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MBBALL Big Sky Progress (Jan 29,31)

IdaGriz01

IdaGriz01

Well-known member
A fascinating schedule feature is shaping up this coming week: Five of the top seven teams in the conference have their two games on the road. Conversely, the bottom three get to play at home. (Weber and ISU have just one game … against each other.) All kinds of combinations and interesting ways this could play out. One part is clear: Whichever team can score a road sweep will make a strong statement.

Portland State (7-0) … UM … MSU
Montana State (7-1) … @ Sac State … @ PSU
Montana (6-2) … @ PSU … @Sac State
Idaho (4-3) … @ NoColo … @ NAU
Weber State (4-4) … -- … ISU
E Washington (3-4) … @ NAU … @ NoColo
Idaho State (3-5) … -- … @ WSU
Sac State (2-5) … MSU … UM
No Arizona (1-7) … EWU … Idaho
No Colorado (1-7) … Idaho … EWU

(Figured I’d do this again since it did spark at least a little discussion.)
 
Big week for the Montana schools! Viking Pavilion has been an absolute house of horrors for the Griz. I think since that place opened in the 18-19 season we've only won twice there. They play really well at home too! Super impressed with the job Jace Coburn has done there. Meanwhile, the cats are just getting decimated by injuries. They head into this road trip with only 7 healthy non-redshirt players after the Davian Brown knee injury on Saturday against Weber. Matt Logie is likely going to have to burn a couple redshirts now, so that's something to watch moving forward in the Big Sky title race. Starting this week is where things will get interesting!
 
Here are the updated NET rankings for the Big Sky:

1. Portland State - 133
2. Montana State - 137
3. Montana - 156
4. Idaho - 161
5. Northern Colorado - 180
6. Idaho State - 185
7. Weber State - 194
8. Eastern Washington - 254
9. Sacramento State - 284
10. Northern Arizona - 309

The Big Sky still has 7 teams inside the Top 200 of the NET which is so impressive as we're starting to see a few of these teams like Weber, ISU, and especially UNC all fall off. The Griz are sitting in a pretty good spot still, and if we're able to beat Portland State on Thursday night, then the Griz will notch their second Q2 win of the season (UNLV) as long as PSU doesn't fall out of Q2 status.
 
NAU winning handily right now at home over EWU ... enough time for that to change.
Idaho – NoColo pretty close with lots of time to go.

GO GRIZ!
 
Updated NET Rankings:

1. Portland State - 139
2. Montana State - 142
3. Montana - 147
4. Idaho - 166
5. Northern Colorado - 178
6. Idaho State - 181
7. Weber State - 192
8. Eastern Washington - 259
9. Sacramento State - 270
10. Northern Arizona - 299

Bad news for the Griz. Because of our win over Portland State last night, we pushed the Viks out of Q2 status. They were sitting at 135 last night which was the last Q2 ranking, and they ended up dropping 4 spots this morning. Couple that with UNLV who got destroyed at home on Wednesday night by New Mexico by 30 points, and the Rebels fell 15 spots and out of Q2 status as well. So just like that the Griz went from two Q2 wins to zero in just two days. We really need UNLV and Portland State to start winning some games. I'm torn on tomorrows PSU-cats game cause if the cats win and the Griz don't shit the bed to SAC tomorrow, then we have a three way tie for first place in the Big Sky, but if PSU wins tomorrow then they will likely get back into Q2. As for UNLV, they play tonight at Nevada at 7:30 on CBSSN. We desperately need them to win that game. I'll probably turn it on. 9 games down, 9 to go!
 
Small point from the four games yesterday (in case you hadn’t noticed): The Griz were the only team to win on the road.

Observation: Half the conference season to go, but, for now, a full three-win split has developed between the top tier and the next level.

Portland State (7-1) … MSU
Montana State (7-2) … @ PSU
Montana (7-2) … @Sac State
Idaho (4-4) … @ NAU
Weber State (4-4) … ISU
E Washington (3-5) … @ NoColo
Idaho State (3-5) … @ WSU
Sac State (3-5) … UM
No Arizona (2-7) … Idaho
No Colorado (2-7) … EWU
 
No road game is a gimme by any means, but I like the Griz chances tonight.

What other games seem to have better chances for the road team to win? I’m leaning toward Eastern Washington at Northern Colorado.
 
Except for the Bobcats, the top contenders split their games for the week, so not much changed. Of course, the kitties dropped into a tie with the Griz, but only one back of PSU. The split for Idaho moved them one closer to the top level, but still two wins behind the Montana teams.

Naturally, the two big movers were those that won both of their games. In each case, however, they started so far back, their little win streaks did not move them into contention. It remains to be seen if either can sustain the streaks.
 
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