The Bobcat Nation

Any quick historians out there? Anyone remember another night this dismal? The women lose by about 20 and the men lose by, what, 36? Has that ever happened before??

We can joke about "can't wait for spring practice" all we want, but there is no excuse for this. The MSU students, alumni, staff, fans and supporting communities simply do not deserve the current state of MSU basketball. I was at the women's game tonight, and that was the worst beating I have ever seen at a women's game at home.

I was hanging my hat on the "at least our women's team is good" card this year but that was shot down quickly.

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Tonight's men's loss in Pocatello was the first time in 60 years Montana State has lost that bad to Idaho State. MSU might still slide into the tournament since NAU and Sac still have to come to Bozeman, although if they play like they did tonight, they aren't beating anyone.

On the women's side, I hate to say it, but there's only one win left on the schedule: Weber State on Saturday. The Wildcats have lost 41 straight games. The Bobcats' confidence is so low right now, it wouldn't surprise me if they lost.

“We are in a funk in a lot of different ways,” Trici Binford told me after the game tonight. “Your mind is your greatest strength, but it can also be your worst enemy. During our stretch having success, mentally we had an edge about us. We were winning close games down the stretch. Mentally, we knew we were going to get the job done and we played without fear. Now, we are playing with fear. When you play with fear, you don’t dictate, you don’t focus, you are not the aggressor. That’s what we need to get back to doing.”

I just don't see it happening. After surging to an 8-1 start, I don't think these girls will make the Big Sky tournament.

( COPIED FROM ISU THREAD)
Wow. Watched much of the game on computer.

I don't care if you have every starter out you simply can't lose to ISU by 36 points. Can you? I wouldn't have thought that was possible. ISU is 5-19 on the season. They are not a good team. And what did Huse have to say post game? "Well, when a team is shooting as well as they were tonight I don't think anything we did would have mattered much." Really.

Does the head coach really believe that? I think the truth is he knows he can't get his team to do the things he knows would improve their chances. They just aren't good defensively man-to-man and they are such poor shooters that the strategies he has left are very limited.

And that's why things become so difficult the second half of the season. Teams know exactly how to stymie a very limited MSU team.

When a guy (ISU's Chris Hansen) hits 9 of 11 from 3 you would think someone would get in his grill and force him to drive. Not when MSU is playing defense. They just kept letting him shoot. Again, just wow. The Cats are reeeeeaaallly a poor defensive team, especially when Eguounwu is not feeling the best.

Offensively, MSU has no good shooters (Moon is the sometimes exception) and that makes it really tough to score points. ISU just packed in the zone and it was game over early. I see no reason why any team would play anything but zone vs MSU. Huse just does not have the players to coach his style of basketball.

Remaining games:
(OPPONENT- DATE- PREDICTION)
Weber- 2-16 - LOSS
S Dakota 2-24- WIN
Southern UT 2-24- LOSS
UM 3- 2- LOSS
NAU 3- 7- LOSS
SAC ST 3- 9 - LOSS

As it stands if MSU goes 0-5 the remainder of the conference schedule they will likely be out of playoffs. That may be a relief and the end of the era and the pain.
If they go 1-4 it they will be on the cusp. The season for MSU will come down to those last two games.
If they go 2-3 I think they will be the last tournament qualifier and likely lose the first game as they play very poorly on the road. And, in that case, for going 12-16 overall and 9-11 in conference, Huse will keep his job (according to Colter and others who are informed) and we will somehow hope for a different result next year.

Don't hold your breath.

If losing that badly to what was the worst team in the conference and having yet another second half colapse does not finally cost Huse his job then he is here for life!

They went from playing so well to so poorly in a snap. They went 7-2 with a solid win over Weber and played very well vs. UM taking them to OT in that stretch. Then Egwu got hurt and missed four games and Davis missed two games leading to a 1-3 stretch. I thought with them back they'd re-group and get back in their groove. They obviously have a way to go.

This may be knee jerk reaction but seemed to work out fine when Fields dismissed Kramer 1 month before the season started, instead of waiting until the end of the season to dismiss Huse, how about now. maybe get a breath of fresh air into the program down the stretch. it certainly could not hurt looking at the track record. we all know if wont get any better in feb/march. just my thoughts as it does suck seeing this from MSU every year...

In 6 years, Huse has not built a program. He has resorted to bringing in head cases who refuse to play as a team and Huse can't get them to play as a team. The only hope is to fire Huse, get rid of Biglow, Moon, Blount, and start over. We need a coach who can recruit some high school kids from Washington and California and Texas. If you don't have high school kids, you have no program. There is no other way.

