The Bobcat Nation

At half, Montana State leads Southern Utah 46-38. It's been a strange game. First of all, the officials are terrible. They've called at least 8 fouls that were not fouls and there were at least a dozen other missed no calls. Montana State had 14 first-half fouls. SUU had 15. Ashley Brumwell, Jackie Elliott, Ausha Cole, Lindsay Stockton, Kayla DeWit and Alexa Dawkins all have two fouls for Cats.

MSU hit its first six 3-pointers. Five of them weren't great shots, but found the bottom of the net. Then MSU missed six of its next 7 from downtown. Overall, MSU shot 35 percent, but still put up 46 points. 17-22 effort at the FT line plus the hot start from downtown buoyed them.

All that said, Cats jumped out to a 26-10 lead, then saw SUU win the second half of the first half 28-20. Thunderbirds very athletic, physical team. Senior center Carli Moreland had 10 points and 8 rebounds, including 8 offensive boards.

The Cats' biggest achilles heel right now is their ability to keep opponents off the offensive glass. The other is their defensive rotations. They look straight up lost at times.

Yet they are still winning. A testament to how hard they are playing. And the hot shooting start.

Any updates?

We lost. Geez louise-it's not even February yet!

The final was 87-81. Southern Utah erased a 10 point deficit (or the Cats lost a 10 point lead) with 10 minutes to go. They made shots in the end and the Cats didn't. Everything Colter said in the first post is true. I overheard that there were 53 fouls called in this game. The officiating crew was bad. The Cats have to make shots down the stretch to win games. Jasmine Hommes finished with 24 points tonight; she's been great in recent games. The ladies put out a great effort as well, but I think we're starting to see the effects of having 9 players late in games with fatigue and foul trouble. Maybe a nice road win on Monday will turn things around.

Easy to coach from the stands but I thought when coach took out the players
who were producing the most---had the momentum--and sat them down
for an extended period, she iced them.

This season is looking like a carbon copy
of last year, except the slide started earlier.

Hope I'm wrong, but I think both hoops teams are now toast..at
least in terms of contending for a BSC championship and being able to
host a BSC tournament in Bozeman for the first time since I
believe sometime back in the 19th century.

Charity stripe boosts Southern Utah past Montana State women
viewtopic.php?f=26&t=32605" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I was in town tonight so I took in the first half of the game.

Man, the gals were hot early on....you knew that couldn't continue,

The refs were calling fouls from all across the court.....and Southern Utah would NOT miss their free throws......and we had a stretch where we didn't make any....that was frustrating.

The most frustrating thing is that the PA system still sucks......couldn't understand a word she said all night.

I didn't see the game, but giving up 17 offensive rebounds is terrible. Rebounding is pretty much a matter of desire. If you don't care enough to put your butt into someone, you aren't going to win many games.

The last two times out, Montana State has been absolutely dominated from a physicality standpoint. That will be MSU's Achilles heel going forward. Montana State can play up-tempo and can score a lot of points, but can they win a game that's a grind?

They have a strangely constructed team in the fact that they have a bunch of post players with guard skills. Ashley Brumwell is one of the most challenging matchups in the league because she's a 6-1 former high school point guard who can play the 4. But she'll always struggle to stay out of foul trouble when she's guarding players like Carli Moreland of SUU last night or Katie Baker of UM last season. Jasmine Hommes is one of the best shooters not just on the team but in teh entire league from 18 feet and in. She's straight knock-down. But she's your 6-1 center averaging 4 rebounds per game. She's also prone to foul trouble because she lacks physicality and is playing out of position. She's much more Dirk Nowitzki than Charles Oakley. And Alexa Dawkins is athletic with good footwork and good shooting range, but she can't guard a single post in the Big Sky. With just 9 players, they will struggle with foul trouble and physical teams all season.

Colter_Nuanez wrote:The last two times out, Montana State has been absolutely dominated from a physicality standpoint. That will be MSU's Achilles heel going forward. Montana State can play up-tempo and can score a lot of points, but can they win a game that's a grind?

