Big Sky Big Timer: Schhhhhhh!

I want to start off by telling you that I hate ties. In sports there are no ties, you have a winner and a loser. In games/sports that can result in ties, when a tie occurs, I am always left with a sour taste in my mouth. In fact in tie games, such as in the NFL, even if the game ends in a tie you have a moral victor and moral loser (see Donovan McNabb).

However, for this week's BSBTr, I am going to issue a tie. I spent a good two hours trying to decide this one, but there were two very good performances this week that I think deserve a nod. Without further ado, this weeks BSBTr, the "Sch" edition:

Congrats this week to Weber State's Tonya Schnibbe and Northern Colorado's Jaime Schroeder.

Weber State got two big W's this week, thanks in no small part to the play of Tonya Schnibbe. The point guard had 16 points, 7 assists, 3 steals, and was 5-6 from the free throw line in the Wildcats' 66-53 win over UC-Irvine. She scored or assisted 17 of the team's final 21 points as Weber State pulled away for the win. On Saturday, the Wildcats upset Mountain West favorite Utah 65-63 behind 20 points, 6 assists, and 4 steals from Schnibbe. One of her steals came in the closing seconds of the game and set up Weber's game winning possession.

Northern Colorado went 2-2 this week, getting wins over New Mexico State and Washington and losing to Florida State and #1 UConn, two teams with a combined 18-2 record. Schroeder had 15 points, 7 rebounds, and was 5-10 from the field in the 59-50 win over NMSU. The Bears then traveled to Cancun where they faced Florida State to open a holiday tournament. Schroeder had an off night, scoring just 4 points in the loss to the 'Noles, but dropped 17 points and 5 boards on the number 1 team in the land, UConn, the following night. Shroeder ended the tournament with 21 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists in NCU's 65-63 upset of Washington.

Honorable Mention Big Timers:

Michelle Grohs (ISU): career high 23 points, 8 rebs in win over St. Mary's

Jenna Brown (ISU): career high 18 points, 6 boards, 6 assists in win over St. Mary's

Sonya Rogers (Montana): 24 pts in win over Denver; 13 points, 3-9 from the arc in loss to Gonzaga; 11 points, 3-8 from three, 3 steals in win over MSU-Northern

Sarah Ena (Montana): 13 pts, 9 rebs vs Denver; 20 points, 10 rebs vs Gonzaga

Jenny Heringer (MSU): 16 points, 11 boards in win over Idaho

Erica Perry (MSU): 8 points, 8 assists, 0 turnovers in win over Idaho

Claire Faucher (PSU): 19 points, 8 assists, 5 boards in win over Utah State; 9 points, 11 assists in win over Manhattan

Kelsey Kahle (PSU): 10 points, 8 rebs vs USU; 20 points, 10 rebs vs Manhattan

Sami Field-Polisso (SAC) 17 points, 4 assists, 6-12 shooting in loss to Texas Tech

Visions of Referees Danced in His Head

Christmas has always been one of my favorite times of the year. Think about it, it is the intersection of family, great food, presents, and sports. The NFL is gearing up for playoffs, part of college football is in their playoffs (while the other half SHOULD be), and there are some great non-conference college basketball games.

Growing up we had three different ways of getting Xmas presents. Mom always filled up our stockings with little gifts that were cool, but not the gifts we really got worked up over. On Xmas eve we got the good gifts from Mom and Dad and our grandparents. Then, the best of all, we opened our really awesome gifts from Santa on Xmas morning.

This year we get some early gifts as there are some awesome non-conference games featuring Big Sky teams the weekend before Xmas. Following my family's gift scheme, here are the ones I am looking forward to:

Stocking Stuffer:
Montana State vs. Idaho, Saturday
This is an intriguing game because of the fact it used to be a pretty good Big Sky Conference rivalry. Add some more intrigue by putting former ISU coach Jon Newlee on the bench for Idaho. Newlee is very familiar with Montana State and you can bet he will have the Vandals ready to play. Idaho has already shown improvement under Newlee. They are off to a 3-6 start, and one of their wins was a solid 10 point win over a Pacific team which blasted Portland State earlier in the month. Idaho is 1-1 against the Big Sky this season with a big loss to Montana and a win over a much improved Eastern Washington team. Their last two losses were by 1 to Long Beach State and by 3 to Washington State.

This is an important game for MSU because the Cats are anxious to get the bad taste of their SoCal trip out of their mouths and head into the Xmas break on a high note. With a win, the Bobcats will equal their win total from last season's non-conference schedule. MSU should prevail, but I expect it to be closer than last season's lopsided affair in Moscow.

