MSU vs MSU-B

[aucat]

I was in the front row and I just have a different take on this game. The reason the game was close was because our shooting was atrocious. 28%!!!! 4 for 30 from 3 point. MSUB was 12 of 30 from 3 point. It was simply an off shooting night. I used to play softball and basketball and sometimes it's contagious. No one can hit the ball or make a basket. The point is we won.

Kola Bad Bear took the game over. 13 offensive boards, 17 in all. 21 points. There was no lack of effort from anyone. After a somewhat lackadaisical start I thought the defense was good. MSUB made a lot of great 3s. Quick shooters. I always wonder when we encounter good players on MSUB--why didn't WE recruit some of those players???

Good crowd. Coach Sprinkle was there with his team. Very nice of him to do that. There was a rowdy bunch of students behind the south goal. Good for them. Saturday's game with Utah Valley will be very interesting. Hopefully the cold shooting will not continue. Lastly I did not understand Coach Binford playing some of the subs early in the game as long as she did. Also, I really questioned leaving the Big Sky player of the week, Leiah Beattie, on the bench for almost all of the two OTs. That was a complete mystery.

The bottom line: the ladies played very hard and managed to get the W. Come out and support this team. They are a fun bunch to watch.

[aucat]

Brick brick brick

I’ve always said that it’s a bad idea to play in a building called “The Brick”.

That's hilarious! That "splains everything!"

[arvcat2]

KOLA KOLA KOLA…… great game 21pts and 17 boards, shooting percentage was good

Adding to this, she only had 2 fouls! Remarkable considering this was a 2 OT game and her history of usually being the team leader in fouling.

[BobcatDel]

I was in the front row and I just have a different take on this game. The reason the game was close was because our shooting was atrocious. 28%!!!! 4 for 30 from 3 point. MSUB was 12 of 30 from 3 point. It was simply an off shooting night. I used to play softball and basketball and sometimes it's contagious. No one can hit the ball or make a basket. The point is we won.

Kola Bad Bear took the game over. 13 offensive boards, 17 in all. 21 points. There was no lack of effort from anyone. After a somewhat lackadaisical start I thought the defense was good. MSUB made a lot of great 3s. Quick shooters. I always wonder when we encounter good players on MSUB--why didn't WE recruit some of those players???

Good crowd. Coach Sprinkle was there with his team. Very nice of him to do that. There was a rowdy bunch of students behind the south goal. Good for them. Saturday's game with Utah Valley will be very interesting. Hopefully the cold shooting will not continue. Lastly I did not understand Coach Binford playing some of the subs early in the game as long as she did. Also, I really questioned leaving the Big Sky player of the week, Leiah Beattie, on the bench for almost all of the two OTs. That was a complete mystery.

The bottom line: the ladies played very hard and managed to get the W. Come out and support this team. They are a fun bunch to watch.

I’m not sure on Leia. I can only speculate…she wasn’t having a great night either shooting only 2-10, she had two fouls within 30 seconds in 1st OT, and coach said in comments that after the bigger lady from Billings fouled out she told the team to win it on the inside with Gabbi and Kola…so perhaps she just wanted a bigger team on the floor.

[BobcatDel]

KOLA KOLA KOLA…… great game 21pts and 17 boards, shooting percentage was good

Adding to this, she only had 2 fouls! Remarkable considering this was a 2 OT game and her history of usually being the team leader in fouling.

Also, I noted against UNC she only had 2 fouls and against Sac State only 3 fouls even though she was defending 6’5” ladies in the middle. You are right, in the past she would probably have fouled out in a couple of these games. She is maturing and even showed a couple nice moves to the basket.

And if you haven’t met them, Kola has her own fan club (family and friends) that drive over from Billings every game….great group of folks and fun to visit with.

[Ilikecats]

KOLA KOLA KOLA…… great game 21pts and 17 boards, shooting percentage was good

Adding to this, she only had 2 fouls! Remarkable considering this was a 2 OT game and her history of usually being the team leader in fouling.

Also, I noted against UNC she only had 2 fouls and against Sac State only 3 fouls even though she was defending 6’5” ladies in the middle. You are right, in the past she would probably have fouled out in a couple of these games. She is maturing and even showed a couple nice moves to the basket.

And if you haven’t met them, Kola has her own fan club (family and friends) that drive over from Billings every game….great group of folks and fun to visit with.

