UNC

[WSUnPurple]

I'll take the Bears, Beitzel will slow down Cherry more than Cherry will Beitzel. Beitzel can actually shoot the ball. I also see UM at 4-4 on the road. Losses to No.Co,NAU,MSU,WSU. Tinkle will also find away to lose one at home like last season. You guys are not far removed from losses to the Pilots at home, the Dons, and a really bad Reno team.

Portland is the best team the Griz will face until the NCAA Tournament. No shame in losing to them, especially considering if the Griz make a few FTs, the Griz win relatively handily. And this team is no where NEAR the team that lost to Nevada. Replay that game and the Griz destroy them worse than we did weebs. The loss to SF was -- as I said -- an aberration. A pure stinker that every team has a couple times a season.

And there's NO WAY Bietzel slows down Cherry. No doubt Bietzel will get his; he's a terrific player. But he won't slow Cherry. If UCLA's guards couldn't come close, there's no one in this conference who can.

I'll agree with you on a loss to NAU on the road. Montana is significantly better than all of the other teams you mentioned, but I could see them dropping one other one of those. I do not see a loss at Dahlberg.

Are you sure! You beat NAU (took OT to beat Idaho St. In Flagstaff by 2 tonight, and a battered WSU team, and you're ready for the sweet 16 around here!

 

[WSUnPurple]

I'll take the Bears, Beitzel will slow down Cherry more than Cherry will Beitzel. Beitzel can actually shoot the ball. I also see UM at 4-4 on the road. Losses to No.Co,NAU,MSU,WSU. Tinkle will also find away to lose one at home like last season. You guys are not far removed from losses to the Pilots at home, the Dons, and a really bad Reno team.

All due respect, Cherry is by far the best defensive guard in the conference. Yes Betizel can shoot with the best. If a team lets him get hot, he can dominate offensively. I just do not see that happening against Cherry often, but it could happen rarely. We also have plenty of players athletic enough to shadow good shooters the whole game. Cherry, Wood, Stockton, Steward, Jamar are all very good off the ball defenders in man. In zone, teams will have to get their shots away from Selvig's side. His length and ability to cover a lot of space rather easily in zone is huge for our defense.

The kind of players that can beat us consistently are versatile scorers that can score a number of ways, such as Lilliard and Cameron Jones (too bad Lilliard got injured.) A dominant paint scoring team can give us troubles, only if they get Qvale and Selvig in foul trouble.

What I am saying here is, this year's GRIZ are not the same ole GRIZ from other Tinkle led teams. I have questioned, yet supported Tinkle in his time here. He finally has all his own players, with every man on the same page, no attitudes, and very talented. Unless the BSC suddenly becomes a dominant conference full of great scoring bigs and hot shooting 3 shooters, the GRIZ are hard to beat. Even hotshooting teams may still lose to the GRIZ, SEE NAU game.

This GRIZ team believes in itself, and fights unlike past GRIZ teams. The GRIZ are a handful for every team they play. Including the UCLA's of the world. Health permitting, the GRIZ lose no more than 4 conference games this year. I will be surprised if any BSC team blows the GRIZ out.

I can see how anyone may think I am wearing maroon colored glasses here. I assure you though, that is not case here. AS someone who loves college basketball, and capable of being hard on the GRIZ I am confident this years GRIZ is a complete team, and the strongest willed team the GRIZ have put together in a long time. Heart, desire, will, and hustle all are prevalent in this team. Combine that with talent and great defense, you have a Conference contender, and very capable NCAA tournament team.

Feel free to question me on my opinion here. In the same breath, make sure you ask frequent egrizzers of how often I have questioned certain aspects of past GRIZ teams. I doubt I have ever been this positive with past teams, this early if ever. :thumb:

As for UNC, I am confident we win this game.

I tried to prep you guys for the letdown. I caught a couple of the Bears game live this season
and liked their team.

 

[Potomac Griz]

Are you sure! You beat NAU (took OT to beat Idaho St. In Flagstaff by 2 tonight, and a battered WSU team, and you're ready for the sweet 16 around here!

In the 2005-2006 season we got blown out on the road by a very bad 2-7 Idaho State team (95-70). The Griz were VERY close to being a sweet 16 team that year. They beat Nevada in the first round, and I firmly believe had Pacific not got screwed by a foul call at the end of regulation to send it into OT against BC in the first round, the Griz would've beat Pacific in the 2nd round (The Griz matched up with them a hell of a lot better than with the beasts from BC).

So what's my point of saying this? Good teams occasionally play like crap. Tonight was one of those nights for the Griz unfortunately. Not trying to take anything away from UNC. They are a very good team, who has a record that doesn't tell the whole story (10 of their first 13 games were on the road). There's no shame in losing to them on the road. No team is going to walk through the Big Sky undefeated..or probably even with just 1 loss.

Hell, look at Sac State tonight..they took MSU to overtime. And look at Weber, even without Lillard they are loaded with talent (as usual) yet they sit in the cellar with Sac, and NAU (who was expected to be near the top) at 0-2. There are a lot of games left.. I think this Griz team is going to be just fine, and hopefully we wont see another offensive performance like that for a long time from them.

 

[ilovethecats]

Hell, look at Sac State tonight..they took MSU to overtime.

not quite. and it's a good thing too because the cats were starting to get tired i think. we snuck away with one for sure...

 

[Potomac Griz]

My mistake on the OT thing. I could've sworn ESPN's site showed OT when I looked at the box score at some point... Woops

Either way the Cats did squeak by Sac tonight... let downs on the road happen. Ours happened against good team.

I think some of us here are blowing this loss to UNC a bit out of proportion

 

[ilovethecats]

My mistake on the OT thing. I could've sworn ESPN's site showed OT when I looked at the box score at some point... Woops

Either way the Cats did squeak by Sac tonight... let downs on the road happen. Ours happened against good team.

I think some of us here are blowing this loss to UNC a bit out of proportion

ya you see it all of the time. people tend to take their football mentality with them to the hoops forums and it really doesn't translate. you guys lost a conference game on the road to a pretty damn good team. probably won't be the only time you do that. and you certainly won't be alone. there are some pretty good teams this year and winning on the road is always tough.

based on what i have seen from both teams...you guys will beat sac by 10-15.

 

[griz8791]

That probably won't be the only road game we drop in the next 8 weeks. Anyone who is getting ready to jump off the bridge should remember this is a one-bid league, that we award that bid to the tournament champ, and that hosting the tournament hasn't recently been the inside-track to winning it that it used to be. As we proved last year, what you need is to be in the top 6 at the end, plus peaking at the right moment, plus a little luck and/or somebody shooting out of his mind at the critical moment.

 

[bearclawchrislapp]

Well, it's still a long way to tourney time, and many things will change by then. Way to go Bears, proving that even Grizzlies should be careful when in Bear country.

:mrgreen: