Thursday, January 19
Sacramento, CA
8 p.m. MT
Montana State University
at
Sacramento State
MSU's lone senior Quinton Everett leads the Cats on the road
Photo by: Kelly Gorham
Bobcats Look for Road Success at Sacramento State Thursday
1/18/2017 9:11:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Improving Bobcats battle Hornets
Montana State men's basketball coach Brian Fish is aware of the numbers.
Fish knows his Bobcats are without a win away in seven games away from Worthington Arena this season, and stretching back to last year's win at Sacramento State have lost 10 straight road games and including a Big Sky Tournament loss to the Hornets 11 straight away from home. But Fish also has another number in mind.
Three hundred. That's the number of Division I basketball teams this season that have more experience in terms of career games played than the Cats according to KenPom.com, a statistic which Fish says may be more important than any other in explaining how his team has fared on the road this season.
"It's been going better and better," Fish said of his team's road travails. MSU enters weekend play 7-12 overall, 2-4 in the Big Sky. "We lost by two at Idaho, we competed against Eastern Washington, we were in the game at Omaha, and these are pretty good teams. But with guys in and out of the lineup a little, guys that are still getting used to each other, we're still getting that experience."
MSU's next dose of road experience comes Thursday, when Montana State visits Sacramento State (5-11 overall, 2-3 in Big Sky play) at 8 pm MT in a game that helps explain Fish's point. MSU faces a Hornets team featuring nine players with at least two games against the Cats in their careers. "I look at film of that Big Sky Tournament game (against Sacramento State last March), and we only have four guys (currently on the roster) that played in that game."
One of the athletes wearing green in that showdown last spring, Justin Strings, was more responsible than anyone else for Sac State's 79-75 win. The 6-6 forward tore the Cats up, scoring 25 points with seven rebounds and a blocked shot. In three games against MSU last season, Strings averaged 19.8 points and 7.0 rebounds, with four blocks.
Strings' supporting cast is solid. Nick Hornsby, this week's Big Sky Player of the Week, averages 11.5 points and 8.4 rebounds a game, while guard Marcus Graves nets 11.7 points and 4.8 assists a game.
Fish knows that road success takes the kind of defense his team played against Northern Colorado Saturday, when MSU posted season's best performances in holding the Bears to 53 points while forcing 21 turnovers. "There's a fine line between being up on a guy and disrupting a guy's rhythm," he said. "Saturday we were certainly disrupting guys' rhythm and limiting them to one shot. When you do that you hold down the (opponents') field goal percentage. I thought our energy on the defensive end was very good on Saturday. It was a step in the right direction."
There are also some statistical touchstones Fish looks for road success. M uch of it centers on good backcourt play and on a mentality featuring toughness.
"(Teams need) good guard play, limit turnovers, shoot the ball a little better than normal," he said. "Most of all you have to understand it's a 40-minute game. At home sometimes the crowd will get you through some rough spots and when you go on the road there's only 20 of you on the trip to count on. A lot of it falls on guards, getting good shots, getting good possessions, staying out of situations where you give up layups without getting to play defense."
Fish knows his Bobcats are without a win away in seven games away from Worthington Arena this season, and stretching back to last year's win at Sacramento State have lost 10 straight road games and including a Big Sky Tournament loss to the Hornets 11 straight away from home. But Fish also has another number in mind.
Three hundred. That's the number of Division I basketball teams this season that have more experience in terms of career games played than the Cats according to KenPom.com, a statistic which Fish says may be more important than any other in explaining how his team has fared on the road this season.
"It's been going better and better," Fish said of his team's road travails. MSU enters weekend play 7-12 overall, 2-4 in the Big Sky. "We lost by two at Idaho, we competed against Eastern Washington, we were in the game at Omaha, and these are pretty good teams. But with guys in and out of the lineup a little, guys that are still getting used to each other, we're still getting that experience."
MSU's next dose of road experience comes Thursday, when Montana State visits Sacramento State (5-11 overall, 2-3 in Big Sky play) at 8 pm MT in a game that helps explain Fish's point. MSU faces a Hornets team featuring nine players with at least two games against the Cats in their careers. "I look at film of that Big Sky Tournament game (against Sacramento State last March), and we only have four guys (currently on the roster) that played in that game."
One of the athletes wearing green in that showdown last spring, Justin Strings, was more responsible than anyone else for Sac State's 79-75 win. The 6-6 forward tore the Cats up, scoring 25 points with seven rebounds and a blocked shot. In three games against MSU last season, Strings averaged 19.8 points and 7.0 rebounds, with four blocks.
Strings' supporting cast is solid. Nick Hornsby, this week's Big Sky Player of the Week, averages 11.5 points and 8.4 rebounds a game, while guard Marcus Graves nets 11.7 points and 4.8 assists a game.
Fish knows that road success takes the kind of defense his team played against Northern Colorado Saturday, when MSU posted season's best performances in holding the Bears to 53 points while forcing 21 turnovers. "There's a fine line between being up on a guy and disrupting a guy's rhythm," he said. "Saturday we were certainly disrupting guys' rhythm and limiting them to one shot. When you do that you hold down the (opponents') field goal percentage. I thought our energy on the defensive end was very good on Saturday. It was a step in the right direction."
There are also some statistical touchstones Fish looks for road success. M uch of it centers on good backcourt play and on a mentality featuring toughness.
"(Teams need) good guard play, limit turnovers, shoot the ball a little better than normal," he said. "Most of all you have to understand it's a 40-minute game. At home sometimes the crowd will get you through some rough spots and when you go on the road there's only 20 of you on the trip to count on. A lot of it falls on guards, getting good shots, getting good possessions, staying out of situations where you give up layups without getting to play defense."
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