DicTater wrote:In 6 years, Huse has not built a program. He has resorted to bringing in head cases who refuse to play as a team and Huse can't get them to play as a team. The only hope is to fire Huse, get rid of Biglow, Moon, Blount, and start over. We need a coach who can recruit some high school kids from Washington and California and Texas. If you don't have high school kids, you have no program. There is no other way.

Blount and Moon are seniors.

Colter_Nuanez wrote:Tonight's men's loss in Pocatello was the first time in 60 years Montana State has lost that bad to Idaho State. MSU might still slide into the tournament since NAU and Sac still have to come to Bozeman, although if they play like they did tonight, they aren't beating anyone.

On the women's side, I hate to say it, but there's only one win left on the schedule: Weber State on Saturday. The Wildcats have lost 41 straight games. The Bobcats' confidence is so low right now, it wouldn't surprise me if they lost.

“We are in a funk in a lot of different ways,” Trici Binford told me after the game tonight. “Your mind is your greatest strength, but it can also be your worst enemy. During our stretch having success, mentally we had an edge about us. We were winning close games down the stretch. Mentally, we knew we were going to get the job done and we played without fear. Now, we are playing with fear. When you play with fear, you don’t dictate, you don’t focus, you are not the aggressor. That’s what we need to get back to doing.”

I just don't see it happening. After surging to an 8-1 start, I don't think these girls will make the Big Sky tournament.

Actually, even as badly as they're currently playing, the women stand a better chance of getting in the tourney than do the men. A win over WSU (surely they won't lose to a team that's riding a 41 game losing streak...will they?) gets them to 9 league wins, and 9-11 should be good enough to make the top 7 in an 11-team league. The men could very likely go oh-fer the rest of the season though, which would leave them at 7-13, which almost certainly won't be good enough to make the field. At the midpoint of the conference season the two teams were a combined 14-6, and have gone 1-9 since then, and if things play out as I've predicted, they would end up a combined 2-18 in the 2nd half of conference play...unbelievable!!

And in my opinion, Binford should start catching some heat, along with Huse. This is the 3rd straight year that the women's team has performed significantly worse in the 2nd half of conference play than in the first half, with this season's slide being particularly drastic.

John K wrote:

Colter_Nuanez wrote:Tonight's men's loss in Pocatello was the first time in 60 years Montana State has lost that bad to Idaho State. MSU might still slide into the tournament since NAU and Sac still have to come to Bozeman, although if they play like they did tonight, they aren't beating anyone.

On the women's side, I hate to say it, but there's only one win left on the schedule: Weber State on Saturday. The Wildcats have lost 41 straight games. The Bobcats' confidence is so low right now, it wouldn't surprise me if they lost.

“We are in a funk in a lot of different ways,” Trici Binford told me after the game tonight. “Your mind is your greatest strength, but it can also be your worst enemy. During our stretch having success, mentally we had an edge about us. We were winning close games down the stretch. Mentally, we knew we were going to get the job done and we played without fear. Now, we are playing with fear. When you play with fear, you don’t dictate, you don’t focus, you are not the aggressor. That’s what we need to get back to doing.”

I just don't see it happening. After surging to an 8-1 start, I don't think these girls will make the Big Sky tournament.

Actually, even as badly as they're currently playing, the women stand a better chance of getting in the tourney than do the men. A win over WSU (surely they won't lose to a team that's riding a 41 game losing streak...will they?) gets them to 9 league wins, and 9-11 should be good enough to make the top 7 in an 11-team league. The men could very likely go oh-fer the rest of the season though, which would leave them at 7-13, which almost certainly won't be good enough to make the field. At the midpoint of the conference season the two teams were a combined 14-6, and have gone 1-9 since then, and if things play out as I've predicted, they would end up a combined 2-18 in the 2nd half of conference play...unbelievable!!

And in my opinion, Binford should start catching some heat, along with Huse. This is the 3rd straight year that the women's team has performed significantly worse in the 2nd half of conference play than in the first half, with this season's slide being particularly drastic.

Binford just inked a three-year contract that makes her the second-highest paid women's basketball coach in the league. Her base salary is $7,000 less than Rob Ash's. Montana State is all in with Binford. Her team has been among the top 12 academic teams in the nation for six years straight. That alone will help her forever avoid the heat.

And I disagree the men will lose out and the women have a better shot of picking up wins. I think the women have one win left on the schedule: Weber State. The men COULD beat Southern Utah, Northern Arizona or Sac State. I think they will win one of those, maybe two.

The women are a victim of their own good start. They were 8-1 in the league and no one had any idea how to handle it. Once teams swallowed their pride and started playing zone or sagging to triple team Semansky in the post, the Bobcats completely lost the ability to score. I can't see them getting past anyone save Weber the rest of the way. The Weber game is in Shroyer, one the toughest gyms in the league to shoot in. Bobcats better be wary.