We lost to ETSU, split with Woofie (though they got the better of the split in every respect). UNI probably plays in a better conference, and Richmond absolutely does–much better, in fact. Someone has to win the auto-bid from whatever conferences Winthrop and Phillip–’er, Robert–Morris are in.

I think the most depressing (which isn’t necessarily the same thing as most disappointing) aspect of the season was the loss to King, followed closely by the blowout loss to Campbell. The one real highlight was the semi-final blowout of Charleston.

It makes me puke to see Easy Teasy getting a bid. Screw them and the horses they rode in on. I’d rather see UCLA go to the tourney (after beating us three times in one season) than see those sorry cruds get any type of post-season bid.

I wish you had beat Wofford, but how about those Griz coming back from 22 points down, with Johnson scoring 34 in the second half- WOW! I don’t expect us to go far, even though we beat Nevada in the first round in 06′. Sure would be nice to get Villanova the first game and upset them for some revenge. Good luck…

Grizzly

It would also be nice for me to win the lottery

All jokes aside, good luck to Montana. I remember when Montana beat Nevada. Didn’t you have some huge center who had a big dunk in that game?

Hey, that’s with three Zs, ceez!

If we had beaten Wofford, it would have been a miscarriage of justice. MT was down by more at half than we were vs. Woofie, and made a steady, determined, organized push to come back and eventually win. Even when we got the margin down to four, I never felt we were going to win the SoCon championship game. I thought Weber State was in big trouble as soon as MT got the margin down to 10.

But (realistically) Montana should want ‘Nova as much as we should want UNC (if both of us go to one of those sub-junior tourneys)–which is to say, not at all.

GriZZZly, does Big Sky always hold its tournament at a campus site? Is it always at the top seed’s gym, or was that just coincidental this year?

DRM

I can answer that…It is the top seed gym (wikipedia)…A good bit of smaller conference schools adopt this concept. I for one am in favor of it

They also only have a 6 team conference. Does Montana play a lot of D2 schools in basketball as well (low blow)

I wouldn’t mind it, either–similar principle to home field advantage for the top seeds in the FCS playoffs. Some fans would miss the travel op, though.

Six? Big Sky has nine teams for football (I’m doing a little of my own research, so 09 doesn’t reprimand me). Usually, if there’s a disparity between participation in the two sports, it goes the other way–more play basketball than football. SoCon is a prime example.

Actually, if Jeff Sagarin’s page is correct, Big Sky has nine in basketball, too–same schools. He shows Big Sky as the 17th best basketball conference; SoCon is 19th, Colonial 13th.

Ya we have 9 in the Big Sky. We don’t play a “cupcake schedule” in basketball either. We beat Boise State,Loyola Marymount,& Oregon- and lost to Washington by 4. The big kid from 06′ was Andrew Strait from Yakima.

Ok I admit we have had some “cupcake games” in football. I think that will soon change. Bobby hauck is now a “honky rebel” and new coach Pflugrad is going to make changes, including a more up beat offense with a QB more like AE who is more mobile.

Where did you guys find Pflugrad? And how is his name pronounced? Is the P silent?

He most recently was a receivers coach (I believe anyways) at Oregon, but has also been at Washington State & Arizona State. Its pronounced flew-grad . His daughter is a cheer leader for the Oregon Ducks. (Amanda Pflugrad)

If he was at Oregon, he should know a few things about running an up-tempo offense.

Well, we did beat Robert Morris, didn’t we?

And Winthrop….

And Morgan State…

Grizzz

I meant only 6 play in the conference tournament. Did I read that correctly? If I did can you explain the reasoning? I know the Big East up until this season didn’t allow the bottom four in their conference tournament. They probably got tired of Dick Vitale mentioning how it wasn’t fair to the bottom four teams, although I do agree with him on that subject. I also think that jump balls should be done the way the NBA does and toss it up baby, toss it up. speaking of Dick V please tell me you all have seen the commercial with the guy in the office with the brackets? When he does the Dick V impersonation I lose it every time.

When you said Montana best Loyola all I could think about was Hank Gathers. Will always be a mystery as to how the NBA would have been in the 90s if he and Bias didn’t pass away

Grizzz

I meant to state that the Big Sky Tournament only has 6 teams. Did I research that correctly? If so what is the reason? I know up until this season the Big East only allowed the top 12 teams into their conference tournament. I am glad they gave all 16 teams a chance. It is only fair if you are giving an automatic bid to the winner of each conference tournament. Does Boise State still have that obstacle illusion floor?

You mentioned Loyola…I always wonder what Hank Gathers would have done in the NBA. Same could be said about Len Bias.

App has been to the Big Dance ONCE in the last 30 years—what more do we want?? Check how many times UR, UNI, UM, ETSU, even UNCG have been.

ceez- Ya your are correct. I don’t follow college bball all that close until now, so I’m not sure about Boise’s obstacle(not optical?) illusion floor but it sounds interesting as their smurf turf. I am a huge MJ fan but think Len Bias would have been just about as huge a star as MJ. So it looks like UNC will be in the NIT? I believe there has been more than one team from the Big Sky taken before, so maybe ASU still has a chance still .

No way we or any other SoCon team has a shot at the NCAA tournament. Even NIT feels like a long shot to me. But then I’m pretty much ready to forget about basketball for the season, anyway–maybe I’m being even more pessimistic than usual.

Joe–and Chattanooga and Marshall and Charleston and Davidson and . . .