The Bobcat Nation

I got us slamming you guys.

Men: UM 71, MSU 55
Women: UM 80, MSU 62

Unfortunately I can't really argue with either of those.

grizgirl wrote:I got us slamming you guys.

Men: UM 71, MSU 55
Women: UM 80, MSU 62

I'm not necessarily expecting us to win either game, but I would hope that the margins will be a little closer than that. I would say 10-12 points for the men, and maybe 5-10 for the women. I think the UM men are clearly better than MSU, but the Cat women have been playing very well the second half of conference play. Binford's teams always seem to improve during the course of the season, which I believe to be a sign of good coaching. The Lady Griz are gonna be tough to beat at home though.

Wow no pride for the cats!! It's funny how we were supposed to get smashed in the tourny last year and we were not favored the first meeting this year, and we came out on top both times. I'll make a prediction and say we step it up and win 70-68. There is no doubt that the griz have more talent but anyone can beat anyone in the big sky.

BLGCAT wrote:Wow no pride for the cats!! It's funny how we were supposed to get smashed in the tourny last year and we were not favored the first meeting this year, and we came out on top both times. I'll make a prediction and say we step it up and win 70-68. There is no doubt that the griz have more talent but anyone can beat anyone in the big sky.

Which game?

I'll say the men and women both win.

MSU men 60, UM 55
MSU women 77, UM 76

Bobcat men 74-68 over the Griz. My son and I were in Missoula for last years playoff win, it was awesome. What a quiet crowd after that one. Lady Cats over the Lady Griz 80-74.

No score predictions, but I pick the Cats to win both games. Go Cats!!!

I expect the Lady's game to be pretty close, but the Lady Griz are very tough at home so I will give them the edge 70-65.

For the men's game, I think the Grizzlies will win 72-60. The biggest difference from the last game in Bozeman will be Freshman Will Cherry. He will cause some havoc for the Cats with his penetration and defense.

On the men's side the Griz are just a better team than the Cats. A. Johnson has woken up and Will Cherry is basically the same beast except younger. Qvale will eat up Johnson and Howard. Unless Rush decides to come to play and score more than 4-8 points we will get thrashed by 15-20.

On the women's side as long as the Cats are not shooting completely cold, I expect them to win in the rematch. I think that the Cats have more firepower overall but Semansky/Bussey/and Perry will have to be on their game to pull out the win.

What I don't want to see in either game are those lazy passes that are so easy to pick off.

bpcats wrote:On the men's side the Griz are just a better team than the Cats. A. Johnson has woken up and Will Cherry is basically the same beast except younger. Qvale will eat up Johnson and Howard. Unless Rush decides to come to play and score more than 4-8 points we will get thrashed by 15-20.

sadly, i agree. the cats seem to be sliding, and the griz seem to be getting better every week. i hope i'm wrong, and i certainly wouldn't be shocked to see the cats escape with a win, i honestly think they will lose by 10 plus. like i said before though, i really think a win would go way farther than a loss would hurt us. if we win, i think our team goes into the tourney with a ton of confidence knowing they beat arguably the best team in the league. that could go far. if we lose, it'll be frustrating, but really shouldn't do too much in the immidiate future to bring the team down. either way i'm excited for this game!

will it be on tv locally?

Men: If we stay aggressive and attack the rim, I think we win. If we are content to cast away from outside, we lose by 20.

Women: Unfortunately I don't know much about either team this year, so I'll say Cats by 15, and Erica Perry goes for 30.

Also, it will be interesting to see what kind of defensive set UM comes out in. In the first game our guards shredded their man-to-man, and really struggled against the zone. I was really surprised to see that UM continued to go back to their man defense.

whitetrashgriz wrote:

bpcats wrote:On the men's side the Griz are just a better team than the Cats. A. Johnson has woken up and Will Cherry is basically the same beast except younger. Qvale will eat up Johnson and Howard. Unless Rush decides to come to play and score more than 4-8 points we will get thrashed by 15-20.

sadly, i agree. the cats seem to be sliding, and the griz seem to be getting better every week. i hope i'm wrong, and i certainly wouldn't be shocked to see the cats escape with a win, i honestly think they will lose by 10 plus. like i said before though, i really think a win would go way farther than a loss would hurt us. if we win, i think our team goes into the tourney with a ton of confidence knowing they beat arguably the best team in the league. that could go far. if we lose, it'll be frustrating, but really shouldn't do too much in the immidiate future to bring the team down. either way i'm excited for this game!

will it be on tv locally?

