The Bobcat Nation

Cats win 70-64, ugly win yet effective. The Cats got up 20-6 at one point early but Idaho cut it to 5 at the half. MSU had a couple 10-point leads in the second half but were never able to go on a run to put the game out of reach. Sprinkle will not be happy with the missed free throws and turnovers late to make the ending more nervewracking than it needed to be. Big game next Saturday in Ogden (ISU Thursday is postponed), MSU will need to play a lot better than they did this weekend to have any kind of a shot in that one.

Good teams win ugly games. Pretty frustrating overall considering Idaho was short handed and had their bigs in foul trouble. Mackey was spot on by saying that no one’s gonna like sitting down to watch film on Monday

Go cats! Keep it rollin!

Wow...how long has it been since a Bobcat men's basketball team has been 16-5?

FYI wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 29, 2022 7:56 pm

Wow...how long has it been since a Bobcat men's basketball team has been 16-5?

Just checked out the MSU Media Guide and the answer is the '97-'98 season. MSU started 17-5 before losing its last 6 games of the regular season. They did win two games in the conference tournament but lost to NAU in the title game.

MSU01 wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 29, 2022 8:17 pm

FYI wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 29, 2022 7:56 pm

Wow...how long has it been since a Bobcat men's basketball team has been 16-5?

Just checked out the MSU Media Guide and the answer is the '97-'98 season. MSU started 17-5 before losing its last 6 games of the regular season. They did win two games in the conference tournament but lost to NAU in the title game.

Any guesses on how many of the 8 or 9 regular season games Bobcats, or any Big Sky team, need to win to get a tournament invite if they don’t capture the tournament title? Any tournament that is.

Rich K wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 29, 2022 8:31 pm

MSU01 wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 29, 2022 8:17 pm

FYI wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 29, 2022 7:56 pm

Wow...how long has it been since a Bobcat men's basketball team has been 16-5?

Just checked out the MSU Media Guide and the answer is the '97-'98 season. MSU started 17-5 before losing its last 6 games of the regular season. They did win two games in the conference tournament but lost to NAU in the title game.

Any guesses on how many of the 8 or 9 regular season games Bobcats, or any Big Sky team, need to win to get a tournament invite if they don’t capture the tournament title? Any tournament that is.

Tough to say, if all the tournaments are being played this year I'd guess any Big Sky team with 4 or fewer conference losses would be in a very strong position and teams with 5 or 6 losses would be on the bubble for being selected.

Undefeated in January...but next is February. We all know what February brings (insert ominous sounding music here).

The opposing team's strategy: Beat the absolute snot out of Jubrile Belo because they only call about 1/3 of the actual fouls on him. Hit him high and low. It's an absolute miracle that Idaho only fouled out 1 guy. They should have run out of inside guys with 10 minutes to go. It's utterly ridiculous.

RaeQuan Battle was the key for us in this game. Without him we might have lost. He's gotten better with each game this month. Sprinkle is going to have a hard time keeping him out of the lineup. Adamu and Mohamed need to pick it up or lose minutes.

It's good to play really bad and still win. Man it was ugly. Nice crowd though.

It's a win, and that's all that matters. The Cats defense is looking good, the offense sputtered. Nice to see the fans back in the Brick and I think the fan support will improve as we move past Covid and the Cats keep on winning!

I was at the game. I didn’t think RaeQuan played very good on the defensive end but he made some key plays on offense. Jubrile did get beat up on the inside but he was making too many moves after got the ball and wasn’t hitting his little jump hooks at all. The Cats should have blown Idaho out. The free throw game was super frustrating.

MSU01 wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 29, 2022 7:17 pm

Sprinkle will not be happy with the missed free throws and turnovers late to make the ending more nervewracking than it needed to be.

I guess this team has more than one way they can win. The EWU game was won on free throws.

The fellas gutted out the win which is good...but at this point in the season, when you're at home against a short handed team that's 5-15 on the year..you should roll! Weber next Saturday will be a tough out, but MSU has the talent to win if they bring their "A" game.

BelgradeBobcat wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 29, 2022 8:56 pm

Undefeated in January...but next is February. We all know what February brings (insert ominous sounding music here).

This February is going to be different because we have more quality depth than any team in the last 20 years.

MSU01 wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 29, 2022 8:17 pm

FYI wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 29, 2022 7:56 pm

Wow...how long has it been since a Bobcat men's basketball team has been 16-5?

Just checked out the MSU Media Guide and the answer is the '97-'98 season. MSU started 17-5 before losing its last 6 games of the regular season. They did win two games in the conference tournament but lost to NAU in the title game.

AND..the rest of the story...in 1997-98 junior Danny Sprinkle averaged 13.5 ppg!!
The guy is a winner!!

I thought we had a great crowd for a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon playing a lower tier team in the Big Sky.

As others have stated, we need to bring our A game going forward. This was a C game.

Sometimes short-handed teams are difficult to beat. Everyone on the bench knows they will get a bunch of minutes. So they play with less pressure and more confidence than if they are expecting to get the hook any second. Short-handed teams can be dangerous.

aucat wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 30, 2022 12:30 pm

I thought we had a great crowd for a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon playing a lower tier team in the Big Sky.

As others have stated, we need to bring our A game going forward. This was a C game.

Was a great crowd size wise. PA, band and students tried to get some energy going. But other than the first run to get up 20-6 just not a lot of other spurts by the team to help keep crowd in it.

tetoncat wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 30, 2022 3:58 pm

aucat wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 30, 2022 12:30 pm

I thought we had a great crowd for a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon playing a lower tier team in the Big Sky.

As others have stated, we need to bring our A game going forward. This was a C game.

Was a great crowd size wise. PA, band and students tried to get some energy going. But other than the first run to get up 20-6 just not a lot of other spurts by the team to help keep crowd in it.

And then there are those who will say it's the crowds job to keep the team in it.

I agree to a certain extent on the crowds job. I just think that takes a while to develop. We are getting more fans and many are the casual type. So the crowd initiating the energy can take time in that scenario. I guess I would compare to high school. Home crowds are sometimes good, but get a tournament environment and great. We need that tournament environment and attitude.

No bad wins in conference games. If you look at almost every team in every conference, you're going to lose to somebody you shouldn't lose to. Auburn barely beat Mizzou the other day. It's hard to win these games sometimes in basketball. It shouldn't ever sound an alarm just because there was a close game, although teams should always be able to learn something about themselves and improve on any game. Keep it rolling boys!