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First Half

• "He raped the arm with his arm." Actual call from your Idaho State radio guys. Yea, just put Mick on whenever the Griz are playing. Are there more than ten Bengal fans watching this game? Is their guy half as good as Mick? I don't think so.
• So far, Anthony Johnson is not getting the calls he gets at home. Not that surprising but some of them are pretty blatant. He got mauled on a "block" early.
• In low resolution (Big Sky Tv) Matt Stucki looks just like Michael Cera.
• No one complains about calls like Idaho State fans. Idaho State broadcasters are close, but the fans win.
• Hasquet should have a limit on his three-point attempts. Two per half, maybe. Never on back-to-back possessions.
• I should probably drop in a score. 12-9 Bengals at the moment. There's no ticker and no word from the broadcasters on time.
• Just realized Coach Tinkle is on the frontside of the quarter. Watch him for a couple possessions. For some reason it's extra hysterical when you can just see a giant black shadow.
• 17-12 now. Probably around 11:00 left.
• Michael Taylor's going to get more and more minutes as time goes in. Can he play point while we cut AJ loose? Or maybe he's the three threat you don't get from AJ.
• Anthony Johnson is just getting mauled on some plays. Maybe the refs saw how much he was going to the line and decided to make a point out of making sure every time he went it was for something legit. But this is kind of odd. Oh well.
• 26-22 with 2:15 left.

Halftime

• 33-26 at half. Kind of a sloppy end to the period.
• We have to win this. It's Idaho State. Maybe it's my disrespect for their fans, but a loss here is completely unacceptable. Lets do this.
• No, they don't take halftime off on Big Sky TV. Unfortunately.
• Okay, so AJ isn't doing great up to this point. Focusing a little more on distributing because he's not getting the calls going at the rack. However, anyone else find it somewhat incredible we actually have someone the opposing team needs to key in on because if he doesn't, he's gonna drop 25?

 Second Half

• Refs are kind of clogging this whole thing up. Not for one team in particular.
• Griz down 7 after cutting it from 9. Just let AJ take over. Iso that up.
• Yeah. Three point play from AJ.
• 41-33 about four minutes in. Come on Griz.
• Okay. I just noticed this. Forgive me. They call Austin Kilpatrick 'AK-47.' He's number 23.
• Sharpie with a board, putback and going to the line. Forced in part by AJ driving to the rack. Seriously, someone buy a Witness shirt so I can wear one without feeling creepy.
• That was a bad charge. But here we go "That was a HORRIBLE CALL."..."I have to give Anthony Johnson a acting award for that."..."There's nothing borderline about that!" They're yelling so loud the audio is actually muffled. Imagine Mick doing that. Seriously. Just try.
• 45-44 Bengals. 12:00 left.
• Anthony Johnson is our Kobe. Unstoppable. 11 in this half.
• 48-45 now. 10:43 left. Now pull away Grizzlies.
• Wow. They call 'illegal dribbling' on AJ. Hmmm. Do what you have to I guess.
• 7:10 to go. Bengals up 4 and going to the line.
• 60-54 with about 6:00 left as Stockton is getting some big crunchtime minutes.
• Alright. Audio is going off. Can't really put up with this.
• Griz really choking down the stretch with a travel on Jordan.
• Jordan coughs it up. Lead is 13. Now 14.
• Now AJ turns it over in the backcourt. Well done guys.
• Three point shooting has been very inconsistent. But what can you do? We're an inconsistent team.
• AJ should've finished but that was a back court violation.
• Griz cut it to 9 before the guy with the hideous and oh-so-original mohawk makes a jumper in the corner.
• Final score: 77-67

Postgame

• Well, that sucked. Things really went downhill after the "illegal dribbling" call. I get a feeling Anthony Johnson isn't going to get a whole lot of slack on the road, not that he needed any for a hesitation dribble.
• We should've won this. We'll get them at home. Face them in the playoffs. Same crap. God I hate this team.
• A win today would've put the Grizzlies in first place. You had to figure they were going to lost. So, yeah, that's right, we get Weber after a loss. They'll be ready to go.

