The Bobcat Nation

Way way behind at halftime 39-16 against Idaho. I'm glad I didn't waste my time or hard earned money on this crap-fest.

I have been regularly attending MSU men's basketball since the 1970's and have probably made 90% of the home games since 1989. I'm not coming back until things change significantly. This is absolutely unacceptable. Judging by our rapdily declining home attendance and lack of interest on this message board I'm guessing most of you are way ahead of me.

When will I come back? It could be years-the way things are going.

Not renewing my season tickets next year... unless there is a change... That was pathetic

Wow, that was the worst first half of basketball I've seen since I've been going to watch the Cats for the last 32 years.

Jeez, I just heard on the news that we won.......or were they wrong?

Yup, Channel 3 had it wrong.......

I was watching the high lights on Q2 and I couldn't believe he said we scored 16 first half points...I expect to hear that in jinior high ball but not D1 colleage ball....How flippin embarrassing.

I think Huse better run to Tire Rama becasue the wheels have fallen off of this bus...I am truly disappointed.

disappointing, yes. surprising, not at all. i'd be willing to bet that our 16 first half points are close to the lowest one-half point outputs in the country this year. but it's been par for the course all season. i'm not here to tell anyone their business...but i find it surprising that so many people are just now becoming so angry and frustrating with this team. they were a bad team in november. they were a bad team in january. and they are a bad team now. it's not like we were some great team and suddenly just forgot how to play! people who refused to see it just look at how we started conference play and like to pretend that we are a good team. but there have been several of us saying all year long that this is a bad team. i went to the game last night and cheered like i always do. i don't get mad at the losses because we essentially have a very good high school team going up against college teams. i said a month ago that we may not win another game, and i wouldn't be shocked if we missed the tourney.

a couple of things i'm happy about....bobby seems to go out there and play hard every night and without fear. he's basically putting this team on his back which unfortunately won't win any games. glad to see that huse is still messing with the lineup. anderson is still getting too many minutes for my liking, and i'd like to see tre and reid get some more action but it's a step in the right direction. trujeque really doesn't belong at this level and i'd like to see his minutes diminish. although, at this point of the season it really doesn't matter.

in the end, 36% shooting and less than 12% from deep is going to lose a lot of games....

And unfortunately it looks like next year could be even worse!

Listen, I'm just as pissed, dissatisfied, disappointed, etc. as any of you. But refusing to go to any more games? That's a little much.

BelgradeBobcat wrote:Way way behind at halftime 39-16 against Idaho. I'm glad I didn't waste my time or hard earned money on this crap-fest.

I have been regularly attending MSU men's basketball since the 1970's and have probably made 90% of the home games since 1989. I'm not coming back until things change significantly. This is absolutely unacceptable. Judging by our rapdily declining home attendance and lack of interest on this message board I'm guessing most of you are way ahead of me.

When will I come back? It could be years-the way things are going.

This drives me nuts. BOO HOO. If you don't support the Cats during the down times, you don't deserve to support them during the good times. Pathetic. By stopping going to games and stopping supporting MSU you are probably just making it harder to succeed. Why would any good player want to play for a team seen by 500 people? Sack up, and weather the storm.

ImagineSanta wrote:

BelgradeBobcat wrote:Way way behind at halftime 39-16 against Idaho. I'm glad I didn't waste my time or hard earned money on this crap-fest.

I have been regularly attending MSU men's basketball since the 1970's and have probably made 90% of the home games since 1989. I'm not coming back until things change significantly. This is absolutely unacceptable. Judging by our rapdily declining home attendance and lack of interest on this message board I'm guessing most of you are way ahead of me.

When will I come back? It could be years-the way things are going.

This drives me nuts. BOO HOO. If you don't support the Cats during the down times, you don't deserve to support them during the good times. Pathetic. By stopping going to games and stopping supporting MSU you are probably just making it harder to succeed. Why would any good player want to play for a team seen by 500 people? Sack up, and weather the storm.

