Big Sky Big Timer: Tonya Schnibbe

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. I got some much needed R & R and ate way too much turkey. With all of the distractions, I kind of fell behind on the blog. Hopefully you were distracted as well and didn’t notice.

Just in time to capture some amazing Big Sky performances in week three of the season, I am happy to present the inaugural Big Sky Big Timer, my attempt at picking a player of the week. While I was busy gorging myself and avoiding family members, six of the Sky’s nine teams were celebrating their holidays with tournaments around the country. It was a tough decision, but I think one performance stood out.

Congratulations this week to Tonya Schnibbe of Weber State. Schnibbe, led the Wildcats to a third place finish in the University of Pittsburgh Thanksgiving tournament with 21 points and a school record 17 assists in an overtime win against Elon in the consolation final. She was 8-13 from the floor and added 2 steals. Against Youngstown State in the first game of the tournament, Schnibbe scored 11 points and dished out 9 assists. The junior also notched 10 points and 9 assists in Tuesday's win over NAIA Westminster College. Schnibbe’s solid work at point guard is one of the main reasons that Weber State is off to a surprising 3-2 start. Schnibbe’s 17 assists are 2 away from the Big Sky single game record set by Claire Faucher last season.

Honorable Mention Big Timers

Caitlyn Anderson (WSU)- scored a career high 28 points and notched 17 rebounds in OT win vs Elon in the Pittsburgh tournament. She was 4-6 for long range, including a three that put Weber ahead for good in OT. In the loss to Youngstown State, Anderson had 17 points and 8 rebounds. On Tuesday, Anderson scored a game high 24 points over Westminster College.

Oana Iacovita (ISU) -recorded back-to-back double-doubles with 18 points and 10 rebounds against Loyola Marymount and 13 points and 14 rebounds against North Dakota State at the Loyola Marymount Tournament. She hit 54% of her shots on the weekend.

Jenny Heringer (MSU)- scored 20 points in a win over Western Carolina, going 5-9 from behind the arc, including 3-4 in a 3 minute span as MSU took over the lead halfway through the second half. She added 8 rebounds and 3 assists.

Mandy Morales (UM)- averaged 17.3ppg in 3 games in Cancun. Hit game winner with 0.7 seconds left in OT to give UM the win over Illinois. She led the Griz in scoring in losses to #14 Maryland and South Dakota State.

Anne Phippard (MSU)- scored a career high 20 points in the Cats’ win over Western Carolina. She was 8-14 in her first start of the year and is now shooting a scorching 54% on the season. She also dished out 5 assists in the game.


Shout Outs

Kyla Evans (EWU)- 16 points, 4-5 from the arc in loss to Georgia. Only 1-7 in upset of UNLV.

Sade Cunningham (NAU)- 11 points, 5 steals, 4 assists, 4-9 in loss to Bradley, 14 points, 5 assists in loss to North Dakota.

Whitley Cox (UNC)- 22 points (18 in second half) in loss to San Fransisco, 12 points in win over Wazzu, but had 9 turnovers.

Atty Boyer (SAC)- 10 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists in loss to Portland, 15 points, 6 rebounds vs San Jose State.

Claire Faucher (PSU)- 10 points, 6 rebounds, 6 steals, 9 assists in win over Portland.

Kelsey Kahle (PSU)- 22 points in win over Portland.

Go West Young Man

When the MSU schedule came out a few months ago, the road trip I was looking most forward to was...not sunny San Diego St and USC...not the Battle on the Border Tourney in Texas...but the Gonzaga, Washington State trip. Before you navigate away from this blog, let me tell you why. First of all, both arenas will be awesome to visit. I have been a bandwagon fan of both the Zags and the Cougs as their men's programs have emerged on the national scene. It will be neat to watch games on each of their homecourts in the span of a weekend. Second, Gonzaga could be the best team that MSU faces this year. They return 4 starters from a WCC championship team of a year ago. Last year they beat the Cats 82-68 in a game that was closer than the final score indicated. If the Cats play at their potential, they will have a chance to win this game. Third, the Cats SHOULD beat WSU. It is rare when a Big Sky team is a favorite against a PAC 10 team, but WSU is rebuilding and is not expected to do much this season. In other words, two winnable games against prestigious schools present great opportunities for an awesome basketball weekend.

