Montana

[SBU72]

- You guys are known for your solid, long 2/3 zone, and even though we shoot the three well, we don't shoot it consistently well enough to "shoot you out" of your zone.

Somebody should point out that NOBODY ever shoots SU out of the zone. Other than when they are pressing, they play zone 100% of the time. Never change.

 

[SBU72]

Lol. If we were playing in the Big Sky tourney, I would be concerned. You kind of gloss over who the wins came against. Any margin against those two teams in back to back days is good.

I was just pointing out that some will look at the scores and at the 4 of the last 5 regualr season games and consider that SU has a hard time scoring and consider them ripe for the 4-13 upset. Even Bilas aknowledged SU problems scoring.

 

[SU2NASA]

My sources tell me Montana to the Sun Beast.

 

[Texas Otto]

No problem. Kareem Jamar is who you're thinking of. If we get hot from three and are able to keep it close, it could be very, very interesting.

Offensively, Cherry and Jamar make us "go." Cherry is an excellent slasher, with the able to knock down outside shots occasionally, but he's at his best driving, dishing, and getting to the line.

Jamar does pretty well in the block when matched up with a smaller player -- there's really no words to describe his game other than "all around." Somehow he just makes it work. He doesn't seem all that fast, but is more "sneaky" fast and athletic than he appears.

Weisner is a 6-6 wing player who is our most dangerous threat and most consistent shooter from 3. He'll need to have a big game is we have any inkling of an upset.

Coleman is 6-6 and has a nice mid-range game, can rebound okay, and can shoot from 3 occasionally. I like to think of him as a skinnier, taller version of Jamar, but not as talented.

Jordan Gregory is a 6-2 guard and is probably our second most consistent 3 ball threat. He's one of those players that hustles his butt off every play and just has a good feel for the game, and while not nearly as gifted athletically as Cherry is, he is probably our second best defender, and what he lacks in athleticism, he makes up for with good, smart positioning.

In order for us to pull off a win, I say 3/5 players of ours I listed above need to have monster games.

Well Griz with all due respect I don't think it will be within a 15 point margin our length and our speed is like nothing you have seen on your schedule. No disrespect intended.

 

[mslamariner]

Texas Otto - I wouldn't be surprised if it was more than a 15 point margin.

 

[jncuse]

My sources tell me Montana to the Sun Beast.

If UConn wins the SunBeast in 2016 and beyond it will also be receiving these 13/14 type seeds.

 

[jncuse]

Mslamariner,

Who is considered the bitter rival(s) of Montana?

 

[mslamariner]

Mslamariner,

Who is considered the bitter rival(s) of Montana?

Well, for "recent" basketball - I'd have to say Weber State, Montana State to some extent (just because they're "state"), but our more epic battles come against Weber. In the past, it was probably more Idaho/Nevada/Boise State, but I'm not too versed on that.

 

[CusefanATL]

Hey remember when the board predicted blowout wins vs Vermont, Asheville, and Butler?


That was awesome.

Vermont? They were a 10 seed at worst that year. I was scared out of my mind.

 

[jncuse]

F Weber St

 

[Texas Otto]

Off topic but I was rooting hard for the Cal Irvine Anteaters the other night well because they are the Anteaters

 

[mslamariner]

F Weber St

:rolling:

I sometimes refer to them as "BBQ-U" - however our games have always been pretty tight the last few years, and most of their fans are class...at least to us.

 

[mantonio]

Off topic but I was rooting hard for the Cal Irvine Anteaters the other night well because they are the Anteaters

Too many ant hills in your yard?

 

[Texas Otto]

Too many ant hills in your yard?

They're starting to pop up now that spring has sprung!

 

[OttoMets]

He couldn't get around Hancock because Hancock was grabbing, checking, & holding him, without whistles. You put MCW in a fair situation, & he blows by Hancock, & virtually everyone else.

It's misleading when you see him play. People who are longer appear to be slower than the little guys, but the longer guy covers more area in a shorter time frame, which means the smaller player might have to take two steps to the bigger guy's one step to cover the same distance. This creates the illusion that the smaller guy is faster because he's moving his legs & arms more quickly.

