Montana State University
Montana
Bobcats Trek West for Saturday's Brawl of the Wild
2/15/2024 11:32:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Montana State looking for revenge in 307th Brawl of the Wild in Missoula this weekend
BOZEMAN, Mont. -- Montana State men's basketball heads west of the Continental Divide on Saturday, traveling to Missoula for the 307th edition of the Brawl of the Wild.
Tip is set for 7 p.m. from Dahlberg Arena.
The game will air state-wide on MTN and will stream on ESPN+, with Ben Creighton and Jeff Riggs on the call. Live radio play-by-play from Voice of the Bobcats Keaton Gillogly and analyst Brian Priebe will air on the Bobcat Sports Network.
Montana (16-9, 7-5 BIg Sky) took the first leg of the season series in Bozeman on January 20, winning 87-77. In front of a crowd of 6,648, Robert Ford III led Montana State (11-14, 6-6 Big Sky) with 30 points on 12-of-18 shooting, adding seven rebounds, five steals, and three assists. The 30 points were the most in the series since Harald Frey scored 37 against the Griz in 2020.
Montana State is coming off a tough road trip south this past weekend, falling to Northern Colorado on Thursday, 73-70, and to Northern Arizona on Saturday, 76-71. The Cats led by double-digits in both games but were unable to close out either contest on the road, falling to 6-6 in conference play to drop to fifth in the Big Sky Conference.
Montana State enters Saturday looking to break a three-game skid, having lost four of their last five. The 2023-2024 season is the 13th year as a head coach for Matt Logie—he has never lost four games in a row in his career. The current three-game losing streak is just the fifth such streak for Logie, who entered this year third in NCAA men's basketball history in winning percentage (.826).
The Bobcats do own two of the best wins in the Big Sky this season, handing Eastern Washington their only conference loss on February 1, 70-60, and taking down second-place Northern Colorado at home on January 13, 90-81.
Montana split their road games this past weekend, beating Northern Arizona on Thursday, 94-66, before falling to Northern Colorado on Saturday, 87-71. The Griz enter Saturday's rivalry game 3-3 in their last six games, and are tied for third in the Big Sky with Weber State at 7-5. The Griz are led by seventh-year guard Aanen Moody, who leads the team averaging 15.2 points per game.
BRAWL OF THE WILD
Saturday marks the 307th edition of the Brawl of the Wild. The rivalry is the fifth-most played series in college basketball history, stretching back to the 1902-03 season.
ROB-CAT PUTTING ON A SHOW
Robert Ford III continues to be one of the most electric players in mid-major college basketball. Since the Cats restarted Big Sky play on January 11, the redshirt senior is averaging 19.9 points, 8.9 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 3.2 steals per contest while shooting 54.0% from the floor and 46.4% from distance. Ford ranks second in the country in steals (74), third in steals per game (2.96), and is top-60 in the nation in double-doubles (6). The last time the Cats and Griz played, Ford scored a career-high 30 points with seven rebounds and five steals while shooting 12-of-18 from the floor and 3-of-4 from deep. The 30 points were the most in the Cat-Griz game since Harald Frey scored 37 in Missoula on Feb. 1, 2020
SHERIDAN SAM
Sam Lecholat has come on strong the second half of the season--after going scoreless across seven minutes in the first Cat-Griz meeting on Jan. 20, the junior from Sheridan, Wyoming has proceeded to play at least 20 minutes in all seven games since then, averaging 8.3 points and 4.7 rebounds while shooting 48.8% from the field. The forward has scored at least nine points in four of those seven games.
WALKING BUCKET
Brandon Walker scored 18 points on 8-of-8 shooting with seven rebounds in the last meeting between these two teams. The sophomore forward currently leads the Big Sky and ranks 42nd nationally in field goal percentage (56.7%). According to KenPom.com, Walker is 7th in the country in percentage of possessions used (33.2%) and 8th in the country in percentage of shots taken when he is on the court (35.2%). Walker is averaging 13.7 points in 20.1 minutes per game this season.
COACHING CONNECTIONS
MSU head coach Matt Logie and Montana head coach Travis DeCuire have a relationship that goes back over 30 years. DeCuire played at Mercer Island High School outside Seattle when Logie's grandfather, Ed Pepple, was the head coach and Logie was a ball boy. DeCuire later returned to Mercer Island as an assistant and coached teams that included Logie, then got his first headcoach job at rival Sammamish High School and coached against Mercer Island during Logie's senior season. When Logie coached at Whitworth, they played four exhibition games and one regular season game against Montana in Missoula each season from 2014-18. Current MSU assistant coach Zach Payne spent four seasons on the UM staff from 2019-23 under DeCuire, and played two seasons for Logie at Whitworth from 2011-13 and stayed as a graduate assistant and volunteer coach from 2013-16.
