Morgan Must Lead Bengals

Ah the best laid plans of mice, men and basketball coaches. Sometimes they just don't work out the way we hoped. Idaho State basketball fans have been pointing toward the 2009-2010 basketball season for the last three years, knowing that the four-man freshman class that Joe O'Brien brought in his first year here would be fully mature seniors then. With the addition of a big man here and a point guard there, surely this group of seasoned Big Sky veterans could compete for a conference championship and the first Bengal trip to the Big Dance since 1987.

And that might still happen, but the early returns on the non-conference portion of this season have not been as encouraging as anybody -- the players, coaches or fans -- had hoped. Nagging issues, like Felix Caspari's decision to quit the team right before the season started, Eric Segert's suspension, Rolando Little's academic problems and Deividas Busma's sore foot have thrown a wrench into things. But more troubling, certainly to the coaching staff, has been the lack of fire and purpose from this senior class. Three blowouts against Utah State, BYU and the University of Utah have left the coaching staff scratching their heads, wondering what happened to the intensity of a group that used to take teams like Marquette and BYU into overtime on the road, and beat the Utes at home.

On our coaches show last night, O'Brien was asked what he missed most about departed star Matt Stucki. He could have said any number of things -- his three-point shooting, his shot-blocking from the wing, his playmaking ability that allowed him to lead the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio last year. But what O'Brien cited was Matt's boisterous leadership. Stucki was that rare player who was smart and experienced enough to know the Bengal offense and defense inside-and-out, and respected enough to be listened to when he gave instructions to his teammates on the court. Oh, and talented enough that he produced big numbers himself, which also gave him great credibility in the lockerroom and on the practice floor.

But Matt's gone now, off to Germany to continue his career, and the mantel of leadership falls squarely on the shoulders of Amorrow Morgan (above). To be fair to Amorrow, whose scoring is actually up this year even while his shooting numbers are down, he's being asked to make an awful lot of adjustments this season. Last year, either he or Stucki started every possession with the ball in their hands, and that means Amorrow got to initiate the offense about half the time. This year, the ball is going to new point guard Broderick Gilchrest, and it's not clear yet that either Gilchrest or Morgan are sure where it should go from there. O'Brien said last night he thinks the fact that Amorrow is having to learn how to play without the basketball is one of the biggest adjustments he's having to make.

The other big adjustment is that, without Stucki, opposing defenses are concentrating on keeping the ball out of Morgan's hands. When he does get it, they are shading an extra defender in his direction, keeping him from getting to the glass, which is the best part of his game. That also makes it difficult for him to clear room to shoot the occasional three, which became a strength for Morgan at the end of last year, when he hit 40 percent of his treys in Big Sky play. This year, he's just 5-for-25 from downtown, a lowly 20 percent.

Those are all technical adjustments that Amorrow has to make this year. But there's a much bigger change he must embrace -- becoming the emotional leader of this Bengal team, particularly on the defensive end of the floor. O'Brien makes no bones about it -- he's a defensive coach and he hangs his hat on stopping other teams and creating offense off of turnovers and bad possessions by opponents. This year's Bengal team, despite its experience, has so far borne no resemblance to its three predecessors on the defensive end of the floor. Opponents are shooting almost 48 percent from the field (up from 43 last year), 38 percent from three (up from 34.5), and are averaging 75 points a game, an increase of about 7 points over last season.

Some of that has to do with the quality of opponents early on, but O'Brien believes a lot of it is related to a lack of intensity and focus. He's frankly mystified why a veteran team like this year's Bengals aren't bringing it every night on D, and he is looking to Morgan, a somewhat mild-mannered young man, to start setting the example. He saw some fire out of Amorrow at Monday's practice, and that's a good sign. The next test will come Wednesday night, when a high-flying Boise State team comes to Holt Arena. The Broncos love to run and gun, and they will test the Bengal defense about as much as anybody they've seen in this non-conference.

And we will see if Morgan and his senior teammates have accepted the challenge to play with commitment on the defensive end. This could be one of those corner-turning moments for the Bengals, who badly need a home game, with all the love, encouragement and momentum that can come with it. The opportunity to fulfill the promise this senior class -- Morgan, Demetrius Monroe, Austin Kilpatrick, Donnie Carson -- brought with them four years ago is still there. Now it's time to seize the moment.