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Notes and analysis from the second twenty of the quarter-final game. We're going live this half.

• Griz come out very slow. Instead of pushing the lead up by four and making it ten, they let it slide down to two and eventually let the Bengals tie it up.
• No major improvement in the rebounding department.
  
• Griz need to get the ball inside but it's tough to focus on that when your best post player continuously gets double-teamed.
• Griz need to have the lead going down the stretch. Despite what happened in the last match-up, the Griz are not a great team playing from behind.
• Rundles has SIX assists with eight and a half to play. Not too shabby for the shooting guard.
• The lead is eight with under eight to play. We need to get back in this ASAP. Scary territory here.
• Whenever Mick says "no hill for a climber," it scares the hell out of me.
• The Griz need stops very bad as we come down the stretch and they are just not there. The offense is, but you need stops too.
• Rundles' shooting just isn't there tonight. He needs to focus on driving and distributing.
• All of a sudden, Drew has 4. That's terrifying.
• Treys by Staudacher and Martin cut it from 8 to 2. THANK YOU! Let's win this fellas!!!
• Free throws are going to be big coming down the stretch. That is scary.
• As always, our defense is abysmal coming down the stretch. Things are looking very very dire.
• Griz down 6 with 1:37 to play. As I said, dire.
• Free throws hurting the Griz badly coming down the stretch. As usual, fundamentals (rebounding and FTs) costing the game. Well done players, coaching staff.
• Griz blow another season. For many fans, things don't seem as large as they are for someone like myself. I'm a student. After an AMAZING freshman year I expected more of the same. Now I go into a senior season where things look great to some but to me, still very questionable. Both Graves and Rundles may be leaving. With the losses of those two guys, we get a lot slower going into these next few years. I never thought things would go progressively downhill after that amazing 05-06 season. Whether anyone admits it or not, that's what happened. Our program was looking great then things dipped into mediocrity. I pray to God things turn around with the influx of transfer talent but I don't know. To be completely honest, I begin looking forward to trying to get into a good law school. Trying to get into a place where being part of the basketball team is bigger than it is here. Where the kids give a s@#t and the bush-league football team isn't the king of the town. I'm sure I'll have more in the coming days on what has been a painful season but for now and for tonight, that is it.
  

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Alright, some notes and analysis from the first half of Montana's quarter-final matchup against the ISU Bengals.

• Griz came out and started like I haven't seen them start all season. Griz came out, ran with the ball, and pushed it to an 11-2 lead. Then they gave it all back. But it was good while it lasted.
  • Most important thing: they withstood the Bengal run, didn't freak out, then they took the lead right back. Griz go into the half up 6 because they didn't panic.
• Why the #@&! can't we rebound. HUGE front-line that sometimes features Strait, Hasquet and Qvale and we get out-rebounded 21-11. ISU has 11 offensive rebounds.
  
• Ceylon Elgin-Taylor's offense has been great. Jumping in passing lanes and just gunking things up for the opposing offense.
  
• Cameron Rundles loves to take statement shots: whether it's after a big make by the opposing team or poor play by him, he will always be there to take that shot.
• The three-ball has been there, at times. Griz are shooting 46.7 percent from behind the arc. There were times in the first half when it wasn't there at all but Staudacher and Martin made shots at the end that, at this point, are probably the difference in game. Both Martin and Staudacher make three treys in the first half.
  
• Mick has repeated this several times: Idaho State has only won one game when they trailed at half. Griz need to come out fast and push this lead.
• Speaking of Mick, how lucky are we to have him? Really. We could have some crummy J-school student but no, we have Mick. As good as there is. As good as any hoops play-by-play guy I've ever heard. Keep it up.

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Apologies for the poor image quality.

