Flavien Davis earned All-Big Sky Honorable Mention honors
Photo by: Kelly Gorham
Men's Basketball Team Wraps Up 2013-14
3/11/2014 9:35:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Bobcats see many positives in roller-coaster season
Montana State's 2013-14 men's basketball season was a long ride, often thrilling and frequently frustrating, Bobcat coach Brad Huse said Monday.
MSU Season Wrapup
At the end of the line, disappointment was the lingering emotion. "It's hard, it's final, it's always difficult," Huse said two days after MSU wrapped up the season with a loss at Sacramento State. "Very few teams get to end with a win, and unfortunately we didn't have enough wins to get in our tournament."
Montana State finished with a 9-11 Big Sky record, 14-17 overall, and missed the league tournament for the first time in Huse's tenure. In fact, it was the first time MSU didn't qualify for the post-season since 2004. Huse knew there would be teams on the outside looking in of the 2013-14 Big Sky Tournament capable of doing good things, but was hoping his team wouldn't be one of them.
"We were right there knocking on the door," Huse said. "I said a while back that there will be some teams that will be disappointed that could have made waves in the tournament, and we're one of those teams."
The team's inconsistency ended up presenting the primary source of disappointment. The season featured many high points as a team – exhilarating home win over NAU in buzzer-beating fashion and league-leading Northern Colorado, a sweep of Portland State, a road win at North Dakota – and individually. Marcus Colbert and Antonio Biglow both spent time in the national rankings in assist-to-turnover ratio, Paul Egwuonwu was among the league leaders in double-doubles, Flavien Davis had several marquee scoring nights.
But those highlights were undermined. "We were inconsistent, and that's tough," Huse said. "We had some great individual performances, but not necessarily consistent performances. Whether it was statistically (evident) or stuff that's not, a defensive rotation or assignment or alertness, whatever it was. When we were at our best, we were tough to deal with, but we were a roller-coaster. We were up and we were down, like a lot of teams in the league."
The Big Sky in 2014, which featured one 10-win team and the Bobcats with nine that didn't qualify for the league tournament, provided teams opportunity but little margin for error, Huse said. "Very little separated a majority of these teams, and that put more value on some level of consistency. Unfortunately we just didn't have enough."
Montana State finished the season as one of the better ballhandling teams in the league. The Bobcats finished fourth in turnover margin in conference games at +1.2, and the team's 11.1 turnovers per game was third in the Big Sky. Marcus Colbert's 2.8 assists per game ended up 14th in the Big Sky. The team's post duo, Egwuonwu and Davis, stood out in the league statistics, with Davis 12th in scoring (13.8 points a game) and Egwuonwu 30th (9.9). Egwuonwu finished ninth in rebounding (6.0).
Davis took home Honorable Mention All-Big Sky honors.
MSU Season Wrapup
At the end of the line, disappointment was the lingering emotion. "It's hard, it's final, it's always difficult," Huse said two days after MSU wrapped up the season with a loss at Sacramento State. "Very few teams get to end with a win, and unfortunately we didn't have enough wins to get in our tournament."
Montana State finished with a 9-11 Big Sky record, 14-17 overall, and missed the league tournament for the first time in Huse's tenure. In fact, it was the first time MSU didn't qualify for the post-season since 2004. Huse knew there would be teams on the outside looking in of the 2013-14 Big Sky Tournament capable of doing good things, but was hoping his team wouldn't be one of them.
"We were right there knocking on the door," Huse said. "I said a while back that there will be some teams that will be disappointed that could have made waves in the tournament, and we're one of those teams."
The team's inconsistency ended up presenting the primary source of disappointment. The season featured many high points as a team – exhilarating home win over NAU in buzzer-beating fashion and league-leading Northern Colorado, a sweep of Portland State, a road win at North Dakota – and individually. Marcus Colbert and Antonio Biglow both spent time in the national rankings in assist-to-turnover ratio, Paul Egwuonwu was among the league leaders in double-doubles, Flavien Davis had several marquee scoring nights.
But those highlights were undermined. "We were inconsistent, and that's tough," Huse said. "We had some great individual performances, but not necessarily consistent performances. Whether it was statistically (evident) or stuff that's not, a defensive rotation or assignment or alertness, whatever it was. When we were at our best, we were tough to deal with, but we were a roller-coaster. We were up and we were down, like a lot of teams in the league."
The Big Sky in 2014, which featured one 10-win team and the Bobcats with nine that didn't qualify for the league tournament, provided teams opportunity but little margin for error, Huse said. "Very little separated a majority of these teams, and that put more value on some level of consistency. Unfortunately we just didn't have enough."
Montana State finished the season as one of the better ballhandling teams in the league. The Bobcats finished fourth in turnover margin in conference games at +1.2, and the team's 11.1 turnovers per game was third in the Big Sky. Marcus Colbert's 2.8 assists per game ended up 14th in the Big Sky. The team's post duo, Egwuonwu and Davis, stood out in the league statistics, with Davis 12th in scoring (13.8 points a game) and Egwuonwu 30th (9.9). Egwuonwu finished ninth in rebounding (6.0).
Davis took home Honorable Mention All-Big Sky honors.
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