They have a strangely constructed team in the fact that they have a bunch of post players with guard skills. Ashley Brumwell is one of the most challenging matchups in the league because she's a 6-1 former high school point guard who can play the 4. But she'll always struggle to stay out of foul trouble when she's guarding players like Carli Moreland of SUU last night or Katie Baker of UM last season. Jasmine Hommes is one of the best shooters not just on the team but in teh entire league from 18 feet and in. She's straight knock-down. But she's your 6-1 center averaging 4 rebounds per game. She's also prone to foul trouble because she lacks physicality and is playing out of position. She's much more Dirk Nowitzki than Charles Oakley. And Alexa Dawkins is athletic with good footwork and good shooting range, but she can't guard a single post in the Big Sky. With just 9 players, they will struggle with foul trouble and physical teams all season.

Absolutely great analysis! Colter. That's exactly what I was seeing, but had no idea exactly why it was happening. I tended to blame it on the refs because it seemed like we were getting called for things the other team did to us without getting whistled.

You are the man!

Maybe Binford ought to start using Kayla DeWitt at center and rotate Elliott and Hommes at the three.

Helcat72 wrote:Maybe Binford ought to start using Kayla DeWitt at center and rotate Elliott and Hommes at the three.

Binford rotates Elliott and Brumwell at the 3. DeWit does play center. I forgot her in the ^ analysis. She's got more strength and physicality than Jasmine Hommes, Alexa Dawkins or Brumwell. The problem is she's a drop off offensively from all three, and a big drop from Hommes and Brumwell.

There was a time during Thursday's game where Hommes checked back into the game for DeWit with four fouls. Sample and I asked Rachel Semansky (she's helping keep stats this year) what she thought of the move as no one on the court all night could slow down Moreland. We all came to a consensus that, while DeWit could probably guard Moreland more effective, you'd lose a huge chunk offensively, particularly with Hommes shooting the lights out. In other words, Moreland might get 19 points, but Hommes gets you 24 so your plus-minue is +5. You play DeWit down the stretch and she might hold Moreland to a few less buckets, but she'll score a whole lot less as well, so you'd probably have more like a -12.

Regardless, I'm not here to harp on the posts. If you have just nine players, including three post players who will struggle to stay out of foul trouble and an uber-aggressive point guard (Ausha Cole) who will also struggle to avoid frequent whistles, you're going to be in trouble. Foul trouble hurts really bad if you have so few players.

“We are definitely going to be preparing on how we defend without fouling,” Tricia Binford told me following the Southern Utah game. “There’s a lot of reaching going on by us. We need to do a much better job of that. We also need to focus on our rebounding. We need to get better box outs. We knew going in that Southern Utah was one of the best rebounding teams in the conference for a reason. They are super athletic, they are big and they did a great job of that tonight.”

And here's the quote that appeared in my SUU-MSU game story:

“The free throw line affected the flow of the game for sure and this is something our team definitely has to take to heart and make a change because this has been extremely consistent,” said MSU head coach Tricia Binford, who has nine players at her disposal, four of which had at least four fouls on Thursday. “It’s definitely hindering us, especially in the second half. I try to make a philosophy to keep Ashley or Ausha on the floor at all times because they definitely have great impact for us, but I don’t want to call out just two kids. It’s a team problem for us right now.”

Very interesting....not as black and white as the refs calling too many fouls on non-physical players.Hopefully the new recruits will bring some physicality to the post next year. Meanwhile it will be interesting to see how coach Binford handles the problem for the rest of the season.

