The Bobcat Nation

MSU Bobcats women’s basketball played Oregon State, featuring Bozeman’s Mandy Close, in the Fieldhouse on November 18, 2005.

Upon the opening of the 2022-2023 conference season, I thought it would be interesting to sort of have a “State of the Game” round table discussion. How has MSU changed? How has the Pac-12 changed? Are gaining, running in place, falling behind? And, if you were at the game, any memories (if any) that you still have? I was there. I remember that we did better in the first half, but got creamed in the second. I’m very excited to have a new Big Sky season!

bozbobcat wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 18, 2005 10:31 pm

70-35 Oregon St. It was ugly. Mandy Close looked very good for OSU and they had a big team. MSU could not get a shot going tonight or find an inside presence. It would be best to forget about this one.

The Pac-12 is still the Pac-12 (then it was the Pac-10), with Stanford at the top and the other teams shifting around to see who can challenge them from year to year.

2005 was Binford's first MSU team and went 4-24 on the season, and look where they are now 17 years later. I've said this numerous times in the past, but you have to give MSU's administration a lot of credit for letting Binford build her program even though it took a decade for her to win her first conference title. Robin Selvig retiring at UM has helped too, back in 2005 you still basically wrote in Montana as the conference champion every year.

I gave Trish a lot of credit for playing with the players that she inherited. A lot of good people (like Scotta Morton the performance coach) on that team, and I think it caused the players and recruits to realize that Coach Binford could be trusted. She accepted a bad record to start building her platform. And I agree — kudos to MSU. Someone figured out they had a good one. She sold me during her public interview.