The Bobcat Nation

Well, at least we didn't quite sink into the "Rest" category:

20. Big Sky: Montana lost Anthony Johnson, who you may remember from his brilliant performance in last season's Big Sky conference title game. (Johnson's performance -- 34 of his team's 46 second-half points, 11-for-14 second-half shooting, 10-for-10 from the free throw line -- was the kind of thing you usually see only when you play as Michael Jordan in NBA 2K11.) But even without Johnson, Montana is one of the favorites to win a conference with a handful of interesting teams (Weber State, Northern Colorado) at the top and a few truly terrible teams at its bottom.

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I heartily agree though that one of the BSC's major problems is the bottom 3 or 4 teams. Last year those teams had RPIs in the bottom 15% of the country. That has to change.

As an aside, SUU and UND's RPIs last year: #328 and #340. O.U.C.H. That ain't helpin'....

Well being a one bid league it probably doesn't matter a whole lot. It would be nice though to stay out of the four "play in" games.

It will be interesting see if being in the Big Sky helps SUU's recruiting. I would think it will. They will actually have one of the nicest arenas in the Big Sky.

I don't think North Dakota's basketball is their strength-they've got hockey on the brain all winter. But it's bound to get better now that they are in a real league. It had to be pretty tough to recruit to the Great West basketball conglomerate with teams such as the New Jersey Instititute of Technology, Houston Baptist, and Utah Valley.

As far as Montana State is concerned-whenever your new guys outnumber your returners 2 to 1 that spells rebuilding...and probably a tough season. Hopefully we'll improve as the season goes on-but I have no idea. Bobby Howard will keep us in a lot of games just by pure will power.

I really do hope that being in the Big Sky helps Southern Utah and ND turn themselves into respectable BB programs (Southern Utah was at one time). Initially they are going to really hurt the RPI of the conference if they struggle against everyone.. like last year. That could negatively affect the seed the Big Sky team gets in the tournament

As for the current Big Sky members, you got the Griz, Weber, MSU, and UNC at the top again this year I'm sure..

Weber of course has Lillard and always seems to reload. I expect them to be near (or at) the top of the Big Sky again this year.

The Griz have a ton of new faces, but return arguably the best center in the Big Sky. Even with the new faces I'm expecting the Griz to be right up at the top of the Big Sky again.

UNC lost Will Figures (big loss) and a great defensive player in Yahosh Bonner. They still have Beitzel (who was injured late last year)... I'm not sure how good they'll be this year though...

Then there's the Cats. I actually expect the Cats to be pyrett good even with all of the new faces this year. I was really impressed with Rush last year, and Howard (when he hits his FTs is a hell of a player). How do you guys think you did in replacing the lost quickness at the guard positions? I'm guessing you guys will be right up there in the mix with Weber, the Griz and UNC this year.

NAU is usually solid, and occasionally very good (they return their leading scorer Jones). I don't see them being a ton better than they were last year, but with Jones still on their team, who knows. PSU lost Waters, but still has Nelson (the mouthy SOB..). They probably will improve over last years very disappointing season.

Then there's EWU, Sac and ISU. EWU just lost their 2 exhibition games. One of the games they allowed the other team (Seattle Pacific) to shoot 62% from the field. The other game (against MSU Billings) they shot 25% from the field and got outrebounded. Yeah, that was without their starting and backup point guards...but still... They lost to two lower division teams.. I don't see them doing much this year to help the Big Sky out.. Lately they seem to have these amazingly talented players at one or two positions (Dean, that transfer from Texas Tech, Stuckey, etc)..but not really do much with it....

Sac... improved in football (which is great!) but in Basketball.. Not sure if they'll improve much this year. Lots of new faces.. so hard to know for sure. ****** I just looked at their roster this year and their roster from last year, and I only see 3 players from last years roster on this years roster. That's not a good sign for Sac.

ISU... Honestly I haven't paid much attention to them... They haven't been good in a long time I really hope they get things turned around in Football and Basketball soon. Hate seeing a big sky team struggle as much as they have lately.


Should be a fun year. Lots of new faces for the Cats and for the Griz. Glad BB season is finally here!

Well being a one bid league it probably doesn't matter a whole lot.

I disagree completely. Look at the years that BSC teams have won tournament games. In those years, invariably they are a 12 seed or better. Being an 11 or 12 gives you a legitimate shot at winning games in the tournament. But if you have a low-rated conference RPI, and you have a conference champion who has a lower-than-need-be RPI because they play 8 games a year against teams with RPIs in the 330 range, you're not going to get a 12 seed. Rather, you get a 15 and your coach gets the opportunity to shake hands with Mike Krzyzewski.

The BSC seed is dependent upon getting a 20+ win team to win the conference tourney and having some non-20+ win teams in that 11-20 group (Mid Majors you actually want to watch) win their conference tourney. The BSC could get two teams in the tourney if the regular season champions have a 1982 Univ. of Idaho-type season and then loses the the BSC tourney, but gets an at-large due to be ranked high in the RPI and other polls. BTW that the 1982 Idaho season hasn't happened since...1982.

Generally the BSC will be seeded anywhere from 11 to 16 based on who wins the BSC tourney and who wins those 11-20 group tourneys. If our No. 5 or 6 team (less than 20 wins) wins and most of the others hold serve, then the BSC gets a 15-16 seed. I doubt, unless the BSC tourney winner is sub .500 overall, that the BSC ever plays a play-in game. There are too many bad conferences for that to happen.

The trick right now is to get the conference to move up that group it's in from last to near the top. To do that will take some incredible recruiting and a good deal of luck. Luck being getting a player or two that everyone else misses on or that blossom into a good players after signing. Luck also being having those players all come in during a one or two year span. Luck also being winning the reg. season and tourney with those players every year for 3-4 years in a row. Then parlaying that success into recruiting good players that keep that team at or near the top. Then having that team's success allow other teams in the conference to recruit well, thus adding more quality teams to the mix.

I see Weber St., UM as the teams most likely to do something like that in the near future. WSU is in a hot-bed of good basketball with Utah, BYU, Utah St and a couple good JC schools in the area. UM has been recruiting real well the last couple years due to some good BSC tourney fortune.

GrizinWashington wrote:

Well being a one bid league it probably doesn't matter a whole lot.

I disagree completely. Look at the years that BSC teams have won tournament games. In those years, invariably they are a 12 seed or better. Being an 11 or 12 gives you a legitimate shot at winning games in the tournament. But if you have a low-rated conference RPI, and you have a conference champion who has a lower-than-need-be RPI because they play 8 games a year against teams with RPIs in the 330 range, you're not going to get a 12 seed. Rather, you get a 15 and your coach gets the opportunity to shake hands with Mike Krzyzewski.

Well yeah-especially if you lose to a team in the 300 range (Eastern Washington). There's not much one strong Big Sky team can do about the league RPI except go win some big non-conference games and suffer no losses to the league's bad teams.

Big Sky: Weber State

As a former assistant coach at rival Idaho State (1979 to '82), it hurts me to pick Weber State. But coach Randy Rahe continues to lead Weber to quantifiable improvement. The Wildcats, who had an RPI of 266 in 2005, were all the way up to No. 94 last season. This season, junior point guard Damian Lillard returns as the best player in the Big Sky. The Achilles' heel for Weber might be inside, where Montana creates a matchup challenge. 6-11 Brian Qvale and 7-0 Derek Selvig can play.

Others in the hunt: Montana, Northern Arizona and Montana Stat

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