SEATTLE – Montana State men’s basketball hits the road this weekend for the first time in 2023-2024, traveling to the Emerald City to face Seattle University on Saturday.
Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. PT/3 p.m. MT from the Redhawk Center in Seattle.
The game will be streamed on ESPN+, and the live radio play-by-play of Gary Hill Jr., filling in for Voice of the Bobcats Keaton Gillogly, will be carried on the Bobcat Sports Radio Network.
Montana State (1-0) is coming off a 103-63 win in the season opener in Bozeman on Monday over non-Division I Northwest Indian College. Seattle U (1-0) took down Prairie View A&M, 71-60, in their season opener on Wednesday evening in Seattle.
OFFENSIVE ONSLAUGHT
MSU had nine Cats play at least 16 minutes, had six score in double figures, and had 11 get into the box score with a made field goal in Monday’s win over Northwest Indian College. Robert Ford III paced the way with 15 points, five rebounds, and two assists. Patrick McMahon scored 14 on 6-of-8 shooting, Brandon Walker scored 13 in just 16 minutes, and Eddie Turner III and Brian Goracke each had a dozen points.
BACKCOURT BROTHERS
Matt Logie’s offense relies on efficient guard play to distribute the ball to shot-makers—redshirt senior Robert Ford III and graduate transfer Eddie Turner III had a great debut in that regard on Monday, helping the Bobcats limit themselves to just seven turnovers. Over 41 combined minutes, those two turned it over just three times. Ford and Turner are in their first year as teammates, but are not unfamiliar with one another—they met several times as opponents on the AAU circuit growing up, with Ford out of Portland and Turner from Seattle.
LOGIE COMES HOME
Saturday’s game will feature a large contingent of Bobcat fans filling the Redhawk Center, due in large part to the return home for the Bobcats’ head coach and three of his starters. Matt Logie graduated from Mercer Island High School in 1999 and is the latest coach in a proud lineage of basketball tradition in his family—his grandfather, Ed Pepple, coached at Mercer Island for 42 years, winning nearly a thousand games and four state championships. Logie was a key player on two of those state championship teams, helping the Islanders win in 1997 and 1999.
EMERALD CITY ROOTS
In addition to Logie’s homecoming, three Bobcat starters will also have their families in the stands on Saturday. Graduate transfer Eddie Turner III was a standout at Garfield High School, where he graduated in 2019 after helping them to a state title in 2018 on the way to being named tournament MVP. Junior transfer Chika Nduka grew up in Seattle and spent the first three years of his high school career at Eastside Catholic, who he led to a third-place finish at the state tournament in both 2019 and 2020. Junior wing Tyler Patterson hails from nearby Snoqualmie, and led Mount Si High School to the 2020 4A state championship, their first title since 1977. Patterson was also a First Team All-State selection and three-time All-KingCo selection.
NEW FACES
Montana State features ten new faces in 2023-2024, including seven transfers and three freshmen. The Bobcats brought back six from last year’s Big Sky Championship team.
Returning production from 2022-2023:
Percent of Scoring Returning: 22.4%
Percent of Rebounding Returning: 34.7%
Percent of Assists Returning: 29.2%
RIGHT GUY AT THE HELM
First-year head coach Matt Logie comes to Montana State after four seasons at Point Loma in California, where his teams rolled up an 82-23 record with three conference championships. His 12 seasons as a head basketball coach includes eight at Whitworth University in Spokane (2011-19), where his Pirates compiled a 194-35 record. Logie’s 276-58 career mark in 12 seasons is good for an .826 winning percentage, the third-highest winning percentage in the history of all NCAA men’s college basketball coaches. Only two active coaches (Mark Few of Gonzaga & Jim Crutchfield of Nova Southeastern) have higher win percentages than Coach Logie, whose winning percentage surpasses coaching legends such as John Wooden (UCLA), Dean Smith (UNC), and Mike Krzyzewski (Duke).
SERIES HISTORY
Saturday will be the 34th meeting between Montana State and Seattle U, but just the fourth since 1971. The Redhawks have won 25 of 33 meetings, including each of the last three when the two programs met every year from 2010 to 2012.
#GoCatsGo