The Bobcat Nation

well tipoff is in a couple hours in what will begin 2 very important games for the cats this weekend. lust looking at the records, you'd assume that idaho state will be a gimmie, but they are a weird team. they lost to league leading weber a couple weeks ago, but only after 3 overtimes. then they beat portland state who has good talent, and will probably be in the big sky tourney. but last weekend they got throttled by cellar-dwellar sac state, so they are hard to figure out. they have one of the better scoring guards in the league in that gilcrest (sp?) kid, and that monroe guy has great size and is pretty nuch a double-double waiting to happen. they like to shoot a lot of threes so our perimeter defense is critical. on the flipside, this could be a game where bobby and even brandon have potential to go off. i like the cats to win this won, but don't know if they'll cover the 9 points that vegas is giving them. should be a good game, and it'd be great to get a little momentum for tomorrow nights huge game. GO CATS!!!!

ISU 21, MSU 19 4:27 to go in half
UM 30, WSU 21 4:30

UM shooting lights out. 60% from floor; 57% from 3-pt. WSU is 35 and 33.

12-2 run has MSU up 26-23 with 1:20 to go.

Continuation my ass.

MSU 63, ISU 60 Final

good win, however very ugly. piepoli was huge tonight and offered a great spark. bobby also had some big shots at key moments. (my apologies if i have appeared to single him out whn discussing this team. although, based on the following of hoops on this board, if i did...i doubt many read it. ) but one thing is for sure...we can get away with shooting that poorly against a team like isu and still win, but it won't happen against teams like weber and the griz. we shot just horrible! and don't even get me started on the free throws. we made 9-18 tonight, and that's thanks to bj who went 5-5. i haven't made it to a practice this season, but last year when free throws were also an issue i remember huse spending a ton of time making his guys make them. i can only assume he's doing the same this year. don't understand why they can't make them in games, but i can assure you that if the kids don't fix it, we won't win. all that said, any win is a good win.

as for the rest of the league, um smashed weber like i figured they would. it pains a cat fan to say this, but the griz are playing really well, and have a very favorable schedule the rest of the way. the league is so tight this year, that i wouldn't be shocked to see them finish anywhere from 1st to 5th, but if i had to bet money, i'd say they won't be any worse than a 3 seed. they are honestly playing like the best team in the sky right now. cats have just gotta beat weber tomorrow and really shake things up!

I didn't have the time to watch tonight, but did listen in a bit on the radio. Announcers were saying it was less than a stellar officiating night - in both directions. Was it as bad as advertised? What I did hear sounded like an ugly game with wide swings both directions.

I thought that tonight's game would be a gritty, grind-it-out kind of game, with both teams struggling to get to 60. The shooting percentages were actually decent, per the postgame radio show, but it seemed uglier than that. The Cats have to step up and make free throws. This is no time to be getting the yips at the line. It was a back and forth game with a lot of runs, but MSU was able to pull of the last one. Danny Piepoli had a monster night off of the bench, and hit some big shots. The officiating was "creative", as is so often true in the Big Sky. ISU's coach (Joe O'Brien) received a technical foul after questioning quite vociferously one of the officials' calls. He was right about that call (it was a no call on a backcourt violation), but he probably shouldn't have said the magic words. There were a lot of offensive fouls called, and the officiating really wasn't that great. All in all, this was a great win for the Bobcats, and the key is having a 7-4 record in conference play.

KittieKop wrote:I didn't have the time to watch tonight, but did listen in a bit on the radio. Announcers were saying it was less than a stellar officiating night - in both directions. Was it as bad as advertised? What I did hear sounded like an ugly game with wide swings both directions.

It was a wierd game officiating wise, bad, but it went both ways. Close game all the way (too close), Peippoli had a good night. It wasn't pretty, but any home win is good and hopefully we get a sweep tomorrow night, heard the griz bet WSU.