Saturday night, the Lady Griz blew the Bengals out by 22 at Dahlberg Arena. After the victory, it looks like the conference winner will have to win the championship on the same court. With the win over ISU, the Lady Griz's magic number is one with only three to play. A victory in any of the Lady Griz's final three games (@NoCo, @EWU, @PSU) means the conference tourney will be played in Missoula.

Here's an interesting tidbit on what Selvig & Co. used as motivation going into the game. From the Missoulian:

Doma, who entered the game needing 26 points to pass Montana assistant coach Shannon (Cate) Schweyen as the Big Sky's career scoring queen, finished with her lowest points total (12) of the season. She didn't score at all in the 10 minutes Lohman was assigned to her in the first half.[...]

“A lot of her shots weren't falling that maybe might have other nights, but it was nice to hold her to 12. Shannon (Schweyen) has the conference record right now so we were like, ‘We can't let (Doma) beat Shannon's record in our house.' We were talking about that before the game and used that as a little energy.”

Here's some audio from my post-game interview with Coach Selvig.

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Idaho State fans may feel a little bit of justification after the three officials who collectively made the no-call on Jordan Hasquet's Webber-esque timeout were suspended for one game. Probably not. Either way, quit complaining. The Bengals blew it.

Anyway, here's a taste of what Bengals fans are saying, straight out of an email a fan sent to me. This fan was too "classy" to leave his name or email address.

Are you kinding me? You think that win was legit? Oh yeah im talking to a grizzly fan! You probably havent seen the footage from the game and ALL the [MESSED] up calls that benefited the Griz! I believe in fair wins. But when a game is given to a team and they dont even have class about it. (as in Mr. Hasquet aka ****) I think it is VERY VERY funny that you guys dont even recognise the Technical foul that should have ended the Game! Griz= Classless Human

Let's start with a couple key sentences. "I believe in fair wins. But when a game is given to a team and they dont even have class about it." Alright, it's one sentence and then another uncompleted thought. Even so, were we "given the game?" Yes, you can argue that. But only because the Bengals gave the Griz the game. Let's look at this...

• In the last 7:30, the Bengals scored 5 points.
• Demetrius Monroe misses the front-end of a 1-and-1 that would've for all intensive purposes ended the game. The lead would've been 4 with 31 seconds left.
•  Cameron Rundles misses a jumper off of penetration and the Bengals fail to get a rebound even though the lane was filled with ISU players. Strait kicks to Hasquet, he drills it to tie the game.
  
• After that, Idaho State has 17 seconds to set something up. TONS of time. Stucki lofts up an ugly 3-pointer that I'm not even sure caught iron. 17 seconds, and that's the best shot the Bengals could get.

Now, if you're arguing that the referees "gave the griz the game" or the win. That's wrong. No way around that.

 If we both were to say that the ref looked the other way and let the players decide the game in overtime then all he did was give the Griz a chance to play it out. A chance to win. Well, interesting thing, both teams start with the same number of points in overtime and therefore have the same chance of winning. In that overtime, the Bengals got dominated. Similar to the last 7:30, when the Bengals scored 5 points. If they score 6, the game is over. It didn't happen. Leading up to that call, the Griz put themselves in position to win and the Bengals put themselves in position to lose.

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Feels like it's been forever since the Griz have played a game at home. The last home game was December 30th against NAIA Montana Tech. I'm going to assumer there weren't a ton of people there. Before that, the last regular D1 home game was a devastating loss to Portland on December 7. Well, they're finally back for a D1 game against Idaho State.

Here's an excerpt from the Missoulian's preview on the game:

“A slight bit of frustration has moved off of their shoulders,” said Griz basketball coach Wayne Tinkle, whose team notched its first Big Sky Conference victory last Saturday at Sacramento State while winning for just the second time in nine games. “There's also been a little bit of eagerness; they've been a little owly. I think they're looking forward to the league (home) opener here (Thursday) night.” [...]

Tinkle has warned his team that playing a home game is no magic potion.

