Big Sky Conference

Bobcats open third year of the Fish era in Pullman Friday

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College basketball teams are allowed to conduct a secret scrimmage closed to public consumption one time before opening their respective seasons each fall. Most of the time, coaches and administrators schedule hapless opponents for one last tune-up.

A season ago, Montana State opened its campaign by giving up runs of 19-0 and 14-2 in a season-opening 87-76 loss at Hawaii. Head coach Brian Fish felt his team experienced early-season jitters and came out cold after not having played anywhere but Bozeman since the end of the previous season.

Leading up to this season’s opener at Washington State, Fish decided to take his team on the road for its final scrimmage. Although the details from last week’s secret scrimmage at Montana Tech have not been divulged, Fish hopes the hour-long bus trip to Butte at least provided an appetizer for Friday night’s officially opener for his third season at the helm. Montana Stat plays at Washington State on Friday night at 5 p.m.

“We went and played a private scrimmage on the road this year because of what I saw last year against Hawaii in the first half,” Fish said following Wednesday’s practice at the recreation center gym on the MSU campus. Brick Breeden Fieldhouse is already set up for this week’s all-class high school volleyball tournaments.

“Hopefully maybe we’ve dealt with some of that guys realizing it’s not our place, we aren’t at home, we still gotta go play. I want to see us compete.”

For the second straight off-season, Fish used all his spare time to revamp his roster. MSU brought in eight players following Fish’s 7-23 debut season. Of those eight new players, five remain: Tyler Hall, the reigning Big Sky Conference Freshman of the Year, sophomore forward Sam Neumann, senior forward Sarp Gobeloglu, senior swingman Quinton Everett and redshirt freshman Mandrell Worthy, the only one among the five who did not play last season.

MSU guard Tyler Hall

MSU guard Tyler Hall

MSU must also replace departed seniors point guard Marcus Colbert and forward Danny Robison. Sharp-shooting guard Steph Holm also left the program before the end of last season while centers Tyson Kanseyo and Shy Blake moved on as well.

This off-season, Fish added point guard Harald Frey (Oslo, Norway) and center Devin Kirby (Chandler, Arizona) from the prep ranks. He added guard Devonte Klines (Saddleback College), center Benson Osayande (Casper College) and swingman Joe Mvuelzo (Miami Dade) from the junior college ranks. He also added Keljin Blevins (Southern Miss) and Konner Frey (Utah Valley) as Division I transfers.

“I think we have five or six young, new guys I think can help us and that really excites me,” Fish said. “I have seen them develop. Those five or six are understanding what we are going to do. Joe from the exhibition, I saw advancement. Harald is making advancement. I really like the chance of the growth of some of those new guys.”

So far through a month of practice leading up to Friday’s opener, the newcomers have acclimated to Fish’s demanding coaching style much more quickly than a season ago. The 6-foot-10 Osayande and the 6-foot-11 Kirby give MSU rim protection it has not had defensively during Fish’s tenure. The 6-foot-6 Mvuelzo gives MSU a player with elite if not raw athleticism, upside, the ability to stretch the floor and the versatility to play and guard multiple positions. The 6-foot Klines is a fearless ball of scrap, an unpolished offensive player who gives the Bobcats an edge in attitude in their perimeter defense.

“I think there’s two things we have improved on over the last month: one is conditioning,” said Hall, who averaged 18.6 points per game and nailed 43 percent of his 3-point tries while drilling 96 triples last season. “That was a big emphasis after we had a little scrimmage because we weren’t in the best of shape. I think we got in a lot better shape. Playing together, finding each other’s tendencies, playing as a group has really helped too.”

While the four mentioned newcomers provide intrigue, Frey will be a key if MSU hopes to improve on last season’s 14-17 mark. Colbert was an All-Big Sky talent, one of the top scoring and passing point guards in the league. He was also MSU’s unquestioned leader in each of Fish’s two seasons.

MSU forward Joe Mvuelzo

MSU forward Joe Mvuelzo

The smooth shooting, ultra-smooth Frey is a combination of skill and poise, both cultivated during two seasons playing for the Centrum Tigers, Norway’s top club team. Frey is 6-foot-1 and decently long limbed but he weights 150 pounds, a concern once the physicality of league play begins. But Frey has been undersized and playing against adults for two highly competitive years already.

“I didn’t know how to evaluate that when we signed him, playing against the grown men he was playing against but it’s starting to be true — I watched four or five games on video — but it’s starting to show that he’s gone against grown men,” Fish said. “He doesn’t get knocked off the spot. He knows how to play. He has great basketball feel. You get him and Tyler out there, they both have pretty good minds and it’s certainly showing.”

Frey averaged 16.9 points and 4.6 assists for the Tigers last season. He is slated as MSU’s opening night point guard.

We lost a really, really good, competitive, tough, hard-nosed point guard that is not easy to replace,” Fish said. “Harald is a different style point guard. He’s certainly finding his way and every day we are out there, I’m feeling a lot better, I can tell you that.”

