MBB-Next year

[wbtfg]

Honestly I can only think of one off the top of my head and I'm not sure he would have gone to MSU anyway, but the Pearson kid from Big Sandy rather than Brumwell. Not picking on Brumwell, but watching the two of them play together, Pearson was by far the better all-around player, tons more talent, better shooter, ball handler, etc. I didn't hear if he was offered but I know Brumwell was before his senior season even started and I was shocked, honestly. With injuries, lack of intensity and seeming inability to play without Pearson, I didn't know what the scout was thinking. Pearson is at Northern and will likely do well, but I think MSU picked the wrong one. Time will tell.

Outside of that, not being a huge basketball aficionado, I'm not sure who else and I'm sure competing against football can be a factor too.

I seem to remember the Pearson issue was somewhat of an academic issue. Not sure but something in the back of my mind makes me think that was part of the issue.

I also found it interesting that Corbin redshirted for MSU-Northern this year. With all the hype, I was half expecting him to start.

[classicat]

Not sure about the academic issue with Pearson but that could certainly be. I heard he wanted to stay closer to home. Who knows? As far as the redshirt, surprised me too but then someone told me he went into it that way, fully expecting to so he could slowly adapt to college rather than jump in too fast. Sounded like Northern had quite a few upper classmen too. Brumwell, on the other hand, fully expected to play and not red shirt and my sources said that he wasn't real fond of that idea at all but wasn't really given another option other than to not play at all.

[whatever]

montana is a football state, and the hoops players just aren't there talent wise in the grand scheme of things. we have good players in this state, but if you compare our best to the best of washington, oregon, caliornia, texas, nevada, etc. they don't stack up. the biggest difference of all is the overall talent across the board is geting much better over the last 20 years. well actually...it get's better all the time but just looking at guys in this state over the last 20 or so years. and while i loved watching those cat and even griz teams of the nineties, there is not a doubt in my mind that some of those teams...while really good...had players on it that wouldn't sniff the court today. the overall parody of college basketball today is changing the game a lot. and it's great because we are witnessing a better product overall....but it hurts too because we are going to see less ad less montana kids playing for the cats and griz. but that is great for our local naia teams. these kids are getting really good. there are many kids playing at this level that are a fraction away from being a division one player. if you watched western or carroll play 15 years ago you probably weren't too impressed with the level of talent or competition. go watch a game now. these teams are good, and the brand of basketball is great. but the state of montana rarely has more than one or two kids capable of playing D1 NOW, in this decade. get those kids, and find talent elsewhere. then let those others around the state that are also great players go to carroll, rocky, tech, western, etc. and we'll watch that level of hoops continue to rise as well.

No offense but if you don't think there are any players in MT that are better than Trujeque or Tor Anderson you should attend a few more HS games dude. I watched a couple of those HS players tear up Dip****s Elite camp recruits mentioned earlier for almost a solid week 2 summers ago.

But please all MT players come walk on so we don't have to take a chance on you. We'd rather have some really quick, athletic, non scoring, poor shooting players from some other state for all you fans to not care about.

[ilovethecats]

No offense but if you don't think there are any players in MT that are better than Trujeque or Tor Anderson you should attend a few more HS games dude. I watched a couple of those HS players tear up Dip****s Elite camp recruits mentioned earlier for almost a solid week 2 summers ago.

But please all MT players come walk on so we don't have to take a chance on you. We'd rather have some really quick, athletic, non scoring, poor shooting players from some other state for all you fans to not care about.

i am likely wasting my time here but i just have to respond. i just can't figure out how you came to that conclusion after reading my post from months ago. if you knew anything about me and my posts, it's that i tend to be overly critical of the hoops team. i played high school ball in montana as well as college. i then went on to coach in the state and am very aware of the level of talent in this state. my biggest knock on huse has always been that i don't think he's a great recruiter.

that said, i think anderson and trujeque were both HUGE reaches to play division one basketball. there is no doubt that you could find better players in the state of montana than these two. that doesn't say much for the talent in the state, rather it shows that these guys just weren't d1 players.

so in a way i'm agreeing with you. those guys weren't good....and i can think of at least two more as well. but the bottom line is that talent across the board is getting better in all of college hoops. you could get away with recruiting borderline players from montana 15-20 years ago because you could still compete. but if we're being honest here, the entire state is only going to produce 1-2 LEGITIMATE D1 players every year. it's just how it is. and guys who used to get an opportunity to play at this level a decade ago is now likely better suited for naia. this is why naia has improved so much as well. i had an opportunity to talk to coach turcott a few weeks ago. he was a coach at carroll forever and a damn good one. he agreed with me that the level of play in the naia is so much better than it was even ten years ago. this is because all teams across the board are more talented now.

so we agree that as a whole huse needs to bring in much better players if he wants to compete. i don't agree however that those players are going to come from this state very often. there will always be that one or two players capable....but for the most part he needs to look in other areas. and when he looks in those areas....he still needs to get better players than he has....