Kola had a great game, but my issue is I thought she should’ve had MORE rebounds! She had 13 offensive rebounds which is awesome, but her lack of defensive rebounds( she only had 4) were an issue all game! I even heard the coaches yelling during the game for her to get down low and quit hanging out at the free throw line on defense. I thought Gabby saved our butts, She’s not afraid to mix it up! I’d rather see her being aggressive on the boards than Lexi who didn’t even have 1 rebound! She played 25 minutes and not one rebound! If she’s not scoring she becomes invisible on defense! I was glad that her effort got her benched. Maybe she got the message. Beattie will be ok…… just needs to slow down and let the game come to her! This team is tremendously flawed in that it doesn’t have that player. No Martell,Ferris or Freije that can carry the scoring for the team. I know Darian is trying to…… but if you take 23 shots you have to have a better than 33% percent field goal percentage! But it’s hard to be critical when she’s hustling her butt off and others are watching. They looked bad, but we’ve been spoiled the last two years. MSU-B might’ve lost the game on the scoreboard, but they out played us!

[Bobcat4Ever]

The Lady Cats didn't look all that sharp tonight.
If they were thinking that Saturday's game against Utah Valley was going to be easy they better think again.
Utah Valley beat the lady grizz tonight 63 - 50.
I like how these underdog teams are putting up some real fight this year.

That’s an impressive result. I do think it is somewhat of a mental hurdle for MSU and UM (and the Big Sky) to have to open conference play and get all fired up for that — and then it’s not. Conference ball always raises the competitive fire and this sort of douses it. Even to fans. The crowd looked a bit light tonight and it was hard on TV to tell how noisy they were. Half of things are 90% mental, or something like that.

The scary part is that "half of things are 90% mental" makes complete sense to me.
My explanation is this: If half of things are 90% mental and another half of things is 90% physical you have identified the source of 90% of the whole thing.
The remaining 10% comes from unidentifiable sources. The ability to tap into and use those unidentifiable sources is what separates the achiever from the over achiever.

That is approximately precisely correct.

[Bobcat4Ever]

Brick brick brick

I’ve always said that it’s a bad idea to play in a building called “The Brick”.

That's hilarious! That "splains everything!"

Indeed. Just think if Mr. Breeden would have been named “Rip” Breeden.

[Bobcat4Ever]

KOLA KOLA KOLA…… great game 21pts and 17 boards, shooting percentage was good

She hoped she was coming into her own, and it looks like she is. The last few games have been very good and getting better. Big confidence. I love it.

[rivercat]

KOLA KOLA KOLA…… great game 21pts and 17 boards, shooting percentage was good

Adding to this, she only had 2 fouls! Remarkable considering this was a 2 OT game and her history of usually being the team leader in fouling.

Also, I noted against UNC she only had 2 fouls and against Sac State only 3 fouls even though she was defending 6’5” ladies in the middle. You are right, in the past she would probably have fouled out in a couple of these games. She is maturing and even showed a couple nice moves to the basket.

And if you haven’t met them, Kola has her own fan club (family and friends) that drive over from Billings every game….great group of folks and fun to visit with.

Kola had a great game, but my issue is I thought she should’ve had MORE rebounds! She had 13 offensive rebounds which is awesome, but her lack of defensive rebounds( she only had 4) were an issue all game! I even heard the coaches yelling during the game for her to get down low and quit hanging out at the free throw line on defense. I thought Gabby saved our butts, She’s not afraid to mix it up! I’d rather see her being aggressive on the boards than Lexi who didn’t even have 1 rebound! She played 25 minutes and not one rebound! If she’s not scoring she becomes invisible on defense! I was glad that her effort got her benched. Maybe she got the message. Beattie will be ok…… just needs to slow down and let the game come to her! This team is tremendously flawed in that it doesn’t have that player. No Martell,Ferris or Freije that can carry the scoring for the team. I know Darian is trying to…… but if you take 23 shots you have to have a better than 33% percent field goal percentage! But it’s hard to be critical when she’s hustling her butt off and others are watching. They looked bad, but we’ve been spoiled the last two years. MSU-B might’ve lost the game on the scoreboard, but they out played us!

IMHO, the lack of an experienced, tough assistant coach responsible for defense and post play (aka Nate Harris) is a key reason for lack of defensive rebounding.

There are a number of problems right now with the WBB team. They are dependant on the 3 ball. If it's not going in, they struggle. This should not be the case because they have so many other options with their size and athleticism.

Other problems include consistently losing coverage on the opposing teams best 3 pt shooter. The sloppy, half hearted screens which are doing very little to actually free a player up. The lack of movement on offense. Generally there are 4 stationary players and one moving. There should be 2 or 3 players moving to facilitate a good shot.

I could go on but I'm tired. Maybe I'm overly critical because I had such high expectations for this team. I hope to see improvement but there is a lot of work to do.