Web Streaming Update:

Just got the word that MY103.5 will be streaming the games from their website, instead of using the Yahoo method of last year. Good news? The quality is much better. Bad News? No archived games. To remedy that in a small way, I will try to post higlights here on Courtside for those that weren't able to catch the game live. Getting highlights is a time intensive process, so please bear with me...To listen via the MY103.5 website, go to http://www.my1035.com and click on the "Listen Live" button in the upper left of the page. Sit back, relax, and enjoy.

News Roundup

Who chooses these things? I can think of like 10 better choices.

Idaho State has a short bench and can't make its free throws.

I was up way too late last night.

Scotta and Krislyn?! (Check out the second photo. I think I see Katie Burrows and Whitney Connolly there as well.)

One Week Down...

What a great start to the season. I am already having a blast and we are just warming up. The Cats blasted Utah Valley in Orem 94-71 in their opener on Friday night, and then came home to the Fieldhouse for an excellent home-opener win over North Dakota 85-78.

Against UVU, the Cats relied on their offense to pull away after the Wolverines chiseled away MSU’s 5 point halftime lead. The key for MSU was its bench play, which gave the Cats 41 points, including a pair of big threes by Anne Phippard. Sarah Strand and Erica Perry led the Cats with 15 points apiece.

Against North Dakota, MSU got out to a 12 point lead at the half only to see North Dakota come storming back in the second half. (Déjà vu?) MSU led by as much as 21 points in the second half and UND got it down to a 1 point differential in the final minutes before MSU went on a 6-0 run to close the game for the win. The big difference in the game was at the free throw line: MSU went 27 times and converted 21. UND was 7-9. I am a big believer of what goes around comes around however, the story was the exact opposite in Grand Forks last year where UND got 30 attempts and MSU got 8. Kidding aside, UND was pretty sloppy on defense, especially inside where their star, Kierah Kimbrough was fouled out. In fact, coach Gene Roebuck called her out after the game for her defense.

What did I see this weekend? MSU’s offense will be really good. Sarah Strand is capable of shooting the ball from anywhere, freshman Katie Bussey has been in double figures in all of her games as a Bobcat (well almost, she had 9 vs UND), the Cats are getting 40 ppg from their bench through two games, and the posts are getting their buckets and capitalizing on second chance opportunities. This despite the fact that MSU’s projected leading scorer, Jenny Heringer, has yet to heat up and has been missing a ton of free throws. That won’t last long though, she will find her rhythm and look out, MSU could average high eighties, low nineties all season. There is room for improvement however. The MSU post defense was spotty at times. Against UVU, the Cat’s gave up 31 points to Robyn Fairbanks and sent her to the line 10 times. And while Julie McMurray did get a three, most of her career high 25 points around the basket. Against the Sioux, Kimbrough managed 24 points despite riding the pine in foul trouble and only playing for 14 minutes. The Cats surrendered 13 points and 9 rebounds to Whitney Ledger, a bench player who only averaged 6.3 ppg last season. This undoubtedly bugs Coach Binford, so I know she will be harping on defense in the coming weeks. MSU has the athletes to play good post defense and, with proper focus, will start shutting teams down.

Upcoming: 11/21 @ Gonzaga 7pm, 11/23 @ Washington State 3pm

Week One Big Sky WBB Roundup

One week all you can find on ESPN is football, the next it is like Christmas and there are more basketball games than your brain can process. A great weekend of action reminded me why I love college basketball more than any other sport. There is so much intensity, strategy, and drama squeezed into forty minutes, that there is rarely a game that I am not emotionally drained after.

