can we see the big dance from here?

[citygriz]

ah, what seemed so promising last november (remember oregon and washington?), seems now like a sweet long-lost dream, and those visions of the big dance are as blurry as a sunday morning hangover. what will it take to get them back in focus? here's one man's prescription:

1. locate brian qvale! the best big man in the big sky conference goes for one point and five rebounds at sac state, after dominating performances at oregon and washington. i know the pac 10 is way down this year, but this defies reason.

2. hope staudacher gets hot. two for nine (sac state) means we lose most games. a hot streak opens up all kinds of possibilities.

3. continued improvement from young and ward. ward especially put up some good numbers at sac state--eight points and three boards in 13 minutes. a lucky matchup? or a signpost that his game is really improving. if young adjusts to this level and ward continues to improve, both could be real weapons come the tournament.

4. avoid key injuries. (are you listening derek? a.j.?)

5. will! where there's a will, there's a way, and we've got the will. i love it when this kid is on the court, though i've dropped five of my nine lives with him on the free throw line. if i'm still alive after the big sky tournament, we might be too.

6. finally--road warrior mentality. no way we host the tournament, but so be it. remember, we got to the big dance twice under kysko, and both times on the road, once at portland, once at northern arizona. with krysko, we had the toughness. do we this year?

 

[sez]

To me, the most improved guy on the team is















Tinkle.

Go Griz!

 

[Grizbacker1]

City,

Are you following the scores or just the Griz? If you keep up then maybe you wouldn't say the Griz have no chance at hosting.This league is one in which you can beat anyone or lose to anyone. The Griz are only 2 games out despite starting 1-3 in league. There isn't a team in the league who is dominant...period.

 

[citygriz]

gb1:
i have a different way of figuring the standings--0 points for a home win, minus one for a home loss, and one point for a road win. by this measure, northern colorado is plus 3 (three road wins, no home losses) and we are zero (one home loss, one road win.) furthermore, northern colorado at home has taken care of two tough customers, weber and idaho state, while we have yet to play them at home.
of course, if we beat northern colorado there, we slice two off their lead. but realistically, it'd take a helluva streak by us, and a real collapse by them to host.
furthermore, i'm not even sure i want that to happen at this point. a nice streak last year might have hurt us in the tournament. a better route may be to do what we did twice under krysko--peak right at tournament time and win a ticket to the big dance on the road.
now, i know you're famous for your bets, so if you want to lay a hundred that we host, i'll take it, figuring if i lose, it'd be a small price to pay for a rather large miracle.

 

[Grizbacker1]

City,

Sounds like you are short on $$ if you really think I would take a suckers bet...why don't I just give you $100. I certainly agree with the premise of this post, because the Griz did peak too soon last season, and I think our best days lie ahead. Obviously No Colorad is in the drivers seat, but I assume you saw what NAU did on the road this week...much hoop left

 

[Noles & Griz]

All this talk of hosting, and nobody mentioned Weber St who is currently atop the standings, and according to KenPom is projected to win the BSC with a 13-3 conference record. FWIW, KenPom has the order of finish like this:

Weber 13-3
UNC 12-4
Montana 10-6
Montana St 10-6
NAU 7-9
Port. St. 7-9
ISU 6-10
E. Wash 4-12
Sac St. 3-13

All that said, I don't see any reason the Griz cannot finish with 11-12 conference wins. Other than the game at UNC, there isn't another game they should not win.

 

[IronMountainGriz&Cat]

This is not football. No should be looking past the cats this weekend especially considering how our season ended last year.

 

[first11]

at least four have legit chance or should I say opportunity to dance, logjam possible and likely! and it will always come down to who steals the biggest number or road games. For UM to hold court we cannot lose any home games and win at least fifty percent, likely more of the road games. We get ISU and Web/Sac at home and a sweep of catz is critical at this juncture. Not any wiggle room. PSU will give us fits out there

consistancy in paint and the long ball are the question marks. Always a big IF-when we play with consistancy and urgency we WIN, but too often we are out of synch. Cherry makes a huge difference and he even more than Johnson is the key to starting and maintaining a run. Qvale staying healthy and intimidating gives us a big edge underneath.

Tink getting better as coach, but at least to me some of his subbing strategy is puzzling. But he is no where near the herky jerky of past recent coaches that simply took us out of games and the flow of offense. He is a better manager of games overall.