Weber State Fan Blog

I’ve watched less March Madness this year than I can ever remember. I can’t help but feel a sense of jealousy and disappointment watching other teams play their hearts out in front of the nation, while again, for what feels like the millionth time, hope that next season will be different, and that my Wildcats will once again be invited to The Big Dance . I’ve tried to get into it this year, I really have, but I just can’t find the desire. Watching the elation of other teams is like salt in the wound that was the 2024-2025 season. It’s hard to believe that the Weber State men’s basketball team is on a 9-year drought from NCAA tournament play. Which is the 2 nd longest NCAA tournament drought that the Wildcats have ever endured, the only break that lasted longer was from 1984 through 1994, just one year longer than our current slump. Every Wildcat fan knows that this year’s team was among the worst in Weber State history. I’m not going to belabor the reasons why. Those points have been ...

In heroic fashion, Blaise Threat drained an 18-foot jumper with under a second to go, to beat Portland State, in Saturday's game at the Dee Events Center. It was the kind of moment that reminds us why we love sports. The Dee's sparse crowd erupted with excitement and for a brief moment, we disregarded the frustrations of this disappointing season and all enjoyed a special moment. Just like any true purple-blooded Wildcat, I thoroughly enjoyed and celebrated the win. However, later that evening, after the excitement of moment wore off, the thought came to me: if we need last second heroics to beat the Portland State Vikings at home, we're in trouble. Likewise, if our high water mark this season is beating Idaho State, we're in big trouble, and additionally if we are dropping games at home to the likes of Sacramento State and getting curb stomped by Eastern Washington at the Dee, we are, well... as my pre-teen daughter would put it, we're cooked. The men's basketb...

Through five games, the Weber State Wildcats men's basketball team has amassed a disappointing 1-4 record. And while it's still early in conference play, it feels like this team has an enormous mountain to climb to get themselves back into contention. However, the first five games have given us plenty of insight and story lines. Here are few of my "lessons learned" from each game: Lesson 1 (Loss vs Northern Colorado) Northern Colorado is the team to beat in the Big Sky . They currently stand alone atop the Big Sky at a perfect 6-0. The Bears ran the Cats off the court, winning by 17, and shooting a blistering 59% from the field. I don't think the Wildcats played up to their capabilities, but even if they had, I still think UNC would have won. They are good. They are far and away the early favorite to win the Big Sky. Lesson 2 (Loss vs Northern Arizona) The Wildcats can not afford to sleepwalk through any games this season. The Cats played flat, without a lot of en...

The Dee Events Center is an incredible venue. At 11,500 seats, it is far and away the largest arena in the Big Sky, and the third largest college arena in the state of Utah. However, there is one glaring problem with the Purple Palace. It is far too large for the team that plays there, and the atmosphere suffers because of it. If you've attended any of the games so far this season you know what I mean. The Dee was mostly empty for all six non-conference home games. Here are the attendance figures so far this season: This season has been especially low, however, over the last 25 years, the Dee has never averaged over 7,000 fans per game in a season. In terms of capacity that means that in the last 25 years, the Dee has never averaged over 60% full over the course of a season. Since opening, there has never been a season where the attendance has averaged over 10,000 and only one season where average attendance was over 9,000, which was the 1979-1980 season where the Dee averaged 9,8...

If you missed the Weber State vs Utah Valley game on Saturday night, you missed out. As a fan of college basketball, the action on the court was everything you could have hoped for. It reminded me of why I strongly prefer college basketball over the NBA. Physical play, tough defense, players going at each other, coaches and players getting fired up, technical fouls, monster blocks, amazing finishes at the basket and a close, hard fought game. It had it all. Unfortunately, the Wildcats came out on the losing end of it, falling to the Wolverines 64-62. Judging by the anemic crowd size (3,609), and the fact that the game was during the same time as the college football playoff, not to mention the weekend before Christmas, I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume that a lot of Wildcat fans missed the game. Aside from the pathetic crowd, the game had the feel of a conference basketball game. No one was "mailing it in". Guys were diving for loose balls, driving hard to the basket,...

For those of you who have been neck deep in college football up to this point, it might surprise you to hear that the Wildcats of Weber State have already played 10 basketball games (12 if you count the two exhibitions). During that time they have amassed a 4-6 record along with a Thanksgiving weekend tournament championship. A lot has happened in the first six weeks of the season—yes, it’s been that long. College basketball is a strange beast when it comes to non-conference scheduling, especially for a mid-major like Weber State. To say we’ve had a wide range of competition would be a huge understatement. On the high end of the spectrum, we had the privilege of getting our butts whooped by some power conference level teams – Oregon State and Nevada (yes, I consider the MWC power level when it comes to bball) and will have one more of these games before the non-conference schedule is through when the Cats head to Eugene to play Oregon. On the other hand, we’ve played a few teams th...