Hats off to Rocky

[Sweetwyne]

I thought that Rocky played an exceptional game this afternoon against the Griz.

Instead of stalling like Montana Tech did Rocky came out and pushed the ball and tried to win the game. Tech simply tried to not get blown out by 30, which I thought showed no pride.

I knew rocky would be in the game from the first possesion on the alley oop pass from Missoula native Eddie Stack which ended with a thunderous dunk.

Rocky shot very poorly but was still in the game.

This was an entertaining game for the Griz who now start conference.

Should be interesting Griz baseketball fans.

 

[TrueGriz]

Being the big game for Rocky, they played with a lot of intensity through out the game.

For the Griz, it looked like they played down to Rocky's level, and the only player I really think played with the intensity required to win, was kevin Criswell. He was the player of the game for the Griz.

Rocky out hustled, out played the Griz, but the Griz did have the better talent on the floor and won.

As for you thinking this game was exciting, it seemed from judging fans reactions that it would be boring. Not the kind of noise level that I think it would have been if the game was exciting. I think the fans that were the most excited were the Rocky Mountain College fans.

There were only 2,606 fans at the game officially counting the no shows.
Some day, that has to stop. Only way to stop that is that the Griz win games against quality competition at their own level on a consistent level. Of course, Sunday afternoon games do tend to attract smaller crowds. I would think that the administration should be looking at that and change the scheduling practices of having sunday afternoon games.

Anyway, Griz missed Matt Martin today. But, it is good they didn't risk playing him and agrivating the injury even more. The game isn't really indicative on how the Griz will do in conference no matter what anyway. I am sure the Griz are really looking forward to conference play. Not some NAIA team. I do expect better effort against conference competition, and I am sure they will give it there all. Also, I thought that the Griz did not match up well against the smaller Rocky Mountain College team. The Big Sky Conference games will not see that that kind of match up problems like today.

 

[Sweetwyne]

The Griz do have to start playing better non-conference competition.

But I dont care if you are the biggest griz fan you have to give credit to Rocky.

Teams will always play up or down to their competition to some degree but it doesnt change the fact that Rocky out competed and out husteld the griz.

If Rocky could shoot at all in this game they should have came away with the "W"

 

[Montana Gym Rat]

The Griz defense saved them this game. There's a reason Rocky shot poorly. If the Griz hadn't committed 18 turnovers, Rocky wouldn't have been in this game. You can't give a team that many extra possessions.

Rocky did play a strong game, but the Griz only had one of their players show up on Sunday.

 

[Sweetwyne]

I think that you are going to see a lot of "series" like this for the Griz.

This team will be sort of Jekyl and Hyde all year long. I anticipate there will be one game on a road trip where we play, hard, solid baseketball and then the following night follow it up with a mediocre game.

I dont think this team has the leadership from the players that will give them consistent night in night out performence.

I think there inconsitency is driving Krysko nuts.

 

[Potomac Griz]

Not sure if anyone else noticed this, and not that it really matters..but did anyone else see when Lynch hit that 3 pointer that his rebounding totals & points went up by 3? I looked up at the screen above the court that has the stats and he had 2 points & 2 rebounds at the time. Right after he hit the 3, at first they put the 3 in the rebounds column. Then a few seconds later they put it in the point column, but accidentally left the 3 rebounds up there. I thought that was kind of funny and would be corrected in the official box score later...but looking at the box score on montanagrizzlies.com today & the box score on espn.com it shows Lynch with the extra 3 rebounds

I think I've lost faith in the 'official' stats now... Anyway, Lynch played a good game, he hit some big shots and did grab that rebound towards the end of the game that helped seal the victory for the Griz. His final stats should've been 8 points & 4 rebounds though. Matthews also played well at the point guard position I thought. He led the Griz with 4 assists & grabbed 4 rebounds, but did get into foul trouble fairly early.

 

[GrizWhiz]

I was at the game and saw the same stat malfunction appear on the scoreboard. "Official stats" are still kept by humans and thus will contain errors. I also noticed that Farr was credited with 0 blocks. He blocked 2 shots at the end I was sitting in.

 

[jagur1]

Sweetwyne: I have to give you props. Sounds like you're getting to the games, and talking about them. This is the only thing keeping me up to date on Basketball. Heck I can't even find the Omega listings to see what games I can see on TV. Thanks guys for talking about the games that you are seeing.

 

[ballhogz]

Hats off to Eduardo Stack. It was a great homecoming, the kid played extremely hard but it seemed to me that he didn't belong in the Adams Center but in the West Auxillary Gym in a Rec league. The kids got a heart as big as the 5-B district but he's all knee braces and fouls.

 

[Explosive 1]

Eddie Stack is one of the scrappiest players that I've ever seen or played against/with. I think that it is a huge credit to his work ethic and desire that he is starting at the point guard for a good college team when he definitely didn't play point in high school. He used to regularly post up back in his high school days and now he has changed his game to fit the Rocky system. I believe that Eddie belonged in the Adams Center and he played hard and well against the Grizzlies. Congrats to Eddie on his success so far in college and I hope him and Rocky the best in the future.
Every team needs a "hustle" guy or what you called an "all knee braces and fouls" guy. Ask any good coach and they will tell you that every good team has a guy who willing to sacrifice his body and stats for the well being of the team. Don't knock Eddie Stack for being the player that he is because it looks to me that the Griz need someone like him really badly.

 

[ballhogz]

No knocks here, it seemed like that was his game, flying around sacrificing his body. Not worrying about offense, but worrying he wasn't going to have enough floor burns. He works hard on D and spends more time on the floor than the dust sweeper. I just didn't realize that he had changed his game so much since his high school days of scoring. Thats great, only in b or c can a 5'11 guy work with his back to the basket.