The 2010-11 Montana State women’s basketball squad will face its most challenging schedule in the Tricia Binford-led era this season. The Bobcats will face eight opponents that made it to postseason play last winter, including Baylor, who advanced to the NCAA Final Four.
“This is without a doubt, the most challenging schedule we’ve put together since I’ve been at Montana State,” said Binford, who enters her sixth season with the Bobcats. “We’ll face six teams that went to the NCAA tournament- and three of them won opening round games. I feel there is a good mix of competition that will make us that much better heading into Big Sky Conference play.”
The Bobcats, who went 18-14 overall and advance to the Big Sky championship game in March, will host a pair of exhibition games in early November against Montana Tech and MSU Billings.
MSU will open its regular season schedule at the World Vision Invitational in Waco, Texas, hosted by Baylor. The Bobcats will play three consecutive games against Rice, BU and Florida International. Baylor, who dropped a 70-50 decision to eventual national champion Connecticut at the NCAA Final Four, features Brittney Griner, a 6-8 center, who was lauded as the USBWA Freshman of the Year and was an AP All-America second-team honoree.
“Our kids will get to play against one of the best teams in the nation, not to mention one of the best players,” Binford said. “It will be a tremendous challenge and experience.”
The Bobcats will continue a stretch of six road games with a single contest at Southern Utah, before playing in the Seattle U Thanksgiving Tournament. MSU is slated to open against SU and will play either Bowling Green or Arkansas Little Rock- both of which played in the NCAA tournament- the second night.
Montana State closes out November with a home game against Denver.
The Bobcats will begin December with another challenging road trip as it faces NCAA tournament participants UC Riverside and UCLA. MSU returns home for three consecutive games, including Portland, CS Bakersfield and Pacific.
Montana State will close out its non-conference slate at BYU and Utah Valley on Dec. 30 and Jan. 1, respectively. BYU advanced to the WNIT Elite Eight last winter.
The Bobcats will begin Big Sky Conference play hosting Sacramento State, Jan. 6.
2010-2011 Montana State Women’s Basketball Schedule:
11-2 Montana Tech (ex.)
11-6 MSU Billings (ex.)
11-12 vs. Rice#
11-13 at Baylor#
11-14 vs. Florida International#
11-19 @ Southern Utah
11-26-27 @ Seattle U Thanksgiving Tournament
11-30 Denver
12-3 @ UC Riverside
12-5 @ UCLA
12-10 Portland
12-20 CS Bakersfield
12-22 Pacific
1230 @ BYU
1-1 @ Utah Valley
1-6 *Sacramento State
1-8 *Northern Colorado
1-15 *@ Northern Arizona
1-17 *@ Weber State
1-22 *@ Montana
1-24 *Idaho State
1-29 *Montana
2-3 *Northern Arizona
2-5 *Weber State
2-10 *@ Northern Colorado
2-12 *@ Sacramento State
2-17 *@ Idaho State
2-24 *Eastern Washington
2-26 *Portland State
3-3 *@ Eastern Washington
3-5 *@ Portland State
3-10-12 Big Sky Conference Tournament
* = Big Sky Conference games