Saturday, January 17
7:05 pm
Montana State University
at
Montana
Brian Fish and the Bobcats head to Dahlberg Arena Saturday
Photo by: R. Dean Hendrickson
Bobcats Meet Grizzlies Saturday Night in Brawl of the Wild Series
1/15/2015 3:07:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Cat-Griz matches two first-year head coaches
Montana State head coach Brian Fish is watching plenty of game footage to prepare for Saturday's Cat-Griz men's basketball showdown in Missoula. A considerable amount of that video, though, involves neither of the schools involved in the Brawl of the Wild series.
"We played them six times when I was at Oregon," Fish says of his counterpart at Montana, Travis DeCuire, who like Fish comes to his current position from the Pac 12, "so I've been watching more tape of Oregon-Cal to see how they guarded some stuff. They're certainly doing some things they did at Cal."
Tipoff between MSU (3-13 overall, 0-4 Big Sky) and Montana (7-8, 3-1) is 7 pm Saturday. The game is televised statewide on ABC stations, and in Billings on SWX Montana.
In addition to facing each other for the past three seasons in the Pac 12, Fish and DeCuire, a California assistant from 2008-14 who played point guard at UM in the early 1990s, also faced some degree of rebuilding at their new schools. DeCuire lost three starters from a Big Sky runner-up squad but inherited the league's current third- and fourth-leading scorers in Washington transfer Martin Breunig (17.8 ppg, 6.8 rpg) and veteran guard Jordan Gregory (17.6 ppg).
"(Montana) throws the best big man in the league out there in Breunig, so that's a good place to start," Fish said. "They obviously shot it well the other night against Idaho State."
The task of guarding an inside-out tandem rings familiar for the Bobcats, who last Saturday dealt with Weber State big man Joel Bolomboy and a host of talented Wildcats on the perimeter. "I liked what Weber did. With so many guys that can make threes they can spread you out and do some things," Fish said. "Montana puts a couple guys out there that can really shoot the basketball, so they can get you spread out, too."
The wealth of talent Montana brings to Saturday's game stands in stark contrast to a Bobcat team that enters on an eight-game losing streak overall. That matches the length of MSU's current losing streak in the series, as well.
Bobcat forward Danny Robison feels his team is nearing a breakthrough. "We're so close to getting that first (conference) win, three points (away) against maybe the second-best team in the conference (at Weber State last Saturday)," he said. "Our effort's there every night in my opinion, we just need to string together a few good possessions at the end of the game and hopefully come away with a win soon."
Even on the current losing streak, positive markers remain for the Bobcats. Senior guard Michael Dison has scored at least 17 in each of MSU's four Big Sky games, and backcourt-mate Marcus Colbert dishing out seven assists a game in conference play. The team's biggest question mark six months ago was rebounding, but even after whippings on the boards by Kentucky and UCLA the Cats are nearly break-even in rebounds on the season and have exactly the same number as their foes in league games.
The challenge the Bobcats face is to find scoring balance. Robison remains an option to complement Dison, shooting 59% in the last eight games while mixing an inside-out attack that draws defenders to the three-point line. Fish cites the re-emergence of guard Stephan Holm, one of the league's top three-point threats who missed five games with a head injury, for pumping more life into the Bobcat offense.
"I thought the big hidden thing (in Saturday's close loss at Weber State) was having Steph out there for 26 minutes," Fish said. "It just allowed me to reduce minutes for so many guys and that kept them fresher. I thought it was the freshest we've looked for 40 minutes because we have Steph again."
While Fish has been a part of rivalries ranging from Creighton-Wichita State and Kansas-Kansas State to the Civil War matchup with Oregon State and Oregon's heated rivalry with Washington, he says the constant, statewide interest in the Bobcat-Grizzly affair "certainly rivals anything I've ever been part of."
He also says the fulcrum of rivalry games is often easy to locate. "Usually in those games, the team that fights the hardest wins."
"We played them six times when I was at Oregon," Fish says of his counterpart at Montana, Travis DeCuire, who like Fish comes to his current position from the Pac 12, "so I've been watching more tape of Oregon-Cal to see how they guarded some stuff. They're certainly doing some things they did at Cal."
Tipoff between MSU (3-13 overall, 0-4 Big Sky) and Montana (7-8, 3-1) is 7 pm Saturday. The game is televised statewide on ABC stations, and in Billings on SWX Montana.
In addition to facing each other for the past three seasons in the Pac 12, Fish and DeCuire, a California assistant from 2008-14 who played point guard at UM in the early 1990s, also faced some degree of rebuilding at their new schools. DeCuire lost three starters from a Big Sky runner-up squad but inherited the league's current third- and fourth-leading scorers in Washington transfer Martin Breunig (17.8 ppg, 6.8 rpg) and veteran guard Jordan Gregory (17.6 ppg).
"(Montana) throws the best big man in the league out there in Breunig, so that's a good place to start," Fish said. "They obviously shot it well the other night against Idaho State."
The task of guarding an inside-out tandem rings familiar for the Bobcats, who last Saturday dealt with Weber State big man Joel Bolomboy and a host of talented Wildcats on the perimeter. "I liked what Weber did. With so many guys that can make threes they can spread you out and do some things," Fish said. "Montana puts a couple guys out there that can really shoot the basketball, so they can get you spread out, too."
The wealth of talent Montana brings to Saturday's game stands in stark contrast to a Bobcat team that enters on an eight-game losing streak overall. That matches the length of MSU's current losing streak in the series, as well.
Bobcat forward Danny Robison feels his team is nearing a breakthrough. "We're so close to getting that first (conference) win, three points (away) against maybe the second-best team in the conference (at Weber State last Saturday)," he said. "Our effort's there every night in my opinion, we just need to string together a few good possessions at the end of the game and hopefully come away with a win soon."
Even on the current losing streak, positive markers remain for the Bobcats. Senior guard Michael Dison has scored at least 17 in each of MSU's four Big Sky games, and backcourt-mate Marcus Colbert dishing out seven assists a game in conference play. The team's biggest question mark six months ago was rebounding, but even after whippings on the boards by Kentucky and UCLA the Cats are nearly break-even in rebounds on the season and have exactly the same number as their foes in league games.
The challenge the Bobcats face is to find scoring balance. Robison remains an option to complement Dison, shooting 59% in the last eight games while mixing an inside-out attack that draws defenders to the three-point line. Fish cites the re-emergence of guard Stephan Holm, one of the league's top three-point threats who missed five games with a head injury, for pumping more life into the Bobcat offense.
"I thought the big hidden thing (in Saturday's close loss at Weber State) was having Steph out there for 26 minutes," Fish said. "It just allowed me to reduce minutes for so many guys and that kept them fresher. I thought it was the freshest we've looked for 40 minutes because we have Steph again."
While Fish has been a part of rivalries ranging from Creighton-Wichita State and Kansas-Kansas State to the Civil War matchup with Oregon State and Oregon's heated rivalry with Washington, he says the constant, statewide interest in the Bobcat-Grizzly affair "certainly rivals anything I've ever been part of."
He also says the fulcrum of rivalry games is often easy to locate. "Usually in those games, the team that fights the hardest wins."
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