BOZEMAN — As Brian Fish reaches the end of his fourth November at the helm for the Montana State men’s basketball team, each month of his tenure brings forward a new challenge his Bobcats need to master.
His first season, the challenges included playing powerhouses like Kentucky and UCLA to begin a trying debut campaign that included just seven wins. In Fish’s second season, MSU had to deal with teams adjusting to slow down superstar freshman Tyler Hall while navigating a schedule highlighted by Syracuse and also included several solid mid-major opponents en rout to a 14-16 record.
Last season, the Bobcats had to learn how to handle playing prevalently at home. A schedule that included 17 home games gave MSU as many chances to perform at Brick Breeden Fieldhouse as any Bobcat team in a generation. Montana State stamped last year’s 16-16 campaign with a thrilling win over rival Montana in front of the first sellout in 15 years at the Brick.
This season, Montana State is navigating and learning how to deal with several new experiences. First, the defenses designed to stop Hall, now a junior and one of the country’s most lethal scorers, continue to evolve and confuse. Second, the Bobcats are now dealing with high expectations for the first time in Fish’s tenure.
Montana State head coach Brian Fish/by Brooks Nuanez
MSU began its season with a “home” game in Great Falls against upstart Omaha. Behind a late push from Hall, MSU emerged in overtime. An 81-73 loss at Utah State three days later and a 109-81 drubbing in Bozeman of NAIA Montana Western two weeks after the opener capped MSU’s first two weeks.
Since then, the Bobcats have been on the road. But unlike the five-game odyssey that trademarked Fish’s first season or the trip to Hawaii that opened his second, this Thanksgiving getaway featured a matchup at Louisiana Tech (a 71-58 loss) in which Hall missed a game for an injury in the first time in his career.
The Bobcats played two games at the Cancun Challenge, defeating Binghamton and Southeast Missouri State to win the Mayan Division. The Bobcats returned to stateside for a Sunday matinee at Fresno State, an 80-67 loss.
“We haven’t had a 10-day, 11-day trip with these guys before,” Fish said. “It was good to see how they handled it…You want to see how those guys handle those situations.
“We played in a ballroom in Mexico. It’s very similar to where we played in Great Falls. We had practiced this before and we need as many practice reps that your team can face as you can. Being on the road for extended period of time is one of the things we want to practice.”
Montana State guard Tyler Hall/by Brooks Nuanez
The tournament title marks the first by a Bobcat men’s basketball team since 2003.
“The biggest plus was we haven’t won a tournament at this university in 17, 18 years and we didn’t even know how to go out and get the trophy,” Fish deadpanned. “That was a learning experience. Playing back-to-back days against two totally different style teams and SEMO (Southeast Missouri), which is a very similar Big Sky-type team, was beneficial. Winning different ways was good.”
“I think we got better. Certainly no one knows what their team is in November but we started to figure out what we need to do to be a decent team.”
Fish liked the trip because of the close proximity it kept his players and the chance it gave them to bond. The fourth-year head coach also liked the fact that most of his guys only missed one or two days of class given the Friday departure date combine with the Thanksgiving holiday. And he liked that he could give his players special experience on the beaches of Cancun
“You gotta believe a lot of these guys will never get back to the beach like that in Cancun so for them to get them to do those things, that was certainly fun,” Fish said.
Through seven games on the court, Montana State has once again it has the propensity to score the ball but has also struggled to defend one on one. The Bobcats are averaging just shy of 80 points per game but are giving up 77 points per outing. MSU is second in the league currently by shooting 44.6 percent but is allowing its opponents to shoot 45.7 percent.
Montana State forward Zach Green/by Brooks Nuanez
Fish has also been trying to solidify his rotation. Hall and point guard Harald Frey, the reigning Big Sky Conference Freshman of the Year, are locks in the starting five. Junior post Sam Neumann and junior Keljin Blevins, a transfer from Southern Miss who sat out last season, have both started all seven games during MSU’s 4-3 start. The fifth spot has been a rotation between junior Devonte Klines (five starts) and senior Zach Green (two starts), the latter of whom is a three-year starter and one of MSU’s most versatile players.
“Zach really played well on the trip,” Fish said. “He did the things I like and what he can do to help us, so that was beneficial. I’m sure he would love to start but I think he just loves to play. He’s a guy who certainly plays extremely hard off the bench. I’m very happy with how he is playing.”
The rest of the rotation the last two games has included Green and senior Konner Frey, a former transfer from Utah Valley, as the first two off the bench. True freshman Isaac Bonton has been the top reserve guard while senior Joe Mvuezolo is playing 18 minutes and averaging 7.1 points per game in reserve duty.
“This time of year, reality starts to set in,” Fish said. “In June and July, all the guys think they are going to start and play 40 minutes and now you are starting to define roles and how guys accept those roles and how they prosper in those roles.
“We are just trying to figure out roles and sometimes when you are trying to figure out roles, guys look at the wrong things. It always comes down to one thing: did we win or did we lose? It’s that simple.
“I don’t feel anywhere close to it,” Fish said. “I’m not even sure we have the right five out there yet or what we are doing. At times, we can hit some peaks. Probably the most disappointing thing for me right now is there’s only four or five guys right now who I feel confident we can go out and execute a play if we needed to. That’s got to grow to eight or nine because we are playing nine guys double figures (minutes) and I can’t look out there and say, “I can’t run this play, I can’t run this because he doesn’t know that.’ We have to be able to do whatever we need to do at any point in time during a game.”
Montana State point guard Harald Frey/by Brooks Nuanez
On Wednesday, Montana State returns home for the first time in more than two weeks to host Bethesda University, a member of the National Christian College Athletic Association. Fish hopes after more than a week away, his team will be reinvigorated
“I’m still trying to figure this team out,” Fish said. “It’s nice to be home, it’s nice to see everybody. But we go back on a six-day road trip on Friday. It is what it is. I talked to (Oregon head coach) Coach (Dana) Altman today and the next time they leave is when conference starts. That’s just not the luxury at this level. We have to go on the road and play, do our thing. You just do it and go.”