My question is a simple one "why doesn't Binford recruit more players? This isn't the first year she's playing short handed,when I asked her she says she likes fewer players so that they all get lots of minutes....if I was coaching against her my strategy would be simply press and run the Cats til they fold, be aggressive just like the So.Utah team did on Thursday. We have no one inside that wants to scrap for a rebound like Semansky did. We are in for a long nite against the griz from what I've seen , Selvig is probably licking his chops!

desmond1957 wrote:My question is a simple one "why doesn't Binford recruit more players? This isn't the first year she's playing short handed,when I asked her she says she likes fewer players so that they all get lots of minutes....if I was coaching against her my strategy would be simply press and run the Cats til they fold, be aggressive just like the So.Utah team did on Thursday. We have no one inside that wants to scrap for a rebound like Semansky did. We are in for a long nite against the griz from what I've seen , Selvig is probably licking his chops!

I've always wondered why Binford has had short benches throughout her tenure. There have been years where we've had as few as eight players or ten players where two don't play. The new rules where more fouls are called are going to test a team's depth and bench. I think we have some great athletes and players but it's going to be very difficult to win in a closely called or an overtime game. I believe that the ladies are going to win more games and Binford isn't a bad coach, but it would be nice to have a few more players on the team to handle depth issues.

And those two or three more players need to be all like Rachel Semansky. The toughness, physicality and aggressiveness. and at least one must be a post!

bozbobcat wrote:

desmond1957 wrote:My question is a simple one "why doesn't Binford recruit more players? This isn't the first year she's playing short handed,when I asked her she says she likes fewer players so that they all get lots of minutes....if I was coaching against her my strategy would be simply press and run the Cats til they fold, be aggressive just like the So.Utah team did on Thursday. We have no one inside that wants to scrap for a rebound like Semansky did. We are in for a long nite against the griz from what I've seen , Selvig is probably licking his chops!

I've always wondered why Binford has had short benches throughout her tenure. There have been years where we've had as few as eight players or ten players where two don't play. The new rules where more fouls are called are going to test a team's depth and bench. I think we have some great athletes and players but it's going to be very difficult to win in a closely called or an overtime game. I believe that the ladies are going to win more games and Binford isn't a bad coach, but it would be nice to have a few more players on the team to handle depth issues.

I'm not exactly sure when playing with nine players became a short bench, that's what most coaches work with. I can assure you that wasn't the plan this year. If it's not for injuries to Peyton Ferris and Michelle Seitz and the surprising news that Emily Allen left the team, this bench is a lot deeper. Binford is trying to juggle what she has right now. There will be five players joining the program next season, so it's not that she isn't recruiting players, either. Playing with nine players is going to be tough, but Binford doesn't have much of a choice right now.

kyle_sample wrote:

bozbobcat wrote:

desmond1957 wrote:My question is a simple one "why doesn't Binford recruit more players? This isn't the first year she's playing short handed,when I asked her she says she likes fewer players so that they all get lots of minutes....if I was coaching against her my strategy would be simply press and run the Cats til they fold, be aggressive just like the So.Utah team did on Thursday. We have no one inside that wants to scrap for a rebound like Semansky did. We are in for a long nite against the griz from what I've seen , Selvig is probably licking his chops!

I've always wondered why Binford has had short benches throughout her tenure. There have been years where we've had as few as eight players or ten players where two don't play. The new rules where more fouls are called are going to test a team's depth and bench. I think we have some great athletes and players but it's going to be very difficult to win in a closely called or an overtime game. I believe that the ladies are going to win more games and Binford isn't a bad coach, but it would be nice to have a few more players on the team to handle depth issues.

I'm not exactly sure when playing with nine players became a short bench, that's what most coaches work with. I can assure you that wasn't the plan this year. If it's not for injuries to Peyton Ferris and Michelle Seitz and the surprising news that Emily Allen left the team, this bench is a lot deeper. Binford is trying to juggle what she has right now. There will be five players joining the program next season, so it's not that she isn't recruiting players, either. Playing with nine players is going to be tough, but Binford doesn't have much of a choice right now.

Good point...no more than nine players would normally play significant minutes on most college teams, so I'm not sure that's as big of an issue as some people are making it out to be. I can see where it would be problematic for practices, to have fewer than 10 players on the roster, but I really don't believe it should be that big of a deal for the actual games, unless there's a certain position that is undermanned.