Darius Brown II
Photo by: Garrett Becker
WHEN LITTLE IS BIG: Bobcat Guards Stand Tall in March
3/13/2023 3:14:00 PM | Men's Basketball
At the most important time of the season MSU guards have led the Cats to two straight runs in March
BOISE, Idaho – Montana State guard Darius Brown digested the suggestion from his teammate RaeQuan Battle, and with head coach Danny Sprinkle's approval and 13 seconds to play in the second overtime of the Bobcats' 60-58 Big Sky Conference Tournament Semifinal win over Weber State he set about putting the plan into motion.
Brown dribbled into the frontcourt penetrated to the left elbow, and feathered a pass just under and left of the rim. Battle dashed from the right wing toward the basket, brushed his defender off of a chip screen from Jubrile Belo, and soared into an alley-oop dunk that sealed MSU's third consecutive trip to the Big Sky title tilt.
"It was a big-time play," Sprinkle said, and there's no arguing the point. But it was also broader evidence that big-time guard play remains crucially important in post-season tournament action. In the last 15 years, 13 different men claimed Big Sky Tournament MVP honors by leading their team to victory. Nine of them played guard, and eight of those performed the function of point guard a significant portion of the time.
Xavier Bishop was the heartbeat of Montana State's 2022 Big Sky Championship team a dynamic playmaker who facilitated the offense and also scored at a prolific rate. His brilliance throughout his career was undeniable, but at no time was that more important than during those three days in March when he helped propel the Cats to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1996.
Center Jubrile Belo won Big Sky MVP honors a year ago, and demanded an outgrown amount of attention from opposing defenses. But at the season's most important times, Bishop managed the tempo of nearly every game and – like Brown II and Ford III this year – helped get the ball to Belo and fellow big man Great Osobor in scoring position. His ability to both score and distribute allowed him to manage much of the Cats' offensive fortunes.
"You've got to make sure that they eat," Bishop said of a guard's relationship with his inside players during the most important time of the season. "You've got to keep the big guys happy, especially when you're playing with two dominant bigs like Jubrile and Great who are really good on the blocks, really good at finishing. They're going to get a lot of attention from the defense and it's going to open things up for the guards and make things a lot easier. When they they're playing good and producing and getting their touches that definitely opens things up for you."
Sprinkle said through that lens it's easy to understand the enormous role that the smallest men on the court occupy in March. "Because you have to handle the ball," he said. "You have to make shots to win in March," and guards generally possess the ability both score and distribute to others with that ability. "Bigs are great, you have to have great bigs and rebound the ball and those things, but in any upset in the NCAA Tournament, especially by a mid-major, it's all guards."
That leads to Montana State's current guard trio of Brown II and Robert Ford III, who often play simultaneously but are both generally point guards, and Battle, a jumping-jack guard with the ability to shoot from great distances and also, as he showed as Tuesday was ready to melt into Wednesday, attack the rim. "Especially from an experience standpoint, being able to attack and create for others, and they're capable of making threes, too. You have to be able to guard them, and both in different ways depending on how they're playing."
It's all about control, says basketball analyst Joe Cravens, who coached Idaho and Weber State during Sprinkle's all-conference, record-setting time as a Bobcat guard. "You control the tempo. Without a good guard you can't get the big men involved, they get it to the big men, and they spearhead your defense. It's hard to play good defense without guards that are willing to extend the defense."
Brown II echoes Cravens' sentiment. "Guards have control over the game. They control the tempo, they're the coach on the floor, whatever coach wants has to go through the point guard. Whoever's bringing up the ball, whoever's running the offense, you're the first guy a team sees on defense."
While most concentrate on the impact of guard play on a team's offense, Brown II focuses on the other end of the floor, and his status as 2022-23 Big Sky Defensive MVP testifies to that. "We've got to keep playing defense," he said. "That's what's been keeping us in games and saving us from offensive struggles that we've had. Getting to the (free throw) line and playing defense has to be our glue, and at this time of year your identity as a team is set. There's nothing new to try or start doing, it's about sticking to what you know and doing it well."
Bishop, the Big Sky's best point guard a season ago who validated his status with tourney MVP honors, said consistent guard play throughout the season is important because a team generally isn't able to remake itself in the season's late stages. "It should be pretty natural," he said of managing the tempo while involving all of a team's important offensive players. "You have people you necessarily want to run the offense through. Last year we definitely started inside out, we started with Jubrile and he gets going, but at this time of year teams are pretty much who they are. Don't get me wrong, I do feel that when it comes to March guards win games, but it's definitely a huge plus to have really good bigs and to keep them happy."
Sprinkle knows that, even with his talented collection of big men, Montana State's chances at NCAA Tournament success springs from guard play. " You're not going to dominate those (major conference) teams down low, so when you have guards like Max Abmas at Oral Roberts, that's how you make those runs. You have to have multiple guards, you have to have a bunch of guys come off ball screens, and you need guys to make threes. You have to make seven or eight threes to loosen up the defense."
