Montana men's basketball fans are no doubt looking forward to the Grizzlies' matchup at Weber State on Saturday night.
The Wildcats and Griz were picked 1-2 in the preseason polls and could come into that game unbeaten in Big Sky Conference games.
The Griz, though, don't have that luxury. First they need to focus on Thursday's opponent, Northern Arizona. The Jacks are finally home after dropping three straight lopsided decisions on the road.
Griz coach Wayne Tinkle said focus hasn't been a problem this week in practice.
"Not yet, because all we've talked about was us yesterday and NAU today," Tinkle said Tuesday. "We'll remind them on Wednesday that Saturday is Saturday. Thursday is a game we have to get to make Saturday important. Our guys have done a pretty god job of staying in the moment."
The Griz have done that while winning five straight, including a Big Sky road breakthrough last Saturday against Idaho State.
"They're probably taking a deep breath, saying they're back home now after a tough road trip," Tinkle said of the Lumberjacks, who are under the direction of interim coach Dave Brown after longtime mentor Mike Adras resigned nine games into the season. "Our guys, we just came back from the road and we have to remember that feeling that we took to Pocatello. Let's keep the fire stoked."
There are similarities between the Lumberjacks and Bengals. Both teams look to push the ball in transition and each has a stable of 3-point shooters.
Junior guard Gabe Rogers (10.8) and freshman guard James Douglas (12.8) lead the team in scoring, while junior point guard Stallon Saldivar is second in the league in assists (5.4). Rogers, who missed the first 10 games of the season following shoulder surgery, is already seventh on NAU's all-time list with 137 3-pointers. He's a career 40 percent shooter from deep, although that's down to 34 percent so far this season.
"They're a little undersized in the post, although they throw it in there more than what Idaho State does, but certainly their bread is buttered with those three guards beyond the arc and making plays off the dribble," Tinkle said. "We feel the lesser of the two evils is to force them to beat us from two."
Durrell Norman, a 6-foot-4 senior, is the Jacks' chief threat in the low post. He's averaging 9.3 points and 6.8 rebounds, with nearly three of those coming on the offensive end.
"He's an undersized post and just a worker," Tinkle said. "He'll face you up, he'll run the floor, he goes to the glass. Portland State went to a man-to-man press and they just threw it back to him and let him bring it up. He's a multi-purpose guy. He's hurt us before, running the floor and crashing the boards.
"We thought the X-factor at Idaho State was going to be (Chase) Grabau, and we did let him get loose for a couple of threes, but we didn't allow him to impact the game the way he likes to impact a game. We think the same with Norman. He's kind of their sparkplug."
All five starters scored in double figures for the Griz in their 24-point win over Idaho State. In their three conference games, the Griz are shooting 53.6 percent from the field, 77.3 percent from the free-throw line and 50 percent from 3-point range while holding their opponents to 59.7 points a game.
But the one statistic that troubled Tinkle in the Idaho State game was his club's 17 turnovers.
"Some of them were just careless in the halfcourt and there were some where we just weren't aggressive," said Tinkle, whose club had some trouble against the Bengals' trapping, full-court press. "Will (Cherry) and Kareem (Jamar) could have just beat that thing on their own, but we threw the ball into some silly areas. We were holding it too long when we inbounded it, then 3 or 4 seconds from the 10-count we would just panic and throw it into bad areas. We cleaned some of that up this week.
"We need to take better care of the ball. We feel if we do that, we'll get the shots we want and that will help us get back and build our transition defense. That'll be a key defensively, to keep them out of their transition game. Offensively, we have to pound it inside. ... It seems like when we have more success early in the paint, then it takes the pressure off us behind the arc and we've been shooting a pretty good percentage."
NOTES: In three league games, Griz senior Art Steward is shooting 71.4 percent from the field and junior Mathias Ward is hitting at a 65.4 percent clip. ... Cherry is 8 for 14 from 3-point range in league games, Jamar is 5 for 10 and Derek Selvig is 3 for 6. ... Cherry is tied for 13th on the league's all-time steals list with 174. He needs four more to catch Weber State's Eddie Gill (1998-2000) for 12th place. Next up is Boise State's Doug Usitalo, who had 185 from 1986-88. ... Redshirt freshman Billy Reader, who is being held out due to academic concerns, will not make the trip.
