Montana State University
Northern Colorado
Bobcats Look for Home Rebound Hosting Northern Colorado and Northern Arizona
1/8/2025 1:46:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Bobcats return to Bozeman for Big Sky home opener on Thursday in first game at Worthington Arena in more than a month
BOZEMAN, Mont. -- When Montana State men's basketball takes to the Worthington Arena floor on Thursday night, it'll mark the first time in 33 days the Bobcats will enjoy home court advantage as they kick off a crucial weekend in Big Sky play.
The Bobcats (5-10, 0-2) host league-leading Northern Colorado (10-5, 2-0) on Thursday night at 7 p.m. before taking on Northern Arizona (10-5, 1-1) on Saturday evening at 6 p.m.
Both games will be streamed on ESPN+, with live radio play-by-play from Voice of the Bobcats Keaton Gillogly airing on the Bobcat Sports Network.
Tickets are available here.
Montana State, the three-time defending Big Sky Conference champion, dropped a pair of close battles on the road last week to open conference play, falling to Idaho 69-64 on Thursday before a 68-63 setback to Eastern Washington on Saturday. The Cats get a chance to bounce-back against the only two ten-win teams in the Big Sky Conference in Northern Colorado (No. 159 KenPom) and Northern Arizona (No. 264 KenPom).
The Cats have played five straight games on the road after enjoying a 4-1 stretch that was capped by a sweep of Omaha and Kansas City in the Big Sky-Summit Challenge.
Since defeating Kansas City, 74-62, on December 7, MSU underwent a gauntlet that included losses to USC, UC Riverside, and TCU before last week's Big Sky trip.
LAST WEEK
Montana State dropped both games on the road to open Big Sky play last week, falling 69-64 at Idaho on Thursday and 68-63 at Eastern Washington on Saturday. The Cats are now 0-6 in games decided by five points or less.
CONSISTENT WINNER
Montana State comes into Thursday's game looking to break a five-game losing streak--the first for the program since the 2020-21 season. Head coach Matt Logie has never previously lost five games in a row in 13-plus seasons of coaching, and has only had a streak of four straight losses once prior (2023-2024).
SERIES HISTORY (NORTHERN COLORADO)
Thursday marks the 79th meeting all-time between Northern Colorado and Montana State, with the Bobcats leading the series, 51-27 since 1923. Montana State has won eight of the last ten meetings dating back to 2021, and six of the last eight clashes at Worthington Arena. The Bobcats have not lost to the Bears at home since March 7, 2020. Montana State is 28-8 against Northern Colorado at home all-time. In the two teams' last clash in Bozeman on Jan. 13, 2024, Brian Goracke scored 25 points and Brandon Walker had 22 points in a 90-81 Bobcat win—one of MSU's biggest victories of the season. Northern Colorado returned the favor in Greeley on Feb. 8, 2024, winning 73-70 to even the season series.
SERIES HISTORY (NORTHERN ARIZONA)
Saturday marks the 113th meeting between the Bobcats and the Lumberjacks, with MSU leading the series 62-50. Montana State leads 39-13 in games played in Bozeman, and has won five in a row against Northern Arizona at Worthington Arena. Overall in the series, Montana State has won 11 of the last 12, with an 11-game winning streak getting snapped in the last meeting—a 76-71 defeat in Flagstaff last season on Feb. 10, 2024. The Bobcats handily beat NAU 79-50 in the home matchup on January 11, with Brandon Walker (17 points), Brian Goracke (14 points), and Tyler Patterson (12 points) all in double-figures.
WATCH THE DEFENSE
Montana State held both of their Big Sky opponents under 70 points last week and will need strong defense and rebounding again against a Northern Colorado team that has been the best offense in the conference so far. The Bears average 84.0 points per game which ranks 25th in the country while shooting 50.8% from the floor, the seventh-best mark in NCAA Division I. UNC is fifth in the country in two-point field goal percentage (60.3) and 38th in effective field goal percentage (55.4). On Saturday, the Cats will have to contain the Preseason Big Sky Player of the Year in Trenton McLaughlin, the nation's second-leading scorer averaging 23.0 points per game, and Carson Towt, who ranks fourth in the country in rebounding averaging 11.4 boards per game.
