Big Sky Tournament

[Catfanatic84]

Thought I'd start a thread on the tournament (Men and Women). Opening day with three women's games on tap:

1. Northern Colorado and Eastern Washington
2. Sac State and Weber (winner plays the Cats)
3. Idaho and PSU

Much like the men, the tournament appears wide open to me. Of the non-seeded teams, I think Idaho has the potential to make a run.

Hoping MSU plays to their potential and makes a run to the championship!

Guys start Wednesday.

Go Cats!!

[Catlady]

Agree, the tournament is wide open, but the Cats have the talent to win this thing. Only thing missing is the intangibles. The big question is do they have the hunger! I guess we’ll find out this week. I think Binford is going to have some tough decisions over the summer. This team is a couple of pieces away from being very good!

[bpcats20]

Lady Cats- next year should have our 6’5” freshman center playing that will help. The team is struggling to shoot the ball… which is weird.

Recruit more size / length.

Regarding tournament- it is so wide open but our team is going to have to dial in to do anything.

Mens side- set up to win but have to make shots. We won a ton of games on last possession … no room for error

[BobcatDel]

Anyone know about Xavier and how bad his ankle injury is and will he be 100%. That’s a big “X” factor for men if he is not at full speed. Glad they don’t play until later to give him more healing time.

[mslacatfan]

Anyone know about Xavier and how bad his ankle injury is and will he be 100%. That’s a big “X” factor for men if he is not at full speed. Glad they don’t play until later to give him more healing time.

A friend of a friend of mine (who is in the know, ha) said he will be good to go. Sounds like the boot was more precautionary then anything.

[MSU01]

We'd all rather they were the #1 seed and conference champion, but I like the draw the Bobcat women's team ended up with. Sac State or Weber in the quarterfinals with some extra motivation for Darian White and team if Sac wins to go up against the Big Sky "MVP" Tillman who was valuable enough to lead her team to 7th place. They played well against SUU and Idaho who are the likely semifinal opponents if they get there. Montana to me is a major wild card as their stats indicate that they are better than a 5th place team - I can easily see them taking down NAU and Idaho State to make the championship if they can cut out the late game errors.

The men have potential semifinal opponents who lost 6 of their last 8 regular season games (Weber) and 7 of their last 10 (UM) and UNC/SUU/EWU/PSU who all finished the season strong are on the opposite side of the bracket. I always have an uneasy feeling with them in the Tournament and perhaps rightfully so given their history there.

[Colter_Nuanez]

[MSU01]

UNC easily dispatches EWU in the first women's game. They're looking strong but run up against Idaho State next.

[wbtfg]

UNC easily dispatches EWU in the first women's game. They're looking strong but run up against Idaho State next.

Glad to see Mattio doing well at uncu.

[MSU01]

Weber up by 13 over Sac with 2 minutes left. They'll be MSU's opponent tomorrow barring a crazy comeback.

[MSU01]

As expected Idaho had no trouble with Portland State. Quarterfinals are tomorrow: ISU/UNC, NAU/UM, MSU/Weber, and SUU/Idaho.

[tetoncat]

Weber has a great third quarter. Some size, but hit some threes as well. Shot free throws well to seal it. At least we don't have to play the mvp and newcomer of the year

[BelgradeBobcat]

I'll say this. Being at the Big Sky Tournament sure beats being at work! I didn't make the first game between EWU and UNC, but the biggest disappointment so far is nobody brought their band-not even Idaho-who has a pretty darn good band if memory from past tournaments serves. Maybe they'll be here for later rounds.
Weber was very physical against Sac and really wore them down. Hopefully, they burned some energy. One good thing-Weber is not a team who jacks a lot of threes-which of course, our teams seems to have trouble defending. We'll be playing against a 10 seed. We need to take care of business.

[aucat]

Well, we lost to Weber by 5 at their place and won by only 3 at home. I predict a close game and it could go either way. As Belgrade says Weber is not a big 3 point shooting team, so that is in our favor given our inability to defend it.

On the other hand, in a game like this, defense, rebounding, hustle and FTs will be the key. Will the entire team show up? Who knows? I would not at all be surprised if we go one and done. I would not be surprised it the ladies show up and play. For the sake of the Bobcat fans who are traveling to Boise (and the driving weather may not be so great) I truly hope the Lady Cats play hard.

The last tournament I went to was in Reno and the Lady Cats were the number 1 seed and were one and done. Back then we still had the one and one. We had a 9 point lead with one minute to go and our players missed three straight one and ones, and the other team (I can't remember if it was ISU or Sac State) made three straight 3s to tie it and go on to win. We flew to Reno and my daughter and her husband flew in as well. Both men and women went one and done. We had three days to kill in Reno before our return flight. Watching on TV this time. I am really hopeful the men take it all the way.

[Joe Bobcat]

I'm glad we'll be playing Weber rather than Sac. They will have the advantage of familiarity with the court, but they spent lots of energy winning their game today and that may come into play late in tomorrow's game. Weber isn't known as a 3pt shooting team but today they shot 7-18 for 38.9%.
Breakdown by quarter is: 0-6 1-3 4-7 2-2 Fact is they never gave up and got themselves back in that game with hot 3pt shooting in the second half. Lady Bobcats can and should beat them, but never taking our foot off the gas might be a good idea.

[Catlady]

Going to be an interesting night. Hoping we show up with some attitude! Weber won impressively last night, but can they expend that kind of energy two games in a row! This game is about rebounding! If we do, we win, if we don’t we lose. Watched the UNC game Friday night and it seemed like our best rebounder was Darian White. Need Mocchi and Bad Bear to step it up tonight. I agree that they’re not a 3pt shooting team, but it’s tournament time! Expect the unexpected! I keep looking at all the talent on this team and wondering when they’re going to show up! I hope tonight is the night.

No doubt they can win the tourney, but they also could be on their way back to Bozeman. Have to give some credit to the Weber State coach……. Changing the culture of that program! Tonight might be the end of a year full of what ifs if the Bobcats don’t embrace the moment.

[Colter_Nuanez]

[Prodigal Cat]

Well this is a development. Top seeded ISU women about to get dumped by UNC. Down 10 with 4 min left. Cautionary tale that any team can win but as a Cat fan I won't be mad the Bengals are done.

[wbtfg]

Well this is a development. Top seeded ISU women about to get dumped by UNC. Down 10 with 4 min left. Cautionary tale that any team can win but as a Cat fan I won't be mad the Bengals are done.

Agree....I worried about Sac on the men's side.

[MSU01]

Wow, I thought ISU would take control in the second half with the extra rest they had but that was complete domination by UNC. They're playing great at exactly the right time.