MSU vs SSU game thread?

[RationalGriz]

Yeah, just saw they had 15 straight road losses.

[CatBlitz]

Fitting that we're the ones they break that streak against.

[GrizinWashington]

Geeez. I would not have predicted this free-fall. 5-1, then 0-7. Very strange.

[mtbobcat]

Pretty sad free fall. After watching today's game several things seemed pretty recurring for MSU it seems to me... 1. Our offense consists of pass and screen around the perimiter and very predictable, 2. and if that is the offense that is not good becuase we are not a good 3-point shooting team at all or haven't been for the past 8-10 games, 3. with that offense it seems we should get better shot selection than what we are seeing too but I am not seeing a lot of clear 3 point shot attempts, 4. a lack of an active big man is killing us and is part of the reason this offense is really struggling as they have no ability to go inside outside or create off of that, 5. our defensive effort today seemed very slow and sluggish at best as we continued time and again to give the penetration dribble to the key then the feed for dunks or layups and 6. at times it also appears the team works hard and plays hard.... then has short periods they let the game get away from them. Kudos for coming back today after being down 15... and defensively making some key plays at the end... but the last offensive play was not good at all... just too bad we did not have one timeout left. This home loss to the last place team who has not won a road game since somtime last year has to be difficult to swallow. It appears the Idaho State game could be the key game left... win and we are in... lose and who knows.

[hardhatcat]

5 for 30 in three pointers, ft's probably not much better. Missed layups. Can we shoot from anywhere?

[BelgradeBobcat]

I think we are now arguably the worst D-1 team in the USA.

They're trying-probably too hard at this point. But it doesn't matter, because most of them aren't very good basketball players.

There's nothing else to say. Wait for this thing to burn down to ashes, and then endure the long slow and uncertain rebuild. In the mean time watch the women's team.

[John K]

This is getting hard to stomach. After the 2nd loss to UM, I predicted that we'd go 2-5 in our remaining BSC games, to finish 7-9 and squeek into the tourney as the #6 seed. I was thinking at the time that was sort of a pessimistic prediction, and that hopefully we'd actually win 1 or 2 more than that, but now it seems that may have been overly optomistic. I didn't think it was remotely possbile to miss the tourney, after a 5-1 start, and with PSU being ineligble, but all bets are off now.

I'm forced to the sad conclusion that this team is neither very talented, nor very well coached. It's difficult to think of a single thing to point to, and say "at least they're pretty good at ____". I've tended to come down on the side of being patient, and giving Huse a pretty long leash, but look at it this way....would Bobcat fans accept this degree of futility from the football program? I wouldn't go so far as to say that wer're the worst team in all of D-I, but at this point in the season, we are clearly the worst team in the BSC.

[GrizinWashington]

I think we are now arguably the worst D-1 team in the USA.

Oh, I dunno. Centenary is 0-25, which includes a 64 point loss to Memphis, and two losses (by 9 and 12) to something called ARMC, which I cannot even find on Google.

[TomCat88]

I've never seen a game where the offense (MSU's) got the other team's defense in a rhythm, but I could swear that's what I was watching. MSU doesn't have to score from the inside, but it has to rotate the ball through the inside to at least keep the defense honest. The ball has to go inside more. If it is constantly passed around the perimeter the defense just cheats toward the 3-point line and is able to get a hand up or cause the offense to wait until the shot clock is about to expire and rush a shot.

The other real noticeable thing was that whenever MSU went inside it would be way out of sync and have no patience, probably because it's so rare that they do that. They need (needed?) to find a couple guys who can function in the post even if that only involves being a good ball-handler/passer.

Perhaps (most likely) there's a logical reason why this is the case. If so, I'm missing it.

[BelgradeBobcat]

I think we are now arguably the worst D-1 team in the USA.

Oh, I dunno. Centenary is 0-25, which includes a 64 point loss to Memphis, and two losses (by 9 and 12) to something called ARMC, which I cannot even find on Google.

Centenary is moving to DIII. So we're the worst D-1 team that's staying in D-1.

[wbtfg]

I really, really like coach huse, but this season is a complete disaster, and im not sure its looking much better on the horizon.

As a head coach (or ad) this is not where you want a program to be after four years on the job.

[Helcat72]

Huse has brought other teams out of doldrums before...but never a team that has totally lost it's confidence. I believe the lack of any inside offense has completely psyched out the whole team...and like TomCat said the other teams temd to creep toward the three point line disregarding the paint because the only threat there is Bobby Howard and that is only if he can get position on a smaller player. Eric Rush penetrates but about half of the time has no idea what to do once he commits unless a gap opens up. He did a good job of dishing at the decision point against SAC today but either the recipient wasn't ready to shoot, the pass was mishandled, or the shot was missed.

[John K]

I really, really like coach huse, but this season is a complete disaster, and im not sure its looking much better on the horizon.

As a head coach (or ad) this is not where you want a program to be after four years on the job.