Christmas Eve Gift:
Weber State vs. Utah, Friday
Weber State is a hard team to figure out. They started out like a house on fire: drubbing Washington, winning an OT thriller over Elon, and narrowly losing to Wyoming. But in the month of December, the Wildcats went 0-3 until finally getting back in the win column last night vs UC-Irvine. The Wildcats have the early favorite for Big Sky MVP in Caitlyn Anderson, who is averaging a league-leading 16.2ppg and 8.2 rebounds per game. She is shooting 49% from the field and 50% from long range. Add week one BSBTr Tonya Schnibbe to the mix and things get interesting. Schnibbe is the conference's 4th leading scorer and leads the conference in assists at 7.56 per game, which is nearly 2 assists more per game than the next player on the list (Faucher).

Utah is off to a 4-4 start and is picked to win the Mountain West. This is one of those in-state rivalry games that probably means more to Weber. It will be a good test of how good the Wildcats really are: if they keep it close or win, I am sold on Weber as a threat in the Sky. If they get blown out, maybe we have the Weber we thought we would get. The fact that this game will be played in the Purple Palace gives the Wildcats a big advantage.

Christmas Morning Gift:
Montana vs Gonzaga, Friday
After losing 2 straight games in Cancun, the Lady Griz are 4-0 with wins over Oregon, Boise State, Colorado State, and Portland. Mandy Morales has been unstoppable, winning back-to-back BSBTr awards (and BSC POWs as well). The Griz defense has been outstanding this season, giving up a minuscule 54 points per game, the lowest in the Big Sky by more than 11 points. Additionally, the Griz are limiting opponents to 35% shooting and are forcing 19 turnovers per game.

Enter Gonzaga, a very good team which has lost three games this season and is receiving votes in the national polls. The Bulldogs are averaging 75 points per game and shooting 42%. This will be a tough test for the Grizzly defense and should tell us a lot about how good the Griz really are this year. With the game being in Dahlberg, I fully expect a down to the wire game.

Lump of Coal:
Sac State at Texas Tech, Saturday
Good luck with that one.

Big Sky Big Timer: Morales Repeats

Live from the Scanson residence in Belgrade following a long, long travel day with a major winter weather delay in Denver…here is this week’s Big Timer:

Congrats to Mandy Morales for the second week in a row. This week Morales was the leading scorer in both of Montana’s games, helping the Lady Griz go 2-0 on the weekend. In a 68-53 win over Colorado State on Wednesday, Morales had 16 points and 9 rebounds. Against Portland, a 63-41 win for the LG, Morales had 13 points and 7 rebounds.

It was a tough weekend for the Big Sky as the teams went a combined 4-9, but with all teams playing tough non-conference schedules, the real fun will begin in three weeks when conference play starts!

Honorable Mention BSBTrs

Nicole Scott (EWU): 14 points and 4 rebounds to lead the Eagles in a big win over Pacific.

Michelle Grohs (ISU): Averaged 16 points and 9 rebounds in 2 losses.

Charday Hunt (SAC): 19 points and 4 steals in a rivalry win over UC Davis, 12 points in a loss to San Francisco

Atty Boyer (SAC): Double-double (15,10) in loss to San Fran, 8 points 10 rebounds in win over UC Davis.

Nubia Garcia (MSU): Career high 20 points and 9 rebounds in loss to San Diego State, fouled out vs USC.

Shout Outs:

Shannon Scanson: MVP radio listener of the weekend listened to 2 entire games this weekend. That is dedication.

Katie Falco: former MSU assistant has the South Dakota State Jackrabbits off to a 10-1 start with wins over Missouri, Wisconsin, Montana, Illinois, Gonzaga, and Minnesota (among others). Coach ‘em up Katie!

Joslyn Tinkle: 34 points, 10 rebounds in 56-45 win over Billings West. Wow.

Chelsea Banis: Future Bobcat had 20 points in Fairfield’s win Three Forks and 18 points in a rematch of the State B Championship (W for Fairfield).

Big Sky Big Timer: Mandy Morales

First of all, apologies on not getting this out earlier in the week. I had some computer troubles and a travel schedule to work out, but better late than never. Live from the Hilton Mission Valley in sunny San Diego, here is this week’s Big Sky Big Timer.

Congrats this week to Montana senior Mandy Morales. During games last week against Oregon and Boise State, Morales averaged 17 ppg in two wins. In Eugene, Morales had 14 points (game high) and 7 rebounds as the Griz knocked off the Pac-10 Ducks. In the Montana win over Boise State, Morales had 20 points and a career high 14 rebounds.

Honorable Mention BSBTrs:

Nubia Garcia (MSU): Against Boise St, Garcia was one point away from two double-doubles on the weekend.

Atty Boyer (SAC): 18 points, 12 rebounds in narrow loss to UC-Irvine.

Kelsey Kahle (PSU): Had 31 points on 11-12 shooting vs Seattle. Followed that up with 20% of her team’s scoring vs Oregon State, unfortunately PSU only scored 24 points.