Here in Great Falls, the men's game is on the same local affiliate (KRTV - channel 3/11) that normally carries the Cat-Griz BB games (tips off at 7:00) and I presume it will be on the "normal" stations elsewhere as well. I'm not sure about the women's game though.

John K wrote:

whitetrashgriz wrote:

bpcats wrote:On the men's side the Griz are just a better team than the Cats. A. Johnson has woken up and Will Cherry is basically the same beast except younger. Qvale will eat up Johnson and Howard. Unless Rush decides to come to play and score more than 4-8 points we will get thrashed by 15-20.

sadly, i agree. the cats seem to be sliding, and the griz seem to be getting better every week. i hope i'm wrong, and i certainly wouldn't be shocked to see the cats escape with a win, i honestly think they will lose by 10 plus. like i said before though, i really think a win would go way farther than a loss would hurt us. if we win, i think our team goes into the tourney with a ton of confidence knowing they beat arguably the best team in the league. that could go far. if we lose, it'll be frustrating, but really shouldn't do too much in the immidiate future to bring the team down. either way i'm excited for this game!

will it be on tv locally?

Here in Great Falls, the men's game is on the same local affiliate (KRTV - channel 3/11) that normally carries the Cat-Griz BB games (tips off at 7:00) and I presume it will be on the "normal" stations elsewhere as well. I'm not sure about the women's game though.

Women's game should be on the same station at 2:05pm However here in Bozeman the women's game is on the CW station Saturday mornings paper should list what time and what station the games are on

I wouldn't too quick to sell the Cats short on this one. This team is dangerous each and every night. Johnson and Howard will not get eaten up by Qvale (see last game vs Um). Much more energy in the post positions....just not the size. When the guards step up the defense, they can play with any of them.

MSU by 7.
up by as many as 11 (probably down by as many as 7 also)

Women's game in Great Falls is on CW
Men's game in Great Falls is on KRTV


Cat's by double digits in both games. Easy.

alasax wrote:I wouldn't too quick to sell the Cats short on this one. This team is dangerous each and every night. Johnson and Howard will not get eaten up by Qvale (see last game vs Um). Much more energy in the post positions....just not the size. When the guards step up the defense, they can play with any of them.

MSU by 7.
up by as many as 11 (probably down by as many as 7 also)

i really wasn't tryin' to sell these guys short. as i said, if they snuck away with a win it wouldn't be shocking. but i don't see how one could agrue the fact that the griz are a better team than the cats right now. and they are playing way better ball. luckily, the better team doesn't always win.

Griz men are playing too well right now. A much different team than during the first meeting, and a team that's only lost once on their home floor:

Griz 82, Cats 70


The Lady Griz are not playing well (by typical Lady Griz standards, which are ridiculously high, of course). Still, at home, they are very difficult to beat. But I think this game is close all the way, with the Griz pulling it out late:

Lady Griz 74, Cats 69

It really depends on what Griz team shows up on offense... If it's the Griz team that's been playing great at home since January, then it could be a beating. The Griz since January 1st have averaged 84.2 points per game at home while giving up 62.2. Overall the Griz are averaging 74.5 points per game (77.14 in conference) and giving up 57.79 per game (60.57 in conference).

The cats, since January 1st on the road have averaged 66.14 points per game, while giving up 68.14. Overall the cats on the road average 64.64 points per game (66.29 in conference), while giving up 70.57 (68.71 in conference).

As some of you have noted in this thread, the Griz had much better luck defending the cats when they were in zone instead of playing man defense. Honestly that drove me nuts in the game earlier against you guys. I'd see the Griz get some big stops while in zone, then they'd go man, and you guys would get easy layup after easy layup. Frustrating to watch! I'm really hoping we stick with more zone against the cats this game and try to force them into chucking up 3s instead of what we saw in the previous game.

What does this all mean? Who freakin knows The Griz have been playing very well at home lately, and scoring a lot of points while still playing very good defense. Johnson, after the loss to the Cats, has been much better (23 points per game since then). If the Griz offense is still clicking, then I could see the Griz winning by a score of something like 79-63. I wouldn't be surprised to see it be a fairly close game at halftime, but still end up a 15-20 point victory for the Griz due to a lopsided second half (like 4 out of the last 5 Griz home games).

Either way, I'm VERY happy that the Griz will most not have to face the cats in the playoffs until the championship game (hopefully we both get there). After what the Cats did to the Griz last year, and then did to Weber State... I think most teams in the Big Sky do not want to play the Cats in the tournament. Even with no Mbunga this year, the cats I still think are going to be a very dangerous team in the tournament.

grizgirl wrote:I got you guys slamming us.

A minor correction.

All kidding aside, I'm completely flabbergasted. A historic weekend for MSU basketball.