“That was the first thing we said when we came together as a team on Monday,” Tinkle said. “Home-court advantage is only an advantage if you make it so. You have to do that by playing with energy, a sense of urgency and physical play. If you come out and establish all those things right away, you can get things going.”

As evidenced by two losses earlier in the season to Cal-State Fullerton and Portland, home-court advantage does not automatically translate into a win. Tonight they should be extra-wary as a huge turnout is less than likely. I say that because a majority of students haven't made their way back to Missoula yet, myself included (had to work). Hopefully the community can pick up the slack but these Thursday night games are rough.

Even though home-court advantage doesn't directly translate into wins, the Griz have to convert as many opportunities as they can. Home games during the conference season are like free-throws. You have to convert on them or they've going to come back and bite you hard. Probable somewhere around the calf/ankle area. Not just nip. Home conference losses will take most of your lower leg and you'll be forced to play catchup in the standings on half of a leg road games. Not fun. Here's the thing: the Griz are terrible at making free throws.

For more pre-game insight, the grizzlyjournal always has great scouting; this game is no exception.

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The 2008 football schedule is out. As reported on here first, the Griz will open their season down San Luis Obispo against the Cal Poly Mustangs.

Here's the complete schedule:

Date ..... Opponent ..... Time
9.6 ..... at Cal Poly ..... TBA
9.13 ..... Southern Utah ..... 1:05 p.m.
9.20 ..... UC-Davis (Homecoming) ..... 1:05 p.m.
9.27 ..... Central Washington ..... 1:05 p.m.
10.4 ..... at Weber State * ..... TBA
10.11 ..... at Eastern Washington * ..... TBA
10.18 ..... Sacramento State * ..... 1:05 p.m.
10.25 ..... at Northern Colorado * ..... TBA
11.1 ..... Northern Arizona * ..... 12:05 p.m.
11.8 ..... at Portland State * ..... TBA
11.15 ..... Idaho State * ..... 12:05 p.m.
11.22 ..... Montana State * (108th meeting) ..... 12:05 p.m.

* Conference game

The OOC is alright. We probably shouldn't be playing a DII school but whatever. Here's O'Day's rationale on playing schools from a lower division. It's his response to playing Ft. Lewis last year but fits around the fact that we're playing Central Washington:

Last year, we played Fort Lewis (Don Read loved the Division II schools to let young kids get experience) and UM Athletics netted about $300,000 - not counting what the Adams Center received for ticket fees ($1 per ticket), or what dining services produced in sales, or the bookstore... not counting what the Missoula economy saw by another home game (estimated at between $5-$7 million per home weekend).  We admit that was a "money game," as do most teams at our level.   Still, it is no different than Oregon hosting Montana for $450,000 or Iowa hosting Montana for $650,000.  Their fans expected big wins at our expense, and they, too, need to produce funds to pay their bills.

After the non-conference slate, what should be two of our toughest BSC games are on the road: we have to go to Portland to play the Vikings and to the Cheney to play the Eagles. Those should be two very challenging games. Then we cap off the season with the Brawl in Missoula and hopefully another Big Sky Championship.

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This weekly feature is actually becoming weekly as it's back for consecutive weeks.

Griz get two game lead with victory over NAU. It's the Griz's most impressive win of the season and it almost guarantees them at least a share of the Big Sky championship. Lex carried for 130 yards in the second half and essentially carried the Griz to victory. Finally, we are starting to see the team everyone thought to compete for a National Championship.

Montana State embarrassed by Northern Colorado. Northern Colorado finally got its first win over a Big Sky team since joining the conference. It wasn't over a bottom-feeder like Sac State or Idaho State either. It was over 19th ranked Montana State. This will undoubtedly knock MSU out of the rankings, the BSC title chase and probably the playoffs.

