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Big Sky Tournament

Waldo2

Waldo2

Active member
Jeckyll or Hyde?
Will the team that beat St Mary, Wyoming, Montanas in Dec, UNCO, EWU on the road, etc.show up?

Or the team that lost to Sac, PSU, UVU, Montanas in Feb , et al show up?

This team has the potential to plow through the tournament and claim the league championship. They can also lose their first game.

My heart says they win it. My head is confused.
Anybody got their crystal ball working?
 
I don't have a christal ball, but I must be optimistic. I booked Sunday through Thursday in Boise.

Who knows how it might go, but I feel that they will give their best and that's enough for me.

This year we have had great wins and bad losses. Since our little losing spell in the middle of BSC play, we have been playing better D. It helps us a lot if Tew can stay out of foul trouble. It's a nuetral site with the best officials the league could come up with. I like our chances. Hopefully, we can get a large contingent of Wildcat fans up there. :coffee:
 
Well, Eastern Washington laid an egg & lost to last place Sacramento St., so the Wildcats / Bobcats victor will be playing the Cinderella Hornets.
 
Here's hoping for a Weber State win today of course, but shamefully wanting a Montana win also. :yikes:
Then both win again against the Cinderellas & make it to the final.

Why? Would rather see a good winning record Big Sky team show up to the NCAA tourney, even though it's likely a one & done dance anyway! Otherwise, :oops:
 
Big collapse down the stretch…kind of symbolic for the year. Honestly would turn down any postseason tournament invite…should one even be offered. Where does the program go from here? Preseason favorite…11-7 conference record and embarrassed in the first round. Looks like the Wildcats are still stuck in the doldrums.

Sac State all the way! Want last place team to throw a turd in the Big Sky’s punch bowl!
 
Duft is just a bad coach he might be able to recruit but he can't coach during the games no set offense just relies on three point shooting and Dillon Jones. I think the only way to get the program going again is to bring in new blood there was no att3ndance and no enthusiasm this year. I feel bad for Dillon Jones he deserved better and this season may have hurt his draft stock I hope not but we will see. I didn't see any set plays all year and with Tew on the floor on offense it almost seems like we were playing 4 on 5 its just sad. The preseason hype obviously was just that
 
It’s scary to think what this team will look like next year without Dillon. There is a complete absence of athleticism and playmaking.

Ugh it’s so frustrating to watch this team underachieve year in and year out. I don’t see things turning around under Duft but he’s going to get a long runway. Bleak.
 
Another yo-yo year for the Wildcats, man it's getting old, going on some 7 yrs. it seems like! :thumbdown:

Best of luck to Dillon Jones...may he find success in the professional basketball realm. :thumb:
 
Dr. Jeckyll for 30 minutes then 10 minutes of Mr. Hyde. What a weird season. Team chemistry would be tricky with an NBA first round draft pick. Could be we got out foxed down the stretch.
I need some Lithium to get balanced again- what a roller coaster of a season.

I think we put a fork in the season and don’t play in any postseason tournament.
 
Rough game. Time to evaluate the success of the program. We are embarking on unknown ground. This is the longest period between championships.
 
Old conference tournament format was great…made the season mean something. This format blows. As for the Big Sky Tournament, I’m hoping for a Bengals/Hornets final…but you know the Big Sky Office is getting hot and bothered about a Bobcats/Grizz. They have probably given the refs their marching orders to make sure it happens. The football hype for the Montana schools and Roots Sports coverage almost makes it feel like they run the Big Sky like OU and Texas ran the Big 12…kind of gets me wanting Weber State to go to the WAC…and that’s not an appealing move.
 
That was embarrasing! With the two top seeds gone it was handed to Weber to make the Conf Tournament Final. They gave up 66 POINTS in the 2nd half and most of those in the last 15 minutes of the second half. That is just an unbelievable stat!

I think it's very unfortunate that Lillard, Harding and now Jones along with the talent that surrounded them never made an NCAA tourney appearance. And even the best team in the past 10-15 years, the 30 win team the year after Lillard left, none of these teams made the NCAA tourney. That is a pattern. Unless something changes I don't see the pattern changing...

