The Bobcat Nation

Up 41-27 at halftime. Do we dare dream???

No. I made that mistake in last year's Big Sky tournament game!

MSU01 wrote:No. I made that mistake in last year's Big Sky tournament game!

You're right. Another blown lead. Now up by only 2.

Yep. Blew a huge lead against another bad team.

Pulled it out by 2. Lucky to escape.

Cats blow the 14 point lead. Blount gets a steal and layup to go up by 2. We had the ball and chance to go up by 4 or 5 and Blount called for a foul that NAU got away with all game, but the defense holds them to a contested long three-they miss and we win.

Good win-NAU isn't very good and they're struggling, but we haven't won there in 10 years so...

Folded like a cheap tent against their press in the second half. Unbelievable lack of poise. I guess this was a good one to learn some stuff from.

Cats shot the ball well but just looked sloppy... Thought they were gonna give that game away and almost did. Much needed homestand coming up were they can easily sweep and get 2 more conference wins.

CATS2000 wrote:Cats shot the ball well but just looked sloppy... Thought they were gonna give that game away and almost did. Much needed homestand coming up were they can easily sweep and get 2 more conference wins.

I'm afraid nothing will be easy for this team...but the next two games are winnable if we play well.

http://www.nauathletics.com/sports/mbkb ... 4_61km.xml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

^^^The stats.

Big discrepancy at the foul line again. Maybe Huse better start throwing chairs or something-the nice guy routine obviously isn't working.

Played great in the first half to show what they can be as a team, then played like they never saw pressure defense in all their lives the second half. I think that this game was a small but important turning point for this team. If they had lost I am pretty sure this team would have become mental midgets for the rest of the season.

However they showed a lot fight when it counted. The opposing coach and announcers kept commenting on how tall, long, and athletic our team was and that was creating problems for their team (I hadn't heard that said about the Cats in a decade). Also didn't know that MSU leads the conference in blocks.

Don't know what will happen the rest of the season but for the first time, they may be taking a baby step forward as a program.

The Bobcats folded under the pressure last year during the BSC playoffs.

But they didn't fold last night.

No matter how "down" the Lumberjacks are this year, it still isn't easy to travel there and play. Good win for the Bobcats.

Newsflash!!!

Basketball has always times in games where one team has its runs and then the other team has its runs.

Match ups change during the game and there are ebbs and flows.

Why are you not talking about what they did to get up 14??

Seems like a group of posters love to bitch about the negatives that happen during a game and how bad we are but rarely comment on things going well during a game. Got news for you. Teams will lose games during the year and it happens to everyone. Its been over 35 years I believe since a team when undefeated in the NCAA. Some of you need to step back from the ledge.

Huse's teams have blown more than their share of big leads the last couple of seasons. And full court presses have killed Huses teams. Two years ago a full court press blunder gave Portland State the win in the Big Sky tournament opener in the Fieldhouse. Last season ended when we failed to handle NAU's full court press in the second half in Big Sky tourney opener in Flagstaff (I believe the lead blown in that game was 16 points). This most recent NAU game was almost an exact copy of last year's game-except Blount got us those two huge hoops right at the end and NAU missed their late threes. If I were an opposing Big Sky coach-I'd press the heck out of the Bobcats all game long-Huse's press breakers just don't work.

Now for the good-the team's shooting percentage the last three or four games has been outstanding. If they can keep that going and limit the turnovers they can win some games. Two road wins this early in the conference season is a pleasant surprise-and could be huge going down the stretch.

This week's games are big. If this team wants to make the Big Sky tourney they need to keep teams like Sac State and Northern Colorado behind them.

another of my pet peeves. The best way to break a press is to attack it. Because the press is double teaming in the front , they only have one man protecting the basket. Break the press and you have a two on one. However, Huse only wants to get the ball over the line, and then slow it down rather than taking the ball to the rim to take advantage. The best way to stop teams from pressing you is to make them pay for pressing. If you don't look to score off the press, you don't give the pressing team any disincentive to the press. It just drives me crazy when teams don't look to score against a press.

DicTater wrote:another of my pet peeves. The best way to break a press is to attack it. Because the press is double teaming in the front , they only have one man protecting the basket. Break the press and you have a two on one. However, Huse only wants to get the ball over the line, and then slow it down rather than taking the ball to the rim to take advantage. The best way to stop teams from pressing you is to make them pay for pressing. If you don't look to score off the press, you don't give the pressing team any disincentive to the press. It just drives me crazy when teams don't look to score against a press.

All solid points. However, in order to have success attacking a press teams must have a minimum of 2 things. 1. Practice breaking a press. 2. The talent and athleticism to play fast.

Not sure that we have #2.

I don't think that Huse has ever made his teams play "fast." His brand of basketball is utterly boring and unsuccessful, and I personally can't wait until they pull the plug on his contract.