With the way the last 5-6 years of Griz Basketball have gone, I think just about anybody would take a tourney bid. Sure, would like to be competitive in that game, and maybe you could depending on who you get, but at this point I'm fine with just getting into the tourney.
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MBBALL UNI Game Thread
- Thread starter Griz til I die
- Start date
I think the game vs UNI will be an outlier. Winning the regular season, the conference tournament, and making it to the dance are all realistic goals this year. The Griz will probably never get higher than a #14 seed, so winning a tournament game isn’t something I hope for.
HelenaHandBasket
Well-known member
One of the worst defensive efforts that I can remember by a Griz bball team.
CleanHOUSE
Well-known member
Fair enough, but I would say you can win a game or be serious threat to win a game as 14 seed if you build a team with enough upside to have a magical game or two...EWU and Weber even UNC can do this at times its not impossible in the Bigsky. What is impossible is building a team that is meant to out muscle and out athletic teams in order to win and then asking them to out athletic Michigan. Griz football does same thing...get a servicable QB and win in the trenches...as a top dog in FCS is a consistent stratagy, until you have to play a bigger stronger team...then you have not strategic options to overcome a skill gap. Everyone knew they had no chance agaist SDSU...what they going to do own the line of scrimage and run the ball against a Moutain West level school? Feels the same with Griz basketball, they are built to consistently win when they are the better team...when they are not the better team...welp there is no options for overcoming a skill gap.
I agree with your sentiment, it would be awesome to see the Griz win a game at the big dance. I do not agree that Weber, EWU, or UNC has built a team with more “upside”. When was the last time a BSC team won a game in March madness?
I see individual players more concerned with offensive numbers than playing defense.
BelierPeaux
Well-known member
2006.
BelierPeaux
Well-known member
If that was the case last night, I trust Travis to take care of that.
Rhetorical questions don’t work on egriz, do they?
BelierPeaux
Well-known member
Right over my head, brother!Rhetorical questions don’t work on egriz, do they?
No worries, text is a horrible medium. I totally get it!
IdaGriz01
Well-known member
Oddly enough, I am cautiously optimistic that the Griz can be a contender in the Big Sky, even to ending with the auto-bid. (Not saying they will, but they should contend.) This despite the fact that they are currently (4-5) against D-I opponents.
How is this possible, and not just swilling the Kool-aid? Because the Gtiz losses were, by and large, to a brutal OOC line-up: Tennessee (10-0, then ranked #11), Oregon (10-1), Utah State (10-0). All told, these five opponents are (46-9). Griz wins came against somewhat lower level competition: CSU-Northridge, South Dakota State, etc. Without pitiful Utah Tech (3-10), those cumulative records are (21-15). Not exactly a rousing vote confidence, but an indication that UM should be competitive at the Big Sky level.
CleanHOUSE
Well-known member
Its been a while, my point was building a team that has a chance, not a team that is trying to dribble drive thier 6ft 165lb gaurd past a 6'5" All ACC gaurd into a 7 footer waiting at the rim and the result is 37-13 at the half. MSU was very competitive last year, EWU gave Kansas a great fight in 2021, EWU was competive against GTown in 2015 and more in general there are plenty of 13,14,15 seeds that Griz could beat that do get wins, not because they are miles better, but because they have a play style that gives them a punchers chance.
When the Griz were close in 2010 we had a legit big man in Qvale and in 2006 Andrew Strait was a good big. In Decuire's athletic gaurd eat the shot clock system you need a Power 5 gaurds like (Oguine Rorie, Pridgett, Cherry) or a legit big/PF (which comes along every 15 years in BigSky). His brand of basketball can get Ws in Big Sky but my complaint is its so dependent on getting high level athletes that can win one on one. We had a great run of talen with (Anthony Johnson '10 Will Cherry '13, Kareem Jamar '14, , Rorie '18, Oguine '18, Pridgett '19 ) and Bigs (Strait, Qvale, Brunig '15, Akoh '18) But half those guys were Tinkles and even the best talent he ever had in 18 and 19 with the best Big Sky gaurds you could hope for didnt have a punchers chance in the NCAAs because they had to try and out physical Michigan and thier line up or Redwoods.
I think this team can get better at defense. I do wonder if Travis hasn't tweaked some things about his defensive philosophy for this group.
In the past once teams got into their offensive set, you could almost depend upon TDC teams of having 5 guys who with one pass could have their foot in the key. In addition they really eliminated clean looks to the hoop on anything but quick reversals off the wing. This group seems not to be allergic to that, but rather they aren't collapsing as much as I have seen. Travis's philosophy has been cutting off dribble drive, and there is always one or two guys that can stunt penetration. If he does want to encourage some wing breakouts (like we have seen) you do have to accept that you aren't going to have as many support defenders.
Against UNI they were pretty stagnant/slow to rotate and once they got down 20 they stopped rotating altogether. That is something that I know that drives Travis nuts, they can definitely fix that. I do wonder if we'll see the type of defensive lock from this group that we have to come to expect from TDC's squads though.
In the past once teams got into their offensive set, you could almost depend upon TDC teams of having 5 guys who with one pass could have their foot in the key. In addition they really eliminated clean looks to the hoop on anything but quick reversals off the wing. This group seems not to be allergic to that, but rather they aren't collapsing as much as I have seen. Travis's philosophy has been cutting off dribble drive, and there is always one or two guys that can stunt penetration. If he does want to encourage some wing breakouts (like we have seen) you do have to accept that you aren't going to have as many support defenders.
Against UNI they were pretty stagnant/slow to rotate and once they got down 20 they stopped rotating altogether. That is something that I know that drives Travis nuts, they can definitely fix that. I do wonder if we'll see the type of defensive lock from this group that we have to come to expect from TDC's squads though.
