THE PERFECT COACH

This Christmas was an amazing reminder of HOPE in celebrating the birth of Christ. When I think about Jesus's birth, His life, His sacrifice, and love for all of us I immediately reflect on what kind of coach Jesus would have been. How about a coach who sees your full potential, who is loving, forgiving, strong, always present, who does not ever give up on you or walk away. He is the only coach worth playing for! Coach Bin

Conference

Big Sky Conference opens tonight, a good 2 weeks earlier than in the past. With the addition of Southern Utah and North Dakota we now have 20 conference games on the calendar which means every game counts from here on out! The Cats open with the Hornets in the Fieldhouse and those are two perfect descriptions of our teams. The Cats are aggressive, relentless, and the best news of all is that we have a deep bench full of them. The Hornets buzz all over the court and are scrappy, quick, and tenacious. I can't think of a more exciting game for our fans to get out and see as the conference begins. Besides, you all need a break from Christmas shopping! The Big Sky is strong, with wins over conferences such as the Mountain West, WAC, Pac 12, ACC, West Coast, and Big West among others. Check these ladies out. They play hard, together, and never give up. Go Cats! Coach Bin

Home Sweet Home

After 3 weeks back and forth on the road we get to be on our home court for the rest of the month of December and we are thankful for that. Why is it so nice to be at home? #1 Our Fans & Cheerleaders- We have had great support so far this season and have as a goal to PROTECT HOME COURT. Our fans help make that happen. We even have the "cookie club" starting once conference begins and I am not talking about who can eat the most cookies. That would be Coach Close. #2 Our Band- Talk about rockin the Fieldhouse. Our band tends to be the loudest and craziest. I think we should move them closer to our opponent's bench. What do you think? #3 Less Driving- Although Margreet thought I was the bus driver on our last trip to Logan, driving is exhausting regardless if you are the driver or not. I am ready to be done with the GPS for awhile as it seems to get us lost more times than actually finding our destination. #4 Kellee is much more pleasant to be around at home. She is in charge of our team travel and nearly ripped her hair out when National gave away our vans on our trip to SMU. Then the restaurant in Logan forgot to have our pre game meal ready before Utah State. I just asked for an ice tea and was fine when they brought out a pitcher and family portions of bacon, hashbrowns, and eggs. #5 Last but certainly not least, I get to drive home every night to our tiny little decorated deer outside, beautifully decorated Christmas tree by our kids, and read stories of Jesus's Birth and listen to Christmas carols before resting in my own bed. Home Sweet Home.

Coach Bin

Experience

Nothing can replace getting experience in certain situations and that is exactly what we got this weekend. What an exciting tournament for the Bobcats to have the opportunity to play an ACC opponent, play in a championship game, and wear shorts throughout the entire weekend with such great weather. Our Cats have improved a ton learning that a shot fake, shot works against high flying defenders and solid box outs work against any level of athlete as we got two over the back calls in the first half. Against SMU, the host of the tournament, we saw our offense begin to click over the course of the game with great ball movement and decision making going inside/out through the paint. Then with three minutes to go and a ten point lead SMU turned up the pressure, MSU panicked, and SMU pulled out a one point win. I think about the line in THE REPLACEMENTS, a football movie where Keeanu Reeves is the quarterback and talks about quicksand. It's where one thing after another goes wrong and you can't settle yourselves down. You can't focus on execution, you rush, and your mind gets caught up in the pressure. How do you fix that? You admit it and you FACE IT! We know what happened on Saturday and we know what we are going to do now. Great teams don't make the same mistake twice. It was a heartbreaking loss, but one we have grown tremendously from. Our CATS are confident we can be successful on the road and that's going to be absolutely necessary to win the Big Sky Championship. With that being said, we are anxious to get on our home court this Thursday for our first home game of the season and can't wait to hear our fans! Go Cats! Coach Bin

Congrats

Congrats to our football team and our winningest football coach in MSU history. It's so satisfying to see great habits that are put into place bear fruit. To our senior football class, you are the winningest class because you made a commitment your freshmen year to consistantly focus, compete, and play together as a team every day you showed up on the field. Champions don't get bored with the process. They value every practice, film session, focus on the details and go game speed even when there is no defense. Our team has created a habit of excellence and we are proud of you. Good luck in the playoffs, and to my team, remember the "process" is where you separate yourselves from everyone else. Go Cats!

Road Trip

First road trip is down without many hiccups. We found out that this group sleeps very well through anything, especially our new radio guy Adam. Here are a few other things I learned: 1) My kids should only swim once a day. Justin came back home with an ear infection, probably from a combination of 24 hour pool and altitude. He did manage some big time cannonballs though that got our players wet during their recovery workouts. Good job buddy! 2) Update my gps. I don't know where "Olga", my gps, is taking us half the time but she sent us the wrong way on 1-25 away from downtown and kept trying different routes to the game. Todd decided to follow Kellee's van. 3) Jackie has the coolest pajamas, the Grinch. Rechel has the prettiest head band, and Lexie is the sleepiest in the morning. 4) With Katie graduating the players prefer junk food again. Coach Barney worked diligantly to put to go bags for our early trip back home filled with granola bars, apples, and other goodies in which our players ended up at McDonalds at the airport. I have to admit I was extremely jealous when I saw the hashbrowns. We finished the first trip with a sweep on the road, something no coach will take for granted. On another note, good luck to our #2 Ranked football team this weekend for their annual Cat Griz game! Coach Bin

State Volleyball

State Volleyball is here in the Fieldhouse this weekend which brings back such great memories. You are probably surprised to hear that I played volleyball in high school and don't assume I was a setter either based on my size. I was in fact a strongside hitter but pretty certain that Kyle (our volleyball coach) wouldn't have recruited me. Fortunately in my career we didn't have the spandex. Otherwise I would have probably been pulling on those all game rather than digging for the ball. I love to watch recruits in a different sport to see the consistencies in how they handle the big stage of state championships. What is their leadership like and most importantly can a basketball player get down that volleyball group cheer? Most basketball players can't and or don't really want to. I have watched many of our great bobcats play other sports. For example, Katie Bussey was an incredible outside hitter. Lindsay Stockton was versatile at the net as well as the back row and had a deadly arm. She had such great precision in her placement of the volleyball and Kyle knows she is not available until her fifth year. Jackie Elliot was as tenacious in soccer as she is on the court and I remember her checking an opponenet on the field that opposing parents weren't real fond of. Inside I was cheering! As I sat in the gym this morning I went through our roster on who was a multisport athlete in high school and I would say the majority of our players were. So parents, encourage your daughters to mix it up. It's great for their athleticism and great for their bodies to get a change. Just make sure in the end their favorite is basketball. Good luck to all those at state this weekend! Coach Bin