SERIES HISTORY
Montana and Montana State meet on Saturday in the 307th edition of the Brawl of the Wild, the fifth-most played series in NCAA Division I basketball. Montana leads the all-time series, 155-51, but the Cats have won three of the last five meetings. UM has gone 97-50 against MSU in Missoula. The Griz won 18 of 19 matchups overall from 2011 to 2020. Montana State won both matchups last year.
SHARPSHOOTING TYLER
Tyler Patterson ranks sixth all-time at MSU for made 3-point field goals in a career (189). The junior from Snoqualmie, Wash., is now six behind Casey Durham (2004-08) for fifth all-time (195). Tyler Hall (431) is the program's all-time leader.
BONA FIDE BRIAN
Brian Goracke has been a revelation this season after following head coach Matt Logie from Division II Point Loma last season to Montana State. The junior ranks sixth in the Big Sky in scoring (14.6 ppg) and seventh in total made 3-pointers (53), and is 32nd nationally in free-throw percentage (88.2%). The junior has scored in double-figures in 20 of 25 games this year, and has five 20-point outings.
EASY TO ROOT FOR
Graduate transfer guard Eddie Turner III has made an immediate impact for the Bobcats after on and off the court obstacles slowed his basketball output at Columbia. Turner is averaging 7.8 points and 3.7 assists per game this season. The standout at Garfield HS in Seattle, played in just 18 games across four years in New York City while obtaining his Ivy League degree. Knee injuries and COVID-19 represented just some of the adversity Turner had to overcome, as he took his senior year off from basketball after his father suffered a health scare back home in Washington. Turner earned his degree in architecture in May and worked an internship for Bank of America on Wall Street this past summer that comes with a guaranteed job in investment banking once his two years of eligibility at Montana State are up.
CLUTCH ROB
Robert Ford III has been the do-it-all clutch player for the Bobcats this season--the redshirt senior is averaging 9.2 points and 4.2 rebounds in the second half alone in games this year, shooting 51.1% from the floor and 49.2% from beyond the arc to close out games.
MR. AUTOMATIC
Brian Goracke ranks 32nd in NCAA Division I in free-throw percentage (88.2%). The junior is 75-of-85 at the charity stripe this year. Montana State's single-season record-holder for free throw percentage is Tyler Hall, who shot 90.7% during the 2017-18 season.
CAUSING HAVOC
Montana State leads the Big Sky in steals per game (8.2) and turnovers forced per game (13.5)
HIGHWAY ROB-BERY
Robert Ford III is second in the country in steals (74), and is already third all-time at MSU for steals in a single season. Chris Conway is the program leader with 94 steals in the 1987-88 season.
B-WALK EFFICIENCY
Sophomore Brandon Walker leads the Big Sky in field goal percentage (56.7%) and is 42nd in NCAA Division I in that category.
OFFENSIVE BALANCE
Montana State has had five different players score at least 18 points in a game this season: Brian Goracke (29), Brandon Walker (26), Robert Ford III (30), Tyler Patterson (20), and Eddie Turner III (18)
POWER FIVE WIN
Before beating Cal on Nov. 16, Montana State had last taken down a Power Five opponent on December 9, 2018, defeating Washington State, 95-90 in a neutral site game in Kennewick, Wash. Montana State is 54-101 against schools currently making up the Pac-12 (including Colorado, Utah, etc.)
GOLDEN AGE OF BOBCAT BASKETBALL
The Bobcats are coming off of their two best seasons in the modern era. In 2021-22, Montana State went 27-8, which included a 13-1 record at home and a program-record 16 wins in conference play. In 2022-2023, Montana State went 25-10, collected a 12-1 record at Worthington Arena, and went 15-3 in conference action. Montana State has played in three straight Big Sky Tournament championship games, gone 37-7 against Big Sky opponents over the last two seasons, won at least 25 games in two straight seasons for the first time since 1927-1929, and are coming off consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time in school history.
WELCOME TO THE LOGIE ERA
First-year head coach Matt Logie comes to Montana State after four seasons at Point Loma in California, where his teams rolled up an 82-23 record with three conference championships. His 12 seasons as a head basketball coach includes eight at Whitworth University in Spokane (2011-19), where his Pirates compiled a 194-35 record. Logie's 276-58 career mark in 12 seasons is good for an .826 winning percentage, the third-highest winning percentage in the history of all NCAA men's college basketball coaches.
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