Brian Fish has tried to keep perspective during his team’s recent bout of struggles. After all, Montana State is starting no seniors, one junior, three sophomores and a true freshman at point guard.
Sarp Gobeloglu, one of Fish’s seniors, has played a total of nine minutes the last six games before abruptly quitting the team on Tuesday morning. Quinton Everett, Fish’s other senior, has struggled with a knee ailment that has kept his minutes down, although he’s provided a spark off the bench thus far in conference play.
The inexperienced Bobcats are working in six new faces from last year’s 14-17 team, one of whom is not departed All-Big Sky point guard Marcus Colbert, the heart and soul of Fish’s first two Bobcat squads. Two others, transfers Keljin Blevins and Konner Frey, are ineligible this season.
The roster shortfalls have been accentuated during a brutal last six weeks. Montana State enters this weekend’s home stand having lost nine of 10 games, including an 83-81 heartbreaker in overtime at Idaho its last time out last Saturday.
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“There’s a process you need to do to start to win basketball games and we are starting to check boxes in that process,” Fish said on Tuesday.
“I’m very happy with the strides we are making. The guys are starting to fall into their roles and understand it.”
MSU hosts North Dakota (3-1 in Big Sky play, 8-6 overall) on Thursday and Northern Colorado (3-1, 7-8) on Saturday afternoon. Montana State’s lone win since December 1 was an 80-63 triumph over Idaho State in its last home game on New Year’s Eve day. MSU suffered a sweep at Eastern Washington (82-64) and Idaho despite sophomore guard Tyler Hall scorching the nets for 33 and 32 points, respectively.
“We are positive for what lies ahead,” MSU freshman point guard Harald Frey said. “We know what we are capable of doing. If we can keep improving on that and bring the effort every day, I think the wins will come.”
The overtime loss in Moscow was a microcosmic example of MSU’s season thus far. Hall carried the Bobcat offense with another virtuoso performance, nailing big shot after big shot down the stretch during his fifth 30-point outing of the season and the seventh of his career. But rebounding and a disparity at the free throw line again proved to be MSU’s kryptonite.
Hall drilled a 3-pointer, his fifth of the game, with 35 seconds left in overtime to tie the action at 81. On the ensuing Idaho possession, Pat Ingram missed a shot with three seconds on the clock but Brayon Blake came in from behind the Bobcats, namely Hall, and tipped the miss in for the game-winning bucket.
After the game, Hall shouldered the blame for the loss, admitting he was the one who missed the box out on Blake as MSU fell 1-3 in league play, 6-11 overall.
“We are all older people. It’s hard for young people to admit mistakes,” Fish said while addressing half a dozen media members at his weekly news conference Tuesday. “To come to grips with making a mistake and say I made a mistake that could cost the team a game, that’s such huge growth for a guy who could be sitting there looking and saying, ‘I put 32 points on the board, why didn’t you other guys come?’ To come in and say that in front of the team that, ‘Hey, I didn’t get it done’, that’s tremendous growth.
“That’s part of the process of becoming a good player. Marcus Colbert always took blame way more than he took credit and it helped us grow. Now we are starting to get that from our players. To say that in front of your peer group at 19 years old is not easy. Tyler has made great strides from it.”
Frey equaled Hall’s total of five 3-pointers at Idaho as the southpaw from Oslo, Norway continued his hot shooting during conference play. Frey’s 5-of-8 performance from beyond the arc boosts his 3-point percentage in conference play to 66.7 percent (14-of-21) and his season percentage to 40.7 percent. As a team, MSU has hit a league-best 180 3-pointers and is shooting at a 37.7 percent clip.
But the disparity at the foul line continues to kill the Bobcats. A combination of a lack of penetration on offense and a lack of communication on defense has resulted in MSU shooting 140 less free throws than its opponents. MSU has allowed 365 points at the stripe and scored 275. MSU hit 18-of-23 free throws in Moscow but the Vandals countered by making 35-of-42, including 15-of-17 from star guard Victor Sanders during a 27-point outing.
“We are fouling too much,” Fish said. “Statistically I don’t know where we are at but we are getting outscored nine points per game right now at the line and that’s just unacceptable.
“We are shooting phenomenal percentages from three, we are playing better offensively. But we are allowing teams to rest at the line and it’s putting us in a bad position…We have got to avoid those because it’s really been our Achilles heel.”
This weekend’s home stand will provide another set of challenges, beginning with a UND team led by future pro combo guard Quinton Hooker. The senior and preseason Big Sky MVP is averaging just shy of 25 points per outing during North Dakota’s three-game winning streak. The stout 6-foot, 205-pounder from Minneapolis is shooting 54.7 percent during conference play, including 50 percent from beyond arc.
Saturday, Frey, Hall and MSU sophomore guard Devonte Klines will have another stout challenge in Northern Colorado downhill point guard Jordan Davis. The UNC sophomore has among the highest usage rates in all of Division I and he’s produced at a high level. The 6-foot-2 blur is averaging 20.7 points per game and leading the league with 5.7 assists per outing.
“This league is full of great point guards, of course,” Frey said. “Almost every team has a great point guard. It’s definitely a challenge but we are approaching this as a team.
“Come conference play, all the teams know each other, the tendencies, the players, the style of play so that’s definitely new for me because it’s my first year. It’s definitely a challenge but I embrace it.”
MSU is mired in the longest skid since Fish’s first season when the Bobcats lost 14 of 15 during a 7-23 campaign. The schedule provides no relief despite the upcoming set of home games. Despite the losing, Fish remains optimistic for the immediate and distance future.
“(Optimism) is as high as it’s ever been because I like what we are doing,” Fish said. “Harald has come in and grown. Devonte is growing. Q is getting out there and being productive. (Junior center) Benson (Osayande) has really gotten a lot better. DK (freshman post Devin Kirby) is coming along. The growth is great. Tyler is playing at a level that is not seen a lot. I couldn’t be more excited with where we are going. When you have the two guys sitting out (Keljin Blevins, Konner Frey) who are practicing with us and you see what we have coming, you get really excited.”
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Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
