Thursday, November 21
Mt. Pleasant, MI
4:30 pm CT
Montana State University
vs
CS Northridge at Central Michigan
Calen Coleman and the Bobcats look to heat up from outside vs. CS Northridge
Photo by: R. Dean Hendrickson
Bobcats Face Northridge in Michigan
11/21/2013 6:50:00 AM | Men's Basketball
MSU heads to the Midwest for three games in three days
Brad Huse has a simple goal for his 2013-14 Bobcat basketball over the weeks leading up to the opening of Big Sky Conference play, and ample opportunity to reach that goal.
"We need to develop toughness to win on the road," Huse said as his team headed to Central Michigan University's three-day tournament. "And we're going to see a lot of road basketball in the next few weeks."
That stretch of games away from Bozeman begins Thursday, when Montana State faces former Big Sky rival Cal State Northridge at 2:30 pm at Central Michigan University. The Bobcats face the host Chippewas on Friday, and Austin Peay on Saturday.
While Huse acknowledges that the tourney features a challenging field, his primary concern is his own squad. The process begins with continual improvement after an 0-2 start. "We made some big gains last week (in a loss at UC Riverside)," Huse said. "It was a tough loss at Riverside, but the gains we made were ones we obviously worked for. In a sense they were kind of easy because we had a long way to go, but our mentality was where it needed to be."
The Bobcats played UCR on even terms for most of the night, but a lopsided night at the free throw line, where the Highlanders converted on 25-of-34 while MSU hit 8-of-10, doomed the Cats. "I thought we out-played them a lot of the night, we just got out-shot at the free throw line. That can be life on the road a little bit, but we looked like a team, we shared the ball, defensively we played with a lot of purpose. We have to shoot the ball, but collectively I thought it was a really good effort."
The Bobcats continue to receiver production inside, where center Paul Egwuonwu averages 11.5 points and forward Flavien Davis chips in 11.0 points a game. The Bobcats allow opponents to shoot 51%, but much of that was from red-hot Cal State Fullerton in the season opener. Riverside shot just 48%.
Northridge enters weekend play with a 1-2 mark, having dropped back-to-back road games at USC and Fresno State before embarking for the Midwest. The Matadors are led offensively by Stephen Maxwell (17.7), Josh Greene (17.3) and Stephan Hicks (15.0). The Matadors shoot just 40% from the floor, and attempt only 14 three-pointers a game compared to MSU's 17.5.
Huse said the first portion of the schedule, which concludes a home game against Northridge next Tuesday, is for evaluating his personnel. "I have kind of put it in terms of a five-game look, in a sense, or six games if you throw in Northridge on the back side of this three-game tournament, to really evaluate our team. We've had some injuries. Tuesday was the first time we've had our whole team together for a practice, and that was nice."
For Huse, continued improvement is the order of the weekend. "I saw some real growth in our team from the first game to the second game, and I want to continue to see that growth and that comfortability in playing in a game atmosphere. That's always a challenge with guys, you never know how they'll respond, but we looked a lot more comfortable Saturday."
"We need to develop toughness to win on the road," Huse said as his team headed to Central Michigan University's three-day tournament. "And we're going to see a lot of road basketball in the next few weeks."
That stretch of games away from Bozeman begins Thursday, when Montana State faces former Big Sky rival Cal State Northridge at 2:30 pm at Central Michigan University. The Bobcats face the host Chippewas on Friday, and Austin Peay on Saturday.
While Huse acknowledges that the tourney features a challenging field, his primary concern is his own squad. The process begins with continual improvement after an 0-2 start. "We made some big gains last week (in a loss at UC Riverside)," Huse said. "It was a tough loss at Riverside, but the gains we made were ones we obviously worked for. In a sense they were kind of easy because we had a long way to go, but our mentality was where it needed to be."
The Bobcats played UCR on even terms for most of the night, but a lopsided night at the free throw line, where the Highlanders converted on 25-of-34 while MSU hit 8-of-10, doomed the Cats. "I thought we out-played them a lot of the night, we just got out-shot at the free throw line. That can be life on the road a little bit, but we looked like a team, we shared the ball, defensively we played with a lot of purpose. We have to shoot the ball, but collectively I thought it was a really good effort."
The Bobcats continue to receiver production inside, where center Paul Egwuonwu averages 11.5 points and forward Flavien Davis chips in 11.0 points a game. The Bobcats allow opponents to shoot 51%, but much of that was from red-hot Cal State Fullerton in the season opener. Riverside shot just 48%.
Northridge enters weekend play with a 1-2 mark, having dropped back-to-back road games at USC and Fresno State before embarking for the Midwest. The Matadors are led offensively by Stephen Maxwell (17.7), Josh Greene (17.3) and Stephan Hicks (15.0). The Matadors shoot just 40% from the floor, and attempt only 14 three-pointers a game compared to MSU's 17.5.
Huse said the first portion of the schedule, which concludes a home game against Northridge next Tuesday, is for evaluating his personnel. "I have kind of put it in terms of a five-game look, in a sense, or six games if you throw in Northridge on the back side of this three-game tournament, to really evaluate our team. We've had some injuries. Tuesday was the first time we've had our whole team together for a practice, and that was nice."
For Huse, continued improvement is the order of the weekend. "I saw some real growth in our team from the first game to the second game, and I want to continue to see that growth and that comfortability in playing in a game atmosphere. That's always a challenge with guys, you never know how they'll respond, but we looked a lot more comfortable Saturday."
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