Men's Basketball

After first summer with new Bobcats, Fish is optimistic

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Brian Fish is entering his second year in Bozeman and he’s optimistic about the future.

The Montana State head men’s basketball coach endured a grueling first season that saw his team post a 7-24 record. To fix the program as quickly as possible, Fish essentially cleaned house in the off-season. He cut ties with three players and saw three more leave due to graduation. He signed eight new players, including five from the junior college ranks as seniors Marcus Colbert and Danny Robison, junior Steph Holm and sophomore Zach Green figure to be the only holdovers who will get playing time next winter.

IMG_0303 copy 2 Fish brought in three highly-regarded prep recruits in Rock Island, Illinois’ Tyler Hall, Minneapolis’ Sam Neumann and Seattle’s Mandrell Worthy. He also added size up front in the form of Gillette Junior College forwards Sarp Gobeloglu and Quinton Everett, Northeastern Junior College power forward Shikei Blake and Laramie Junior College power forward Tyson Kansejo. He also added Tohono O’odham Community College point guard Nahjee Matlock.

With the exception of Blake and Holm, the rest of the Bobcats spent the summer in Bozeman, taking advantage of seven weeks in which they could practice and bond. The first week of August, Fish sat down with Skyline Sports to talk about the prospects of his team going forward.

Skyline Sports: What’s the status now? Where are you guys at? You finished up with summer stuff when and when will they be back?

 Fish: “The guys go home Friday. We just did our last thing today. We ended camp, we ended practice, lifting. We will have a meeting tomorrow morning and they will all be allowed to leave. They will all be back the 21st. They will get two weeks off.”

Skyline: I know you were excited when we last talked about these guys. Now that you’ve had a few months with them, what were some of your best impressions?

 Fish: “I really like the guys and I think there’s a lot of things we can do with this team. It’s just a matter of getting them D-I tough. But I like our speed, I like our length and I like our basketball knowledge. All those things just have to become tighter. It’s August 6 so it should be like that. We’ve got a chance and that’s what we ask for but we still have a lot of work to do.”

Skyline: Did anybody — you obviously looked at these guys really closely before bringing them in — but did anybody surprise you or did anybody do anything you didn’t expect them to do?

Fish:  “Tyson Kanseyo is a little more physical and accepting of a physicality role than I thought coming out of junior college. For the most part, the guys have been about what we’ve expected. We haven’t thrown a lot at them. The things we’ve done is we’ve created the work ethic we want to do and the culture we want in terms of attending class and showing up to appointments and meetings. We’ve got them to buy into the Bobcat way these seven weeks and that’s what we wanted to get accomplished.”

Skyline: Did everyone take summer classes?

 Fish: “No. Steph (Holm) did not. He had some family stuff in Utah. And Shy (junior college transfer Shikei Blake) had to do some academic stuff and we knew that when we signed him. He could be here right now because he’s done but there’s no classes so he’ll come on the 21st.

Skyline: Not being here, do you think that will set him back at all?

Fish: “I do. It will push back his date where he gets comfortable a little farther back than the other guys. I’m a little more used to that because coming from Oregon, you have guys who play on national teams and things like that so you aren’t used to having guys there in the summer as much. I’m used to adding guys who prepare like that. To have 11 of our 13 here is as high as I thought we’d be.”

Skyline: Zach (Green) and Marcus (Colbert) and Danny (Robison) are the returners. Did they acclimate to the new guys?

Fish: “Marcus and Danny have been incredible leaders and I think they have a chance — I told them this but I wish they had more than one more year because they are just selfless people and I really like both of them — and I think they can lead us. I think this team fits them a little more just from what I’ve seen in working out. Danny is more of a behind the scenes player and he’s been able to do that more with this team. Marcus has been able to be a vocal leader. I like that.

“Quiet frankly, I think Zach is the most improved player in the program. I usually think 10 or 15 percent improvement from your freshman year and I’m not sure Zach hasn’t doubled that. Projecting where he would be and where he is at, I’m very pleased with where Zach is at. I’ve been incredibly impressed with where he’s at so far.”

Skyline: Is there anything that sparked that? Do you think he was kind of put on alert with all these new guys coming in?

 Fish: “I mean, I guess but you’d have to ask him for sure. But I think at some point, there’s that come to Jesus meeting you have with your freshman year and you have to decide if you’re going to be a player or not. He certainly had that meeting with himself and it appears he wants to be that. I think he got enough playing time to taste what it was. He had some certain possessions and games where he played well. But I think he wanted to play well all the time. He’s attacked that. His conditioning is at a high level. His competitiveness is way higher than it was. He is in for a big year.

Skyline: I saw him this summer. He looks great. Looks like he put on a lot of weight, 10 or 15 pounds.

 Fish: “I had to do yard work over at my house a couple of weeks ago and he was working with his shirt on acouple of weeks ago. I think every lady in the neighborhood was looking over.”

