WBB vs NAU

[topshelfthepuck]

Any chance the Cats start receiving some votes in the Top 25 Polls? I know it's tough out of the Big Sky, but man road losses to Utah and ORU (by 2) from an undefeated start! Always tough in conference to not slip up on the road, but so far so good with one of the biggest games now behind us.

[RickRund]

Massey has the CATS at #73. They jumped 11 spots.
#95...........NAU
#135.........Idaho
#171.........gris
#180.........UNCo
#182.........Ewoo
#193.........ISU
#235.........Sac
#261.........Weebs
#286.........PSU

[BobcatDel]

Any chance the Cats start receiving some votes in the Top 25 Polls? I know it's tough out of the Big Sky, but man road losses to Utah and ORU (by 2) from an undefeated start! Always tough in conference to not slip up on the road, but so far so good with one of the biggest games now behind us.

They are #14 in the Mid-Major poll already. And probably a good chance they jump up this week after this past weekend sweep on the road.

[MSU01]

Any chance the Cats start receiving some votes in the Top 25 Polls? I know it's tough out of the Big Sky, but man road losses to Utah and ORU (by 2) from an undefeated start! Always tough in conference to not slip up on the road, but so far so good with one of the biggest games now behind us.

The EWU men never got any Top 25 votes two seasons ago when they nearly went undefeated in Big Sky play, so I think it's highly unlikely that MSU will get any Top 25 votes. I suppose all it takes is one voter who sees them and thinks they're worthy. But Utah is #23 this week and they handled MSU fairly easily, so...probably not.

[Bobcat4Ever]

This is great! They’ve only cracked the top 25 here a time or two, I think. #14 may be an all-time high. Beating UFGC on the road got us a lot of attention. This is the poll we need to work to be in and climb — it’s kind of the FCS of basketball. Teams in this poll often come up with “upset” wins in the NCAA tournament. It’s very hard to make this poll, as there are approx. 360 D-I basketball teams. South Dakota State and Gonzaga usually do well here. This is a huge accomplishment for Trish. Recruiting just got a little better. I’ve waited a long time to see MSU solidly in this poll. Stay in here and do great things!

They are #14 in the Mid-Major poll already. And probably a good chance they jump up this week after this past weekend sweep on the road.

[84CatGrad]

Feels like Chirrick has an eight-minute stretch every game where she absolutely terrorizes the other team with steals, rebounding, suffocating D and scoring. Picton is right there with her terrific D and willingness to draw charges. Between the two of them they are quite the wrecking crew.

[84CatGrad]

Any chance the Cats start receiving some votes in the Top 25 Polls? I know it's tough out of the Big Sky, but man road losses to Utah and ORU (by 2) from an undefeated start! Always tough in conference to not slip up on the road, but so far so good with one of the biggest games now behind us.

As much as we love our ladies, the Big Sky is simply not relevant in the big picture of NCAA women's basketball so I would not expect much in terms of rankings. Not sure the last Big Sky team to win an NCAA tournament game but it might be Montana back in the Robin Selvig days when they occasionally hosted NCAA first/second round tournaments. Our last tourney game? 2022 when Stanford destroyed us 78-37 including a 20-0 blanking in the first period. Are we better than that '22 squad? I think so, but any Big Sky team has very little chance of winning an NCAA game.

[84CatGrad]

Found some data on Big Sky women in the NCAA tournament. Conference is 4-36 overall. Montana is 4-17, everyone else is 0-19. The last Montana win was in '95. Cat's lost first round games in '93, '17 and '22.

[Helcat72]

Morales, or her male counterpart is what the men need!

[MSU01]

Any chance the Cats start receiving some votes in the Top 25 Polls? I know it's tough out of the Big Sky, but man road losses to Utah and ORU (by 2) from an undefeated start! Always tough in conference to not slip up on the road, but so far so good with one of the biggest games now behind us.

As much as we love our ladies, the Big Sky is simply not relevant in the big picture of NCAA women's basketball so I would not expect much in terms of rankings. Not sure the last Big Sky team to win an NCAA tournament game but it might be Montana back in the Robin Selvig days when they occasionally hosted NCAA first/second round tournaments. Our last tourney game? 2022 when Stanford destroyed us 78-37 including a 20-0 blanking in the first period. Are we better than that '22 squad? I think so, but any Big Sky team has very little chance of winning an NCAA game.

The path to any Big Sky team winning a tournament game would have to start with getting a 12 seed or higher in order to avoid having to play a first round true road game. MSU could be close to that this year as they're a 13 in the most recent ESPN Bracketology that was posted prior to them beating NAU.

