Well, it happened again against Lamar, one of those exasperating stretches where the devil puts a lid on the basket and we go five minutes--funny how it's always five minutes--without a score.
So here's my theory.
Big post players always have better shooting percentages than guards or forwards because--duh!--they're closer to the basket. A good big man should shoot in the 60 to 70% range. Shooting from longer range is often erratic, and even the great Steph Curry can go through shooting slumps.
Problem is, we don't have big post players, and haven't really during the entire DeCuire era, which is exactly the opposite of how it used to be with Montana basketball. Going all the way back to the Steve Lowry era, Montana has generally always had good post play, the while our weakness was always a lack of fast athletic guards.
Well, DeCuire stopped that by recruiting fabulous guards, starting with his very first recruit, Michael Oguine, and continuing with Rorie, Pridgett, Vasquez, Whitney and now the incomparable Money Williams, with three more stellar high schools guards slated to arrive next year.
But bigs? Sure, you can cite Bruenig (a Tinkle recruit), Akoh, Krslovic and now Sawyer but really, these guys are all in the 6'8 range, not the lithe nimble bigs we run up against in the Power Four games.
So what: So this: We simply don't have that reliable big who can get a close-in shot to break a drought. Within the Big Sky we get away without a quality big, and have the superior talent elsewhere to overcome these five minute stsretches when we're like nomads searching for water in the desert.
But step outside the conference, or take on a much higher seed at the BIg Dance, andd our lack of quality bigs becomes a glaring weakness. The only failure of the DeCuire regime.
So here's my theory.
Big post players always have better shooting percentages than guards or forwards because--duh!--they're closer to the basket. A good big man should shoot in the 60 to 70% range. Shooting from longer range is often erratic, and even the great Steph Curry can go through shooting slumps.
Problem is, we don't have big post players, and haven't really during the entire DeCuire era, which is exactly the opposite of how it used to be with Montana basketball. Going all the way back to the Steve Lowry era, Montana has generally always had good post play, the while our weakness was always a lack of fast athletic guards.
Well, DeCuire stopped that by recruiting fabulous guards, starting with his very first recruit, Michael Oguine, and continuing with Rorie, Pridgett, Vasquez, Whitney and now the incomparable Money Williams, with three more stellar high schools guards slated to arrive next year.
But bigs? Sure, you can cite Bruenig (a Tinkle recruit), Akoh, Krslovic and now Sawyer but really, these guys are all in the 6'8 range, not the lithe nimble bigs we run up against in the Power Four games.
So what: So this: We simply don't have that reliable big who can get a close-in shot to break a drought. Within the Big Sky we get away without a quality big, and have the superior talent elsewhere to overcome these five minute stsretches when we're like nomads searching for water in the desert.
But step outside the conference, or take on a much higher seed at the BIg Dance, andd our lack of quality bigs becomes a glaring weakness. The only failure of the DeCuire regime.
