The Bobcat Nation

I think the secret is out...play a zone against the Bobcats and they will wilt. Pack in the paint and harass the shooters on the outside enough so they don't have totally unobstructed shots, and when it comes down to crunch time smother Rachel Semansky.

No one on the Bobcat team has much confidence in the three pointer. Callie Durham shoots a lot of them and sometimes draws iron....but if she is our three point sharpshooter...we are in trouble. I think she was like 0-6 tonight. Emily Allen was 2-2, and Lindsey Stockton was like 1-3 (4 point play!) I would start her instead of Durham. I would also play Elliot more...she hasn't found her game offensively....but she plays good defense and our defense and rebounding stunk tonight.....or else EWU is just that good....maybe a combination of the two. We took leads of 5, 6, 7, 2, 3, and finally 9. each time EWU would come back....not with threes....but with some good interior passing and offensive putbacks. Later when they took their ultimate lead....they put it away with threes and free throws !

The Cats are frustrated by the zone. Rachel Semansky struggles against three defensive players...and no one took up the slack tonight like Tish Adams had been doing the first half of the season. Lindsey Stockton was the only player other than Rachel who didn't seem sluggish, tired or tight. We missed a lot of layups tonight.

Chelsea Banis didn't play but I don't think she would have been effective anyhow because she just isn't physical enough to play with EWU. We need a knock down three point shooter like ISU, UM, EWU, NAU, and PSU have. I predict we are going to see zones the rest of the season and our success is going to depend on having someone step up and shoot the other teams out of the zone.

Helcat, when you boil it down, the Lady Cats are just not a consistenly good team. When I watch the games, I "grade" them in four areas: 1. Defense, 2. rebounding, 3. free throw shooting, 4. obviously, shooting. Playing D is work. It's no fun, but it's usually what wins games. I look for space between the Cats and the other team. Last night, I really thought we played tough D for the most part. EWU just made some good plays. They were good at getting quick looks on treys and they nailed them. Plus, how many times did they lob the ball into their post for an easy layup?

As you say, when they collapse the zone on Rachel, someone has to step up for us and make some shots. Emily made a couple last night, but other nights she is off. Lindsay made one. The rest of the team was either cold or afraid to even try.

The Cats also continue to struggle on rebounding. How many times did EWU get a 2nd and 3rd chance and when they did, they made it count. I wonder how hard they work on boxing out? As an old hoops player, you just have to slam your butt into the other players' stomachs. One time on a missed free throw last night, an EWU player did that to Stockton so hard that it knocked her down. My wife said "Foul," I said to her, "NO" that's how you box out!

That's what I would like to see more of from our players. Rachel is strong. At least when she gets the ball, no one is going to take it away from her.

I think the reason Jackie Elliot was taken out last night was because in the first half her player was wide open for a 3 and nailed it. Jackie does usually play hard, so she must've had a lapse, but her shooting has been so very disappointing. I really had high hopes for her being a star player, but you have to be able to make those medium range jump shots.

Lindsay has star power, no question about it.

I dont' know, I always thought the home court advantage really meant something, but seems like our Lady Cats lose more at home than they do on the road. I know the BSC is balanced, but when you can't defend your home court, I wouldn't expect to seriously compete for the BSC championship.

It's great to see those three football BSC championship banners (2012, 2011, 2010) hangining from the rafters. Wonder if we'll ever again see another one for hoops--men or women????????????

Good evaluation aucat. I agree. If you look at the kinds of girls we recruit and at the ones we play against....the biggest difference to me is their legs. Most of the players on other teams are pretty thick and muscular...built like Rachel. Our girls are athletic but not built for physical play inside....coach has recruited for running and quickness. I think we get out physicalled most of the time...and add the zone defenses to that...we end up putting Rachel against two sometimes three players inside. If no one can bring them out of the paint against her by hitting longer shots...then she is going to get worn out. I agree that Jackie hasn't shown that she can hit shots consistently...but she still hits a pretty good percentage albeit maybe 5 for 10 for the season! She didn't get much playing time last night and it may be because she has slacked off recently...I don't know....but EWU just shredded our interior defense last night....didn't even need threes. They controlled the boards and beat us physically!

In my estimation we didn't really beat the Grizzlies...they beat themselves. They missed a lot of free throws...and their shots weren't dropping....but that is an aberration.....they will bring it full force in Bozeman and if we play like we did last night it will be a blowout! they are physical enough to really knock us around...and so are several of the other teams in the conference. We most evenly match up with Northern Colorado....in other words the team that most matches our personnel. ISU is more physical along with the Griz, EWU, and Southern Utah. UND is big, but doesn't have the scorers that they need. NAU is coming on. Sac ST is scary because they press continuously and if you have a shooting slump for 5 minutes....will blow by you and walk away!

What I'm saying is that usually the conference champ is one who can grind with the best of them...and shoot the three well enough to bring a team out of a zone. I thought Callie Durham was going to be that person...but she takes a lot of shots and she has gotten less and less effective as the season has wore on.

When all you have is one player that can bang inside...you are at a disadvantage when no one else can step up!