That is a very good point. We complain all the time on BN about the griz being fair weather fans and then we act just like them. Remember the 2000 football team (0-11). We averaged about 7500 fans. Very disappointing. I understand how frustrating it can be. At least when the football team was struggling we had a new coach with a plan. Regardless, supporting the team makes you part of the solution instead of part of the problem. Your choce!!!!!!!!!!

ImagineSanta wrote:This drives me nuts. BOO HOO. If you don't support the Cats during the down times, you don't deserve to support them during the good times. Pathetic. By stopping going to games and stopping supporting MSU you are probably just making it harder to succeed. Why would any good player want to play for a team seen by 500 people? Sack up, and weather the storm.

What can I say? I've hit the breaking point. I can no longer invest emotionally into a team that's getting worse and shows no prospects of getting better.

I don't know that fan support has anything to do with it. We just got beat by Sac State and they don't draw 500 on a good night. Obviously, the good players are already avoiding us.

I will lend more support to the women's team (something I should have been doing more of this season) and look forward to football season.

gtapp wrote:That is a very good point. We complain all the time on BN about the griz being fair weather fans and then we act just like them. Remember the 2000 football team (0-11). We averaged about 7500 fans. Very disappointing. I understand how frustrating it can be. At least when the football team was struggling we had a new coach with a plan. Regardless, supporting the team makes you part of the solution instead of part of the problem. Your choce!!!!!!!!!!

I went to every home game that 2000 football season. You could see that team getting better. Do you see this basketball team getting better? Next year we'll be picked to finish dead last. The griz fans you speak of have never had a team this bad to support-not in anyone's memory. Has either of their basketball teams lost 9 in a row-ever? MSU fans have had to put up with a lot more than griz fans have. I just articulated the conclusion that many MSU basketball fans have come to long before I did.

BelgradeBobcat wrote:

gtapp wrote:That is a very good point. We complain all the time on BN about the griz being fair weather fans and then we act just like them. Remember the 2000 football team (0-11). We averaged about 7500 fans. Very disappointing. I understand how frustrating it can be. At least when the football team was struggling we had a new coach with a plan. Regardless, supporting the team makes you part of the solution instead of part of the problem. Your choce!!!!!!!!!!

I went to every home game that 2000 football season. You could see that team getting better. Do you see this basketball team getting better? Next year we'll be picked to finish dead last. The griz fans you speak of have never had a team this bad to support-not in anyone's memory. Has either of their basketball teams lost 9 in a row-ever? MSU fans have had to put up with a lot more than griz fans have. I just articulated the conclusion that many MSU basketball fans have come to long before I did.

I see your point. I really do! I guess you could conclude that someone in the administration is not doing a very good job. But you know the kids are trying their best (not their fault) and the coaches are trying their best so I guess I would want to support them regardless of the record. I can barely afford to make all the football games so I don't make any basketball games. I guess that makes me part of the problem. I feel bad for the kids when the crowd is small. They feel bad enough when they lose but to lose the support of the fans must hurt alot. I wish I had a solution but smarter people than me will have to figure this out.

I believe in supporting the Cats through good times and bad, but declining attendance may send a message to Fields that is louder than the team's W-L record. It seems that the vast majority of our fan base has not only lost all hope in the current team, but has also pretty much given up on the future prospects for MSU basketball, and that is dangerous territory for any athletic program to find itself in. Each game, they seem to play worse than the previous one. The Cats are known for their collapses in the 2nd half of the conference season, but the total breakdown of this year's team is epic, even by our standards. This can't continue for too many more seasons, or MSU hoops will become completely irrelevant, just like the football program during the Solomonson era.

John K wrote:I believe in supporting the Cats through good times and bad, but declining attendance may send a message to Fields that is louder than the team's W-L record. It seems that the vast majority of our fan base has not only lost all hope in the current team, but has also pretty much given up on the future prospects for MSU basketball, and that is dangerous territory for any athletic program to find itself in. Each game, they seem to play worse than the previous one. The Cats are known for their collapses in the 2nd half of the conference season, but the total breakdown of this year's team is epic, even by our standards. This can't continue for too many more seasons, or MSU hoops will become completely irrelevant, just like the football program during the Solomonson era.