Just got the stats for tonight-

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Newspaper Box Score

Idaho State vs Montana State

2/5/10 7:05 pm at Worthington Arena -- Bozeman, Montana

At Worthington Arena -- Bozeman, Montana



MONTANA STATE 63, IDAHO STATE 60



IDAHO STATE (6-16/3-7 BSC)

GILCHREST, Broderick 11-17 1-2 24; CARSON, Donnie 6-11 3-3 15; KILPATRICK,

Austin 4-9 2-2 13; TATUM, Chron 1-5 1-2 3; LACEY, Mike 1-1 0-0 2; MORGAN,

Amorrow 1-2 0-0 2; MONROE, Demetrius 0-1 1-2 1; BALDWIN, Sherrod 0-3 0-0 0;

LITTLE, Rolando 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-50 8-11 60.



MONTANA STATE (12-10/7-4 BSC)

PIEPOLI, Danny 5-10 1-2 16; HOWARD, Bobby 5-10 0-2 11; JOHNSON, Branden 2-6

5-5 10; NAVARRE, Marquis 2-4 1-2 7; BYNUM, Will 3-6 1-2 7; RUSH, Erik 2-5

1-4 6; BROWN, Austin 2-3 0-1 4; ANDERSON, Cody 1-3 0-0 2; HENDERSON, Cameron

0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-47 9-18 63.



Idaho State 27 33 60

Montana State 28 35 63



3-point goals--Idaho State 4-14 (KILPATRICK, Austin 3-6; GILCHREST,

Broderick 1-4; MORGAN, Amorrow 0-1; BALDWIN, Sherrod 0-2; CARSON, Donnie

0-1), Montana State 10-24 (PIEPOLI, Danny 5-8; NAVARRE, Marquis 2-4; HOWARD,

Bobby 1-4; RUSH, Erik 1-3; JOHNSON, Branden 1-4; BROWN, Austin 0-1). Fouled

out--Idaho State-KILPATRICK, Austin, Montana State-None. Rebounds--Idaho

State 36 (TATUM, Chron 10), Montana State 22 (BYNUM, Will 7). Assists--Idaho

State 5 (LITTLE, Rolando 2), Montana State 14 (BYNUM, Will 4). Total

fouls--Idaho State 21, Montana State 16. Technical fouls--Idaho State-TEAM,

Montana State-None. A-3225

Awesome defense. Where did the offense go, guys? I'll take the win.
Terrible calls both ways. ISU got hosed on a couple terrible calls. But we had a few bad ones too. Nothing new, of course.

First off-my hat is off to ISU. They lost their best player, Morgan, early on. They rallied in his absence and made it a really tight game.

ISU doesn't have a lot of offensive weapons-even with Morgan, but they had a knack for getting to the basket or hitting a big three now and then. Their freshman point guard, Gilchrest, killed us (correction-he's a Junior ). What is it about us against quick little point guards (remember EWU)?

ISU may feel a bit victimized. The T was a result of a bad call. But Navarre had four fouls-even though he touched their guy maybe once. Not to mention a ridiculous and-one for them when Gilchrest drug his pivot foot about three feet before shooting it (Navarre's 4th foul). So yeah-it was terrible but both teams got the shaft now and then.

Navarre, Howard, and Piepoli hit some super clutch threes to save our bacon. Howard's late three was his only points of the second half, after being very effective in the 1st half.

Why does Huse's offense have our centers dancing around the three point line? The one time Cody Anderson got it inside he scored-other wise he's 30 feet from the basket. No wonder we're so hopelessly out-rebounded (Brandon Johnson had 3 rebounds).

Our team has sort of lost their mojo. Guys like Eric Rush are really searching and pressing and not getting much. The rest of the league knows our stuff-we've got to find something else. Maybe Piepoli is the answer?

From MSU-

BOZEMAN, Mont. -- Bobby Howard gave his mother the birthday present she asked for on Friday afternoon by getting a haircut. Late Friday night, he gave her one she wasn't expecting.

Howard's three-pointer with 1:07 to play gave Montana State a four-point cushion, and the Bobcats survived a shaky effort from the free throw line in the late moments to post a 63-60 win over Idaho State in Worthington Arena.