Weber State 73, Portland State 68. Um, what the hell? It's the most points scored in an NCAA football game since these types of things were first recorded. Freshman quarterbacks—one a redshirt and one a true freshman—combined for 13 passing touchdowns. Portland State QB Drew Hubel, a true freshman making his first start, passed for nine touchdowns. I'm sure Mouse Davis likes to see that but I doubt this is what Glanville had in mind when he said PSU would have the hardest hitting defense on the West Coast.

Eastern Washington hands Sac State another close loss. Half the conference decided they weren't going to play defense this weekend. The Hornets and Eagles amassed more than 900 total yards in EWU's 31-24 win.

Idaho State thumped by Cal Poly, 48-28. Here's another team who felt defense really wasn't essential. Cal Poly quarterback Jonathan Dally threw for 453 yards and ran for 119 more. Idaho State is now 3-5 overall and 2-3 in conference.

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Photo by Todd Goodrich for Montanagrizzlies.com

This weekly roundup on action in the Big Sky has been less than weekly but here it is for this weekend's games.

The Bears are who we thought they were, but are the Griz? The Griz racked up an impressive 627 yards and 52 points in their dominant win over Northern Colorado but who really knows what that means? Will the win set the Griz offense on a track that leads toward Chattanooga or is this simply a good win over a bad team? Griz fans can hope for the former but the next two games should be a better indicator than this win over a team that hasn't beat a Division I team since moving up.

Bobcats survive Sac State. As many Griz fans expected/hoped for, the MSU offense had a bit of trouble against the Hornet defense. The Cats were down 6-0 at the half but outscored the Hornets 20-3 in the final two quarters. They've now won eight straight in what has effectively been dubbed "The Ashtray."

Weber ends NAU's two game BSC win streak. Not a whole lot going on in this one. The Lumberjacks had a chance to tie it with about 9 minutes left in the game but a two point conversion was batted down. A few plays later, Weber scored and the game was out of reach.

Portland State falls to Idaho State, 38-20. Going into this season, Portland State had hopes for a Big Sky championship. It doesn't look like that's going to happen. Sorry Jer. The Viks were up 13-3 at halftime but the Bengals scored four third quarter touchdowns with two of them being on defense. The Vikings are 2-5 overall and 2-2 in the Big Sky. The only thing that may salvage their season: an upset over UM. I'm not too frightened but it is on my mind.

Eastern gets crushed by BYU. Fans of FCS, or at least Big Sky teams, hoped EWU's impressive offense would at least put a little fear into BYU, maybe make a game out of it. That did not happen. While the Eagles suffered a 42-7 defeat, they did get $325,000 for making the trip.

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It wasn't here last week, but this weekly recap of Big Sky games is back for week 5.

Montana very unimpressive against WSU. It was a lot like the USC-Washington game. Both the Trojans and Griz were ranked number one but put up less than inspiring performances against decent yet unranked teams who wore purple and had school names starting with a W. I don't think the Trojans committed nearly as many penalties though.

Portland State beats Eastern Washington, 28-21. The Viking offense looked very strong in the win as they racked up 520 yards of total offense. Even so, it was a close game. The game ended when Portland State picked off a desperation pass in the end zone.

Sac State rolls over Northern Arizona, 38-9. NAU head coach Jerome Souers didn't give the Hornets much credit, saying "it was one of those games that whatever could go wrong, did go wrong." You know what, you got stomped. It wasn't just things going wrong. Sac State obviously played well.

Montana State rallies from 10-0 deficit to beat Idaho State. The Bobcats had a strong third quarter and Demetrius Crawford ran for 173 yards on 23 carries as the Bobcats' 40-20 win put the Bengals 0-2 in the conference.

Northern Colorado loses to Cal Poly, 56-21. What can I say? They got this losing thing down.

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Portland State saves their season with a 35-24 win over Sac State. The Vikings probably went into this game the same way Michigan will go into their conference schedule. PSU will not get great playoff seeding but they can still win the conference and make the playoffs. Unlike the Wolverines, the Viks can still win a National Championship. It's not likely, but as a Cubs fan, I like to think anyone can win once they get in the playoffs.

