Sac State kicks MSU in the groin

Posted on January 11, 2008 by Colin O'Keefe
As I mentioned, there were two positives that emerged from last night, here's the other.

The Montana State Bobcats basketball team was livin' the good life. On top of already beating a WAC and Pac-10 team, they had recently outplayed and demoralized the rival Griz. With the worst team in the conference next on the schedule, it looked like the hot streak would run at least one more game. Nope.

The Sac State Hornets, who had not beat a Division I team all year, knocked off the Cats 78-77. The Cats battled back from being 9 down with less than six minutes to go and led with 1:15 left. Then Sac missed a shot, Cats got the ball and were fouled with 17.9 seconds left.  Phil Friesen missed both. Hornets got the ball and freshman guard Vinny McGhee Jr found senior forward Justin Williams for a 16-foot baseline winner with 4.7 seconds left.

Here are some quotes from the Bozeman Chronicle:

“Yeah, I'm frustrated,” MSU coach Brad Huse said, before quickly crediting Sacramento State with dictating the pace and flustering his team, which shot 38.0 percent an committed two technical fouls.

“We came back and had a chance to win it, and it would've been a good win on the road.”[...]

“We got beat up by a freshman guard tonight,” Huse said, adding: “We're not going to win a lot of games unless we get more balance in scoring.”

Agreed Taylor: “People who usually make shots didn't make shots.”
It's worth noting that Carlos Taylor scored 34. Again.

Now the Cats head to NAU, where'll they'll take a long bus ride up to 7000 feet and try to succeed where the Griz didn't. Needless to say, it wouldn't be surprising to see both the Griz and Cats sitting at 1-2 after Saturday. If the Griz are 0-3, I'm gonna lose it.
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Griz, Cats: The same but different

Posted on February 10, 2007 by Colin O'Keefe
Yeah, Yogiisms tend to be a bit cliche when used in headlines but this one fits pretty well when describing the basketball teams at the University of Montana and Montana State University. They both come into this game at 7-4 in conference play and in a tie for second-place but they've done so very differently.

Fans of the two teams come probably come in in with very varying opinions on their respective seasons. First off, the Bobcats. This team came into conference play looking pretty talentless and like a team that would go pretty quietly into the abyss. That hasn't happened.

Head coach Brad Huse has this Bobcat team playing way over its head and right in the thick of the Big Sky race. It was them who ended Idaho State's undefeated stretch and sent the Bengals into chaos. The Cats also beat Weber State at home. It hasn't been this way throughout all of BSC play as they started 1-3. Then it started. They beat Weber at home and won six of seven.

The Griz are sitting a little differently. They also are 7-4 in BSC play but they arguably have the most talent, top-to-bottom, in the entire conference. This means they;re doing the exact opposite of the Cats and playing below their talent level.

When a team appears to play below its talent level, fans start questioning coaching. This has happened as several Griz hoops fan aren't has happy about Tinks as Cats fans are about Huse. I don't agree with this. Many fans expected this team to continue on its upward track but are disappointed to find them in a transition year. No matter who the coach was, this team was going to be in transition after losing the chemistry it had this year. This is more due to the loss of seniors Kevin Criswell and Virgil Matthews.

However, all Griz and Cat fans would have to agree: this game is big and the rivalry only adds to it.
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Krystkowiak on Huse and Tinkle.

Posted on January 13, 2007 by Colin O'Keefe
Fawkward. It means more than just awkward, or f***in' awkward.

Tonight may be a little fawkward for the Griz as they face off against the Cats, coached by former Griz assistant Brad Huse. There are articles on the idea of facing a former friend here and here so I'm not going to go too in depth on that issue.

Instead, here's what former head coach Larry Krystkowiak had to say about these two coaches.

LK on Huse:
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for him, what he's gone through and how he goes about his business,” Krystkowiak said. “He's one of those people you can tell he's constantly observing and assessing. He's not full of a lot of talk. Ask Brad about a team and he wasn't going to overwhelm you with 10 bullet points. He'd have it narrowed down to two, maybe three things. With as many things as you have on your plate as a head coach, that was valuable to me.

“He gets the big picture.”
LK on Tinkle:
“He'd probably be the first to tell you we had a good cop-bad cop thing going on,” Krystkowiak said. “I didn't have to be a nice guy. A certain amount of fear has to be instilled in the players. Wayne will differ from me in that way, but he may actually harden over time. I don't know too many head coaches who are good cops.

“That's the way I did it, but just because I did it that way doesn't make it right. He could probably do a great job being a nice guy too.”
I overheard someone at the bowling alley last night talking about Tinks and LK and they were saying what I'm kind of thinking after seeing this. Maybe Tinkle is still too much of a "good cop" and needs to learn how to get in his players heads.
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