WBB at PSU + Monday games

[CatBot]

Back in a tie for first place!!!

Guaranteed a top 5 finish and a bye now, no matter what happens. But need to win out to have a chance to earn the conference crown!

On one hand, a chance for a conference title is awesome. Plus I think it guarantees a post season birth even if we lose somewhere in tournament. On the other hand, I think Sac and ISU are the most dangerous opponents and Sac will probably end up in the 4-5 range. If we end up with a 2 or 3 slot, we won't have to meet either of those teams until the final. This should be an exciting finish!

[rivercat]

Back in a tie for first place!!!

Guaranteed a top 5 finish and a bye now, no matter what happens. But need to win out to have a chance to earn the conference crown!

On one hand, a chance for a conference title is awesome. Plus I think it guarantees a post season birth even if we lose somewhere in tournament. On the other hand, I think Sac and ISU are the most dangerous opponents and Sac will probably end up in the 4-5 range. If we end up with a 2 or 3 slot, we won't have to meet either of those teams until the final. This should be an exciting finish!

Cats have 3 games left and a 13-4 record. Fourth place (SAC and gris) are 9-7. The odds that the Cats lose out AND SAC or gris win out is extremely small. I'd say over a 90% Cats go into Boise as the 1, 2, or 3 seed.

[BobcatDel]

Can somebody please enlighten me as to what kind of defense we are playing? I haven’t got to watch much this year, but was shocked at the Eastern Washington game how open the 3 point shooters were from the corner all game long. Now I am seeing the same thing in this second half. Why can’t we get to the shooters???

I’ll give it a shot. Man defense, almost 100%. Switching all screens if possible. Bigger learning curve, but the starters especially do it very well and it’s very effective. It does lead to some size mismatches but no one has really exploited Darian very much! Our help side defense really sags in to help with the middle, especially against size (6’5” center) like Portland St. has. Our guards get a lot of defensive rebounds but we depend a lot on trying to close out the 3-point shooters or having them miss. If they are really threatening us with a good percentage they won’t be quite so open. Portland St. had a game plan but despite shooting a school record number of 3s, it didn’t work.

Lol! I’ve never seen a WBB Bobcat player close out on a 3! I don’t care if you’re talking starters or the trainer. Our 3 pt defense is atrocious! It looks like we lose players in the corner often, very often.

Bobcat4Ever has the scheme right. As to the shooter open in the corner you are right......notice what the other teams are trying to do to us to combat our scheme...since we do sag to help in the middle others are pushing it into the middle with drives or passes and then "kicking it out" as we collapse....and we can't recover fast enough so leave some pretty open 3s. But last night there were some contested 3 shots... gotta give them a little credit....and a lot of open shots too. I don't know......if a team is going to shoot their record 3 points and still score less than 60 total points....well I might say.....OK...have at it! But against better teams we still need to increase that recovery time to the ball, tenacity and pressure on the outside..I think we did better in the SUU game.


Edit: Just to confirm the observations... MSU is 9th of 11 teams with 3 point percentage allowed. Teams averaging 32.9% shooting the 3 against us. Only Idaho and Sac State are allowing higher percentage. Overall defense is 8th in league... last year our defense ranked 2nd in conference. Either Tori Martell was one helluva a defender as well as a 3point shooter (since she was the only starter we lost) or our defense scheme has changed or people are exploiting it better this year.

[BobcatDel]

Back in a tie for first place!!!

Guaranteed a top 5 finish and a bye now, no matter what happens. But need to win out to have a chance to earn the conference crown!

On one hand, a chance for a conference title is awesome. Plus I think it guarantees a post season birth even if we lose somewhere in tournament. On the other hand, I think Sac and ISU are the most dangerous opponents and Sac will probably end up in the 4-5 range. If we end up with a 2 or 3 slot, we won't have to meet either of those teams until the final. This should be an exciting finish!

Cats have 3 games left and a 13-4 record. Fourth place (SAC and gris) are 9-7. The odds that the Cats lose out AND SAC or gris win out is extremely small. I'd say over a 90% Cats go into Boise as the 1, 2, or 3 seed.

Yeah... the chance that SAC and gris both win out is nil since they play one another. The gris have a rough road with SUU, MSU, UNC and Sac State left. Sac State has a bit easier run with games at Idaho, EWU, MSU and the gris. Northern Arizona at 9-7 still has a tough one against Idaho State but the other 3 games are winnable.

Just one win gives the Cats one of top 3 slots (wished we had beaten EWU).

[MSU01]

Back in a tie for first place!!!

Guaranteed a top 5 finish and a bye now, no matter what happens. But need to win out to have a chance to earn the conference crown!