Montana State kills Dixie State, 61-7. Nice job guys, nice job. Some people mark this as some sort of sign that MSU is fine and will be something of a contender. The win is what it is. If you're proud of a D-II shilacking, that's not good. I'm not saying the Cats will or will not be a factor in the 'Sky but the only message this sends is that they can blow out a team from a lower division. Good to know.

NAU falls to Appalachian State, 34-21. It would've been nice to see a Big Sky team get mentioned on SC for beating the giant-killers from Boone, but it didn't happen as the Mountaineers won their 17th straight game. It could've been worse. If NAU can keep it within two possessions, maybe the Griz can pull off a win.

Weber State blown out by Cal Poly, 47-19. The Weber State secondary allowed Mustangs quarterback Jonathan Dally to rack up Colt Brennan-esque numbers in the loss. The kid tossed 6 TDs on 328 yards.

Northern Colorado loses to San Diego, 49-13. This type of score was expected with the Bears coming off a huge loss to D-II Chadron State. On a positive note, they did find a running back. David Woods finished with 180 all-purpose yards.

Eastern beats UC Davis, 41-31. It wasn't Bengals-Browns but the Eagles and Aggies combined for almost 1,000 total yards. The Aggies had more yards and the Eagles had more points.

Idaho State trounced by Oregon State, 61-10. You know the deal. Big Sky team plays FBS opponent, Big Sky team loses by 30+ while the FBS team puts up huge numbers. Whatever pays the bills.

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This is a weekly segment quickly recapping the past week's games in the Big Sky.

Montana beats Fort Lewis 49-0. If there was college fantasy football and you had a few Montana Grizzlies on your team, you would've looked pretty good this weekend. Too bad there's no such thing as college fantasy football and we just wasted our time watching our school trounce a Division II squad. At least the offense was rolling.

Portland State loses again, this time to UC Davis 26-17. This past offseason I said Jerry Glanville has done everything he possibly could to promote and manage the PSU football program. Well, there's more to promoting. The Vikings have flopped coming out of the gate. It will be interesting to season if the preseason hype can survive this awful start. The Viks were up 17-3 at one point before giving up 23 unanswered. Not good.

Northern Arizona fell to the University of Arizona, 45-24. These are the type of games FCS powers need to schedule. Games against beatable FCS teams. NAU isn't a FCS power and was just looking for a local and almost but not quite rivalry-esque game. Those are fine too. The UA offense rolled over the Lumberjacks as their quarterback passed for five touchdowns.

Northern Colorado gets reamed by D-II Chadron State, 31-0. This is the second year in a row a Big Sky team has lost to Chadron St. Why are the Griz playing all these easy games now? What are we preparing for? Conference games? Come on. Sure, Chadron State is one of the best teams in D-II, but so was Northern Colorado before they moved. You can't get shut out, at home, by a team in a lower division.

Idaho State beats NAIA Southern Oregon "respectably," 37-11. That's kind of close for an NAIA school. Probably too close. The Bengals' freshman quarterback Russell Hill completed 20 of his 31 passes. They played well, but it was NAIA so it doesn't really matter.

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The Griz have some pretty solid teams on their schedule this year but it doesn't match the degree of difficulty looming ahead for the Idaho State Bengals.

Idaho State's 2007-08 men's basketball schedule is set, loaded with big names for the second straight year, such as UCLA, Washington, Brigham Young, Iowa and Utah. However, head coach Joe O'Brien has one of those big names, Washington State, coming to Holt Arena, along with Boise State and a full slate of Big Sky Conference games, and he promises that is just a taste of things to come as far as home scheduling goes.

Yea, challenging your squad by tough opponents is a good idea, but this is out of hand. On top of these tough squads, they also face Long Beach State, an NCAA Tournament team.