JohnK

I can't believe you uttered the name of "he-who-must-not-be-named"! The pale North-Dakotan....I mean dark lord.

Anyway, I don't see us repeating our nice run at the Big Sky tourny like we did last year.......it is dis-heartening.

Bracketbusted is the best way to put it! These dudes need to show some heart and pride. 16 points at half. Are you serious?? What is the matter with these guys. I can't believe the shooting %'s i see! if your supposed best player Howard is shooting in the 30's you have no shot to win at the end of Feb or beginning of March! None! We need to start getting these young guys some minutes (Johnson, Reid, Trujeque, McCall, etc) so they can progress for next season. And What has happened to all the players in Montana HS? The dudes that have enormous pride in MSU! Where are the Danny Sprinkle, Justin Brown, Pete Conway, Lasosky, Sullivan, Hatler, Leachman's at??? I just named 7 that all came to MSU within a 5 year span and look at the past 10 years and the players are trash! Howard isnt as good as any of those guys? i mean seriously. Am i wrong? Its really too bad for Coach Huse and his staff because they are forced to go out of state to get kids and that is not easy to do with academic and geographic restrictions. Why would a kid leave the City and go to Bozeman and deal with the winters? maybe im just bitter right now

Something I've wondered about for a long time and chalked up to coincidence:

When our football team is up our men's basketball team is down and vise-versa. In the mid-70's when the football team won a national championship the men's basketball team was terrible. In the 1980's the basketball team was on the rise but the football team declined rapidly after 1984 (and only had one win in 1983!). In the late 80's the basketball team was a Big Sky elite-going to the NCAA's and the NIT in an era when Big Sky basketball was very strong (Idaho, BSU and Nevada were in the league and strong programs). In the 1990's the football team was really struggling whereas the basketball team steadily improved under Mick Durham and went to the NCAA's in 1996 (again in a stronger Big Sky than what it is now). After some up and down years the basketball team hit another high water mark 2002 with an NIT win but has been in a malaise ever since (in my opinion) whereas the football team has gone from winless in 2000 to the nationally ranked program that it is now.

Maybe it's because best in state athletes are playing football instead of basketball? We used to load up on Bozeman players-but the Bozeman's best basketball player now is going to be Nevada's quarterback. Could it be that simple?

Why can't we be good at both sports at the same time?

BelgradeBobcat wrote:Something I've wondered about for a long time and chalked up to coincidence:

When our football team is up our men's basketball team is down and vise-versa. In the mid-70's when the football team won a national championship the men's basketball team was terrible. In the 1980's the basketball team was on the rise but the football team declined rapidly after 1984 (and only had one win in 1983!). In the late 80's the basketball team was a Big Sky elite-going to the NCAA's and the NIT in an era when Big Sky basketball was very strong (Idaho, BSU and Nevada were in the league and strong programs). In the 1990's the football team was really struggling whereas the basketball team steadily improved under Mick Durham and went to the NCAA's in 1996 (again in a stronger Big Sky than what it is now). After some up and down years the basketball team hit another high water mark 2002 with an NIT win but has been in a malaise ever since (in my opinion) whereas the football team has gone from winless in 2000 to the nationally ranked program that it is now.

Maybe it's because best in state athletes are playing football instead of basketball? We used to load up on Bozeman players-but the Bozeman's best basketball player now is going to be Nevada's quarterback. Could it be that simple?

Why can't we be good at both sports at the same time?

I've also noticed that trend, and wondered if it's just mostly coincidental, or if there is some logical reason behind it. If there is a reason, I'm not sure what it would be. UM has managed to maintain a strong MBB program during most of their long run of success in football. Although I don't believe their fan support for hoops is nearly as strong as it was in the 70's and 80's, before their football program rose to prominence, so maybe this phenomenon is at play to some degree for the Griz as well.

Lived in Missoula in the late 1970's and 80's and feel both the fan support and BB are down from then.