LadyGriz Lady Griz: Time to Cut the Montana Ties

[Colter_Nuanez56]

This couldn't be further from what they need to do. MSU has been kicking our ass for several years now with *checks notes*... a ton of Montana kids.

If anything, we need MORE Montana kids across the board in Grizzly athletics in all sports, men's basketball included.

There are so many high-level girls in Montana right now coming out of high school. Avory DeCoite and Camryn Reinker would each be among the best players on the Lady Griz RIGHT NOW. DeCoite would be their best defender by a country mile and she's a senior in high school.

EWU had three girls from Montana and a 4th, all-state Gallatin power guard, Jada Davis, coming in.

Boise State has three Montana girls on its roster once they add Mason Quinn from Frenchtown, who the Lady Griz thought they were going to get.

Paige Lofing from Huntley plays at Gonzaga.

Tricia Binford's team features Taylee Chirrick (Roberts/Billings), Teagan Erickson (Saco), Brooke Berry (Billings), Kadynce Couture (Missoula) with Baker's Madison O'Connor incoming.

The Gunlock sisters at Bigfork are D-1 quality. One is at BYU.

Ave Odegaard from Gallatin is going to Saint Mary's.

The Laird sisters at Loyola will be able to go wherever they want by the time their careers are done.

Cadence Graham from Butte is a D-1 quality shooter. Marissa Snyder from Ennis is as well, although I think she's going to the Frontier.

Kennedy Moore from Flathead plays at Wake Forest.

Sydney Pierce from Billings West plays volleyball for the Lady Griz but could certainly play hoops.

Paige Wasson, who was teammates with Erickson at North County when they went undefeated for 3 straight years, is playing at Rocky but I thought she was Big Sky quality.

This is just off the top of my head. You can only recruit 2-4 high school girls per class. If there are 15-20 in the state in a given year, you only need to get 20-25 percent of them.

If you say "this is skewed because bigger programs are recruiting Montana now that it's 2025", that's false. Karen Deden and Loree Payne went to Washington 30+ years ago. Kirsten Tilleman went to Oregon State. Joselyn Tinkle went to Stanford and her sisster went to Gonazaga.

The difference is that the Lady Griz used to not let the small-town girls go anywhere but Montana (Payne being one of the exceptions) and they used to recruit all fo them hard even if they had big offers. Shannon Cate had Pac 10 and SEC offers and they still got her.

A great majority of the young ladies listed above were not recruited all that hard by Montana. Kadynce Couture commited to Idaho and then signed at Montana State despite being from Missoula. That's one example of many misses.

 

[nicktaber58]

The problem in men's basketball is all the top Bball players also play Football for the most part and they choose to play Football instead.

And I really don't care where our players are from, just as long as we're winning. This is such an exhausting take.

This is not true at all. The Montana tech team, and im not even sure they're the best team in their conference, came in and best us with... Montana kids. There were 3 standout players in that tech / griz game that were from Montana.

And I do agree with your premise about where kids come from and winning. HOWEVER. msu is kicking our ass in football and women's basketball. WITH Montana kids much more prevalently than we uave in both. Its a common denominator, and always has been, and nothing has changed.

 

[Griz til I die]

This is not true at all. The Montana tech team, and im not even sure they're the best team in their conference, came in and best us with... Montana kids. There were 3 standout players in that tech / griz game that were from Montana.

And I do agree with your premise about where kids come from and winning. HOWEVER. msu is kicking our ass in football and women's basketball. WITH Montana kids much more prevalently than we uave in both. Its a common denominator, and always has been, and nothing has changed.

Ok first of all, the Tech loss was an anomaly. If we played them ten times we would beat them 9. Do they have a single MT player that would be a Big Sky all-conference player? I'm not so sure they would. Maybe they have 1-2 guys that could be a part of the rotation but like come on.

And yes the LG have dropped the ball as have Football. They do have some good MT players coming in next year, but the absence of MT players definitely hurt both programs this year.

 

[nicktaber58]

There are so many high-level girls in Montana right now coming out of high school. Avory DeCoite and Camryn Reinker would each be among the best players on the Lady Griz RIGHT NOW. DeCoite would be their best defender by a country mile and she's a senior in high school.

EWU had three girls from Montana and a 4th, all-state Gallatin power guard, Jada Davis, coming in.

Boise State has three Montana girls on its roster once they add Mason Quinn from Frenchtown, who the Lady Griz thought they were going to get.

Paige Lofing from Huntley plays at Gonzaga.