They may lose every single one of these games but that Washington State matchup in Holt Arena makes it all worth. Even if they lose by 45, it'll still be fun for at least the first few minutes. I'm not envious of their away games because the Griz have a pretty fair yet challenging schedule but I do wish we had a shot at the Cougars in the Zoo instead of on a neutral court.

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The Griz advanced to the Big Sky semifinals with a victory over the Idaho State Bengals last night. It's just nice when we don't get beat by teams with fans like this:

Yeah, and those DUI chants worked real well at affecting Chavy's game.

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It seems like the Griz have been playing big game after big game -- with the exception of Northern Colorado -- and this is what happens when you're playing from behind in the standings. Tonight's game is big because a win means they get a home game in the conference tournament. Just one of many games with implications, the Griz haven't done so well in these games.

Here, in my opinion, are the three biggest games of the year for the Griz:

• vs Idaho State. The Griz came into this game at 2-2 in conference play and had a shot re-establish themselves as a contender by beating hot-starting ISU. The Bengals entered the game 4-0 and went on to throttle UM by ten in the Den.
• vs Weber State. Weber came into the Zoo in first place and the Griz needed wins to scramble back into the conference picture. The Griz were trailing by double-digits in the second half before apparently turning the season around with a 90-86 victory.
• @ Weber State. This was arguably the biggest game of the year. It was first place versus second place and the winner would control where the conference tourney would be played. The Griz fell in a close one: 73-67.
• vs NAU. The Griz needed this one to help secure their shot at the 2-seed after it no longer it looked like they would be able to host the tournament. Griz came out slow and were fighting from behind the entire game. They never made it all the way back and lost 88-81.

Lets hope the Griz can improve on the 1-4 record in big games; the biggest ones have yet to be played.

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It seems that "power rankings" have reached almost Livestrong bracelet caliber trendiness amongst sports sites with just about everyone with an opinion ranking select group of teams by, um, power.

The Big Sky Conference will now have two sets of power rankings, with Ian Ruder over at Vikings Blog throwing his first set of rankings up today. Kellis Robinett also does BSC power rankings over at his blog in connection with the Pocatello Journal.

In Ian's rankings, the Griz sit at second, behind Weber State and in front of Northern Arizona and Idaho State. This definitely is a bit iffy (the very goal of "power rankings" is to stir up discussion) seeing as the Griz beat WSU last week and are tied in the loss column after road wins over NAU and Northern Colorado.

Here's the caption next to UM's ranking: "If Krystkowiak was still coaching, this deep, talented group would run away with the league. As is, the team seems to be jelling under coach Wayne Tinkle."

I would've agreed with this statement earlier in the season, but I'm not so sure now. This is a very talented team, but they also are team filled with diverse personalities and no real leader. It has taken a lot for this team to come together and I'm not so sure it would've happened any faster under LK.

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Not only did the Griz avoid a major setback loss, they came out and played their most complete game of the year in a  74-71 victory over the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks.

Andrew Strait was very huge for the Griz hitting all eleven of his shots from the field and scoring a game-high 23. Jordan Hasquet hit some big shots and BE led the offense. I've said it before but everyone is beginning to find their role on this team. Hell, even Big Dave Vanderjagt got a minute or two and was able to get his first points.

The win puts the Griz a game back of first place Idaho State (5-2) and Weber State (6-3). Those two faced each other tonight in Pocatello and the Wildcats came away with a win. There are currently four teams tied for that second place spot.

I don't have time to go into too much detail seeing as I have to read almost an entire book by tomorrow (don't you miss college?) but I'm going to try to put up a series of posts on all the factors that contributed to this great win after I go to a couple classes.

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A Missoulian article by Bob Meseroll says the Griz season "hung in the balance" in Saturday's WSU game and the Griz were able to avoid a "devastating loss." The problem is that the potential for another one looms tonight in Flagstaff.

Yes, the Griz won probably their biggest game of the season on Saturday night but tonight's game at NAU good be just as bad as Saturday's game was good.