"My mom was getting tired of getting crap from people about my (long) hair," a smiling Howard said after MSU's gut-check win. "I got the haircut because she wanted me to." Hours after former teammate Casey Durham shorn his locks, Howard scored 11 points and dished out two assists in the win.

While Howard's shot was the dagger, Danny Piepoli's long-distance pyrotechnics set the stage. The junior forward hit a season-highs with five three-pointers and 16 points, with four of the triples and 13 of the points coming in the second half.

"The big thing with me is playing with confidence," Piepoli said. "I was just taking the shot when it came my way."

The game featured a series of runs, but Piepoli figured in two of the important ones. After Idaho State built a seven-point lead with 13:08 to play, Piepoli hit a free throw and then a three-pointer to draw MSU within three at 12:39. After Branden Johnson tied the game with a conventional three-point play, Piepoli hit another triple at 10:10 to give MSU a 41-38 lead.

With Idaho State leading 50-45 with 4:54 to play, Marquis Navarre hit a three-pointer with an assist from Piepoli, then after an ISU turnover Piepoli's three gave MSU a 51-50 lead. With the game tied at 56-56, Piepoli hit another triple to give the Bobcats a lead. Erik Rush converted a free throw a possession later giving MSU a 57-56 lead, setting up Howard's three.

The game turned around 10 minutes into the first half when Idaho State's star forward Amorrow Morgan left with an injury. He did not return. "Obviously they lost a great weapon," said MSU coach Brad Huse. "I'll tell you what, their guys all stepped up around him."

Idaho State's biggest boost came from Broderick Gilchrest, who scored 24 points and grabbed five rebounds. Donnie Carson added 15 points, while Austin Kilpatrick chipped in 13. Chron Tatum led a Bengal rebounding onslaught, as ISU out-boarded the Bobcats 36-to-22.

While the Bengals shot 48% from the floor and hit eight of their 11 charity tosses, the Bobcats shot 46.8% from the floor and converted only 9-of-18 free throws. The Bobcats made of the difference by hitting 10 three-pointers to Idaho State's four.

Will Bynum played well for the Bobcats, scoring seven points with a team-high seven rebounds. He also dished out four assists, with two blocked shots and a steal.

Montana State raised its record to 12-10 overall and 7-4 in Big Sky play with the win, while Idaho State falls to 6-16 overall and 3-7 in the league. MSU hosts Weber State on Saturday at 7 pm.

-msu-

a win is a win. good job, and get this one tonight. go cats

BelgradeBobcat wrote:First off-my hat is off to ISU. They lost their best player, Morgan, early on. They rallied in his absence and made it a really tight game.

ISU doesn't have a lot of offensive weapons-even with Morgan, but they had a knack for getting to the basket or hitting a big three now and then. Their freshman point guard, Gilchrest, killed us (correction-he's a Junior ). What is it about us against quick little point guards (remember EWU)?

ISU may feel a bit victimized. The T was a result of a bad call. But Navarre had four fouls-even though he touched their guy maybe once. Not to mention a ridiculous and-one for them when Gilchrest drug his pivot foot about three feet before shooting it (Navarre's 4th foul). So yeah-it was terrible but both teams got the shaft now and then.

Navarre, Howard, and Piepoli hit some super clutch threes to save our bacon. Howard's late three was his only points of the second half, after being very effective in the 1st half.

Why does Huse's offense have our centers dancing around the three point line? The one time Cody Anderson got it inside he scored-other wise he's 30 feet from the basket. No wonder we're so hopelessly out-rebounded (Brandon Johnson had 3 rebounds).

Our team has sort of lost their mojo. Guys like Eric Rush are really searching and pressing and not getting much. The rest of the league knows our stuff-we've got to find something else. Maybe Piepoli is the answer?