I agree that the level of physicality sucks. That hurt Mike the other night. And I get the illusion thing.

But he's the kid who gets caught in transition, who can't beat people in the open court. He's not quick or fast. Faster than Triche or Billy Edelin, sure. Not the kind of player who'll blow by anyone, though.

 

[ordigger]

Well, for "recent" basketball - I'd have to say Weber State, Montana State to some extent (just because they're "state"), but our more epic battles come against Weber. In the past, it was probably more Idaho/Nevada/Boise State, but I'm not too versed on that.

Although I can understand where mslamariner is coming from, in a competitive sense with Weber State (in Ogden, UT). Our biggest current rival by far, has to be Montana State. There is still an amount of respect for Weber State, and their program. They've had some big NCAA upsets of their own in the past, basketball not football is king there, and they draw large crowds. They should've been picked for the NIT.

However when it comes to the MSU Bobcats, us Grizzlies fans despise them. Cheer for them to lose and all that. However traditionally, old timers will probably tell you our biggest rival has been Idaho, and with the WAC's demise, they are returning their non-football programs to the Big Sky next year. I seem to recall when we played them people would bring potatos to utilize against the Vandals from Idaho.

 

[realorange]

As posted on the Montana message board.



That has to got to be worth 4* in itself.

I think he was talking about the coaches son, who is an excellent player and his one sister is a starter for the Stanford women's team.

 

[ImperialOrange]

No problem. Kareem Jamar is who you're thinking of. If we get hot from three and are able to keep it close, it could be very, very interesting.

Offensively, Cherry and Jamar make us "go." Cherry is an excellent slasher, with the able to knock down outside shots occasionally, but he's at his best driving, dishing, and getting to the line.

Jamar does pretty well in the block when matched up with a smaller player -- there's really no words to describe his game other than "all around." Somehow he just makes it work. He doesn't seem all that fast, but is more "sneaky" fast and athletic than he appears.

Weisner is a 6-6 wing player who is our most dangerous threat and most consistent shooter from 3. He'll need to have a big game is we have any inkling of an upset.

Coleman is 6-6 and has a nice mid-range game, can rebound okay, and can shoot from 3 occasionally. I like to think of him as a skinnier, taller version of Jamar, but not as talented.

Jordan Gregory is a 6-2 guard and is probably our second most consistent 3 ball threat. He's one of those players that hustles his butt off every play and just has a good feel for the game, and while not nearly as gifted athletically as Cherry is, he is probably our second best defender, and what he lacks in athleticism, he makes up for with good, smart positioning.

In order for us to pull off a win, I say 3/5 players of ours I listed above need to have monster games.

I'm excited to see this game but I think our height & length will give the Griz issues all day. Of our 8 player rotation, all but 2 are as tall or taller. Our starting PG is 6'6, our SG Triche is 6'4 and well put together and our backup SG Cooney is 6'3-6'4 albiet a bit thinner. Your guards will probably find it tough to see over the top of the zone and see passing lanes as alot of teams struggle with this.

On the other end of the court, our best 3 pt shooters are our SF (40.6%) who can (and will) shoot from 25 feet out and PF (49.1%) who are 6'8-6'9. Any idea what you guys may do to try and combat that?

 

[Senore2006]

He was a hell of a quarterback.

 

[mslamariner]

I'm excited to see this game but I think our height & length will give the Griz issues all day. Of our 8 player rotation, all but 2 are as tall or taller. Our starting PG is 6'6, our SG Triche is 6'4 and well put together and our backup SG Cooney is 6'3-6'4 albiet a bit thinner. Your guards will probably find it tough to see over the top of the zone and see passing lanes as alot of teams struggle with this.

On the other end of the court, our best 3 pt shooters are our SF (40.6%) who can (and will) shoot from 25 feet out and PF (49.1%) who are 6'8-6'9. Any idea what you guys may do to try and combat that?

