Okay, I just got home to Kalispell from the game. I have not read 1 post yet. I want to congratulate EWU 1st before getting upset at some of the comments I am sure I will be reading here. With the guard tandem of Harvey and Brandon, and many outside threats, they are capable of an upset.
With that said, I absolutely loved the atmosphere tonight. The place was damn full and loud. Again, I sat in GA to take in the environment to its fullest. I loved how loud it was and I had nobody bitching at me to sit down. I was proud of the students tonight. It was nice to see the Lady GRIZ there as well. I congratulated them and wished them luck in the NCAA tournament. They were very gracious and appreciative the support.
As for the game, the run the GRIZ put on EWU in the 2nd half was damn impressive. Unfortunately, the run EWU put on in the last 6 minutes was much bigger and was the difference in the game. The GRIZ absolutely could not stop Brandon and Harvey in the last 6 minutes. They took the ball at the GRIZ defense every which way possible. Harvey showed why he is the best scorer in the conference. He can create shots well with his quick release and off balance variety of shots. Brandon, again showed, he is the most under rated player in the conference. He is a much better player than honorable mention all conference. He is one of the top 10 players in the conference.
I am sure I will be reading about the officiating, before I let that influence me. I feel the officiating was inconsistent on both sides, and really did not make a difference in the outcome. EWU's guard tandem dominated that game in clutch time. I was so pissed they were slicing and dicing our defense at ease. The only guard we had up to the task to compete with them was Gregory. Dunn, Bradshaw, Gfeller were not even close to Brandon and Harvey in this one. Unfortunately Gregory ran out of gas from all the minutes he has played. Yet, he was still fighting as hard as ever and doing everything he could to will the team to a victory. All our guards need to spend the offseason improving their overall games, especially ball handling, and creating for others.
Fortunately, Breunig and Weisner were awesome in this game. Breunig was outright dominating on the boards and scoring. Weisner played his ass off and delivered big shot after big shot to build the lead, like Gregory, he was doing everything he could to win. Credit EWU, they took away our hot scorers in their game ending stretch. They also made sure Dunn and Gfeller would not be factors in this game. They absolutely shut them down. Speaking of Gfeller, has anyone filed a missing player report? This tournament showed exactly whey he needs to work on his ball handling to become more of an offensive threat than just a 3 point bomber.
Granted, the loss sucks and it hurts for me. I pray this team makes a statement in the NIT. I also hope the program will build on the tournament atmosphere this week. Students, please return in high volume next season. A rowdy student section makes Dahlberg one of the best venues in the nation. I cannot compliment and applaud the students enough. That atmosphere reminded me a lot of "THE ZOO".
I hope some of the students will comment about this week's experience.
Go GRIZ, let's get it done at the NIT!!!!!