Big Sky Conference

Bobcats focused on present with two games left

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Brian Fish cannot bring himself to look at the standings this time of year.

It is probably for the best if you’re the Montana State head men’s basketball coach considering the seemingly endless post-season scenarios available with just two regular season games remaining in Big Sky Conference play. Fish’s surging Bobcats have a chance to finish as high as third or as low as sixth depending on how the final road trip of the regular season plays out.

MSU guard Devonte Klines (10) drives to the basket against Idaho State

MSU guard Devonte Klines (10) drives to the basket against Idaho State

“To be honest with you, I don’t have a clue where (the standings) are at,” Fish said on Tuesday. “I know North Dakota is in first. I know we have a chance to not play Tuesday. I couldn’t tell you who, I don’t know the tie-breakers. I’m just hoping the guys show up for practice today.

“I’ll get in the mode if I start looking at it where I’m thinking this team will win, this will happen, this will happen and it never goes that way so I just don’t even pay attention. It just doesn’t fit my personality to look ahead.”

The good news for Fish is his team did show up for practice on Tuesday afternoon. The Bobcats, winners of nine of their last 11, showed up Wednesday morning to board a bus to Pocatello, Idaho to take on Idaho State on Thursday. Montana State will stay on the road, playing at Weber State in Ogden, Utah on Saturday night before staying in Salt Lake City Saturday and Sunday. MSU will catch a flight from SLC to Reno, Nevada at 11 a.m. on Monday morning.

A third, fourth or fifth-place finish can likely be sewn up with a win at ISU on Thursday. That would secure MSU a first-round bye in next week’s Big Sky Tournament, something only UND and Eastern Washington have done so far. UND, EWU and Weber State remain alive for the regular-season title while those three plus MSU, Montana and Idaho all are still alive for a top-five finish and the first-round bye that goes with it.

MSU freshman Harald Frey

MSU freshman Harald Frey

“For us, we have to focus one game at a time like we have all season,” MSU true freshman point guard Harald Frey said following Tuesday’s spirited practice. “We have to focus on Idaho State, then Weber, then go to the tournament. We are trying to focus on the things we can control. We can’t control whether the other teams win or lose. But we can definitely control how our games go.”

Frey, like most of Fish’s players, truly does not pay attention to outside noise like the various scenarios of the conference race. During a conversation on Montana State’s campus on Tuesday afternoon, MSU sophomore guard Devonte Klines had no idea that the top five finishers get a bye in Reno nor that MSU currently stands in a fourth-place tie with Idaho at 10-6 in league play.

Montana State carries the momentum of a solid two months of basketball that includes nine wins in 11 outings, including a signature 78-69 win over the rival Griz, MSU’s first over its bitter rival since 2010. Tyler Hall’s 37-point performance earned him league player of the week honors and gave him MSU’s single-season scoring record with 685 points and counting. Following Montana State’s 12th home win this season, Hall echoed his coach in his awareness of MSU’s position.

“I don’t know what’s going on with everyone else and we try not to pay attention to that,” the stud sophomore said following his first win over the Griz. “We have two games left and we are trying to take care of business on the road.”

Idaho State senior Ethan Telfair gets trapped by MSU sophomores Devonte Klines, left, and Sam Neumann

Idaho State senior Ethan Telfair gets trapped by MSU sophomores Devonte Klines, left, and Sam Neumann

Thursday, Montana State will gun for its third road win of the season at aging Holt Arena against one of the league’s most disappointing teams. Behind the first-team all-conference performance of combo guard Ethan Telfair, Idaho State posted its best season in a generation last year. Telfair, the league’s Newcomer of the Year, scored 30 or more points in seven conference games as the Bengals fought their way to 11 league victories and the No. 4 seed in the Big Sky Tournament.

In a scenario Fish might have to manage, the Bengals went to Reno Monday and did not play until Thursday. ISU took on North Dakota, a surging squad after posting a win over scrappy Southern Utah in the tournament’s first day Tuesday. If MSU earned third or fourth, the Bobcats will play another team that must wait until Thursday rather than one coming off a tournament win; because of Northern Colorado’s tournament ineligibility, the No. 4 and No. 5 teams play in the quarterfinals on Tuesday. Two losses would likely mean the Bobcats finish sixth and would take on either SUU or ISU in the first round Tuesday, the winner playing the No. 3 seed. Or a sweep might earn MSU the third seed, meaning the Bobcats would play the winner of the 6-11 game.

Last spring in Reno, North Dakota blitzed the Bengals, stringing together a 30-2 first-half run to take a 30-point advantage to halftime in an 83-49 blowout. Idaho State quite literally still hasn’t recovered.

A brutal non-conference schedule that forced the Bengals to play 12 of their first 14 on the road dug ISU into a hole it has not been able to climb out of. ISU beat Northern Colorado in January and swept Northern Arizona and Southern Utah the first weekend in February. Those are ISU’s only league wins as the 3-13 Bengals (5-23 overall) try to avoid the 11th and final seed in the league tournament. ISU and SUU are tied at 3-13 but Idaho State owns the tiebreaker because of its 94-68 win earlier this season.

Idaho State head coach Bill Evans

Idaho State head coach Bill Evans

“It’s been a disappointment,” ISU head coach Bill Evans said on Monday. “I’m more disappointed in myself than my team. We haven’t met my expectations for sure so I’m disappointed in where we are at.

“I think we have good kids. We’ve had some guys hurt. But that’s part of the deal. Everybody has guys hurt, guys out. Unfortunately, we’ve had our share. We aren’t looking for excuses. We are looking for remedies. We are a team that could be dangerous if we get going but I don’t think we have a real identity. I don’t think we are very good offensively, I don’t think we are very good defensively. That’s not a good combination.”

Telfair is averaging 16.8 points per game, including 17.2 in league play. But the NBA hopeful — the younger brother of former lottery pick Sebastian Telfair declared for the draft in the off-season — has struggled mightily shooting the basketball. He is shooting 33.7 percent this season, including 32.3 percent from beyond the arc. The Big Sky’s top free throw shooter last season in terms of attempts and percentage is shooting 76.9 percent and has nearly half as many attempts.

“I’m just playing bad,” Telfair said on Tuesday. “It’s nothing anyone is doing. I’ve played against every defensive scheme you can think of. I’m just not playing well. When they throw a scheme at me and it works, they think they got me figured out. The way it looks, they do got it figured out but really, it’s just because I’m not playing well. That’s no one’s fault. That’s my fault.”

MSU head coach Brian Fish

MSU head coach Brian Fish

Fish pointed to solving Evans’ vaunted matchup zone defense as the key for his Bobcats on Thursday. Fish said when he was an assistant at Oregon, UO head coach Dana Altman considered hiring Evans because of his “nationally known” zone principles.

“He’s the godfather of that amoeba zone,” Fish said.

Evans pointed to containing Hall but not forgetting about Frey as the primary goal of his team if the Bengals want to have success.

The final weekend of the season gives the Big Sky a slew of scenarios as literally nothing has been decided with the conference tournament less than a week away. Fish and his players will figure out what Reno might hold next weekend but for now, the Bobcats are focused on the here and now.

“I think you have to stay in the moment,” Fish said. “We are not a team where we can look at anybody and go, ‘If we play this way, we will win.’ We are just not there yet. A lot of factors have to go right for us to win basketball games. We just have to stay in the moment and keep grinding.”

Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved. 

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

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