Personnel Updates

O'Brien updated listeners on the status of Busma and Little last night. Busma has a sore foot and had x-rays taken Monday, which came back negative. He is scheduled for an MRI to see if he has a stress fracture. His status for the Boise State game is undetermined, but O'Brien said he was still in a lot of pain Monday and did not practice.

Little has caught up on some of his academic obligations over the weekend, and will be allowed to play against the Broncos. However, O'Brien will review his academic progress after the game and determine whether he will make the trip to USC or stay home and continue to hit the books.

Finally, the Bengals are waiting on a final decision from a potential walk-on from the football team. O'Brien expects to hear from the player today and he could join the team in time for the BSU game, although he'd still be learning the offense and defense and probably wouldn't see playing time.

Update: The Bengals announced Tuesday that Kelvin Krosch, the 6-6 wide receiver who was an all-state basketball player in high school at Mackay, will join the basketball team for tonight's game with BSU.

Portland State Picks Its Coach

Portland State is expected to name Nigel Burton, a bright, young defensive coordinator from Nevada and former academic All-American defensive back at Washington, as its new head football coach today. Burton, 33, spent two seasons on the PSU coaching staff of Tim Walsh before moving on to Oregon State and then Nevada.

John Canzano of the Oregonian writes an interesting column about Burton's selection, noting the importance of this hire to the future of Portland State football.

While we're on the topic of football, the Montana-Appalachian State semifinal playoff game will be televised by ESPN at 2 p.m. MT Saturday from Missoula. The high temperature is predicted to be 27 degrees on Saturday, with a slight chance of snow.

Appy State, which generated huge national buzz two seasons ago when they upset Michigan in the Big House, brings a loaded offense to Washington-Grizz. They are led by quarterback Armanti Edwards, the FCS version of Tim Tebow. Edwards has rushed for a 5.1 yard-per-carry average and 18 touchdowns. He's also completed 71 percent of his passes for almost 3,000 yards. This will be a fun one to watch.

--Brad B.

And thanks for being a Bengal fan -- it ain't always easy, but it's always fun.

ISU Gets Another Shot at Utes

Still searching for a signature non-conference win, Idaho State runs right into the same University of Utah team they upset last year for the Bengals' biggest non-conference victory. Three big differences this time, though: 1) the game is in Salt Lake, rather than Holt Arena; 2) Matt Stucki, who came within one assist and one rebound from dropping a triple-double on Utah last year, is in Europe; and 3) the Utes are stinging from their 83-76 loss to Weber State Tuesday night.

The Bengals are coming off a loss at Notre Dame in which they played fairly well, trailing by only 3 at halftime, before the Irish ran off a 25-7 run to put the game out of reach. After seven games, certain patterns are starting to emerge for ISU: Demetrius Monroe is probably going to lead them in rebounding, Amorrow Morgan is likely going to lead them in scoring, and any other significant assistance is going to come from either Broderick Gilchrest or Austin Kilpatrick. Which means if the 2-5 Bengals are going to improve significantly and compete with the Utes Saturday night, they need someone else (Deividas Busma, Donnie Carson, Chron Tatum?) to step up.

The Utes clearly have issues themselves. They have sandwiched big wins over nationally-ranked Illinois and a good Utah State team between losses to mid-majors like Idaho, Seattle University and Weber State. Statistically, Utah is a reflection of its 3-4 record -- they aren't overtly deficient in any particular area, but they don't dominate any phase of the game, either. They have three players who score in double figures, but nobody who averages more than 13 or has scored more than 22 points in a contest. About the only thing that really jumps out at you when you look at their stat sheet is blocked shots -- led by 7-3 C David Foster (above), who had 10 against Weber, the Utes average over 5 blocks a contest.

If the Bengals are going to get their trophy win Saturday night, they'll need to get out of the gate early, like they did last year when they led by nine at half on the strength of 62 percent shooting. Weber also got off to a good start against the Utes Wednesday night, shooting 52 percent in the first half. The Wildcats cooled off to 38 percent in the second, but were able to hold on thanks to a 15-for-17 parade to the foul line in the final period.

As ISU tries to snag a big win, the rest of the Big Sky Conference continues to make some noise during non-conference play. In addition to Weber's victory, Portland State stunned No. 25 Portland on the road Wednesday night, and Sac State edged neighborhood rival Cal-Davis. So far this season Big Sky teams have assembled a fairly impressive slate of non-conference scalps: Sac State won at Oregon State, Montana at Oregon and over Boise State at home, Montana State got a victory at San Francisco, Northern Arizona won at Santa Clara and unbeaten Northern Colorado won two tournaments on the road and beat Colorado State of the Mountain West at home.