My take... Coach Rahe is a wonderful guy, ran a clean program, graduated players and had success to be proud of. He was a great recruiter and his coaches developed players (look at all the guys playing pro ball!). But his weakness was X's and O's, making in game adjustments and coming up short on the big stage time after time. And don't get me going on how to break a press (If I'm an opposing coach, I'm always going to put full court press on a Coach Rahe team at some point in a game). That is how we got years of 20+ win seasons with very few Conf Titles and NCAA appearances.

In a one bid Conference you have to be able to win the big games and many times Rahe came up short even with all the talent he had over the years. It's something in our great history we're not used to. Weber usually has great talent and in the past could always win the big games. That is what made the program so successful and how the program earned its nationwide reputation.

I understand the Big Sky is difficult and we're not going to win it every year. But Weber is a program that should compete for the title every year and should make an NCAA appearance at least 3-4 times/decade, if not more. I think those are reasonable expectations considering the conference, the competition and the history of the program.

The last two seasons seems to be more of the same. Lots of talent, winning many games but faltering when we really need to win and ultimately an underperforming to disappointing season. This years team should have won at least 25 games and gone to the NCAA tournament. 20-12 and a Conf Tournament first round exit in embarrassing fashion is not a good year for this team.

I don't know what the answers are. But I know that the results now for several years have been similar. So to me that means some serious changes need to be made!
 
Setting an identity, as a team, gives you a base, a strength that you can fall back on when the game gets bad. You can stop the bleeding. Whether it’s O or D.

Dillion Jones has the most steals in BSC history. Think about that. With all the accolades- earned -regarding his rebounding and scoring, it’s the steals where he excelled the best. If that doesn’t set up a defense first identity NOTHING will. Tew’s greatest strength was D. Imagine if the D first identity infiltrated that incredibly athletic team? We wouldn’t have seen the epic collapses, at the end of the MSU games.

Good defense ALWAYS is rewarded with offensive opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t have occurred. With the athletes we had, I have to believe we would have burned thru the BSC.

In both MSU games and almost whenever even a low level BSC team went on runs, we had no answer… with the best steals player in history.

Big opportunity missed. Big one. I don’t get it.
 
I guess I’m not seeing the great recruiting and talent other posters are referring to. Outside of Dillon, no one could consistently create their own shot or play great defense.

We had one 1st team All Big Sky player (Jones) and one Honorable Mention (Verplancken). Same amount as NAU, Montana State, and Idaho State. Less than Northern Colorado, Montana, EWU. There’s a reason we were lucky to even finish 4th in the conference. We’re great at developing a star player but the supporting casts are severely lacking.

Even if we made the tourney this year we would’ve been blown out of the water in round 1 with our one-dimensional offense and sloppy defense.
 
The Dan said:
I guess I’m not seeing the great recruiting and talent other posters are referring to. Outside of Dillon, no one could consistently create their own shot or play great defense.

We had one 1st team All Big Sky player (Jones) and one Honorable Mention (Verplancken). Same amount as NAU, Montana State, and Idaho State. Less than Northern Colorado, Montana, EWU. There’s a reason we were lucky to even finish 4th in the conference. We’re great at developing a star player but the supporting casts are severely lacking.

Even if we made the tourney this year we would’ve been blown out of the water in round 1 with our one-dimensional offense and sloppy defense.
Click to expand...

You nailed it, totally agree. Sad fact is a Lillard or DJ doesn't come along often. Living on distant past glory is getting old & stale at Weber, plus the fact that neither star player got to the big dance. That, whether the fault of coaching or supporting cast players or both, soon becomes a disincentive to any potential new recruit.

Optimistic posters here can keep on with the "wait till next year" chant, that's fine, but the recent past year trends show the reality of disappointment again & again. It's been 7 years now; looks to me like the program needs changes before any progress happens. Draw your own conclusions. :twocents:
 
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