Montana State plays Kansas State at 7:40 pm MT on Friday in both teams' NCAA Tournament opener in Greensboro, North Carolina. The game is scheduled to be televised on CBS.
#GoCatsGo
Brown dribbled into the frontcourt penetrated to the left elbow, and feathered a pass just under and left of the rim. Battle dashed from the right wing toward the basket, brushed his defender off of a chip screen from Jubrile Belo, and soared into an alley-oop dunk that sealed MSU's third consecutive trip to the Big Sky title tilt.
The game-winner ??#GoCatsGo | @RaeQuanBattle pic.twitter.com/owyjuS3zpH
— Montana State Men's Basketball (@MSUBobcatsMBB) March 8, 2023
"It was a big-time play," Sprinkle said, and there's no arguing the point. But it was also broader evidence that big-time guard play remains crucially important in post-season tournament action. In the last 15 years, 13 different men claimed Big Sky Tournament MVP honors by leading their team to victory. Nine of them played guard, and eight of those performed the function of point guard a significant portion of the time.
Xavier Bishop was the heartbeat of Montana State's 2022 Big Sky Championship team a dynamic playmaker who facilitated the offense and also scored at a prolific rate. His brilliance throughout his career was undeniable, but at no time was that more important than during those three days in March when he helped propel the Cats to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1996.
Center Jubrile Belo won Big Sky MVP honors a year ago, and demanded an outgrown amount of attention from opposing defenses. But at the season's most important times, Bishop managed the tempo of nearly every game and – like Brown II and Ford III this year – helped get the ball to Belo and fellow big man Great Osobor in scoring position. His ability to both score and distribute allowed him to manage much of the Cats' offensive fortunes.
"You've got to make sure that they eat," Bishop said of a guard's relationship with his inside players during the most important time of the season. "You've got to keep the big guys happy, especially when you're playing with two dominant bigs like Jubrile and Great who are really good on the blocks, really good at finishing. They're going to get a lot of attention from the defense and it's going to open things up for the guards and make things a lot easier. When they they're playing good and producing and getting their touches that definitely opens things up for you."
Sprinkle said through that lens it's easy to understand the enormous role that the smallest men on the court occupy in March. "Because you have to handle the ball," he said. "You have to make shots to win in March," and guards generally possess the ability both score and distribute to others with that ability. "Bigs are great, you have to have great bigs and rebound the ball and those things, but in any upset in the NCAA Tournament, especially by a mid-major, it's all guards."
That leads to Montana State's current guard trio of Brown II and Robert Ford III, who often play simultaneously but are both generally point guards, and Battle, a jumping-jack guard with the ability to shoot from great distances and also, as he showed as Tuesday was ready to melt into Wednesday, attack the rim. "Especially from an experience standpoint, being able to attack and create for others, and they're capable of making threes, too. You have to be able to guard them, and both in different ways depending on how they're playing."
It's all about control, says basketball analyst Joe Cravens, who coached Idaho and Weber State during Sprinkle's all-conference, record-setting time as a Bobcat guard. "You control the tempo. Without a good guard you can't get the big men involved, they get it to the big men, and they spearhead your defense. It's hard to play good defense without guards that are willing to extend the defense."
Brown II echoes Cravens' sentiment. "Guards have control over the game. They control the tempo, they're the coach on the floor, whatever coach wants has to go through the point guard. Whoever's bringing up the ball, whoever's running the offense, you're the first guy a team sees on defense."
While most concentrate on the impact of guard play on a team's offense, Brown II focuses on the other end of the floor, and his status as 2022-23 Big Sky Defensive MVP testifies to that. "We've got to keep playing defense," he said. "That's what's been keeping us in games and saving us from offensive struggles that we've had. Getting to the (free throw) line and playing defense has to be our glue, and at this time of year your identity as a team is set. There's nothing new to try or start doing, it's about sticking to what you know and doing it well."
Bishop, the Big Sky's best point guard a season ago who validated his status with tourney MVP honors, said consistent guard play throughout the season is important because a team generally isn't able to remake itself in the season's late stages. "It should be pretty natural," he said of managing the tempo while involving all of a team's important offensive players. "You have people you necessarily want to run the offense through. Last year we definitely started inside out, we started with Jubrile and he gets going, but at this time of year teams are pretty much who they are. Don't get me wrong, I do feel that when it comes to March guards win games, but it's definitely a huge plus to have really good bigs and to keep them happy."
Sprinkle knows that, even with his talented collection of big men, Montana State's chances at NCAA Tournament success springs from guard play. " You're not going to dominate those (major conference) teams down low, so when you have guards like Max Abmas at Oral Roberts, that's how you make those runs. You have to have multiple guards, you have to have a bunch of guys come off ball screens, and you need guys to make threes. You have to make seven or eight threes to loosen up the defense."
Montana State plays Kansas State at 7:40 pm MT on Friday in both teams' NCAA Tournament opener in Greensboro, North Carolina. The game is scheduled to be televised on CBS.
#GoCatsGo
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