dayday said:
Cat fans and their media is of course overreacting to this game. It’s one game. The first game. USU played sloppy and had zero film on Sprinkle’s offense or defense. Frey had a real good night but let’s not crown him league MVP just yet.
OH and a loss is a loss is loss. Close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades. No moral victories in a loss. And any other cliche you can think of.
The usual cliches are already happening on this thread. Bobcats play a ranked team tough (win or loss). Instant reaction by Griz fan base equates to that ranked team being overrated and not playing up to par. Every time the Griz play a ranked team well (win or loss), the instant reaction is "well yeah its because we belong and the opposing team played their best!" Same thing happened after the Bobcats beat SEMO and when the Griz beat UC Davis in football. Also, I'm fully aware the Bobcat fan base does the same thing.
A fair characterization of this game is that the Bobcats shot well, especially Frey. They subbed in and out a lot and played aggressive defense. They finally have an inside presence with Jubrile Belo manning the paint. Offensively, they didn't play tight and instead attacked. Danny Sprinkle has preached what he wants to see out of his team all offseason: play loose, don't be afraid to score, and give tremendous effort on defense (the price of admission if you want to play). Those three characteristics happened last night. Like dayday said, its also fair to point out this was a first game and no one had any tape on what Danny wanted to run offensively or defensively.
Of course the team is going to have ebbs and flows in Danny's first year but he already has his team believing in his message and style of play. It's extremely encouraging and refreshing to watch a coach consistently encourage his players during the game instead of the classic Brad Huse/Brian Fish "coat throw" or "throwing hands in the air after a poor shot".