You nailed it right on the head. Many people on this board have wondered why our guards, Navarre and Bynum, take it themselves so often, drive the lane, and then take contested shots against other teams' big men. The answer is right there in Belgrade's post. Our big men waste too much time wandering around the perimeter inside of posting down low. I have wondered the same thing about our offensive scheme. 6'10" Cody Anderson and 6'9" Brandon Johnson would rather shoot threes all night instead of banging down low and drawing fouls. I don't have too much problem with Brandon since he's pretty reliable around the arc, but Cody needs to get down and be a beast. When he does post up, he's shown the ability to score and score easily. One of the resons so many teams are shooting more free throws than us is that we have the inability to dominate the middle and draw fouls. If we would work the middle a little more, it would open up our perimeter game and make us more dynamic. Righth now, teams know we are not going to move the ball inside so they can play stout defense with their guards and force us into bad shots.

again, i think this has to do more with the makeup of this team and what the guys are capable of. the days of guys who are 6'9" automatically being a "center" are long gone. sure, brandon has the height to match or come close to matching other teams big guys...but that's not his game. he's never been a low post player, and it wouldn't make sense for him to play a position he's weak at when he could be helping us down low. it's not like we have dominant big guys that are simply refusing to play down low. we don't have the guys to play that position right now. as far as anderson goes, i can't really say. he has a body that tells me he doesn't even belong on a basketball court! but at the very least you'd think he'd be able to muscle up down low but he can't. i try not to call out players individually, but i have been completely baffled on what makes this guy a d-1 player. but what we need to remember is how important spacing is in hoops. it's very clear that our big guys don't have the game to play inside. so it makes more sense to spread them out, and leave the key open for our gaurds, and scorers like bobby to get easy buckets. as i said before, there is far more that goes into a successful team than what we see on the floor. my guess is huse thought that swita would be a guy to help us there, and he probably expected anderson to improve more than he has. but that hasn't happened, so you must play to your strengths. right now, that is guard play, and bobby and brandon knocking down shots. don't minimize the value of having a guy like brandon who is guarded by the opponents biggest guy, and he keeps that guy out on the perimeter opening things up for the others to score.

whitetrashgriz wrote:again, i think this has to do more with the makeup of this team and what the guys are capable of. the days of guys who are 6'9" automatically being a "center" are long gone. sure, brandon has the height to match or come close to matching other teams big guys...but that's not his game. he's never been a low post player, and it wouldn't make sense for him to play a position he's weak at when he could be helping us down low. it's not like we have dominant big guys that are simply refusing to play down low. we don't have the guys to play that position right now. as far as anderson goes, i can't really say. he has a body that tells me he doesn't even belong on a basketball court! but at the very least you'd think he'd be able to muscle up down low but he can't. i try not to call out players individually, but i have been completely baffled on what makes this guy a d-1 player. but what we need to remember is how important spacing is in hoops. it's very clear that our big guys don't have the game to play inside. so it makes more sense to spread them out, and leave the key open for our gaurds, and scorers like bobby to get easy buckets. as i said before, there is far more that goes into a successful team than what we see on the floor. my guess is huse thought that swita would be a guy to help us there, and he probably expected anderson to improve more than he has. but that hasn't happened, so you must play to your strengths. right now, that is guard play, and bobby and brandon knocking down shots. don't minimize the value of having a guy like brandon who is guarded by the opponents biggest guy, and he keeps that guy out on the perimeter opening things up for the others to score.

He said that in the pregame last night. He said Cody is the missing piece, so it's on his mind.