[TIrwin24]

[Gidal Kaiser]

The Bobcats roster is completed http://www.msubobcats.com/news/2011/6/1 ... 14118.aspx A blog post is upcoming, as well as a story tomorrow.

[LTown Cat]

Is that old news on Chris McCall? I hadn't heard that before.

[Gidal Kaiser]

Is that old news on Chris McCall? I hadn't heard that before.

I'd only heard about it a few days ago myself. I was behind the 8-ball on that, apparently. People knew as far back as graduation weekend. I don't know if he's staying on campus or what. I assume probably not.

[Helcat72]

Actually Huse is pretty encouraged about his team next year. He has a lot of talent...more than usual (especially at guard) and he expects Mohammed Fall, Tre Johnson, Brumwell, & Budnich to be able to hold their own in the league inside....and the others are all more the scorer type than any of the seniors we had last year. The only missing ingredient is chemistry. He likens Fall to Divaldo Mbunga

[DicTater]

There is a lot of athleticism on the team now. Hopefully Huse will let the boys push the ball up the floor instead of over controlling the game as he likes to do.

[bpcats]

I think the two biggest challenges for next years teams are 1) Get better at rebounding 2) Consistently make mid range jumper from multiple players during same game. This team showed that when shots started falling that they could compete with anybody in the conference.

[CelticCat]

There is a lot of athleticism on the team now. Hopefully Huse will let the boys push the ball up the floor instead of over controlling the game as he likes to do.

I've always kind of felt that way about Huse's teams. He seems to be able to recruit the athletic kids, but then tries to run a slow, methodically, half-court game rather than fully utilize their athleticism. Mind you I don't have much of a basketball eye in terms of schemes and things, but it just seems like our teams have felt... bottled up a bit the last couple of years. Especially since we don't have the go-to center, and haven't had in some time now. We are smaller, why not push the tempo a bit more. You can't have a great half-court offense without a dominate center, in my mind.

[John K]

There is a lot of athleticism on the team now. Hopefully Huse will let the boys push the ball up the floor instead of over controlling the game as he likes to do.

I've always kind of felt that way about Huse's teams. He seems to be able to recruit the athletic kids, but then tries to run a slow, methodically, half-court game rather than fully utilize their athleticism. Mind you I don't have much of a basketball eye in terms of schemes and things, but it just seems like our teams have felt... bottled up a bit the last couple of years. Especially since we don't have the go-to center, and haven't had in some time now. We are smaller, why not push the tempo a bit more. You can't have a great half-court offense without a dominate center, in my mind.

I agree, and a more up-tempo style would likely do wonders in rejuvenating interest in the program.

[bpcats]

I am not going to harp on last years team for not being a running team, we just didn't have the players to do it. Usually teams that like run fall into 3 categories

1) Full Court Pressure team - ie Louisville. Let their defense create turnovers and get to running up and down the court converting those turnovers

2) Athletic Big Men - ie North Carolina. If you ever watch them play their whole team can run and it is usually their "2nd break" with big men trailing that make the play.

3) Athletic defensive wing players - create turnovers and have the speed to finish at the rim at the other end.

The closest the Cats ever came to a running team was when Navarre ( who was very good defender) and Bynum (with long arms and great speed) were able to create turnovers and get to the other end in a hurry. Both Singleton and Casey T. last here had the speed, but lacked the long arms and or inability to consistently create turnovers...and they weren't going to finish with a dunk.

Teams in the Big Sky need to master half court offense, which Huse does a good job of creating opportunities. I don't if I have seen a team in the Big Sky that could out run the other team up and down the court. It is really hard to recruit team full of players that are capable of running and up and down style of basketball at our level of play.

[bobcats35]

Teams, especially Mens, Cannot win consistently without an "Aircraft Carrier" in the middle. We have not had that the past 2 or 3 years and I don't see a proven one on our current roster. I'm hoping one of these big men step up. Could be a long season if it doesn't happen, especially after our 3 top scorers graduated.

[DicTater]

Actually, many programs have had remarkable success without the big aircraft carrier in the middle. Marquette, Villanova, and Butler are three I can think of off the top of my head. The problem the Cats have had, is that if you're going to slow it down and play half court offense, then you need a post scorer. They haven't had that. It made sense for the Griz to play that way with Qvale, but it made no sense for the Cats. You can't use athleticism if you allow the D to get set every possession. The Cats now seem to be pretty deep, especially at guard, and there's no reason not to push the ball even after made baskets. If you don't have a 7 footer, then beat the opponent's 7 footer down the floor, don't wait for him to get under the basket.

[allcat]

Like Clinton said "it's the economy stupid". replace economy with coach.