Lady Griz need to recruit some athletes

[AllWeatherFan]

The Big Sky Conference was much more competitive this year in women’s basketball than in years past. It was a lot of fun to watch the games against Idaho State, Montana State and Portland State.

Of course, success in the conference doesn’t translate into success against the SEC (or even the Pac-10) come tourney time. But I don’t care nearly as much about that. As long as the conference is reasonably competitive, I’m fine with being an underdog in the NCAA tourney.

Maybe I should care more, but it seems like the University of Montana has bigger fish to fry than trying to do what it would take to seriously compete for a national championship in women’s basketball.

 

[cclarkblues]

Maybe I should care more, but it seems like the University of Montana has bigger fish to fry than trying to do what it would take to seriously compete for a national championship in women’s basketball.

Heretic.

Where whould we be if everyone thought that way. Oh yeah, we'd have a better school overall.

 

[Grisly Fan]

I thought the BSC must be more competitive as I watched other BSC schools finally pretty consistently give the LG a run for their money. Thus I believed that the LG really might have a chance to stay competitive with Vanderbilt and maybe even win -- yeah, yeah, I know.:crybaby:

After the Vandy game it dawned on me that maybe it was really that the LG had gotten worse instead . Frankly I don't know the answer but if indeed the BSC has gotten better overall it flies in the face of the conventional wisdom that you have to play good competition to get better since obviously a "better" BSC did not result in a better LG team come tourney time.

 

[GrizBBIsKing]

I thought the BSC must be more competitive as I watched other BSC schools finally pretty consistently give the LG a run for their money. Thus I believed that the LG really might have a chance to stay competitive with Vanderbilt and maybe even win -- yeah, yeah, I know.:crybaby:

After the Vandy game it dawned on me that maybe it was really that the LG had gotten worse instead . Frankly I don't know the answer but if indeed the BSC has gotten better overall it flies in the face of the conventional wisdom that you have to play good competition to get better since obviously a "better" BSC did not result in a better LG team come tourney time.

No, Lady Griz didn't get worse over the years. Can't say Lady Griz are better than 10 years, although, I beleive they are. But, Women's basketball overall just got much better over the years. Just more schools with women's basketball now then 10 - 15 years ago, plus more schools are dumping more money into supporting women's basketball.

Lady Griz did play Tennesee in 1995 and came pretty close. Now, Tennessee would likely blow the Lady Griz just as bad as Vanderbilt or worse. But, the 1995 Tennessee team wouldn't even keep up with today's Tennessee team. Today's Tennessee team is far more athletic than the 1995 Tennessee team. Although, I doubt it would be a blow out, today's Lady Vols would beat the 1995 Lady Vols 9 out of 10 times, and that 1 time 1995 Lady Vols team win would be by luck.

 

[Grizbacker1]

I thought the BSC must be more competitive as I watched other BSC schools finally pretty consistently give the LG a run for their money. Thus I believed that the LG really might have a chance to stay competitive with Vanderbilt and maybe even win -- yeah, yeah, I know.:crybaby:

After the Vandy game it dawned on me that maybe it was really that the LG had gotten worse instead . Frankly I don't know the answer but if indeed the BSC has gotten better overall it flies in the face of the conventional wisdom that you have to play good competition to get better since obviously a "better" BSC did not result in a better LG team come tourney time.

Take a look at the number of conferences that have done well in the NCAA Tournament and you will see that the women's college game is dominated by the ACC. SEC, and Big East for the most part. The WAC and any other conference the "move up" proponents toss around on Egriz will never make any noise in the NCAA tourney either. The BSC Womens conference was as competitive from top to bottom this season as it has ever been. There are better coaches overall around the league. Playing a nice pre season schedule which Selvig does gets his team ready for BSC play, but Dec games don't do much in way of preparation for the Big Dance imo. :twocents:

 

[putter]

A lot of it is mentality. I am not saying that Montana, Montana St etc don't want to win or even build a better program but when I saw an interview with Pat Summitt I was taken back. She said she wanted her girls to practice against men, and practice their offense when the defense used 6 people to get them used to flying around the ball and playing hard. I don't see that mentality from the lower programs and the gap will stay large until that happens.

 

[Grizbacker1]

A lot of it is mentality. I am not saying that Montana, Montana St etc don't want to win or even build a better program but when I saw an interview with Pat Summitt I was taken back. She said she wanted her girls to practice against men, and practice their offense when the defense used 6 people to get them used to flying around the ball and playing hard. I don't see that mentality from the lower programs and the gap will stay large until that happens.

I think the difference is in the talent level, period. Add the phsyicality of the players from the big conferences and you have your difference. Like the analyst said in the UM/Vandy game, Montana runs good stuff, they just don't match up player wise.

 

[Silvertip]

Speed kills. And the LG or anybody else in the BSC are far from being lethal. They simply can't match the quickness of the better conference teams.