My best guess is that we'll mix it up and try to hold you to shot per possession. Might play some zone, but that really isn't our strength. Probably will go man most of the time, with the occasional trap, but like I said, probably mostly man, then box out like crazy and hope we can shoot it well. Hope that answers your question.

 

[SWC75]

My summary of The Cuse:

We are clearly not as strong as last year or 2010 when we were major title contenders, (had we not lost our centers just before the tournament). We are a very good defensive team. Our defense has kept us in almost every game this year, (save for Georgetown when our offense totally broke down and Louisville when we wilted under a strong press), and are the reason we have no "bad" losses. (Everyone who beat us is in the tournament). We are very good at keeping contact with 3 point shooters and have given up only 29.8% from the arc, (we are 37.7% overall). We can also block shots. But our defense can be beaten by a team that has a player who can shoot and pass from the high post or pass the ball effectively out of the half-court traps we use to cause 15.5 turnovers per game.

We are a decent rebounding team. It's hard to rebound from a zone but our tall guards, (6-5 with long arms and a muscular 6-4) help us a lot there, averaging better than 8 rebs per game between them. We are +4 a game on the boards. But having the guard rebound reduces what we love to do most: fast break. The guards can't "release" as they would on a team with strong rebounders up front. In the four games in New York we got only 12 fast break points, (the opposition got 20). A key could be: do we need the guard to rebound in this game or can our big men get the job done vs. the Grizzlies?

Our problems this year have almost all been on offense. Despite having two McDonald's All-Americans at center, we have no inside scoring to speak of. Rakeem Christmas and Baye Moussa Keita were both immigrants to this country with limited exposure to the game until they got here. Both are kind of skinny and can be muscled out of the way, (especially by guys like UNLV's Anthony Bennett). DaJuan Coleman is muscular but finding his high school moves don't work against taller college players. He's also a defensive liability and hardly played after he got hurt.

Our outside game is erratic at best. James Southerland has beyond NBA range and can get white hot, (a record 19 treys in 33 attempts in New York). he can also go ice-cold, (1 for 13 in the two games before that), but chucks it up anyway. We are a different team, depending on whether his shots are going down. Did he leave his touch in New York? Brandon Triche, Michael Carter-Williams and CJ Fair can hit the occasional three pointer but not enough to make the defense stretch itself to cover them that far out.

That whittles our offense basically down to CJ Fair who can operate well from the top of the key and Carter-Williams and Triche driving to the basket. Neither is great at that. Against the good teams, that hasn't been enough. Triche, expected to be a mainstay as one of only two seniors, has instead been erratic and mostly bad over the last month. MCW, a sophomore, is a talented passer and freakishly long on defense but needs to get stronger and learn better judgement. Jerami Grant is a talented young forward with a great pedigree, NBAers Harvey and Horace Grant are his father and uncle). He played very well when Southerland was suspended, showing the ability to score inside, rebound, block shots and also a good mid-range game. But when JS came back and Jerami's minutes declined, so did he.

Syracuse, despite needling from some national commentators, actually has a history of taking care of business in the round of 64, where we have a record of 20 wins and 4 losses. One of the four losses was in an 8-9 game. Another came when our star, Gerry MacNamara was injured and couldn't play in a 5-12 game. The Vermont game came after a couple of players had been suspended. the most hopeful scenario for Montana is the famous Richmond loss, the first ever win for a 15 seed over a 2 seed, back in 1991. Syracuse had blown a 16 point lead to lose in the Big East Tournament to Villanova and played like they were still in a funk over it the next week against the Spiders. We have had a tendency to sometimes play down to the opposition, with 12 of those 20 wins being 15 points or less, 6 by single digits, one of those on a buzzer shot. But one of the wins was a 33 point blow-out of Montana State.

Still, one poster described this as a "fragile" team. I don't buy the notion that after playing 4 games in four days in New York and being overwhelmed by Louisville's pressure and then traveling 3000 miles for the game we are going to listless. But if Southerland isn't hitting, we are a very mediocre offensive team and a smart, well-coached team can figure out how to crack open our defense.