PSU recap from last night

[BozoneCat]

Okay, drove over to Bozo last night to catch the game, and I certainly wasn't disappointed. I have to say, that was probably the most exciting and just plain fun game I have ever seen at the Brick - and that is a lot of games. The crowd was into the game from the very start, and the Brick was rocking all throughout the night. It got louder than I have ever heard it at the end of regulation when PSU had the ball - it was deafening. Everyone who came last night was treated to a great college basketball atmosphere, and I think it was a good sign that Bozeman is starting to get excited about its basketball team again. The only other games I can think that compare to last night were the Cat-griz game in 1995(?-maybe '96?) when Nico Harrison started the game with a humongous slam dunk and we just put it to them all night long, and the Big Sky Championship game in 1996. It was AWESOME last night.

We did a lot of things well last night, and I still kind of feel like we let this one slip away. Obviously the 3's weren't falling for us, but I don't feel like that lost the game (well, until the OT). I thought that we made a few bad decisions during the 15:00-5:00 stretch in the 2nd half that let PSU come back on us and get that 7-point lead before we made the great comeback. Miller played a terrible game until very late, but he did come up with a couple huge plays that helped us get it to OT. Casey Durham was the main culprit of bad play and stupid decisions last night. He took some of the absolute worst shots (selection-wise, not just because they didn't go in) I have ever seen in my life. His two 35-foot bombs with a guy in his face during the OT were unexcusable, and I thought Coach should have pulled him after the first one. There was also a point during the OT that he wouldn't foul a guy because he didn't want to pick up his 5th foul, which was very selfish as it cost us about 7 seconds. Overall, Casey played a very selfish game, I hope he learns from it.

Nick Dissly was absolutely HUGE last night. That was by far the best I have ever seen him play. He was aggressive and was a monster on the boards, and he didn't take too many shots from the outside - instead, he chose to drive it to the hole. WOW - it actually works!!! His 2nd slam dunk of the night was one of the biggest dunks I have ever seen, it is too bad that wasn't on TV.

Al Beye had a career night last night, which was fun to watch. You couldn't stop him, you could only hope to contain him - and that included his free throws even! For Big Al to step like that on a night where Moss had a tough time getting anything going was a great sign, I hope it leads to great things in the future from Big Al. The crowd loves him.

Coaching - I don't know what to say. In some ways, Mick devised a great game plan and made a lot of savvy moves that kept us in the game. In other ways, I felt he made some very questionable decisions that may have cost us the game. My first beef is with how we handled the press. Our teams have seemed to have trouble over the last few years with teams that press us hard, ala Eastern Washington. I feel that the reason is because we don't attack it like we should, instead we play it very passively. Why are Marvin Moss and sometimes Beye in the backcourt when we are trying to break the press??? It's pretty simple - you get your guards back there, let them break the press, get your big guy to step up around half court to pass it to him if need be, and send your wings streaking down the sides for open shots. When I see teams press us, I watch the Cats just try to get it across half court most of the time, instead of attacking it and making a team pay the price for pressing.

My second coaching beef was with the way Mick handled our foul situation. Late in OT when we were fouling PSU, Mick wasn't subbing guys in and out at all, he just let our guys, most of who were in severe foul trouble, stay out there. Why not sub some of the bench guys in who have more fouls to give, then sub the starters back in during the free throws. I'm sorry, but that is just Coaching 101.

I liked how Mick game planned for us to attack PSU inside. Jefferson was by far the most consistent player as far as driving the ball to the hole all night, but lots of other guys did too. Miller was the most hesitant to drive it in, even when he had open lanes. Thankfully, he did drive it in for a wide-open lay up when it counted most. We shot terribly in OT, but I thought we did a good job not settling for 3's throughout most of the game - for us to only shoot 13 during regulation is a testament to that. Much as this team likes to shoot the 3, I really don't feel that is their strength. When they are hitting them, we can blow out just about anyone in the Big Sky, but I just am not convinced that we will do that consistently. Our team plays best when we get the ball inside to Moss and let him work, and when our perimeter guys take the ball to the hole and either attack or hit the open guy. If this team can learn that lesson in the next week, I think we will win the Big Sky tourney. Portland State is going to have to beat us three times, which won't be an easy task for them. I think we should be able to pick up a lot of little things from last night's game that should help us to pick apart PSU if we play them again.

Overall, despite the loss, I am proud of these guys. They were obviously overmatched last night, but fought hard and made big plays all night long. That is the kind of effort that makes basketball fun to watch. If they can give effort like that during tourney, I like our chances.

[BozoneCat]

One other thing: the refs.

Two of them were fine, for the most part. Nothing out of the ordinary. The third stooge, however, was HORRIBLE. I haven't seen most of the games this year, but for those who have, this was the black dude that made about 70% of all the calls last night. He was absolutely terrible in every single way. If he is reffing on Saturday night, I am afraid of what will happen to him. Yes, he was really THAT bad.

[MSUcantouchus]

I will second that. That guy made too many calls from out of position.