This morning's Kaimin says both NAU and UM are looking to turn their season's around, and even though the game is big, this headling doesn't really seem right. NAU is 5-3 in BSC play and that's not bad considering how rough conference play for just about everyone this year. After the WSU game it looks like the Griz have turned their season around, they just need to keep it going the right direction.

This feeling was of having everything on track is not new to this season as most fans felt the same after the win over PSU on the road to open BSC play. Following that, they lost to EWU in a big test before falling to Sac State to make it two in a row.

If the Griz win tonight, they will get closer to WSU or ISU as those two face each other tonight in Pocatello. If the Griz win and ISU loses, the Griz would be only a game back of both the Bengals and Wildcats, who would be tied for first.

These two games are huge. The Griz need this one for the standings and themselves. They need to prove they can win big games on the road. Last year's team won in Flagstaff to get the Griz dancing, so lets hope this year's team can win another big one.

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A series of "upsets" over the weekend have made the race for the BSC regular season title much closer and put the Griz right back into its peloton.

The Griz lost to ISU last Wednesday night, another big road win for the Bengals, and gave up and assumed the Big Sky tournament would be played in Pocatello. Then the Cats decided to mess things up a bit.

Montana State beat ISU Saturday when Akbar Abdul-Ahad missed a three at the buzzer. Normally I wouldn't care at all who did this but I made fun of this guy for talking to the cheerleaders in Missoula before inbounding a pass and he responded by saying he'd knock down a three for me, which he did a couple seconds later. A little after that he turned it over and the Griz knocked down a three and now this. Karma.

More importantly, this game puts the Griz only two games back of the Bengals so if they manage to win in Pocatello, they only need to make up one more game elsewhere.

The Griz also sit only a game and a half of Weber State and Northern Arizona as WSU lost to Matt Martin the Griz and NAU lost the Portland State.

This comes with a couple huge games coming up this week: Griz vs NAU and WSU @ ISU.

Related: Around the Big Sky [Vikings Blog]

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Tonight the Griz go up against the first-place Bengals of ISU in a game that has all they hype of beer league hockey game.

The Griz and Bengals split the matchups last year with UM winning by 4 at home and losing by 25 on the road. Yes, I find that a little scary too seeing as this year's team is probably better than the previous season's.

ISU beat Utah Valley State, Sac State, and Eastern Washington while the Griz lost to all three of those teams. The Griz beat Boise State while ISU lost to them.

The Bengals come to the Zoo with one of the best defenses in the BSC, allowing only 65.6 points per game and holding opponents to a 42.3 shooting percentage.

This game is going to be challenging but a lot of intangibles could come into play. This weekend in Missoula may be the biggest of the year as first place Idaho State and second place Weber State both come to town. The Griz need to show that they are still contenders and potentially favorites in the conference.

A home sweep would do a lot for the Griz's confidence and show the league that the road to the BSC's spot in the NCAA tournament still goes through Missoula.

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According to this week's BSC Power Rankings, which are done by Kellis Robinett of the Idaho State Journal, the Griz are the sixth best team in the Big Sky Conference.

Normally I would think this is a total farce but the Big Sky Conference is all over the place this year. Just look at NAU's ranking and caption. While you're at it, check out Northern Colorado's as well.

3. Northern Arizona (8-7, 3-1) With a trip to Northern Colorado coming up, move NAU to 4-1.

9. Northern Colorado (2-14, 0-4) One RPI service ranks the Bears last among all Division I teams.

Well, in this year's BSC conference, guaranteed wins are a sure thing like Ohio State rolling over Florida was a sure thing. Tonight, NAU fell to UNC on a layup with ten seconds to play.

Most of the other rankings held true as Idaho State beat EWU, moving to 3-0 in conference, and Weber State beat Sac State. Weber State is now sitting pretty after wins on consecutive nights and a 5-1 record in conference play. It is kind of odd that WSU has played six games while some teams have only played three.

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