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.