The week of 12-28-09 in Review

The first week of the full conference season for all four Montana based big Sky Conference, and we got to see how the new Friday / Saturday schedule does NOT work.

The Bobcat women really got screwed – thank you Mr. Fullerton- while the Lady Griz seems to really benefitted from a really screwed up system. The Bobcat men seem to get the best of the schedule on the men’s side – thanks to a TV game on Sunday, while the Griz men faired better than expected from the scheduling gods.

When the Big Sky conference announced the Friday/Saturday it was said that this was done as a travel cost savings move. By making the away team travel and play the next day it was also figured to be a distinct advantage for the home team, but the conference leaders insisted since all teams will abide by this scheduling there would be no advantage gained by any teams. In theory it sounded OK, but as you look at the schedule you can see it did not work out that way in reality.

Overall the Lady Griz came up the winner this week and I think the scheduling gods were very much on their side this week. The Bobcat Men also had a big week getting a much valued road victory over Idaho State.

Big Sky RPI: 12-28-09 & Looking forward

Not to beat a dead horse but this has been a banner year for the Big Sky Conference teams and the conference in general. The men’s teams have had their best performance in their pre-conference schedule in 10-15 years. Right now depending on what poll you look at the Big Sky conference is ranked between 15-17th among all conferences. That is 5-10 places higher than where they have been in the recent past. Fullerton should enjoy the ranking while it last because as soon as conference games starts that ranking should start dropping.

Right now the Big Sky Conference is rated higher than Big West Conference, Sun Belt Conference, Southern Conference, Ivy League, and Southland Conference to name a few.

Going into league just about everyone is projecting Montana and N. Colorado as the top team, with Eastern Washington and Sac. State as bottom of the league. Montana State is holding steady as the number 3 team, but Weber State is coming on strong. Portland State on the other hand seems to be falling. Idaho State I think is a sleeper team. They have played a top 50 schedule and are loaded with talent.

On the women’s side of the conference things seem to be falling into line with a 22 ranking. The thing that is different is that the Lady Griz are no where to be seem at the top of the RPI rankings The RPI rankings seems to be suggesting that Selvig’s team may not even make the conference tournament. The thing though to remember about Selvig’s teams is that he builds then first and foremost for conference play. Selvig does not always recruit the fastest players,- which would help him out of conference- but goes for talent, which helps him over power Big Sky schools. Look for the Lady Griz to bounce back the question how far can they?

The Weeks Calendar: 12-28-09

Well it is conference time and the season gets fully underway this week with a full slate of games for all four programs. What the men have to be happy about is that thanks to the holidays and a TV game they do not have to worry about the Friday / Saturday schedule quite yet and that is good because the men are on the road.

On the women’s side the MSU women will start the Friday / Saturday schedule at home While the Lady Griz will squeeze in a game versus UC Riverside, before taking on only a single Big Sky Conference team this week – Weber State.

This Weeks Calendar

Tuesday – December 29th

Lady Griz host UC Riverside
UC Riverside will come into Missoula after losing a 12 point game two day’s earlier to the Montana State women. Riverside is going to being a quick, and athletic team into Missoula and that could give the lady Griz some problems, but is a team the lady Griz should be able to handle.

The week of 12-14-09 in Review

The Montana programs for the most part finished up the non-conference portion of their schedule last week. The Lady Griz still have a game against UC Riverside this Tuesday and MSU men still have a bracket buster game in February. I think all of the teams can make a case as possibly being contenders for the league crown, but I think each has some questions that they will need to answer.

Over all I will give the week to the Grizzly men who came away with two victories, granted one was against U of Great Falls. The Montana State men and women thought had a pretty good week also, while the Lady Griz did not play last week.

Grizzly Men Picked up a very nice home win against Fresno State last Monday, and then thrashed Great Falls the following Wednesday. I think the Fresno State game really solidified the Griz as the best Big Sky conference performer in the non-conference season, although I think Northern Colorado might have something to say about that. The Great Falls game … well no one got hurt. The Griz look very well battle tested over the pre-conference schedule, but questions still remain about how well they can perform when A. Johnson has an off night.

Big Sky RPI: 12-21-09

Montana is firmly at the top of the Big Sky RPI ratings as the only team to crack the top 100. Northern Colorado and Montana State are still firmly two and three spots in both rating systems respectively. There has been some switching around in the middle and bottom of the systems, but the biggest gamier of the week has been Northern Arizona. This should help Montana and Montana State they both already hold wins against NAU

Real Time RPI (Men)

Big Sky
Over all ranking: #16 (up 1 spot)

National ranking – School – (Last Week)
# 92 – Montana (124)
#108 – Northern Colorado (123)
#113 – Montana State (141)
#135 – Northern Arizona (211)
#144 – Portland State (120)
#196 – Weber State (207)
#228 – Eastern Washington (228)
#249 – Idaho State (224)
#274 – Sacramento State (257)

The Weeks Calendar: 12-21-09

This being the week of Christmas the coaches have scheduled there games around the holiday, jamming their games in before the holiday. Most of the D-1 basketball this week will be completed by this Wednesday, with only Tricia Binford’s Bobcat Women having a game this week after Christmas – on Sunday.