The Big Sky swung into action this weekend as all of the teams made their debuts for the 2008-09 seasons. Perhaps the weekend’s best games were on Sunday afternoon in Bozeman and Missoula, but there were noteworthy performances across the Big Sky landscape. I will do a separate post on MSU, so here are the rest:

Montana
The Griz only had one game on opening weekend, and it had a postseason flare. UM hosted Wyoming, a NCAA tourney team from a year ago. Coach Selvig put together a very tough non-conference schedule this season with hopes of improving a potential seeding in the tournament. Wyoming led most of the game, but the Griz got it together in the end, winning 71-64. Sarah Ena scored a career high 19 points. (I told you she would be a factor!) Rodgers, Morales, and Lohman played 40, 39, and 36 minutes respectively, which is a ton for the first game of the year.

Portland State
With double-doubles from Kelly Valentine and Kelsey Kahle, PSU beat BYU at the Stott Center 73-64. BYU started two players at 6-2 and PSU’s tallest player is Valentine at 5’11, but the Viks won the boards 44-31. Could the Viks hang their hat on defense this year? They only allowed BYU to shoot 35% from the field. Oh, and by the way, Claire Faucher only had 8 assists.

Northern Colorado
Northern Colorado pasted Air Force 73-53 in Colorado Springs on Friday. At one point in the first half, the Bears went on a 22-0 run and held the Falcons scoreless for 11 minutes. UNC forced 19 turnovers and held Air Force to 30% shooting. Freshman Cassie Lambrecht had 13 points off the bench (again I told you so) and Courtney Stoermer scored 12.

Northern Arizona
NAU wasn’t as lucky this weekend as the ‘Jacks failed to score over 47 points in two losses on the road. Friday NAU fell to Memphis 64-47 and on Sunday got walloped by Arkansas State 71-40. The story: turnovers and three pointers. NAU turned the ball over a combined 43 times and was a combined 6-30 from downtown in the two games (for those keeping track at home that is 20%). Highnote? San Diego State transfer Lauren Hoisington registered a double-double (17 pts, 11 rebs) in her first game as a ‘Jack.

Sac State
The Hornets got off to a 0-2 start, losing 92-71 on Friday at UNLV, and 100-45 at Oregon State on Sunday. Against UNLV, Sac leaders Charday Hunt and Tika Diaz both fouled out early. Hunt only lasted 11 minutes. The Hornets did get a double-double from Erika Edwards (11,13) who was 3-3 from long range. Four others were in double figures for Sac. The game was in range until UNLV went off from the arc, going 6-10 in the second half. Atty Boyer scored 1/3 of Sac’s points against Oregon State, but the Hornets turned it over 27 times and got outrebounded 38-21. Not gonna win many games that way.

Idaho State
The Seton Sobolewski era got off to a 1-2 start at the Travelers’ Tournament in Albuquerque, NM as the Bengals lost 73-55 on Saturday to DePaul, lost to host New Mexico 82-47 on Sunday, and just got done beating Alcorn State 67-50 tonight. Oana Iacovita was ridiculous in the win over Alcorn State, scoring 22 on 7-11 shooting (7-8 on free throws) and bagging 11 rebounds. In the losses, scoring was an issue. Against DePaul, only Iacovita scored in double figures and New Mexico held ISU to 26% from the field, with no one scoring double figures. Over the two losses, ISU was outrebounded 71-101. Ouch.

Weber State
The Wildcats lost to Nebraska 96-47 on Friday and lost its exhibition game 69-65 to the College of Idaho two weeks ago. ‘Nuff said. Have faith Weber fans, the suffering will end in four months.

Eastern Washington
The Eagles lost their opener on Friday at Nevada 64-49. While Kyla Evans was 5-9 from the field (5-8 from the arc!), the rest of the team was just 13 of 50 (26%). Don’t worry coach Schuller, you have Idaho coming up next week.

This Week

Tuesday
Northern Colorado vs San Jose State
Montana @ Idaho

Wednesday
Weber State vs Washington
NAU @ Utah State

Thursday
Sac State @ Santa Clara

Friday
Portland State @ Binghamton
Montana State @ Gonzaga
Eastern Washington vs San Francisco

Saturday
Portland State @ Syracuse
Northern Arizona vs Pepperdine
Idaho State @ Utah State
Northern Colorado @ Pacific
Sac State vs Fresno State

Sunday
Montana State @ Washington State

MSU 86 UM-Western 46

Good start for the 'Cats on Saturday night. I don't care who the competition is, winning by 40 is a good win. Some highlights:

-Katie Bussey is good. She put up 17 including 3 long balls. But what I was more impressed with was her ball handling ability and willingness to head right into the teeth of the defense.

