Every other Big Sky team would love to be in the position that Weber State’s men’s basketball team is at right now, but that doesn’t mean it’s a perfect situation.
Having won the league’s regular-season title, the Wildcats clinched the No. 1 seed in the league’s tournament and the right to host it in the Dee Events Center. They also received a bye to the semifinals, which means they will have to sit for eight days without a game.
The Wildcats are a bit familiar with this situation, having experienced this twice before in the past three years. In 2007 WSU won the tournament, however last year they lost in the semifinals.
WSU will play Montana, Northern Arizona or Portland State on Tuesday, so not only are the ‘Cats trying to stay sharp without playing a game, but they don’t know yet who to prepare for.
In past years, WSU head coach Randy Rahe has tried to keep his team playing with an edge by putting the players through intense practices and as many game-type situations as he can, as well as give them a few days off to rest.
Some coaches opt to schedule a non-league game this week, however those don’t always help. Take Portland State for example. The Vikings played Seattle earlier this week and PSU’s leading scorer, Dominic Waters, injured his heel and may not be healthy to play on Saturday in the Vikings’ quarterfinal game at Montana State.
Perhaps there’s no perfect answer on how to handle this week. But you can bet the Wildcats, and No. 2-seeded Northern Colorado, would rather have byes straight to the semifinals and have to handle a long layoff than have to play a quarterfinal game on Saturday.
Mark Shenefelt
on Mar 5th, 2010
@ 5:33 pm:
Byes are so unpredictable. I always get nervous when one of my teams gets one. Too many times, the bye team comes out flat.