Griz 50, Cougars 64

[TrueGriz]

Griz started out real flat the first 13 minutes of the game and scored only 8 points during this time. Cougars in that same time period shot the ball well, rebounded well, and played outstanding defense. Scored 19 points in that time period. It would have been quite worse if the Cougars didn't turn the ball over as many times as they did.

Rest of the game, the Griz played even to slightly better than the Cougars, getting as close as 5 points. But never could get any closer. Eventually Griz had to foul and the Cougar got the margin of victory to 14 due to free throw shooting.

I thought the Griz played well for the last 7 minutes of the first half and about 10 to 15 minites of the second half. But still the Griz have a ways to go before they are ready for conference. With the schedule they have, there may only be 2 chances for wins, Jackson State and Cal State Northridge. But who knows. Upsets can happen.

Anyway, it was nice the Griz picked up their play and played respectable the latter 20 to 25 minutes of the game. I figure the Griz should be playing 30 quality minutes by conference time. Today they played close to 15 to 20 quality minutes, may be just a tad over that. Thus, they do have a ways to go before conference begins. 5 non-conference games left to improve themselves with. Hopefully they won't lose to much confidence in themselves due to the tough schedule.

 

[GrizMania]

I was glad to see the Griz playing better in the second half.

in the first half it seems that many shots that would normally go in didn't.
But still, the Griz didn't play grea for most of the first half, but even when playing poorly still managed to stay in the game and keep it within reason.

I liked that they didn't give up and and encouraged by the improvements in the second half.

 

[Grizbeer]

I think 1/2 of the points they scored in the 1st 13 minutes were free trows - 1 point from hitting 1/2 of 2, 3 from a 3 point foul. i remember actually wondering if they were not going to hit a bucket after about 10 minutes. The Griz were missing everyhting, inside, outside, layups, with no second chances.

I think we played closer the 2nd 1/2 because:
1) realistically it would have been impossible to play worse than we did for the first 15 minutes, and
2) they had 2 guys foul out.

Please tell me that there is some review of the officiating. This is getting terrible. There were so many bad calls, including a bad call on them that was clearly a make-up call for a missed call the previous possesion. Teh wrost in my mind was when (I think) Horne chased down a loose ball at 1/2 court the WSU guy ran over him from behind, knocking him to the floor across the line, and they call it over and back. Crazy.

 

[TrueGriz]

They do review the officials but not sure if these were Big Sky Officials or Pac 10 officials. But, yes, that call where Horne went over half court line was bogus.

 

[grizgirl317]

We did a really good job defending in the second half. Their inside scoring broke down quite a bit...problem was that they had 8 threes (compared to our one). Plus we got down bad early and its really hard to come back from that. We've been getting a lot of bad calls lately but I think that happens to every team.

Hopefully the guys can regain their shooting touch tonight. I think having two games at home in a row should help. They've been traveling between every game except for over Thanksgiving and that's been killing us. The guys are just awefully tired and they've only been getting in one real practice between games which isn't really enough time to prepare for the next opponent.

 

[Grizbeer]

If there was ever a game to get better against it is Jackson St. Based on what other teams, including Portland State have done against them, we should win on the order of the Montana Tech game.

I have a couple points I want to make -
1) we should not have played WSU even in the second 1/2. WSU is not a very good team - yes they are Pac 10, but that is their first win in Missoula in like 40 years. At best they are the 4th best team in Washington. If playing them even in the 2nd 1/2 is an accomplishment, we are not a very good team.
2) I won't dispute that the team is tired from road games - grizgirl317 has stated she is talking to players and this is what they say, and they certainly play like they are tired. But guess what - we play 4 in a row on the road from 12/30 - 1/10, including 2 conference games, and 3 on the road from 1/24 - 1/31. That is at least as brutal as the schedule we have played so far. My point? It doesn't get any better from here, and if being tired from the road is the problem now, this season is lost. BTW, when lowly SF beat us they had played 6 of 7 games on the road, all in the mid-west or back east. The travel didn't seem to hurt them much. Our travel schedule by comparison has been easy.

This was supposed to be a breakout season for us, and after the holiday classic it had great promise. If the Griz don't step it up we will be lucky to finish 500 and make the tournament. The road back to success starts tonight. If they lose tonight, IMO, you bench all the upperclassmen and only worry about your younger players in hopes of having a good year next year.

 

[grizgirl317]

Its not so much that they're just on the road. Its that they're back and forth...home, road, home. Its hard to get into a rhythm. Conference play has a bit more rhythm because you have all week to prepare for two games rather than being gone in the middle of the week for 3 days and then being home for one before having to play again. We've also been playing some brutally tough games.

They're having some trouble getting the chemistry right. Kennedy has switched up the line-up so many times. Plus only 5 of the guys actually played together last year (in games) and only 2 of them (Horne and Mansell) actually saw significant game time so that's one of our biggest problems right now.