-Erica Perry took it easy on the Bulldogs, but she still had a good night. Four steals, 4 assists and 6 rebounds to go along with her 10 points. At one point in the first half she forced three consecutive turnovers, not allowing the Bulldogs to get the ball across halfcourt. After UMW's point guard got the ball stolen two possessions in a row, they gave it to one of their forwards who was a decent ball handler to bring it up. Erica trapped her along the sideline with another Cat (I believe it was Nubia Garcia) and forced the third turnover. If Erica isn't the Defensive MVP of the Big Sky this year, then things could get ugly.(Yes that is a threat).

-The Cats' are deep. Everyone on the active roster scored at least 4 points and all looked fairly comfortable working within Coach Binford's system. It is clear that they have bought in to the high intensity game built on quickness and tough defense that she likes to run. There wasn't much of a drop off when the bench was in the game. Anne Phippard provided some great spark and got communication rolling. Rachel Pauli looked good in her debut, she's got a nice shot and uses her height well in defending and rebounding. There were too many bench highlights to mention.

-The defense looked good. After giving up 91 to the scout team, I was worried about the defense and the focus on that end of the floor. The Cats forced 28 turnovers and kept the Bulldogs below 50 points. While some of that can be attributed to the fact the UMW roster featured 5 transfers that were still trying to figure out the offense, it was clear all night that the Cats had them on their heels and kept them sufficiently flustered all night long. It will be interesting to see how the Cat defense performs when the athleticism of the opponent it similar to their own.

Great game on Friday night at Utah Valley University. The game between MSU and UVU last year in Bozeman may have been the biggest win of the non-conference portion of the season. UVU was undefeated and receiving votes in the national polls when MSU blasted them in the Fieldhouse. The Wolverines will want some revenge and the McKay Center is a tough place to play. This game will be a great test early in the year. However, UVU got kicked around in their exhibition opener to DII Fort Lewis. 82 to 53!!! I haven't tried to figure out why yet, but it is a real head scratcher because they have a good portion of last year's roster back.

To get you ready for the big weekend of hoops, here is that highlight montage that I promised:

Courtside’s 2008-09 All-Big Sky Conference Preseason Team

Following last night’s team previews, I am excited to announce Courtside’s first Big Sky Conference Preseason Awards. These honors follow the BSC’s postseason awards format with All-Conference Teams, League MVP, Defensive MVP, Top Newcomer, and Outstanding Freshman.

Award winners were selected by a panel of experts (me, myself, and I) and will receive nothing but the respect and honor of being recognized on this blog. I thought of ordering trophies, but what with the economy and all…


Drum roll please.

First Team
Mandy Morales, Montana; Britney Lohman, Montana; Claire Faucher, PSU; Erica Perry, MSU; Jenny Heringer, MSU; Jaime Schroeder NC

Second Team
Sonya Rogers, Montana; Atty Boyer, Sac; Kelly Marchant PSU; Nubia Garcia, MSU; Whitley Cox, UNC; Sade Cunningham, NAU;

Honorable Mention
Julie Piper, EWU; Devin Diehl, ISU; Jenna Brown, ISU; Tonya Schnibbe, WSU; Sami Field-Polisso, Sac, Kelly Valentine PSU; Kelsey Kahle, PSU

MVP: Claire Faucher, PSU
Defensive Player of the Year: Erica Perry, MSU
Top Newcomer: Lauren Hoisington, NAU
Outstanding Freshman: Katie Bussey, MSU
Male Assistant Coach of the Year: Justin Scanson, MSU
Radio Voice of the Year (Other than me of course): Gus Johnson, New York Knicks

For those players out there wondering where your name is at on this list, I encourage you to go out and prove me wrong! Nothing is more exciting than witnessing awesome performances coming from unexpected sources. For those of you on this list, the pressure is on. Don’t let me down!