EWU's Burns on MSU...

Obzerver · Post by **Obzerver** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 5:10 pm

Here's part of a release from Eastern's Basketball Coach...

Burns picks Montana State as the favorite in the Big Sky this season,
based on MSU's returning talent and the team's 9-5 finish in the Big Sky
that was good enough for second. Last year, third-seeded Montana knocked
off the second-seeded Bobcats in the Big Sky Tournament semifinals,
while regular season champion and host Portland State fell to
fourth-seeded Weber State. The Grizzlies, who beat Eastern in the
quarterfinal round, advanced to the NCAA Tournament with a 63-61 victory
over the Wildcats in the the title game.

"Trying to pick second through eighth in our league is really
difficult," admitted Burns. "I think Montana State deserves to be picked
as the preseason favorite because they finished second last year and
return their top six players. They've earned that honor, but ranking
everybody after that is difficult. I think it will come down to who is
playing well, who is not injured and those sorts of things. It will be
an exciting, exciting season in the Big Sky -- I know that much."

mquast53000 · Post by **mquast53000** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 8:45 am

To bad Mick and Company didn’t get a better non-conference schedule. If the Cats are going to be as good as predicted that would make a huge difference when the NCAA or NIT Tournaments come around.

mslacat · Post by **mslacat** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 11:39 am

mquast53000 wrote:To bad Mick and Company didn’t get a better non-conference schedule. If the Cats are going to be as good as predicted that would make a huge difference when the NCAA or NIT Tournaments come around.

I have heard that Johnny Brown put this years schedule together. I talked to him when he was in Missoula and was quite proud of it. He really felt it was ideal to get us ready for the conference AND have a good season record for the post season. Ie the coaches are really pointing towards the post season. I have also talked to some folks in the athletic department and there are some folks that are VERY disapointed in the schedule. It is viewed as being very soft (one person called it the weakest in the Big Sky) and they worry about this schedule as not being suffecient to prep the team for Conference.

In my opinion if we do not have a pretty good record coming into conference, it will be a long season.

torrybruce · Post by **torrybruce** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 12:04 pm

As an EWU alum it's good to see Burnsy givin' high marks to MSU. I like the speed that Mick will be bringing to the game. I heard that Burns and EWU lost 3 players who transfered out of the system. Can anyone confirm that rumor. I think Erik Henkel, Danny Pariseau (one of my residents when I was an RA there), and I don't know who the third is. We'll see what shakes up. Burns needs to bring back the die hard defense he had as an Assistant to Ray Giacolleti. It should be fun again in the big sky and I hope we can host the Tourney here this year. I remember when EWU hosted it and it was a blast.

HelenaCat95 · Post by **HelenaCat95** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 12:19 pm

I'm pretty sure Erik Henkel transferred to Carroll College here in Helena.

mslacat · Post by **mslacat** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 1:28 pm

torrybruce wrote:As an EWU alum it's good to see Burnsy givin' high marks to MSU. I like the speed that Mick will be bringing to the game. I heard that Burns and EWU lost 3 players who transfered out of the system. Can anyone confirm that rumor. I think Erik Henkel, Danny Pariseau (one of my residents when I was an RA there), and I don't know who the third is. We'll see what shakes up. Burns needs to bring back the die hard defense he had as an Assistant to Ray Giacolleti. It should be fun again in the big sky and I hope we can host the Tourney here this year. I remember when EWU hosted it and it was a blast.

As of this week Eastern Washington has lost 4 underclassmen player from last years team. Henkle (reserve), and Pariseau (a starter)as mentioned above, but also starting forward Nelson (sp?). It was also anounced earlier this week that James Loe a reserve guard is also tranfering out.

Last year I really though that EWU could be a top 3 team this year with all of their youth, but after losing these 4 player it will be real interesting to see how they do next year.

BTW Henkle is going to Carroll and Nelson to Boise State.