grizzh8r wrote:

whitetrashgriz wrote:again, i think this has to do more with the makeup of this team and what the guys are capable of. the days of guys who are 6'9" automatically being a "center" are long gone. sure, brandon has the height to match or come close to matching other teams big guys...but that's not his game. he's never been a low post player, and it wouldn't make sense for him to play a position he's weak at when he could be helping us down low. it's not like we have dominant big guys that are simply refusing to play down low. we don't have the guys to play that position right now. as far as anderson goes, i can't really say. he has a body that tells me he doesn't even belong on a basketball court! but at the very least you'd think he'd be able to muscle up down low but he can't. i try not to call out players individually, but i have been completely baffled on what makes this guy a d-1 player. but what we need to remember is how important spacing is in hoops. it's very clear that our big guys don't have the game to play inside. so it makes more sense to spread them out, and leave the key open for our gaurds, and scorers like bobby to get easy buckets. as i said before, there is far more that goes into a successful team than what we see on the floor. my guess is huse thought that swita would be a guy to help us there, and he probably expected anderson to improve more than he has. but that hasn't happened, so you must play to your strengths. right now, that is guard play, and bobby and brandon knocking down shots. don't minimize the value of having a guy like brandon who is guarded by the opponents biggest guy, and he keeps that guy out on the perimeter opening things up for the others to score.

He said that in the pregame last night. He said Cody is the missing piece, so it's on his mind.

Well then post him for God's sake and quit letting him hang out on the perimeter shooting three's and not even being close to the rim for rebounds and easy lay-ins. Use him the way he is meant to be used!

grizzh8r wrote:

whitetrashgriz wrote:again, i think this has to do more with the makeup of this team and what the guys are capable of. the days of guys who are 6'9" automatically being a "center" are long gone. sure, brandon has the height to match or come close to matching other teams big guys...but that's not his game. he's never been a low post player, and it wouldn't make sense for him to play a position he's weak at when he could be helping us down low. it's not like we have dominant big guys that are simply refusing to play down low. we don't have the guys to play that position right now. as far as anderson goes, i can't really say. he has a body that tells me he doesn't even belong on a basketball court! but at the very least you'd think he'd be able to muscle up down low but he can't. i try not to call out players individually, but i have been completely baffled on what makes this guy a d-1 player. but what we need to remember is how important spacing is in hoops. it's very clear that our big guys don't have the game to play inside. so it makes more sense to spread them out, and leave the key open for our gaurds, and scorers like bobby to get easy buckets. as i said before, there is far more that goes into a successful team than what we see on the floor. my guess is huse thought that swita would be a guy to help us there, and he probably expected anderson to improve more than he has. but that hasn't happened, so you must play to your strengths. right now, that is guard play, and bobby and brandon knocking down shots. don't minimize the value of having a guy like brandon who is guarded by the opponents biggest guy, and he keeps that guy out on the perimeter opening things up for the others to score.

He said that in the pregame last night. He said Cody is the missing piece, so it's on his mind.

ya i figured. there was quite a bit of hype following him when we signed him and i remember being very excited. then i saw him play a couple times and was pretty surprised. since then, i can't say he has improved a ton. obviously the coaches know better than i. but what i do know is we have no big guys capable of playing in the post at a high level, so it doesn't make sense to me to put them down there just because they are tall. seems like that would make us a worse team, which i don't think is ever the goal.

The way I see it....Cody is slow, has weak hands and can't jump....but he can shoot. I think that's why he's allowed to roam outside. He also flashes low sometimes like he did last night and threw down the little jump hook off of movement not post up. He can't post up because he can't make a move and hold on to the ball with the defender on his back, he's not athletic enough.. Basically he's big body who takes up space and that's his only advantage!

Helcat72 wrote:The way I see it....Cody is slow, has weak hands and can't jump....but he can shoot. I think that's why he's allowed to roam outside. He also flashes low sometimes like he did last night and threw down the little jump hook off of movement not post up. He can't post up because he can't make a move and hold on to the ball with the defender on his back, he's not athletic enough.. Basically he's big body who takes up space and that's his only advantage!

i agree. it's not an ideal situation, but i think sometimes look at basketball like if you're tall, you have to play center. it's juts not like that. i think the biggest issue is that we just don't have the guys who can play down low. cody definitely isn't that guy, and posting him up makes us more one-dimensional. you don't post up a guy with no post moves just because he's tall. it surprises some, but we're far better off with him and bj on the perimeter. that said, this position needs to be addressed again this offseason, and i look for us to not have this problem next year.