If you can't make it to Salt Lake Saturday night, Jerry Miller and I will bring you all the action on KSEI, AM-930, starting with the pre-game show at 6:30 p.m.

Bengal Women Give Encouraging Effort

Well, it wasn't a win but it was about as close as you can come without getting one. Idaho State's women came within an in-and-out shot by Kaela Oakes with just over a second left of upsetting the University of Utah women at the Huntsman Center Wednesday night. The Utes dominated the game after it went into overtime, outscoring the Bengals 19-3.

The Bengals hung tough against the bigger, more physical Utes through 40 minutes of regulation, despite Utah's domination upfront. The Ute starting frontline put up 44 points and pulled down 30 rebounds while holding ISU center Oana Iacovita to just 2-of-11 shooting and five boards. The Bengals essentially started a four-guard lineup against the Utes and used their quickness and outside shooting to stay in the game. Chelsea Pickering was four of five from three-point range enroute to a 14-point night and Morgan Wohltman added a pair of treys and 12 points.

While the Bengals didn't get the win, it had to be encouraging to hang tough with the Utes during this brutal run of games that started at Wyoming Monday night and continues at the Arizona State tournament in Phoenix this weekend. You can always explain to your team how tough the schedule is and encourage them not to get too down during that stretch, but there's nothing like results to restore some zip to the step.

At 1-6, the Bengals aren't alone in their pre-conference struggles. Only Montana State (5-1) and Eastern Washington (4-3) have winning records in the conference, and the only wins of any import have both come at the expense of the PAC 10's Washington, who has fallen to Portland State and Sacramento State. The pre-season favorite Vikings are in the middle of a five-game losing streak and, other than MSU (3 straight) and Northern Colorado (1), nobody in the league is on a winning skein. MSU is the highest rated Big Sky team in the Sagarin Ratings at 168, with Eastern next at 199 (out of 334 teams).

Frank's Growing Celebrity Status

Check out the Eye on Sports Media site to see Frank's growing celebrity status following his "breaking" of the Charlie Weis firing press conference. Hilarious.

Dark Cloud Section: Recruits Ignore

With nods to "Go Bengals!" and "bengalfan," I note that Hofstra has become the second FCS team in the last ten days to announce it is dropping football. Seriously folks, I fully support ISU and Big Sky Conference football. I do think it prudent to observe what's going on around you, however, rather than sticking your head in the sand. Having said that, I acknowledge sometimes coming across as too negative on these topics. I'll try to lighten up in the future.

--Brad B.

Obligatory rediculous (sic) signoff: And thanks for being a Bengal fan -- it ain't always easy, but it's always fun.

Big Sky Play Starts While ISU Continues Taxing Non-Con Slate

While the rest of the Big Sky Conference kicks off league play this weekend, Idaho State will continue to fight its way through its brutal non-conference schedule. The Bengals got Sacramento State to move their scheduled league opener this weekend so ISU could fulfill its obligation to the University of Utah. The Bengals play at Notre Dame Tuesday night, then take on the Utes in the Huntsman Center Saturday.

The rest of the league, however, will be fully engaged in what can only be described as some pretty important contests for this early in the year. On the top of the BSC fight card is a visit by undefeated Northern Colorado to the two Montanas in the first test of the newly-reimplemented Friday-Saturday league schedule. The Bears open league play in Bozeman Friday night, then travel to Missoula on Saturday to play the Griz who are fresh off a win over PAC-10 Oregon and a narrow road loss to No. 14-ranked Washington on Sunday.

The Griz will open their league play Friday night at home against Northern Arizona. The Axers then switch opponents with the Bears on Saturday, taking the bus trip down the road to Bozeman.

Also on the schedule Saturday are Eastern Washington at Portland State and Weber State at Sacramento State. The Bengals don't open their league slate until Dec. 19 at Sacramento.

Northern Colorado has been the early season surprise in the league, winning tournaments in Hawaii and at Air Force on their way to a 6-0 mark. The Bears are led by 5-9 PG Will Figures (above), who is averaging almost 17 points a game, and is shooting 47 percent from three point range. Figures is also getting to the free throw line a lot (over eight attempts a game), and making 78 percent of them. UNC, who leads the league in scoring and field goal shooting and is second in scoring defense, has nine players who are averaging 5 points a game or better.

