BOZEMAN, Mont. – Montana State’s pre-Christmas odyssey, which covered more than 5,000 miles and spanned the continent, netted the Bobcats one victory in four tries. But second-year head coach Brian Fish’s young squad may have gained something more valuable in conference play’s pre-dawn period.
“We’re getting better and better every game,” Fish said as his team prepares to open Big Sky play Thursday afternoon at Southern Utah. Tipoff is 4:05 pm.
The 5-7 Bobcats face a Southern Utah team that has struggled to a 2-8 pre-conference record without starter A.J. Hess, who has missed the last three games with an injury. His status for Thursday is unknown. Senior guard Travon Langston leads the Thunderbirds offensively with 13.4 points a game, while his backcourt-mate, junior Trey Kennedy, chips in 11.4 points.
Bobcat guard Marcus Colbert, one of the team’s two seniors, continues to lead MSU with 17.1 points a game, and is one of just three Big Sky players in the league’s top 10 in both scoring and assists. Senior forward Danny Robison contributes 8.9 points and 3.3 rebounds a game, while sophomore forward Zach Green scores 7.9 points a game with 5.0 boards. But those are the only three Bobcats who have been through the rigors of Big Sky play previously, and even Green has never played in Cedar City or the northern region of his home state. Seven Bobcats play a Big Sky foe for the first time Thursday.
Fish says his team’s non-conference schedule, particularly the four-game stretch before the Holidays, prepared it for conference play. “Each game was progressively tougher,” he said of that trip. “Each game we saw a more talented team, a tougher environment, a tougher situation. I thought we handled San Jose State very well, I thought we handled North Dakota State very well, and pretty much the same at Buffalo. When you look at our team, we have a group of seniors who have won 30 games in their career, and we have freshmen and a lot of new guys playing. We’re going into places that are tough to win, and you have to go through that.”
One of the most positive components of Montana State’s improvement is an emerging defensive effectiveness. MSU allowed three of the four opponents on the road trip to surpass the 80-point mark, but held all four below 50% shooting. The Cats also forced more than their season average of 10.7 opponent turnovers in two of the four games. “We played different type teams,” Fish said, “but we are getting better defensively. We’re making great strides against tough competition.”
Facing two NCAA Tournament teams from a season ago and a third, Syracuse, that appears destined for a busy March this season, the Bobcats also took a corresponding dip offensively. MSU averaged 72.0 points in those four games, shooting 40.3% from the floor. Competition level aside, Fish hopes for improved offensive efficiency in its league-opening trip.
“We’ve got to get back to getting 80, 85 points a game, so we’ve spent a lot more time worrying about ourselves” in the practice time leading into the weekend, Fish said. “We’ve got to get the ball moving again. The one thing about playing against Syracuse’s zone is that it’s almost like playing a Princeton style. It really slows you down. We’ve got to play better offensively because now we’re playing teams that look like us.”
He knows the task ahead isn’t easy. “When the season started I thought this was probably the hardest road trip in the conference. Northern Arizona’s had an injury or two and Southern Utah’s had an injury or two, and we’re a little banged up, too. I don’t know how we’ll respond to that.”
Fish indicated that among the litany of illnesses and injuries the Cats have dealt with in December, Quinn Price is likely lost for the season. A knee injury suffered during the summer flared up on the recent road trip. Still, Fish said enthusiasm is high and he looks forward to getting the Big Sky slate started. “It’s the first conference weekend and everybody’s zero and zero, and we’re going to get everybody’s best shot. We haven’t dodged anybody (during the non-conference) in two years now, and I’m ready to get going in the conference and swing away.”
View Thursday’s and Saturday’s games on WatchBigSky.com.
