Reflections on Boise, MSU and our basketball programs

[aucat]

Having returned from Boise for my first time at the Big Sky Tournament I have to say that everything about the tournament was first class. The arena is great. Boise is great--so many good places to eat and places to visit.

We already know about the support we have for our football program, but to see the fan support by Bobcat basketball fans was very impressive. It's a long drive to Boise and the weather can be tough. The trip down was great. Coming back in a snowstorm was something else. But we had the most fans there by far. Everything about Montana State was first class: the band, the cheerleaders, the spirit squad, the MSU dancers.

The support by MSU President Waded Cruzado of MSU athletics is incredible. I'm glad that Leon is on the Selection Committee for the next president.

The women's program is elite. I'm concerned about the men's program. As someone else stated, no one expects MSU to produce teams that make a run in the NCAAs. However, given the support that MSU has in the Big Sky, which is tops in the conference, there is absolutely no excuse for Montana State to not consistently compete for Big Sky championships. This year's team turned out to be an enigma. They were picked preseason to win the Big Sky and early in the season battled even Big Ten Power Wisconsin to a close game. No one in the conference really handled MSU...until the last game against UNC, which was a complete inexplicable blowout.

I'm sure there will be a big crowd at the Brick Sunday for the women's selection show. It's the Bobcat way. Go Cats!

[snarf]

Having returned from Boise for my first time at the Big Sky Tournament I have to say that everything about the tournament was first class. The arena is great. Boise is great--so many good places to eat and places to visit.

We already know about the support we have for our football program, but to see the fan support by Bobcat basketball fans was very impressive. It's a long drive to Boise and the weather can be tough. The trip down was great. Coming back in a snowstorm was something else. But we had the most fans there by far. Everything about Montana State was first class: the band, the cheerleaders, the spirit squad, the MSU dancers.

The support by MSU President Waded Cruzado of MSU athletics is incredible. I'm glad that Leon is on the Selection Committee for the next president.

The women's program is elite. I'm concerned about the men's program. As someone else stated, no one expects MSU to produce teams that make a run in the NCAAs. However, given the support that MSU has in the Big Sky, which is tops in the conference, there is absolutely no excuse for Montana State to not consistently compete for Big Sky championships. This year's team turned out to be an enigma. They were picked preseason to win the Big Sky and early in the season battled even Big Ten Power Wisconsin to a close game. No one in the conference really handled MSU...until the last game against UNC, which was a complete inexplicable blowout.

I'm sure there will be a big crowd at the Brick today for the women's selection show. It's the Bobcat way. Go Cats!

The selection show is on Sunday. If you show up today, you can watch the AA state tournament.

[BelgradeBobcat]

I feel like the tournament is very slowly and very subtly gaining some traction with the locals in Boise. The businesses seem to know about it and there's some locals taking in the games that aren't tied to any of the schools. Idaho State and Idaho games did pretty well crowd wise. I think the best crowd was when our men played Idaho State on Monday night followed by Idaho playing Portland State. The 9:30 PM tip offs on Tuesday and Wednesday night definitely hurt attendance. If I'm a neutral who has to work the next day, I'm not going.

The Cat-griz women's final brought in a good crowd as both teams had fans there. I remember when we beat NAU in 22 and NAU had about 10 fans in the building. I was very surprised that MSU had more fans than um for that women's game as I figured with their men's team also in the championship they'd have a lot there.

It was a lot of fun. Boise has been good for the Bobcats. The women should keep that going next season. The men will need some recruiting miracles this off-season.

[imacat]

I feel like the tournament is very slowly and very subtly gaining some traction with the locals in Boise. The businesses seem to know about it and there's some locals taking in the games that aren't tied to any of the schools. Idaho State and Idaho games did pretty well crowd wise. I think the best crowd was when our men played Idaho State on Monday night followed by Idaho playing Portland State. The 9:30 PM tip offs on Tuesday and Wednesday night definitely hurt attendance. If I'm a neutral who has to work the next day, I'm not going.

The Cat-griz women's final brought in a good crowd as both teams had fans there. I remember when we beat NAU in 22 and NAU had about 10 fans in the building. I was very surprised that MSU had more fans than um for that women's game as I figured with their men's team also in the championship they'd have a lot there.

It was a lot of fun. Boise has been good for the Bobcats. The women should keep that going next season. The men will need some recruiting miracles this off-season.

“I was very surprised that MSU had more fans than um for that women's game as I figured with their men's team also in the championship they'd have a lot there.”

I believe this is a fake post - you obviously were not there. We all know, from listening to Grispath, the gris crowd was awesome while the Cat crowd was not worth a mention.

[Catfanatic84]

I had several locals comment about the game...."i heard you won at the last second"....so definitely gaining some traction.

[MSU01]

The women's program is elite. I'm concerned about the men's program. As someone else stated, no one expects MSU to produce teams that make a run in the NCAAs. However, given the support that MSU has in the Big Sky, which is tops in the conference, there is absolutely no excuse for Montana State to not consistently compete for Big Sky championships. This year's team turned out to be an enigma. They were picked preseason to win the Big Sky and early in the season battled even Big Ten Power Wisconsin to a close game. No one in the conference really handled MSU...until the last game against UNC, which was a complete inexplicable blowout.

