Next year

[mslacatfan]

Osobor/Battle/Brown.

That is a hell of a trio to build around. Others obviously returning as well (hopefully), but those 3 are all first team all big sky caliber players.

Helluva year! Frustrating last game, but it’s hard to complain about back to back trips to the dance.

Go Cats!

[MSU01]

The first question to me is will the coaching staff return intact next year. Looking at the list of available jobs right now there aren't many openings in the western part of the country, which could help. A couple Pac-12 coaches who were on the hot seat will return next year and Cal may be more likely to hire the other Montana head coach given his history there.

Excited to see Patrick McMahon come back healthy next year and if any of this year's freshmen can contribute, particularly Jed Miller who could be the shooter MSU desperately needs.

[gtapp]

The bench was weak this year. Patterson, Gazelas and Lecholat all took a step back this year. In particular Lecholat lacked any confidence. He looked like he was scared to touch the ball the whole season. Patterson also was always afraid to pull the trigger and shoot. I also expected Germer to get more minutes than he did. I thought all four would be contributors this year and each played only a few minutes per game.

[GrizgradCatFan]

Danny has nothing left.to prove here and should move on If the right job is available. If your a true cat fan you should want to see him reach his pinnacle and make real retirement money. If Danny leaves I worry about Great leaving. I am not going to even discuss battle but you can't blame any of them for.putting themselves in better positions in life. GREAT EFFORT CATS!

[BelligerentBobcat]

Brown/Osobor/Battle is probably the best trio in the BSC.

They desperately need shooting. With all due respect, but too often the starting lineup had players who contributed very little. Depth seemed pretty poor to me too, with the exception of Ford. But they need shooting in the worst way. If they had somebody who could at least hit a shot other than Battle and Brown, that game last night was winnable.

[GrizgradCatFan]

Looks like the kid from ICW is a scorer but only 6'1 and we have enough small guards. You can't play him with Darius and Ford on the court. Next year will be a big year for Sam and Patrick as both need to step up and be threats on both sides of the ball. I will be curious as Nick has been phased out and not sure where he fits in really. Also does the germer kid step up or move on. I think you will see atleast 2 if not 4 kids move on to somewhere else. That's what happens with a program on the rise.

[HighPlainsBobcat]

The bench was weak this year. Patterson, Gazelas and Lecholat all took a step back this year. In particular Lecholat lacked any confidence. He looked like he was scared to touch the ball the whole season. Patterson also was always afraid to pull the trigger and shoot. I also expected Germer to get more minutes than he did. I thought all four would be contributors this year and each played only a few minutes per game.

Ask yourself why they didn’t get minutes. It’s not because they can’t play or even contribute. It became overtly obvious as soon as conference play started, only 8/9 were going to get significant minutes. Coaches doesn’t bring in Jr and Sr Grad transfers to sit the bench. Do you go to practice and see what’s going on? Do you see the dynamics of who’s constantly playing scout team? I’m going to guess not. We’re all left to guess why kids don’t get minutes, but in this case, it’s not for the lack of ability.

[tetoncat]

Very good effort. Started a little timid. Used Brown and Ford together a lot in Big Sky tourney not as much lSt night. Those 2, battle, great, and Fuller (for defense) were best lineup. Needed gazales, Patterson to hot something. Nick finally did last night. Belo did not have a good game, he can't overpower people at that level like he does in conference.

Fuller would not take open shot, Patterson had nice look at FT line he hit after cut, but showed all year he is really only a spot up 3 threat and regressed this year.

Someone already stated Battle can only transfer without sitting as a graduate so I don't think he is going anywhere. Get some scoring transfers, develop you g depth that you have confidence in, win a few more non conference to get better seed.

Battle was stud transfer, Danny has had several others, Belo and Osobar improved under him, but I don't think there have been any other freshman come in during his 4 years that they have hit home run on or developed. That is one knock on staff. But, transfer portal might be the way now

[mslacatfan]

[quote=tetoncat post_id=820057 time=1679152059 user_id=636

Battle was stud transfer, Danny has had several others, Belo and Osobar improved under him, but I don't think there have been any other freshman come in during his 4 years that they have hit home run on or developed. That is one knock on staff. But, transfer portal might be the way now
[/quote]


You can put McMahon on that list as well. Just had some bad luck with an injury, but that guy is a stud (who came in as a freshman). Has the potential to be a big contributor. That was probably a bigger loss this year than people talked about. Really hurt the depth

[Cat Grad]

Hey! Why hasn't anyone started whining about the lack of Montana kids on the roster? You know, the ones who only played in a zone defense all through high school and have absolutely no idea what the backboard could be used for on layups or better yet, what a bounce pass looks like!

Instead of enjoying the results of a coaching staff that has a four year record of 82-43, let's all bitch and moan about why they couldn't do better against a top 15 team, okay?

[HighPlainsBobcat]

The core of the team is extremely solid. As some have said, loosing McMahon was big. The “Young Guns” (McMahon, Lecholat, Miller, & Germer) as they’ve been called play a different style. They play best when the game is free flowing and they’re allowed to attack and play off of each other. Just need to fill a couple of holes.

[BleedsBobcatBlue]

Love Brown and Ford’s game. Brown is a very underrated driver so spreading out more to let him create would help. If both of them could improve their shooting just a little bit to knock down open jumpers we’ll be the 1 seed in the BSC for sure. Unfortunately I think Sprinkle is gone though so hopefully we can keep the main core of guys still.