Three of the programs will be playing 2 games this week, but Robins Selvig’s Lady Griz will not be suiting it up until December 29th when they face UC Riverside.

This Weeks Calendar

Monday – December 21st

Bobcat Men at Cal Poly
Cal Poly will come into this contest with a 3-6 record, but undefeated at home this year. This will be a good teat for the Bobcats Cal Poly has upper level Big Sky talent. This is the type of road win the Cat’s will need to get in conference.

Grizzly Men host Fresno State
Fresno comes to Missoula with 6-5 record, and has only played 3 road games so far this season. They have 6 point win over Northern Arizona. They will bring a very tall, athletic front court into Missoula and the Griz will need to handle this.

The week of 12-14-09 in Review

It was a slow week for the Montana State and University of Montana programs, as they went through finals week, on both campuses. The two men’s programs swept all three of their games, while the women’s programs each their only games of the week. It should be noted, though that while the men had the advantage of playing their games on their home courts the women were on the road for their games.

I am not sure who to give the week to, but it definitely goes to the men. The Griz got two victories one of those was against Montana State – Northern. The Bobcats got a very nice win against UC Santa Barbara which I think is a little bit better than the UC Riverside team the Griz got their second win against. Quality versus quantity? It is kind of splitting hairs so I will give the week to both of them.

Bobcat Men: The bobcats managed a 12 point home win against, a traditionally good Cal. State Santa Barbara team Friday. What I liked about this win for the Cats is that they started out cold, but kept up the defensive pressure until they could find their shot. UCSB came out and played an aggressive zone, against the Bobcat and challenged them to hit their shots. This is the book on how to defend and beat the Bobcats under Huse, and we will see this, a lot come conference (especially from the Griz). It took the Bobcats most of the first half but they the answer and pretty well made the zone a non-factor in the second half.

Big Sky RPI: 12-14-09

Ok technically the RPI were taken from 12-15-09 because I was too busy to do it yesterday.

Over all the Big Sky conference men are doing surprising well again out of conference teams, and has maintained a rating of between 16 and17 or better most of the season. The two poles are starting to match up with their order of rankings of the nine teams. They seem to like Montana and Northern Colorado as the top two teams, with Montana State occupying the third spot. The one anomaly in this week’s poll is Portland State who jumped from the last place spot in the ranking to the top BSC team on the Realtime RPI ranking. They made a very significant jump in the Pomeroy Ratings but not nearly as dramatically. They should be the team to watch the next couple weeks.

On the Women’s side, Eastern Washington is holding firm with one of the more impressive pre-conference runs in recent memory. It looks like EWU could be the surprise team of the conference this year.

Real Time RPI (Men)

Big Sky
Over all ranking: #17 (down 1 spot)

National ranking – School – (Last Week)
#120 – Portland State (278)
#123 – Northern Colorado (59)
#124 – Montana (128)
#141 – Montana State (209)
#207 – Weber State (201)
#211 – Northern Arizona (277)
#224 – Idaho State (141)
#228 – Eastern Washington (208)
#257 – Sacramento State (225)

The Weeks Calendar: 12-14-09

Another light schedule this week, with only 5 total games on the schedule for the Montana programs. Finals week is upon the students at Montana State and I believe the coaches will not schedule any games while finals are going on, as a matter of fact I was under the impression that coaches were only allowed home games even the week end after the finals, but I believe that is no longer the case.

The other thing that is starting to happen, is that we are seeing “barometer games” where, we get to compare various Big Sky team’s performances against common opponents. Some times the comparisons are really not that accurate, but they are a lot of fun to speculate.

This Weeks Calendar

Wednesday – December 16th

Grizzly Men host Montana State – Northern
The Griz will play their final D-2/NAIA game of the season against one of the better Frontier Conference schools in MSU-N. If all goes to plan look for quite a few Grizzlies to get significant minutes.

The week of 12-07-09 in Review

Ok a little late but I am back.

This past week was typical pre-conference play with the four programs playing a wide variety of programs from upper end D-1 schools to low end D-2/NAIA schools. No one can claim a clean sweep of the week as they all took their lumps, and most posted blow out victories against inferior talent.

I am going to give the week to the Montana Griz men who played two D-1 programs who belong to conference that are considered a step up from the Big Sky. Both games were on the road and the Griz went 1-1 but they were in the game they lost up until the end.

Griz Men: The Grizzly Men went into last week knowing they would be with out their #2 guy and main interior force Brian Qvale. This would be a challenge under most conditions but on the road against Loyola Marymount (West Coast Conference) and Colorado State (Mountain West Conference) it did not look to rosy. The Griz came away with a win at LMU, and drop a 1 point decision at CSU. While two wins would have been better than on their performance this week end is the type of thing that will only, build confidence and could be a sign of things to come.