The Bobcat Nation

With the official start of the basketball practice starting this Friday (October 16th), I contacted Huse and Binford to find out what their schedule was for practice and scrimages for the coming year and this is what i found out.

Montana State Bobcats Men

First Practice: October 16th @ 7:00 and will be open to the public
Place: Brick Breeden Fieldhouse

Regular Practice: Times will vary this year the coaching staff has arranged practice time around the schedule of the athletes. Generally, in the late afternoon, but sometime early in the morning. – Open to the public
Place: Brick Breeden Fieldhouse (occasionally at Shroyer Gym)

Blue Gold Game: October 27th

Montana State Bobcats Women

First Practice: October 16th @ 5:00 and will not be open to the public
Place: Shroyer Gym

Regular Practice: Monday – Friday 4:30- 7:00 – Open to the public most of the time
Place: Brick Breeden Fieldhouse (occasionally at Shroyer Gym)
Note: When practicing in Shroyer gym the practices will be close due to access problems.

Blue Gold Game: The women will have two scrimmages on October 24th 1:00 pm and October 29th 4:45 pm

Please note all of these times are general, and could change especially around finals week and vacations. Also while most of the practices are open, most of the time it is highly likely at different times they may close practices for all sorts of reasons. Finally all teams plan to have some week-end practices but the times for these practices will be fluid.

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Thanks for the info mslacat! I know it's early, but can you give us your take on what the Bobcats may have in store this season?

I am going to do a better preseason write up on the Cats later this week on my blog, but I will give you a preview, although I am hoping to be a little more up to date by the end of the week.

The Cats have everyone back this season with one huge exception that being Divaldo Mbunga. I think losing Mbunga is as big of a loss as losing an all star point guard and not sure who is going to replace him. Mbunga lead the team in rebounding, and block shots as well as arguably being the best defensive player on the team. He was also a quiet leader on the floor and a high energy player in practice. He did so much for last year’s team. Last year the Bobcats were one of the best rebounding team and while Mbunga accounted for 7 RBS a game they did a lot of their rebounding by committee. There may be a drop off especially on the offensive board I think this team will still finish in the upper end of the conference in rebounding. Scoring wise I think we have the fire power to offset his points with the returning players. What I am unsure of is how we will offset his interior defense and toughness. My guess right now is that we will start either 6-8 Johnson or 6-10 Anderson. Johnson will play a lot in either case, at both the power forward spot and center. If he plays like he did at the conference tournament could really be a great player for us this year. Anderson has had a great off season and really added some muscle and taking of some weight ( well some), and I think he could really be a load inside, but I tend to think with his size he may be only a 20 minutes a night, maximum, player, who knows may be he will prove me wrong. Swita (7-0), Budinich (6-10), and Henderson (6-7ish) will be competing for back up minutes at the center and power forward. Swita, a pure center, is healthy but is still adjusting to the speed of the Bobcats/ D-1. Budinich is a very skilled big man who may play the center spot primarily this year, but remember is still a freshman. Henderson, a power forward, I have not heard a lot about this summer and fall but, could really make a niche' for himself this year, because he give the team athleticism, energy, and a physicalness that we lost with Mbunga.

The 1, 2, and three position should be much the same as last year player and starter wise. Here is what I am hearing though about the returnees, Austin Brown, Will Bynum and Marquis Navarre had a great off season and are/were having a great off season and really lifted their game. The coaches expect big things from them this year. The one down side was when Brown broke his wrist late summer that slowed him down, but I hear he is healed up and is ready for practice to begin. I have also heard some very good things about Eric Rush as he is playing extremely physical and looks really strong. Danny Piepoli is coming off a major knee surgery and is still not up to 100% last I heard. He has already used his redshirt year so he will play this year, but it will all depend on when he is healthy. Right now I think it is clear the Navarre, Bynum, and Rush will start. With Rush able to play all three spots look for Brown to be the first off the bench. We should have real solid depth with 6-1 shooter Larry Swan, 5-11 point guard Brian Louff, Danny Piepoli (when he gets healthy) and 6-5 true freshman Marco Bourgault battling to fill out the guard rotation. The thing about these players is that they all can play multiple positions and this will allow the coaches a lot of flexibility on getting the best players on the floor.