[BobcatDel]

Any chance the Cats start receiving some votes in the Top 25 Polls? I know it's tough out of the Big Sky, but man road losses to Utah and ORU (by 2) from an undefeated start! Always tough in conference to not slip up on the road, but so far so good with one of the biggest games now behind us.

As much as we love our ladies, the Big Sky is simply not relevant in the big picture of NCAA women's basketball so I would not expect much in terms of rankings. Not sure the last Big Sky team to win an NCAA tournament game but it might be Montana back in the Robin Selvig days when they occasionally hosted NCAA first/second round tournaments. Our last tourney game? 2022 when Stanford destroyed us 78-37 including a 20-0 blanking in the first period. Are we better than that '22 squad? I think so, but any Big Sky team has very little chance of winning an NCAA game.

The path to any Big Sky team winning a tournament game would have to start with getting a 12 seed or higher in order to avoid having to play a first round true road game. MSU could be close to that this year as they're a 13 in the most recent ESPN Bracketology that was posted prior to them beating NAU.

The NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) is something I watch from time to time. It’s a tool cited by some as the tournament seating tool. Bobcats are around 65 now. South Dakota State is 41. The higher we can advance up this tool the better seed we might land. And you can see we currently rank ahead of many upper level schools. Lot of games and season left but would be fun to see if we could finish strong and win out….too early to celebrate yet.

https://apnews.com/sports/womens-colleg ... 647a4a97da

[84CatGrad]

As good as our ladies may be they always have to navigate the mind field that is the Big Sky Tournament. I've never been a fan of conference tournaments for non-power conferences like ours. If you are a strong ACC or Big 10 team you can afford to lose in the first round of your conf tourney - you'll still get into the NCAA's. Not so if you are a Big Sky team - you gotta win the tourney. For this reason I've felt like the winner of the Big Sky regular season should get the NCAA bid.

[nevadacat]

Morales, or her male counterpart is what the men need!

Or Chirrick.

[MSU01]

As good as our ladies may be they always have to navigate the mind field that is the Big Sky Tournament. I've never been a fan of conference tournaments for non-power conferences like ours. If you are a strong ACC or Big 10 team you can afford to lose in the first round of your conf tourney - you'll still get into the NCAA's. Not so if you are a Big Sky team - you gotta win the tourney. For this reason I've felt like the winner of the Big Sky regular season should get the NCAA bid.

It can always go either way I guess, the last time MSU made the NCAAs they were the #2 seed in the Big Sky Tournament and would have missed out on the NCAA spot if the automatic bid just went to the regular season champion. The good news is that MSU is good enough this year that they will undoubtedly be in a postseason tournament even if it isn't the NCAA Tournament. If they end up in the NIT this year I think they could definitely win a few games there, as they've already beaten several teams that are around that level of overall talent.

[ilovethecats]

As good as our ladies may be they always have to navigate the mind field that is the Big Sky Tournament. I've never been a fan of conference tournaments for non-power conferences like ours. If you are a strong ACC or Big 10 team you can afford to lose in the first round of your conf tourney - you'll still get into the NCAA's. Not so if you are a Big Sky team - you gotta win the tourney. For this reason I've felt like the winner of the Big Sky regular season should get the NCAA bid.

I almost share your line of thinking. For me, I don't think mid-majors should have their conference tourney in neutral sights. I still think we should have a conference tournament, but I think we should go back to the regular season champ hosting.

[MSU01]

As good as our ladies may be they always have to navigate the mind field that is the Big Sky Tournament. I've never been a fan of conference tournaments for non-power conferences like ours. If you are a strong ACC or Big 10 team you can afford to lose in the first round of your conf tourney - you'll still get into the NCAA's. Not so if you are a Big Sky team - you gotta win the tourney. For this reason I've felt like the winner of the Big Sky regular season should get the NCAA bid.

I almost share your line of thinking. For me, I don't think mid-majors should have their conference tourney in neutral sights. I still think we should have a conference tournament, but I think we should go back to the regular season champ hosting.

On the other hand, playing the tournaments at predetermined neutral sites is much better for fans who can plan their trips months in advance instead of needing to potentially wait until a few days before the tournament begins to know for sure where it will be held. It's also fun to be able to watch both the men's and women's team play instead of each team going to a different campus site for its tournament. The neutral site may be slightly worse in terms of getting the best team into the NCAA tournament the most often, but it also definitely has its advantages.

