Over the past decade, matchups between Weber State and Montana have served as the premier games in the Big Sky Conference, whether it be a regular-season showdown with the Big Sky title and the right to host the tournament hanging in the balance or a Big Sky Tournament showdown with a ticket to the Big Dance on the line.
This season, the story remains largely the same. UM and WSU each enter the second-to-last weekend of the regular season with 12-2 marks in conference play, tied atop the league standings once again. This winter, no one will host the tournament — the Big Sky has gone to a neutral site tournament in Reno the second week of March — but each team is still gunning for another conference ring.
Weber State head coach Randy Rahe
Weber State has capture four regular-season titles (2007, 2009, 2010, 2014) in Randy Rahe’s 10 seasons at the helm. The Wildcats advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2007 and 2014. Weber has captured the Big Sky postseason title nine times since 1978.
Montana has dominated the league in recent years, claiming the regular-season title in 2012, 2013 and last season. Montana has advanced to five NCAA tournaments in the last 10 seasons.
With so much riding on the line for Saturday’s showdown, it would be easy to forget that Weber State has a crucial game on Thursday night to ensure the battle against the Grizzlies is indeed between first-place teams. But Rahe is no taking upstart Montana State lightly.
“We are not in a position right now with where we are at to overlook anybody and Montana State is a really good basketball team,” Rahe said. “They played Montana really tough twice. They’ve won three out of four. We know they are very, very good. We don’t even look at Saturday or think about Saturday. We have to try to take care of business Thursday and that will be tough enough being short-handed.”
Short-handed is an understatement. In last Saturday’s 77-74 win at Northern Arizona, Weber State star center Joel Bolomboy suffered a bone bruise to his left knee. He is out indefinitely and certainly won’t play against MSU. The 6-foot-9 physical specimen was one of the front-runners for league MVP honors before his injury. He is averaging 17.5 points and 13.5 rebounds per game this season, the latter the second-best average in NCAA Division I.
Weber State forward Kyndahl Hill/by WSU Athletics
Weber will leans on Kyndahl Hill and Zach Braxton more heavily this weekend. Hill, a junior who started 30 games last season, has thrived off the bench, chipping in 8.3 points and 5.9 rebounds per contest. The 6-foot-7 former TCU football recruit is shooting 64 percent from the floor. Braxton, a 6-foot-9, 250-pound bruising redshirt freshman, is averaging 6.5 points and 5.1 rebounds in 26 starts this season.
“They have another good big in Hill,” MSU point guard Marcus Colbert said. “We are not worried about what we are going to do. If we are going to win, it’s going to come from us. We are not really worried about what they bring or who is going to play. We have to take care of ourselves.”
Earlier this season, Rahe posted his 125th Big Sky win, passing former Montana State head coach Mick Durham for the all-time league mark. Rahe has won 75 percent of his Big Sky games during his decade-long stay in Ogden.
“They are an established program that is well coached,” MSU head coach Brian Fish said. “It’s not like they have added one player to the program. They keep replacing. It’s kind of like when we were at Creighton. Every year, we would lose this player, that player but we would replace him with just one player because the system is bigger than a player.”
Montana State hits I-15 for what has become one of the toughest road trips in the league fighting for footing in the standings. The Bobcats are 7-7 in Big Sky play following last weekend’s 87-78 loss to rival Montana, the 12th straight defeat at the hands of the Grizzlies. MSU is a game out of sixth place and two games out of fourth with four games to play. MSU still has games against Idaho State (9-5) in league) and North Dakota (8-6), teams bunched in the standings right above the Bobcats.
MSU guard Marcus Colbert
“We are in a spot where we can make a run at that No. 4 spot and that’s our goal,” said Colbert, who is averaging 16.4 points and 5.4 assists per game during his final season. “There’s only one way to do that: winning.”
Montana State posted a nice home sweep of Idaho and Eastern Washington before hosting the Griz earlier this season. MSU fell to Montana 80-72 in Bozeman. Fish said he felt the loss lingered and effected his team in an 83-68 loss at Portland State their next time out. Fish hopes the Bobcats can put the Griz game behind them and focus squarely on the Wildcats.
“I’m not sure Montana-Weber back to back on the road makes it any easier,” Fish said. “The schedule makers didn’t do us any favors. If we are ever going to make a name for ourselves in the league, we have to beat these teams. You have to go on the road and find a way to win.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez or noted. All Rights Reserved.
