After winning 50 games combined and making two NCAA Tournament appearances in the past two seasons, Montana is in the throes of a most trying season. The Grizzlies are 8-9 overall and just 3-5 in the Big Sky Conference. To put that in perspective, UM lost just two conference games combined the past two years.
At Montana State, the Bobcats were off to their best start in three years in the Big Sky but have since stumbled. A 4-1 league record turned into a 4-4 mark after three consecutive losses. The Cats are 9-10 overall.
Needless to say, Monday?s meeting between the Cats and Griz in Bozeman looms large. It?s the first of two scheduled games this year. Each team plays on the road this week against beleaguered Southern Utah (which is winless in the league and has one victory overall) prior to Monday?s tip-off, which means both should come in off a win.
The Grizzlies haven?t had a losing conference record this late in a season since 2007-08, when a 70-68 loss at Portland State dropped them to 3-5 on Jan. 31. But that Griz team rallied down the stretch, finishing 8-8 with a berth in the league tournament.
Right now UM is struggling with defense and rebounding. The Griz allow about 71 points per game, and teams are shooting nearly 49 percent against them. Those stats rank in the bottom half of the league. And they are the second-worst rebounding team in Division I -- lumped in with the likes of Arkansas-Pine Bluff and the University of Denver -- ranking 350th out of 351 teams with an average of just 22.4 boards per game. The low point came when Montana had just 11 rebounds in a home loss to Northern Colorado 10 days ago. It was a game in which big men Eric Hutchison and Andy Martin played a combined 18 minutes and had one rebound between them.
At Montana State, the Bobcats were off to their best start in three years in the Big Sky but have since stumbled. A 4-1 league record turned into a 4-4 mark after three consecutive losses. The Cats are 9-10 overall.
Needless to say, Monday?s meeting between the Cats and Griz in Bozeman looms large. It?s the first of two scheduled games this year. Each team plays on the road this week against beleaguered Southern Utah (which is winless in the league and has one victory overall) prior to Monday?s tip-off, which means both should come in off a win.
The Grizzlies haven?t had a losing conference record this late in a season since 2007-08, when a 70-68 loss at Portland State dropped them to 3-5 on Jan. 31. But that Griz team rallied down the stretch, finishing 8-8 with a berth in the league tournament.
Right now UM is struggling with defense and rebounding. The Griz allow about 71 points per game, and teams are shooting nearly 49 percent against them. Those stats rank in the bottom half of the league. And they are the second-worst rebounding team in Division I -- lumped in with the likes of Arkansas-Pine Bluff and the University of Denver -- ranking 350th out of 351 teams with an average of just 22.4 boards per game. The low point came when Montana had just 11 rebounds in a home loss to Northern Colorado 10 days ago. It was a game in which big men Eric Hutchison and Andy Martin played a combined 18 minutes and had one rebound between them.