[BleedsBobcatBlue]

A lot of love by everyone for Osobor/Battle/Brown which is well deserved but I think next year will follow the development of Brown and Ford especially. Brown is an underrated driver just hasn't had the space to really create especially with lineups that had both Belo and Osobor on the floor. If Brown and Ford can both improve their shooting just a little bit to consistently knock down open 3s then the BSC 3 peat would almost be expected. Unfortunately I think Sprinkle is gone and with that the biggest challenge will be trying to keep all those main guys. Hope they all stay but if they don't I wish them nothing but the best and thank them for where they've left the program.

[aucat]

Well college athletics is a crazy landscape these days. Seems like every game you watch the announcers tell us that key players were playing for some other team the year before. That being said I just don't expect us to lose our key guys Battle, Osobar and Brown.

I'm confident that Sprinkle will find us a shooter. Someone who is really reliable shooting 3s.

As for Sprinkle, he's coaching his alma mater and he's only been here for four years. I would really be surprised if he leaves.

Rather, I hope he is on his way to developing a dynasty in the Big Sky

[BelgradeBobcat]

We will miss Belo more than we know. Even though his offensive stats were pedestrian he impacted the game in a huge way. Even against K-State. We had probably 8 wide, wide open three point shots against a Big 12 defense. Why? Because they were all packed in against Great and Jubrile. Belo was Fish's recruit. Sprinkle did a good job of re-recruiting him when he was hired. But Sprinkle hasn't won a meaningful game without Belo as a head coach. So (maybe this is just my hope) other programs may look at that fact and give pause to hiring Sprinkle away from us this season. Can Sprinkle keep this thing going without Belo? I think he can, but we'll see. Sprinkle's physical attacking inside-outside style worked great against Big Sky teams who are smaller, light, and fast. Will it work so well without Belo causing three guys to collapse on him and without Belo protecting the rim on defense? If everyone comes back, including Sprinkle, we're going to be really good again. But other programs, like Weber are recruiting like crazy to catch up to us, and EWU has almost everybody back. The league will be pretty good next season.

[BelligerentBobcat]

We will miss Belo more than we know. Even though his offensive stats were pedestrian he impacted the game in a huge way. Even against K-State. We had probably 8 wide, wide open three point shots against a Big 12 defense. Why? Because they were all packed in against Great and Jubrile. Belo was Fish's recruit. Sprinkle did a good job of re-recruiting him when he was hired. But Sprinkle hasn't won a meaningful game without Belo as a head coach. So (maybe this is just my hope) other programs may look at that fact and give pause to hiring Sprinkle away from us this season. Can Sprinkle keep this thing going without Belo? I think he can, but we'll see. Sprinkle's physical attacking inside-outside style worked great against Big Sky teams who are smaller, light, and fast. Will it work so well without Belo causing three guys to collapse on him and without Belo protecting the rim on defense? If everyone comes back, including Sprinkle, we're going to be really good again. But other programs, like Weber are recruiting like crazy to catch up to us, and EWU has almost everybody back. The league will be pretty good next season.

Is this Sprinkle’s preferred style or is he just using the style that works best for the players he has? We don’t really know that yet.

[BelligerentBobcat]

The bench was weak this year. Patterson, Gazelas and Lecholat all took a step back this year. In particular Lecholat lacked any confidence. He looked like he was scared to touch the ball the whole season. Patterson also was always afraid to pull the trigger and shoot. I also expected Germer to get more minutes than he did. I thought all four would be contributors this year and each played only a few minutes per game.

Ask yourself why they didn’t get minutes. It’s not because they can’t play or even contribute. It became overtly obvious as soon as conference play started, only 8/9 were going to get significant minutes. Coaches doesn’t bring in Jr and Sr Grad transfers to sit the bench. Do you go to practice and see what’s going on? Do you see the dynamics of who’s constantly playing scout team? I’m going to guess not. We’re all left to guess why kids don’t get minutes, but in this case, it’s not for the lack of ability.

With all due respect, one can watch the games and see pretty easily why some guys don’t get more minutes. The bench has played bad all season. If they can’t play good in games, they aren’t going to get more minutes.

[tetoncat]

Hey! Why hasn't anyone started whining about the lack of Montana kids on the roster? You know, the ones who only played in a zone defense all through high school and have absolutely no idea what the backboard could be used for on layups or better yet, what a bounce pass looks like!

Instead of enjoying the results of a coaching staff that has a four year record of 82-43, let's all bitch and moan about why they couldn't do better against a top 15 team, okay?

Sorry this is the next year thread, thought we could talk a out where we can improve. 2023 was another good year next step is continued improvement so we can actually win game. If you don't want continued improvement that is your choice but maybe don't read this thread.

[tetoncat]

The bench was weak this year. Patterson, Gazelas and Lecholat all took a step back this year. In particular Lecholat lacked any confidence. He looked like he was scared to touch the ball the whole season. Patterson also was always afraid to pull the trigger and shoot. I also expected Germer to get more minutes than he did. I thought all four would be contributors this year and each played only a few minutes per game.

Ask yourself why they didn’t get minutes. It’s not because they can’t play or even contribute. It became overtly obvious as soon as conference play started, only 8/9 were going to get significant minutes. Coaches doesn’t bring in Jr and Sr Grad transfers to sit the bench. Do you go to practice and see what’s going on? Do you see the dynamics of who’s constantly playing scout team? I’m going to guess not. We’re all left to guess why kids don’t get minutes, but in this case, it’s not for the lack of ability.

With all due respect, one can watch the games and see pretty easily why some guys don’t get more minutes. The bench has played bad all season. If they can’t play good in games, they aren’t going to get more minutes.

And we had as many bench minutes as KSU.

[Long Time Cat]

Anybody else get the impression from the post game press conference that Sprinkle has some issue with Great's work ethic? Or maybe it's just a motivational tool to get him to work even harder.

If Sprinkle, Brown, Battle and Osobor are back we are in really good shape for next year. Respectively the 3 best returning players in the conference at their position.