The women's program is indeed elite, but I think we should all remember that Coach Binford didn't win her first championship until year 11 of her tenure at MSU. She had good enough results prior to that to not really be in danger of losing her job, but it was definitely up and down and having Robin Selvig still at UM during that time didn't help either. The women's team has also been relatively immune to the transfer portal so far aside from the losses of Leia Beattie and Grace Beasley after the '22-'23 season, which definitely hurt their depth the following season. Getting Morales from the portal this year was massive and put this year's team over the top.

College basketball especially is such a year-to-year sport these days that it's tough to expect any team to contend for championships every year. Louisville was one of the worst programs in the country for the past few seasons and this year's team under their new coach has something like 14 transfer portal signees and zero returning players who played on last year's team, yet they went 18-2 in the ACC this year and are playing in the ACC championship game against Duke tonight. I think Logie is a good coach and will have a lot of success if he's given time to build his program like Coach Binford was. It's worth remembering that Danny Sprinkle also finished 5th in the Big Sky in each of his first two years back at MSU. I do think that Logie will need to show that he can recruit and develop high school players and not just gamble on one-year transfer portal lottery tickets every year.

[lutecat]

The women's program is elite. I'm concerned about the men's program. As someone else stated, no one expects MSU to produce teams that make a run in the NCAAs. However, given the support that MSU has in the Big Sky, which is tops in the conference, there is absolutely no excuse for Montana State to not consistently compete for Big Sky championships. This year's team turned out to be an enigma. They were picked preseason to win the Big Sky and early in the season battled even Big Ten Power Wisconsin to a close game. No one in the conference really handled MSU...until the last game against UNC, which was a complete inexplicable blowout.

The women's program is indeed elite, but I think we should all remember that Coach Binford didn't win her first championship until year 11 of her tenure at MSU. She had good enough results prior to that to not really be in danger of losing her job, but it was definitely up and down and having Robin Selvig still at UM during that time didn't help either. The women's team has also been relatively immune to the transfer portal so far aside from the losses of Leia Beattie and Grace Beasley after the '22-'23 season, which definitely hurt their depth the following season. Getting Morales from the portal this year was massive and put this year's team over the top.

College basketball especially is such a year-to-year sport these days that it's tough to expect any team to contend for championships every year. Louisville was one of the worst programs in the country for the past few seasons and this year's team under their new coach has something like 14 transfer portal signees and zero returning players who played on last year's team, yet they went 18-2 in the ACC this year and are playing in the ACC championship game against Duke tonight. I think Logie is a good coach and will have a lot of success if he's given time to build his program like Coach Binford was. It's worth remembering that Danny Sprinkle also finished 5th in the Big Sky in each of his first two years back at MSU. I do think that Logie will need to show that he can recruit and develop high school players and not just gamble on one-year transfer portal lottery tickets every year.

Hopefully there are no transfers but I will point out we had a Leia Beattie transfer like you said but last year we had two other Leah's transfer. Leà Boulanger along with MaLEA Egan....lol. the Leah's leave our program.

[MSU01]

The women's program is elite. I'm concerned about the men's program. As someone else stated, no one expects MSU to produce teams that make a run in the NCAAs. However, given the support that MSU has in the Big Sky, which is tops in the conference, there is absolutely no excuse for Montana State to not consistently compete for Big Sky championships. This year's team turned out to be an enigma. They were picked preseason to win the Big Sky and early in the season battled even Big Ten Power Wisconsin to a close game. No one in the conference really handled MSU...until the last game against UNC, which was a complete inexplicable blowout.

The women's program is indeed elite, but I think we should all remember that Coach Binford didn't win her first championship until year 11 of her tenure at MSU. She had good enough results prior to that to not really be in danger of losing her job, but it was definitely up and down and having Robin Selvig still at UM during that time didn't help either. The women's team has also been relatively immune to the transfer portal so far aside from the losses of Leia Beattie and Grace Beasley after the '22-'23 season, which definitely hurt their depth the following season. Getting Morales from the portal this year was massive and put this year's team over the top.

College basketball especially is such a year-to-year sport these days that it's tough to expect any team to contend for championships every year. Louisville was one of the worst programs in the country for the past few seasons and this year's team under their new coach has something like 14 transfer portal signees and zero returning players who played on last year's team, yet they went 18-2 in the ACC this year and are playing in the ACC championship game against Duke tonight. I think Logie is a good coach and will have a lot of success if he's given time to build his program like Coach Binford was. It's worth remembering that Danny Sprinkle also finished 5th in the Big Sky in each of his first two years back at MSU. I do think that Logie will need to show that he can recruit and develop high school players and not just gamble on one-year transfer portal lottery tickets every year.

Hopefully there are no transfers but I will point out we had a Leia Beattie transfer like you said but last year we had two other Leah's transfer. Leà Boulanger along with MaLEA Egan....lol. the Leah's leave our program.

Very true, there were a couple transfers this past off-season but it would be very hard to argue that either of those players leaving had a detrimental effect on MSU's season this year. Purely from a talent perspective losing Beattie and Beasley did hurt the '23-'24 team, although perhaps at least in the case of Beasley it was a necessary departure as she quite vocally stated on her way out that she didn't see eye to eye with Coach Binford. Transfers are going to be a yearly thing moving forward but you just have to hope that the players who leave mostly come from the bottom end of your roster as opposed to from the top.