Sade Cunningham (NAU): Averaged 13 points in a split at the Arizona State Tournament. Named to all-tournament team following a game-high 16 points in a championship loss to the host team.

This Can't Wait...

I was going through the Big Sky scores tonight and was reading up on candidates for BSBTr when this showed up. The ugliest game ever award goes to Portland State and Oregon State who tangled today in the I-5 Showdown. PSU scored just 6 points in the first half of the game, tripled that in the second half and still lost 58-24. Wow. Going through the box score, PSU committed 35 turnovers and shot 22% on the game, including 3-21 in the first half (14%)!! The Viks didn't get their second basket until halfway though the first half and didn't get their third basket until 57 seconds before half time. Oregon State didn't exactly burn up the nets either and in fact actually turned the ball over 22 times itself.

My condolences to the 1,243 people that sat through that one.

Box Score

Check back for BSBTr and the weekly roundup tomorrow!

Clutch Shot

This is from a Geneseo HS game in New York. I think Scanson hit a similar shot in the Blue-Gold scrimmage...



How can you not love basketball?

News Roundup

UPDATE: As was astutely pointed out in the comments section, I forgot to mention that Montana HC Robin Selvig won his 700th game last week over Illinois in his team's Cancun Tournament. This little fact is intriguing:

"By winning his 700th game in 899 games coached, Selvig matches former Texas coach Jody Conradt as the fifth fastest coach in NCAA men’s or women’s basketball history to reach 700 victories."

They even made a special postmark for the man.

Evidently there is another Big Sky POW Award besides my Big Sky Big Timer. Congrats to Jenny Heringer and Caitlin Anderson, both are very deserving. But if I were Tonya Schnibbe I would be writing my congressman.

The hard working Will Holden has a great look at recent Bobcat signees.

Nothing like a truck stop Thanksgiving. Kristen Feemster wrote a cool blog post about Western Carolina's trip to Montana for last week's game. Kristen needs to do some research next time though. She thought Montana would be flat?! Don't diss my mountains girl!

The ACC-Big 10 Challenge got underway last night and continues through Wednesday. The Pac 10 and Big 12 team up for a series later this week. I love the concept and wish the Big Sky could do something like this. I know its probably cost prohibitive for a mid-major conference like the Big Sky, but a guy can dream can't he? Big Sky-Missouri Valley Showdown anyone?

Cats, Broncos, and Tricia Binford

When Boise State and Montana State tip it off on Friday night, it will seem like a Back to the Future movie. These two schools are old rivals dating back to 1996 when Boise State moved from the Big Sky Conference to the Big West Conference. It will be a nice treat to see these two square-off again.

This year’s meeting carries some extra pizzazz because of a certain MSU coach that just happens to be a Boise State legend. Tricia Binford (then Bader) is the BSU career in assists and second in steals. This will be the second time Binford coaches against her alma-mater. Boise State came to Bozeman for a Thanksgiving Tournament in Binford’s first season (2005-06), winning 66-52.

Here are some other fun Cat-Bronco-Binford facts:

Tricia Binford’s career high in scoring came in Bozeman against MSU. In BSU’s final season in the Big Sky, Binford dropped 34 points on the Cats on 1/27/1996. That total is the 3rd highest in BSU history. Binford racked up 14 field goals, which is tied for the most in school history. She was 75% (6-8) from the arc, which is the second best single game history, and the 6 made threes is 4th most in school single game history. Despite this offensive explosion by Binford, MSU won 78 to 72.

Montana State holds the series edge 26 to 23. The teams met twice in the Big Sky Tournament, back-to-back in 1994 and 1995. In 1994, BSU knocked MSU out in the semifinals 78 to 68 (Binford was named to the all-tournament team). In 1995, MSU beat BSU in the semis, 59 to 55. Boise State’s 92% free throw percentage (22-24) in the 1994 tournament game is 10th most in Big Sky tournament history.

Binford has the top 2 single season assist records at BSU, 139 in 1993-94 (4.8 per game) and 127 in 1992-93 (4.7 per game). She also has number 8, 106 in 1995-96 (3.9 per game).During the 1993-94 season, Binford registered 88 steals (3 per game), which is good for number 2 in school history.

Binford is number 6 in career scoring (1,171 points), 8th in career field goals made (411), 6th in field goals attempted (1,081—for a 38% career average), 11th in 3FGs made (72) , 8th in 3FGs attempted (269—27% career average), 6th in career free throws made (277), 5th in free throws attempted (408—68% career average), 1st in assists (451), 2nd in steals (271), and 5th in games played (115).

Boise State led the Big Sky in scoring offense from 1991-95 (Binford played from 1991-96) and averaged 80 ppg in 1992-93.