While the newcomers will play crucial factors if MSU is to keep climbing the ladder — MSU finished 11th in Fish’s first and seventh last season — it will be the veterans that will carry the Bobcats down the road to Reno.

In the preseason polls, MSU was picked to finish in the middle of the league in both polls, but the Bobcats did pick up a first-place vote from one of the league’s 12 head coaches. Hall’s presence on the roster is certainly one of the primary reasons for the nod.

The 6-foot-5, 200-pounder from Rock Island, Illinois took the Big Sky by storm last season, finishing as the fourth-leading scorer in conference games by averaging 20.3 points per contest. Hall is the third-leading scorer in the conference behind fellow preseason All-Big Sky selections Quinton Hooker of North Dakota and Idaho State of Ethan Telfair, both seniors.

“I’m a big believer of rewarding players who play for teams that win games,” Fish said during Montana State’s media day in mid-October. “You have to win games to get noticed. Even the worst team in America has a best player and that doesn’t mean he’s a good player. For Tyler to get the awards and adulation he can get, we have to win. To do that, he has to accept he’s at the top of the scouting report, everyone will try to eliminate him in every game this season.”

Green, Gobeloglu and Everett give Montana State three other key returning contributors. Green, a 6-foot-4 junior from Gilbert, Arizona, averaged 8.5 points and a team-high 5.5 rebounds while playing in the frontcourt for the first time in his life. He is steadily recovering from off-season hip surgery.

With Colbert’s absence, Fish has called upon the four key returners to assume elevated leadership roles.

“I’m going to accept everything that is expected of me to be a leader,” Green said. “The first couple of days were hard because everyone is new. But once me, Tyler, Q and Sam accepted that leadership role, we were able to get through a lot.”

MSU forward Sarp Gobeloglu in 2015/by Brooks Nuanez

MSU forward Sarp Gobeloglu in 2015/by Brooks Nuanez

Everett, a 27-year-old former transfer from Little Big Horn College in Crow Agency, Montana, is MSU’s alpha dog, a versatile enforcer who defends and rebounds better than his 6-foot-4 height. He averaged 7.1 points and 5.2 rebounds per game but struggled shooting the ball after breaking his hand. He shot 38.6 percent from the floor and 31.6 percent from beyond the arc.

The 6-foot-10 Gobeloglu is one of the most unique offensive weapons in the league. He was MSU’s fourth-leading scorer despite coming off the bench and playing 20 minutes a game. He averaged 8.4 points per game while shooting 45 percent from the floor and drilling 46 3-pointers.

“We are going to build around Tyler Hall and go from there,” Fish said. “We’ve had some guys step up and we are excited. Zach Green is certainly a key factor and finished the year well last year. Q has a year under his belt and you can certainly see the experience those guys are bringing. We know exactly what Sarp gives us now. We need some young men to come along and continue to grow and buy in so we can lean on the veterans.”

In Fish’s up-tempo, high-energy system, Hall and Frey will certainly be the starting backcourt. Fish also said Green and Neumann will start on Friday night. It’s not been determined if Green will play the 3 and Neumann the four with Osayande or Gobeloglu starting at the five, if Gobeloglu will start at the four, with Neumann at the five or if Everett will start, meaning MSU will not have a player taller than the 6-foot-5 Neumann in the lineup.

Montana State has a chance to improve not only because of roster construction but also because of circumstance. MSU has 17 home games on the schedule two seasons after having to play sacrificial lamb to the likes of Buffalo, UCLA and Kentucky on a single road trip.

MSU’s two “big pay” road trips come on Friday — a six-hour bus ride to Pullman — and on December first with a six-hour bus ride to Salt Lake City to play Utah.

“This year, since they gave me an opportunity to play a lot of homes games, I wanted to play our two buy games close so we make more money,” Fish said. “I didn’t want to go play $30,000 on airfare.”

The Bobcats play Louisiana Lafayette, Rocky Mountain (Billings) College, and James Madison at home next week. MSU plays Delaware State and Arizona Christian in Bozeman to close out November. December holds home dates against Milwaukee, South Dakota and Central Michigan before Christmas. Green said last month he hopes followers buy in early on to MSU’s entertaining product.

MSU guard Harald Frey with coach Brian Fish

MSU guard Harald Frey with coach Brian Fish

“We are athletic, we are fast and people like to see fast basketball,” Green said. “They like to see teams that score and we can score.”

Washington State, coached by former Oregon head coach Ernie Kent, was picked to finish last in the Pac 12 in the preseason polls. Fish coached for four years at Oregon when Dana Altman took over for Kent before Fish came to Montana State.

Optimism is bursting for the rebuild Bobcats as Fish tries to help the team earn its first NCAA Tournament bid since 1996. The quest starts Friday night in Pullman.

“I’ve been waiting,” Hall said. “I haven’t had a whole year since I last played in my life so this is so exciting.”

Photos by Colter Nuanez or noted. 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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