MBB: Final Exhibition tonight

[mslacat]

The Bobcats basketball team finishes out their preseason games tonight against the University of Mary. Mary lost to North Dakota State a week ago 80-40. Incidentally North Dakota State beat Minnesota State - Moorhead 112-77 last Saturday. Montana State beat Moorhead 92-83 in Bozeman November 1st. The Cats need to show improvement in their perimeter defence, and the new players need to continue aclimate them selves into Huses system. The Cats had only 13 days of practice before Moorhead, but will have 10 days between Moorhead and Mary, so there should be some drastic improvement.

If you did not make it to the Moorhead game, you need to check out this team familiar faces and names like Howard, Rush, Piepoli, and Mbunga are a treat to watch. Howard and Piepoli did not get the start against Moorehead in favor of Johnson and Bynum, but made a good case as to why they should be starting, so it will be interesting to see who gets the start tonight. James Hennessy will also available tonight and he will add another dimension to the line up when he is in.

I am hearing that no firm Decision have been made about redshirting yet. Cody Anderson is looking pretty strong to be active this year. Freshman Austin Brown has been playing really well and shows signs of being a lock down defender, is maybe 50/50 whether he will redshirt. Hopkins is almost assured of redshirting. These guy's can still play tonight, but redshirt decisions must be made before Saturday's Nevada game.

With the exception of Mbunga, we will have this crew for two years so get to the fieldhouse and check these guy's out they are going to be a fun team to watch.

[DawsonPirate]

University of Mary from the NISC is one of the worst in that conference, just like Moorhead. This will be like warm-up drills. Good paydays for these programs.

2008-09 NSIC Preseason Coaches’ Poll
1. Minnesota State (7) 176
2. Northern State (5) 169
3. Winona State (2) 159
4. Augustana 139
5. St. Cloud State 131
6. Minnesota Duluth 118
7. Southwest Minnesota State 116
8. Concordia-St. Paul 103
9. Wayne State 76
10. MSU Moorhead 69
11. Upper Iowa 68
12. University of Mary 55
13. Bemidji State 51
14. Minnesota, Crookston 26

[longhorn_22]

Pretty decent game tonight. Cats win 101-69. Our perimeter defense needs work still. That's going to kill us if we don't figure it out. Piepoli continues to impress me with his 3-point shot. Rush is his old self and I do have to say that I love seeing 6'10" Cody Anderson drain threes. That's quite a treat.

[BelgradeBobcat]

In the last 10 minutes it seemed like something finally clicked and we ran away with it. Bynum really seemed to get into the flow.

I'm awfully worried though-these lower tier D-2 players were beating our "d-1's" off the dribble time and time again, and other players were having to collapse to help leaving wide open three point attempts. Our defense still leaves a lot to be desired.

I do like our talent on the offensive end so far-that's much improved from last year when it was often four guys standing around watching Carlos Taylor try to something.

Mbunga really looks out of sync so far. I hope he can get it dialed in.

[GOKATS]

From MSU-


BOZEMAN, Mont. -- Montana State shot 56.5% from the field and seven
players scored in double-digits as the Bobcats beat the University of
Mary 101-69 in each school's exhibition finale Monday night in Bozeman.

The Bobcats used scoring runs at the end of each half to pull away from
the Division II Marauders. MSU outscored Mary 17-10 in the last five
minutes of the first half, and finished the game on a 16-4 run.

"I liked how we finished," Bobcat coach Brad Huse said. "It was
frustrating at times. They took advantage of our mistakes, and they hit
their threes. Overall, I was pleased with our energy."

Guard Erik Rush led the Bobcats in scoring for the second straight
outing, ringing up 17 points on 6-for-9 shooting. Forward Branden
Johnson added 16 points, while Will Bynum scored 14. Forward Bobby
Howard and center Divaldo Mbunga each scored 12, Danny Piepoli 11, and
Marquis Navarre 10 points. The Bobcats shot 56.7% in the first half,
56.3% in the second, and hit 10 of their 14 three-pointers.

Even with his team's impressive offensive performance, Huse credited a
strong defensive stretch with building a comfortable working margin in
the second half. "We extended our defense way out, and aggressive
defense in the last five to six minutes of the first half got us a nice
lead."

The Bobcats open regular season play by hosting five-time WAC Champion
Nevada on Saturday night at 7:05 pm in Worthington Arena.

-msu-

[alasax]

Navarre is just plain fast!
Johnson looked like an all-star
Bynam looked a little "lazy". (defensively on breaks)
We're still missing a BIG presence
I like the shooting touches

[bozbobcat]

I like that we are able to score up and down the lineup and bench. This team appears to be a really good offensive team at this point in time. I do wonder about the defense. It needs work.

And also, when was the last time the Cats scored over 100? I think it was in about 2000, maybe against Portland State. If anyone had a media guide, would it be possible to verify this? Thanks.

[mslacat]

Like I have been saying a lot I think there is a big upside to this team. I think it could take the entire preseason for Huse to get this team meshing. All that said right now I have a big concern about our defence. The competition now ramps up pretty quickly now, with Nevada coming to town it will be interesting to to see how this team reacts to big time adversity.

[Domako]

You can always teach kids how to play better defensively individually and as a team, but it is impossible to coach kids into being better scorers.
Be thankful that we will have more than one kid that can score because it is very hard to ride one or two scorers. I trust that Brad will teach them
how to play better defense. We will see if they can score when we play better competition. I find that everyone can score when you are playing a
lower division team, but only real scorers do it when you care playing upper competition. I guess we will find out Saturday. JMO