Bobcats Hit the Road One Last Time in Regular Season

There's never certainty in a college basketball road trip, but Montana State faces one of the least certain weekends possible when the Bobcats play at Weber State on Thursday and Idaho State Saturday.

MSU begins the weekend on Thursday against a Weber State team which may be without superstar Joel Bolomboy, a candidate for the award for top center in the nation, who was injured Saturday. His status for WSU's games this weekend is uncertain. On Saturday, the Cats play Idaho State at Reed Gym, where the Bengals play only a handful of home games each season. And to boot, the Bobcats play teams in the second-to-last weekend of the regular season for the first time in 2015-16.

"It's a little different," Fish said of this weekend's games, "but that's just the nature of it now in this age of unbalanced conference schedules. You watch (Weber State) on film and it's like, 'Oh, we haven't seen this before,' and we're in the part of the year where we're used to repeating. But that's just how it is."

If the Bobcats face a Weber State team without Bolomboy, Fish said things likely change for the Wildcats but not drastically. "It would create more uncertainty if it was a new program," he said, "but I don't think it changes Randy's coaching and I don't think it changes the team. They have good players. They're a winning program, they have players one-through-13. So will it be different? Yeah, he's a great player and a (future) pro, no one loses a (future) pro without it changing them, but that doesn't mean they're not a great team."

While Bolomboy steals the headlines as one of the frontrunners for Big Sky Most Valuable Play honors – he averages 17.6 points and 13.0 rebounds a game – he is hardly alone as a weapon for the Wildcats. Jeremy Senglin leads the team with 18.4 points a contest, and has 86 three-pointers. Kyndahl Hill, an impressive inside player, averages 8.3 points with 5.9 rebounds a game coming off the bench.

Bobcat guard Marcus Colbert said whether playing Weber State for the first time in a season and regardless of who jumps center for Thursday, the Wildcats present a formidable challenge. "There's so much film," Colbert said of playing a team for the first time of a season in late February. "They're going to know our strengths and weaknesses and we'll know theirs. They're a well-rounded team. They play hard, a fast pace, that's why they're at the top of the league."

While Fish said a Weber State team playing without Bolomboy for the first time would likely rally to its new lineup, he also said that the Bobcats have more to combat than just the Wildcats on Thursday. "I thought last time around coming off the Griz game, both teams lost. I told the team Saturday when we got back that I'd be very disappointed if we can't put that game away and move on. That's another sign of growth that I want to see in our program, that we can put games away and move on to the next game. We've talked about that this week in practice, so I want to see if we can avoid the hangover of a rivalry game, win or lose."

Colbert said the Bobcats' focus this weekend needs to turn inward. "(Weber State has) another good big in Hill, but we're worried about what we're going to do. If we're going to win it has to come from us. We're not worried about what they bring or who they're going to play. We're worried about ourselves."

Weber State enters Thursday's contest at 20-7 overall and tied for first in the Big Sky with Montana – MSU's most recent opponent last Saturday, and Weber State's foe this Saturday. The Bobcats stand 12-14 overall, already a five-win improvement from last season, and 7-7 in Big Sky play. Tipoff Thursday is 7 pm in Ogden's Dee Events center.

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