This is actually his fifth year on the job, and if anything, the program has gradually declined since his first year. I like him too, I thought he was a great hire at the time, and I would continue to support him if there was a glimmer of hope that things would get better in the future. But if MSU learned anything from the Solomonson era in football, it should be that keeping an ineffective coach too long can do damage to a program that may take years to repair. It's not unthinkable that we will end this season on a 12-game losing streak, and how are you going to sugarcoat that to alumni and boosters, not to mention potential recruits?

[fatcatsat]

after watching the first conference loss game and northern colorado, i felt we where still a "good" team, as we seemed to get decent shots, just didn't fall, but seems there is no offense, defense, or confidence in the team, players or even the fans. With the 0-11 season in football under Kramer i felt good as to where we where headed, as the team showed several signs of getting better each game, but here i am not to sure. 5 years with Huse, and sub par seasons with (as someone said before) no signs of that team is at least good at _______. I just don't believe you can lose to sac state at home (after the big losses previous to this as any given night a team can lose but....) and feel this program is headed the right direction. Sure not in favor of anyone losing jobs, but dont want the Earl conversation coming up again either. Tough situation. Does Denarius know how to run point??????

[WolfPtCat]

The Cats are just plain Bad!! Hopefully it was just a bad day, but, from what I saw, neither Erik Rush or Peipoli could hit the broad side of a barn. These two can make some nice slashing moves. I'm sure they look good on a highlite reel, but you can't have them both on the floor the same time! I don't like to call anyone a waste of space/height, but c'mon....Cody Anderson. Just because you are 6'10".... a DI basketball player that does not make you. Bobby Howard tried as hard as I've ever seen anyone. He tried his damndest to put the entire team on his back.

Cats got blatantly out coached. They went to a 4-corners spread/stall offense....and still scored easily on us. Thankfully, Huse finally figured out what most HS JV coaches would've done 8 minutes ealier, switch to a 1-3-1. Our offense was PATHETIC. We don't have one!

The only glimmer of hope I saw was the effort of Tre Johnson & Trejuque. Johnson looks like a legitimate player...but Trejuque is listed at 5'9".....yeah right. If Shane Gamradt taught us anything....you can have all the heart in the world, but it's pretty damn tough to play DI at 5'6".

Thanks for the effort Jr/Seniors (Rush/Peipoli/Anderson/Singleton), but it is time to see what Fr/So's can do. You ain't gettin' it!

[technoCat]

I waited a day to post to really solidify what I thought about the game.

POSITIVES:
1. This team desperately wants to win and are working their tails off.
2. For playing as poorly as we did, we only lost by 3 points.
3. Every time someone slashed to the hoop we either got a layup opportunity, a foul, or a wide open 3.
4. Some of the young guys show flashes of being very good(Johnson, Allou, Reid come to mind).

Negatives:
1. WE CAN NOT SHOOT THREES! We had ten minutes left in the game and started launching up 3's trying to get back in the game(at this point we were 4-21), leading to lots of fast breaks and easy points for Sac, extending their lead.
2. We don't seem to have anyone to take the pressure off Bobby to score. I always thought Rush would step up and become a dominant player in this conference but it just never happened.
3. We make horrible decisions offensively(See 1).
4. We constantly get out of position defensively.
5. We have no inside presence. I don't know what Cody's problem is but he's never on the floor and he's our only legitamate post. Everyone else is a power forward/small forward tweener.

I don't think this team or Huse have given up yet but the pressure has got to be a contributing factor to the slide at this point. I would not be surprised at all if we didn't win another game this year.

[MT2AK_CAT]

So your saying there's a chance!!!

[John K]

It's bad enough to be faced with the prospect of missing the BSC tourney, in a year when you only need to finish in the top 7 out of 9 teams, since PSU is ineligble. Bui it makes it much worse yet, when you consider that this team was once 5-1 and in 2nd place. That's one of my biggest concerns with the leadership of the program....these annual 2nd half slides. I think it makes it even more disappointing for the fans when we are teased every season by these promising starts, only to have our hopes dashed when the team has yet another meltdown in the 2nd half of the conference season.

[SDHornet]

It was good to see the Hornets finally get a road win this season. Regardless, MSU is still in a position to make the post season. You guys have the easiest schedule out of the other teams fighting for a spot. All is not lost.
http://hornets.bigskyfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1207

[ilovethecats]

surprised so many are just now understanding that this team just isn't very good. ya, we started off 5-1 in conference...but look who we got to play. weber and nau at home. we went on the road and barely beat a bad sac st team and then got killed by unc. then back home for 2 more very winnable games against portland state and ewu. that starting record was very misleading for people who wanted it to be. but if you have paid attention to this program and conference over the years you should understand that this is one of the least talented teams i have seen the cats have in quite a long time. our "offense", if you even can call it that is very bad. our shooters are very bad. our "big men" are very bad. we are very easy to defend against, and clearly this team is a complete wreck right now. i thought bobby worked his butt off yesterday and had probably the best game i've seen him have. wish the other guys could follow his lead. we're simply too small, and not talented enough to win many games. sure, this team is capable of sneaking away with a win here and there, but it wasn't hard to see very early on that it's simply not a good team. it'll be interesting to see what kind of moves are going to take place this offseason because i think we're going to see some changes....