Redshirts? I think freshman Colt Idol, Steven Davis, are pretty much locks for redshirts. Huse has 16 players this year so he can afford to redshirt 1-3 more players, but between the players who have already used their redshirt years (Rush, Piepoli, Swan, Swita, Louff, and Johnson) and the players who may be too valuable to redshirt (Bynum, Navarre, Anderson, Brown, and Howard) there other, are not a lot of other player that are clear cut redshirt candidates. Piepoli injury and Swita's emergence could effect redshirting quite a bit. Even if a Budinich or Bourgualt beat out some upper class men, if they are not projected to play significant minutes Huse could save them for the future and redshirt them this year, ala Rush and Piepoli a few year back. This is all speculation though on my part.

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Nice analysis, mslacat. I really agree with you on the part about Mbunga. He may have been as big of an impact player as we have had in the last 10 years. And he was quiet. One of those guys that made you think that he wasn't a big part of the ball game until you looked at the box score. I am hoping that Cody Anderson can learn to use his size to his advantage and really be a plug in the middle. Don't think we'll ever get a lot of scoring out of him, but hopefully that's where Johnson can pick up the slack. After the big run we made late last season, I am pretty stoked about the team this year!

I was wondering when you would post your first analysis. When is the first Pre-season game? First Real game? First Home game?

Thanks mslacat.

I read on the Bobcat website Borgault did not make eligibility and left the team and the Colt Idol will redshirt do to injuring a knee. I think losing Borgault hurts from a depth perspective as he sounded like a great shooter. I really appreciate the analyis mslacat and thank you for keep us Cat Fans updated.

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mtbobcat wrote:I read on the Bobcat website Borgault did not make eligibility and left the team and the Colt Idol will redshirt do to injuring a knee. I think losing Borgault hurts from a depth perspective as he sounded like a great shooter. I really appreciate the analyis mslacat and thank you for keep us Cat Fans updated.

Yeah that's hurts a ton. I saw him at practice all the time but never playing. Makes sense now if true. What was the deal, anyone know?

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hell of a blog mslacat...

longhorn_22 wrote:

mtbobcat wrote:I read on the Bobcat website Borgault did not make eligibility and left the team and the Colt Idol will redshirt do to injuring a knee. I think losing Borgault hurts from a depth perspective as he sounded like a great shooter. I really appreciate the analyis mslacat and thank you for keep us Cat Fans updated.

Yeah that's hurts a ton. I saw him at practice all the time but never playing. Makes sense now if true. What was the deal, anyone know?

Yes. Mslacat, do you know what happened with Bourgault? I was really looking forward to seeing him play for the Cats. This raises an interesting question regarding eligibility and foreign players. Are there different eligibility requirements for foreign players? Didn't Huse recruit Bourgault directly from a French club team? How would a French player ever be eligible without first playing at a JC? Didn't Damir Latovic (The Cats' best foreign player) come here from a JC?

Bourgault just turned 18 I beleive. He played with the equivilant of high school club team, similiar to a Montana high school athlelete who plays legion baseball.

I do not know the specifics of Bourgualt case, but it appears the he did not get cleared by the NCAA Clearing House. There have been a rash of Eropenan high school kids this year who have run into a 1/2 to full credit problem with the clearing house. There have been new rules imposted this year and it has cought a lot of players, both foriegn and US, fall. I think he could have still stayed at MSU this year and redshirt but he did not want to. The other thing about the NCAA Clearing House they move at their own pace so these things can stretch out before you know what is going on.

In the short term I do not think his loss will hurt us. I think he was a prime candidate for a redshirt. At the shooting guard /small forward we have, Piepoli, Brown, and Swan to back up Rush and Bynum. Where it hurt most is next couple years when Bynum graduates. Huse will need to fill his spot this year, with a very good freshman or JC.

My stab at the women's team.

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Mslacat, thanks for the info. I suppose an 18 year old foreign player like Bourgault is too impatient to agree to redshirt...he probably still has opportunities to play in France. I just thought it would be interesting to have two French players playing for the Cats, especially if one is a three point shooting wizard. Of course I am also a Marco Bellinelli fan.