[ilovethecats]

As good as our ladies may be they always have to navigate the mind field that is the Big Sky Tournament. I've never been a fan of conference tournaments for non-power conferences like ours. If you are a strong ACC or Big 10 team you can afford to lose in the first round of your conf tourney - you'll still get into the NCAA's. Not so if you are a Big Sky team - you gotta win the tourney. For this reason I've felt like the winner of the Big Sky regular season should get the NCAA bid.

I almost share your line of thinking. For me, I don't think mid-majors should have their conference tourney in neutral sights. I still think we should have a conference tournament, but I think we should go back to the regular season champ hosting.

On the other hand, playing the tournaments at predetermined neutral sites is much better for fans who can plan their trips months in advance instead of needing to potentially wait until a few days before the tournament begins to know for sure where it will be held. It's also fun to be able to watch both the men's and women's team play instead of each team going to a different campus site for its tournament. The neutral site may be slightly worse in terms of getting the best team into the NCAA tournament the most often, but it also definitely has its advantages.

No doubt. I just think in a one bid league you want your best team representing the conference. So in that regard I agree with CatGrad that if we just sent the regular season champ we'd do that. But I love a conference tourney and anything can happen. So I think the best of both worlds is having a conference tourney but giving the regular season champ the benefit of home court advantage.

In the big picture I guess it doesn't matter a ton. We almost always send one of our top 1-2 teams and we're almost always one and done anyway. I just like the regular season champ rewarded by hosting the tourney.

[BobcatDel]

As good as our ladies may be they always have to navigate the mind field that is the Big Sky Tournament. I've never been a fan of conference tournaments for non-power conferences like ours. If you are a strong ACC or Big 10 team you can afford to lose in the first round of your conf tourney - you'll still get into the NCAA's. Not so if you are a Big Sky team - you gotta win the tourney. For this reason I've felt like the winner of the Big Sky regular season should get the NCAA bid.

I almost share your line of thinking. For me, I don't think mid-majors should have their conference tourney in neutral sights. I still think we should have a conference tournament, but I think we should go back to the regular season champ hosting.

On the other hand, playing the tournaments at predetermined neutral sites is much better for fans who can plan their trips months in advance instead of needing to potentially wait until a few days before the tournament begins to know for sure where it will be held. It's also fun to be able to watch both the men's and women's team play instead of each team going to a different campus site for its tournament. The neutral site may be slightly worse in terms of getting the best team into the NCAA tournament the most often, but it also definitely has its advantages.

Not to mention that some of the host facilities are multi-purpose for use by other events….like ours….where we have concerts, globetrotters, state high school basketball tourneys, etc etc. Any of which “might” conflict from year to year. Even the Bobcat teams have to periodically change practice times, location, shoot arounds to accommodate outside events. And no I wouldn’t leave a facility idle on the “chance” we might have a conference winner.

But it sure would be nice to have a packed house home court fans cheering them on.

[WalkOn79]

As good as our ladies may be they always have to navigate the mind field that is the Big Sky Tournament. I've never been a fan of conference tournaments for non-power conferences like ours. If you are a strong ACC or Big 10 team you can afford to lose in the first round of your conf tourney - you'll still get into the NCAA's. Not so if you are a Big Sky team - you gotta win the tourney. For this reason I've felt like the winner of the Big Sky regular season should get the NCAA bid.

I almost share your line of thinking. For me, I don't think mid-majors should have their conference tourney in neutral sights. I still think we should have a conference tournament, but I think we should go back to the regular season champ hosting.

On the other hand, playing the tournaments at predetermined neutral sites is much better for fans who can plan their trips months in advance instead of needing to potentially wait until a few days before the tournament begins to know for sure where it will be held. It's also fun to be able to watch both the men's and women's team play instead of each team going to a different campus site for its tournament. The neutral site may be slightly worse in terms of getting the best team into the NCAA tournament the most often, but it also definitely has its advantages.

Not to mention that some of the host facilities are multi-purpose for use by other events….like ours….where we have concerts, globetrotters, state high school basketball tourneys, etc etc. Any of which “might” conflict from year to year. Even the Bobcat teams have to periodically change practice times, location, shoot arounds to accommodate outside events. And no I wouldn’t leave a facility idle on the “chance” we might have a conference winner.

But it sure would be nice to have a packed house home court fans cheering them on.

Not that far to Boise. We’re making that more of a home gym every year!! I LOVE the neutral site tourney.

[Bobcat4Ever]

If Idaho State won, while still playing in Reed Gym, you wouldn’t need to travel because there would be no seats. That would make a very poor televised event. Boise at least looks grown up.