On one hand, a chance for a conference title is awesome. Plus I think it guarantees a post season birth even if we lose somewhere in tournament. On the other hand, I think Sac and ISU are the most dangerous opponents and Sac will probably end up in the 4-5 range. If we end up with a 2 or 3 slot, we won't have to meet either of those teams until the final. This should be an exciting finish!

I was also looking at the bracket possibilities over the weekend and my expert conclusion was that there are several scary teams that are going to be playing on Day 1 that I wouldn't be too comfortable seeing MSU matched up with in the quarterfinals (what happened to Idaho this year, from Preseason #3 pick to below .500?). SUU does seem to be a favorable SF matchup if MSU and SUU end up 2 and 3 in some order and both win in the quarters, and selfishly I wouldn't be upset to see MSU on that side of the bracket as the 2/3 side plays the evening games which are easier to watch. I was trying to figure out a potential ISU/MSU tiebreaker but it will depend too much on the results of games yet to be played to be able to get an idea of who'd have an advantage there.

[RickRund]

Back in a tie for first place!!!

Guaranteed a top 5 finish and a bye now, no matter what happens. But need to win out to have a chance to earn the conference crown!

On one hand, a chance for a conference title is awesome. Plus I think it guarantees a post season birth even if we lose somewhere in tournament. On the other hand, I think Sac and ISU are the most dangerous opponents and Sac will probably end up in the 4-5 range. If we end up with a 2 or 3 slot, we won't have to meet either of those teams until the final. This should be an exciting finish!

I was also looking at the bracket possibilities over the weekend and my expert conclusion was that there are several scary teams that are going to be playing on Day 1 that I wouldn't be too comfortable seeing MSU matched up with in the quarterfinals (what happened to Idaho this year, from Preseason #3 pick to below .500?). SUU does seem to be a favorable SF matchup if MSU and SUU end up 2 and 3 in some order and both win in the quarters, and selfishly I wouldn't be upset to see MSU on that side of the bracket as the 2/3 side plays the evening games which are easier to watch. I was trying to figure out a potential ISU/MSU tiebreaker but it will depend too much on the results of games yet to be played to be able to get an idea of who'd have an advantage there.

Just don't place the team to the west in the hard bracket.

[Bobcat4Ever]

Can somebody please enlighten me as to what kind of defense we are playing? I haven’t got to watch much this year, but was shocked at the Eastern Washington game how open the 3 point shooters were from the corner all game long. Now I am seeing the same thing in this second half. Why can’t we get to the shooters???

I’ll give it a shot. Man defense, almost 100%. Switching all screens if possible. Bigger learning curve, but the starters especially do it very well and it’s very effective. It does lead to some size mismatches but no one has really exploited Darian very much! Our help side defense really sags in to help with the middle, especially against size (6’5” center) like Portland St. has. Our guards get a lot of defensive rebounds but we depend a lot on trying to close out the 3-point shooters or having them miss. If they are really threatening us with a good percentage they won’t be quite so open. Portland St. had a game plan but despite shooting a school record number of 3s, it didn’t work.

Lol! I’ve never seen a WBB Bobcat player close out on a 3! I don’t care if you’re talking starters or the trainer. Our 3 pt defense is atrocious! It looks like we lose players in the corner often, very often.

I should have said “think about” closing out. Maybe it’s the old “Lookout!” defense. I’ll have to watch closely again. Earlier I was watching one specific player for a few games, as her person was shooting a lot of corner threes. The defender was hedging nearly to Belgrade, so that when she was able to run at the shooter it really wasn’t effective. The opponents in one game were running a toss-back play, where the forward was able to easily block the path of the defender and leave the shooter wide open. Our 2s and 3s are giving a lot of help clear to the lane, which is one reason for their rebounding.

Of one thing I am sure — the players are executing the defense the way the coaches want it done, since they are still playing. Last night reminded me of Muhammad Ali and the “rope-a-dope.” Just keep shooting 3s (which was isolating 2-3 offensive players 22 feet from the basket) and we’ll just dominate everything else. But I do love having discussions about the strategies — it makes the games more fun to watch.

[aucat]

Actually, our 3 point defense on Senior Day against SUU was very good, but overall you are correct. Somehow Coach Binford needs to instill the necessity to play intensive defense in all of their games. They are capable of it.

[Bobcat4Ever]

Actually, our 3 point defense on Senior Day against SUU was very good, but overall you are correct. Somehow Coach Binford needs to instill the necessity to play intensive defense in all of their games. They are capable of it.

I think they learned they needed to defend the three to beat SUU. How hard they defend it is a matter of style vs. a given team. There are some that they pretty much encourage to keep jackin’ ‘em up because it just won’t be a winning strategy. Against the teams that can beat them with the three they can get much more aggressive. I love watching Limardo when she decides that someone is not going to be hitting a three over her. Now comes the big rivalry game on Saturday. Go, ‘Cats, Go!