The Bears will be tested by a Montana team that leads the league in scoring and field goal defense, and ranks No. 3 in stopping the trey. The Griz are led by pre-season league MVP Anthony Johnson who is averaging 20 points a game, gets to the line seven times a contest and makes 93 percent of those tries. None of that comes as a surprise, but the biggest development in Missoula has been the play of 6-11 junior center Brian Qvale. He's averaging 12 points and nearly 9 boards a contest, and has 13 blocked shots in six games. The Griz also enjoy good offensive depth with seven players averaging 5 points a game or better.

Probably the biggest negative surprise so far this pre-season has been the play of defending champion Weber State, who was a solid pick to repeat as regular season champs. The 1-4 Wildcats have played an admittedly difficult schedule, but they don't seem to be hitting on all cylinders yet offensively. Ironically, a WSU team that knocked down 19 three-pointers, including ten in a row, in an exhibition game earlier this year is really struggling from three-point range now that the games count. Weber is last in the league, hitting just 29 percent of their treys so far, and they're also near the bottom (eighth) in defending the three, yielding 38 percent to opponents.

The Bengals, meanwhile, have also been a disappointment, even given the very difficult schedule they are playing. They have not even been competitive in games against Iowa State, BYU and Utah State, and have struggled in contests against the two lesser teams on their schedule. The Bengals are last in the league in scoring (63 points a game), eighth in defense (75) and eighth in field percentage defense (47). Those last two numbers are particularly uncharacteristic for a Joe O'Brien-coached team. We'll see if the continued run through the non-conference gauntlet helps, or hurts those numbers in the end.

Some Things Never Change -- Especially in Big Sky Football

Montana came back from a 27-point third quarter deficit and outscored South Dakota 47-7 over the last quarter and a half to win their first round FCS playoff game Saturday. Meanwhile, the other two Big Sky playoff entrants -- Eastern Washington and Weber State -- lost, to Stephen F. Austin and William and Mary, respectively. Which means that, for the 15th straight season, there is no Big Sky school other than Montana with a chance to play in the national championship game.

The Griz were once again saved by the incredible play of receiver/kick returner Marc Mariani who, in my humble opinion, should have been the hands-down, unanimous choice for Big Sky Offensive Player of the Year. No disrespect to two-time POY Matt Nichols of EWU (who threw for 461 yards in the Eagles' loss, by the way), but I've never seen anybody have as much impact on games as Mariani has over the last two seasons. I watched him up close last year, return a punt 94 yards from the coffin corner to single-handedly blow open the Griz' win over the Bengals in Missoula. Then I saw him make a huge catch to put Montana in field goal range to deny ISU's upset-of-the-century bid in Holt Arena this year.

On Saturday, he merely caught 12 passes for 170 yards and two touchdowns, and ran a kickoff back 98 yards for a third score on his way to 218 return yards. I know it's nice to have a great quarterback to build a team around, but if I'm drafting to build a Big Sky football team, Mariani is my top guy.

Speaking of quarterbacks, Nichols put a nice cap on a great senior season with his performance in a losing effort to the Lumberjacks. He had an outstanding sophomore year when he earned his first POY award, struggled last year without the assistance of much of a running game, then came roaring back to finish fourth in the voting for the Walter Payton Award (FCS Offensive Player of the Year). He also showed great leadership in keeping the Eagles together early in the season, when it looked like NCAA sanctions were going to keep them out of the playoffs. (The NCAA later reversed itself on appeal). Nichols put together one of the truly great careers of any Big Sky quarterback.

Another Big Sky quarterback from whom much was expected -- Cameron Higgins -- had a much more uneven junior campaign. He tossed four picks, including two that were returned for touchdowns, in William and Mary's 38-0 whitewashing of the Wildcats on Saturday. Higgins, who seemed to be mistake prone in big games, finished with 20 interceptions against 28 TD tosses this year -- compared to 13 picks and 36 touchdowns in his breakout sophomore campaign. Like Nichols, he seemed to suffer from a bit of over-confidence (call it "Jay Cutler syndrome"). He was also handicapped by losing one of his better receivers to injury in game three (Cody Nakamura), and by Trevyn Smith's mysterously ineffective season running the football.

I fully expect to see Higgins bounce back with a big year next year, but he'll definitely miss wide receiver/kick return star Tim Toone and Smith in the backfield.

--Brad B.

And thanks for being a Bengal fan -- it ain't always easy, but it's always fun.