PRESSING PATRICK
Redshirt junior Patrick McMahon has provided a physical presence at the wing position for Montana State this season, and has taken his play up a level since the beginning of conference play. The native of Palmer, Alaska, is coming off a 15-point performance at Idaho last Thursday that tied his career-high, and is averaging 7.6 points and 3.5 rebounds per game while starting all 14 contests.
THE WINTER WALKER
Junior forward Brandon Walker leads the team in scoring (14.2 ppg) across 19.8 minutes per game and ranks sixth in the Big Sky in field goal percentage (51.6%). The native of Oak Cliff, Texas, is currently the top-ranked player in the Big Sky according to KenPom.com's Player of the Year rankings. Walker has scored in double-figures in 12 of his 15 contests this year, and ranks third in the country in fouls drawn per 40 minutes (8.1), and second in the country in percentage of possessions used when the junior forward is on the court (37.4%).
GRIZZLED VET
Graduate student Tyler Patterson scored a season-high 16 points in Saturday's loss to Eastern Washington. The native of Snoqualmie, Washington, flashed a different element to his game, scoring a pair of buckets in the paint and shooting four free throws--the first free throws he had shot all season in 348 minutes of game action. Patterson ranks fourth in program history for career 3-pointers (237), behind his former coach Danny Sprinkle (263, 1995-99), who ranks third.
BRIDGER BITES
+ Jabe Mullins is 22nd in NCAA Division I in free throw percentage, going 34-of-37 at the line (91.9%)
+ Teams are shooting 80.5% at the free throw line against Montana State--the highest mark in the country.
+ Opponents are shooting just 27.8% from beyond the arc against the Bobcats this season, the 12th-best mark in NCAA Division I
+ Montana State is 18th in the country in average on-court height (78.7")
BEEN AROUND THE BLOCK
Montana State is one of the most experienced teams in the country in 2024-25, boasting five players in the rotation who have each played in at least 116 games (Jabe Mullins, Tyler Patterson, Brian Goracke, Max Agbonkpolo, Sam Lecholat), and nine players who have at least four years in college basketball. Tyler Patterson has started 131 games in a Montana State uniform entering Thursday, the most of any active player at one school in the country and the most in Montana State history.
SNOQUALMIE SPLASH BROS
Jabe Mullins and Tyler Patterson reunite on the 2024-25 Montana State men's basketball team after playing together growing up in the Seattle area. Patterson and Mullins have been playing together since they were third-graders, and will close out their college careers together in Bozeman this season. The duo led Mount Si to the 2020 WIAA state title, the school's first state championship since 1977, before Mullins accepted a scholarship as the No. 1 player in the state of Washington to play for Saint Mary's (2020-22) and then Washington State (2022-24). Patterson committed to Montana State out of high school, where he has played in four Big Sky Tournament Championship games and won three rings for the Bobcats.
GOLDEN AGE OF BOBCAT BASKETBALL
Montana State has played in four straight Big Sky Tournament championship games, gone 49-16 against Big Sky opponents over the last three seasons, and made three straight NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time in school history. The Bobcats are the Big Sky Conference's first three-peat champion since Idaho from 1981-83. In 2021-22, Montana State went 27-8, which included a 13-1 record at home and a program-record 16 wins in conference play. In 2022-2023, Montana State went 25-10, collected a 12-1 record at Worthington Arena, and went 15-3 in conference action.
THE MATT LOGIE FILE
Second-year MSU head coach Matt Logie has taken his teams to the NCAA Tournament in 12 of his 13 seasons as a head coach, and is believed to be just the second men's coach in history to lead teams to the Big Dance at the Division I, Division II, and Division III levels (Tobin Anderson). Logie ranks 15th in NCAA men's basketball history in career winning percentage (.776) and is ninth among active head coaches. Logie came to Montana State after four seasons at Point Loma (Division II), where his teams rolled up an 82-23 record with three conference championships, and eight seasons at Whitworth (Division III), where his teams went 194-35.
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