Colbert

Colbert

Skyline: I saw Colbert the other week too and he seems thrilled he has all these guys to pass the ball to who can knock down shots.

Fish: “Marcus won a state championship in high school so he wants to win, it’s in his DNA. Only people that are losers don’t want to be around better players or better people and he’s done it. He wanted to win last year. You could see the pain in his eyes when we didn’t win. He looks at it as an opportunity to win. Quiet frankly, whether you like it or not, reality of the world is point guards are judged by their record. He wants to leave with a winning record and go out with a team that’s playing the postseason somewhere. He sees these guys as people who can help him reach his goals to leave his legacy here.”

Skyline: One guy I didn’t get to see when you were scrimmaging here after the first camp was Sam Neumann. He hadn’t gotten cleared yet. All the people who have seen him said he can really shoot it.

 Fish: “He can. You know, he’s lost 20 pounds. We went through a medical deal where everything was fine but they wanted to keep checking it. We had some of the best doctors in the United States actually check it out. He’s cleared to play. But he was inactive for so long that we’ve reshaped his body already by 20 pounds.

“One thing I really like about the team is we don’t have anybody here that is more than eight percent body fat. That’s a big key to push these guys to an optimum conditioning level.”

Skyline: Tyler Hall, he stood out so much to me when I first watched him. Did he continue that through the summer?

 Fish: “I think our backcourt will determine his role. But what I have seen is I’ve seen guys try to attack him on the floor instead of just watching him. I’ve seen Quentin (Everett) go at him. Mandrell (Worthy) is starting to go at him. Really good players create a competition. They don’t create a separation. They create a competition where people want to go at them because they are going to get their best if they don’t. Our guys worked out yesterday and he wasn’t very noticeable on the floor. It wasn’t that he played bad. It was that guys were trying to go at him. Which is what I wanted to see.”

Skyline: Do you feel a new, heightened level of competition now with this group?

 Fish: “I do. That’s as a coach what you want. You want competition. I do feel that. But again, we are a team that, when you look at it, has dealt with zero adversity as a group so far. Until we deal with adversity, until I hang up the first depth chart, I really don’t know how they will respond. But I like how they have responded so far.”

Skyline: I haven’t seen Quinton yet either. I know when you were recruiting him, you liked his competitive nature and how he might be one of those guys who gets in your face a little bit, a tone setter. Has he lived up to that?

 Fish: “He’s probably the guy who’s had to make the biggest change. I think I’m the first coach who has pushed him out of his comfort zone. Demanding better conditioning, demanded don’t settle and take what you want. He is a tough, physical 6-3, 205-pound guy who can really guard. I want him to move on to the next play faster. He’s probably of anyone had the biggest adjustment and you can see him start to come into it and understand that he was really, really good in workouts yesterday.”

Skyline: I know you are redshirting Quinn Price.

 Fish: “I don’t know yet.”

Skyline: Ok, kind of open. My question is do you feel like with the exception of Marcus, everyone is fighting for time at every spot?

 Fish: “I think so. I’m still not sure. Ultimately, having two ball handlers on the floor would be the perfect situation. I could see Marcus could play some off-guard as well. Mandrell has handled the ball very well in practice. Obviously, Tyler has handled it very well. (Junior college transfer point guard) Nahjee (Matlock) has handled it very well. He’s starting to show his speed more as he gets comfortable. I like our ball handling options. They are improving.”

Skyline: Sarp Gobeloglu, is he healthy?

 Fish: “Yes. He’s been out playing. Getting him to do some things he doesn’t necessarily like is a challenge. He can really shoot it and he can really pass it. I just want to make sure he’s on the boards and competing and fighting and those things. I’m letting him know that’s not a light switch, it’s a personality. We have to get him doing that every day.”

Skyline: Do you think his skill set is translatable to this level?

 Fish: “I really do. I really, really, really like him as a player. If he rebounds and accepts the challenge we’ve put for him, he’ll be a big factor for us.”

Skyline: Will you pit….who will Tyson be battling with the most as far as your low post guy?

 Fish: “I’m sure Shy and Tyson will battle for some time. I’ve been really happy with Quinn the last two weeks. He really plateau’d coming back and he’s had four or five really good workouts. He’s doing some things. But due to Tyson working these seven weeks, you better bring your lunch pail with him and if you beat him out, you will have earned it. He ain’t going to give you anything. I kind of like the mentality we’ve established down there inside.”

Skyline: Last thing for you. What’s the biggest point of emphasis for these guys going forward?

 Fish: “Mental toughness. Mental toughness. The Division I game is such a change from what they’ve all done. And if you’re Marcus and Danny, the mental toughness of expecting to win is what we need. It’s not going in and going we won a game, that’s good. Excepting to go forward and go for a sweep every time out, expect to win always. Across the board, one through the entire program, we need the mental toughness to be grinding every day.”

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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