.