Tricia Binford's team features Taylee Chirrick (Roberts/Billings), Teagan Erickson (Saco), Brooke Berry (Billings), Kadynce Couture (Missoula) with Baker's Madison O'Connor incoming.

The Gunlock sisters at Bigfork are D-1 quality. One is at BYU.

Ave Odegaard from Gallatin is going to Saint Mary's.

The Laird sisters at Loyola will be able to go wherever they want by the time their careers are done.

Cadence Graham from Butte is a D-1 quality shooter. Marissa Snyder from Ennis is as well, although I think she's going to the Frontier.

Kennedy Moore from Flathead plays at Wake Forest.

Sydney Pierce from Billings West plays volleyball for the Lady Griz but could certainly play hoops.

Paige Wasson, who was teammates with Erickson at North County when they went undefeated for 3 straight years, is playing at Rocky but I thought she was Big Sky quality.

This is just off the top of my head. You can only recruit 2-4 high school girls per class. If there are 15-20 in the state in a given year, you only need to get 20-25 percent of them.

If you say "this is skewed because bigger programs are recruiting Montana now that it's 2025", that's false. Karen Deden and Loree Payne went to Washington 30+ years ago. Kirsten Tilleman went to Oregon State. Joselyn Tinkle went to Stanford and her sisster went to Gonazaga.

The difference is that the Lady Griz used to not let the small-town girls go anywhere but Montana (Payne being one of the exceptions) and they used to recruit all fo them hard even if they had big offers. Shannon Cate had Pac 10 and SEC offers and they still got her.

A great majority of the young ladies listed above were not recruited all that hard by Montana. Kadynce Couture commited to Idaho and then signed at Montana State despite being from Missoula. That's one example of many misses.

spot on. Absolutely correct. Great list for the women.

When I have a minute ill compile a list of MT highschool men that are either playing elsewhere, have recently, or currently in the frontier conference that could Absolutely produce and succeed for the griz, and of course rising current high schoolers they should look at. (But aren't)

 

[mthoopsfan]

It was a long fabulous ride that the Lady Griz took us fans on, and I was there for the entirity of it.

What made it so special, and why the Lady Griz resonate so deeply still with the members of this board, is that they represented Montana through and through.

From a coach from Outlook, Montana, to all the incredible homegrown players over the years--Greta Koss, Skyla Sisco, Ann Lake, Lisa McLeod and of course the legendary Shannon Cate--but also all the Naitve American talent, led by Malia Kipp, the Lady Griz won our hearts. They were us. Our kids. And they made us proud.

It seemed natural then than a former great from Montana should take over the program. Who could have argued with that? But once that experiment failed, it seems Haslam fell into a trap: Trying desperately to maintain the program's historically great ties to Montana.

When it came time to hire a successor to Shannon, he had two choices: Mark Campbell from Oregon or Brian Holsinger, a fiery guy with ties to Montana Tech. He chose Holsinger, who in turn hired another Montana guy as an assistant, Nate Harris. And how did that work out?

Holsinger is gone, and Harris just coached one of the worst most one-side basketball games I have ever witnessed, where our players turned the ball over fourteen times in one quarter, could not dribble or get shots off, or even make layups on the few occasions they did get to the rim.

The while Mark Campbell took over a 3-21 team at Sac Sate, and led them to an NCAA berth in two years, before departing for TCU, where he turned around a 3-22 team and was the Big 12 2025 Coach of the Year.

Time to recognize that women's hoops have changed from the glory days of the Lady Griz. Just as the NBA is now understanding the incredible dollar potential of women's basketball, the college adminstrators, thanks to Gino Auriemma, had already found that gold and begun to pour money into coaches, facilities, recruiting and promotion.

And now it's time for Montana to catch up, by ditching the quaint notion that a modern-day women's collegiate program can be coached as before by small-town guys from Montana.

It means hiring a coach with national recuriting chops, of the level of Campbell, who recruited the fabulous Sabrina Ionescu to Oregon. If basketball is an urban game, it means finding a coach with recruting ties to Black talent in major urban centers--long a criticism of mine as the Board well knows. Fifty plus years of Lady Griz basketball and you can count the Black palyers on the fingers of one hand?

For those of you who disagree, let me pose this question: How many more embarrassments of the sort we witnessed last Saturday in Bozeman are you willing to endure.

I was told that Campbell was offered, but his wife wouldn't move to Missoula. Was told on good authority.

 

[nicktaber58]

Ok first of all, the Tech loss was an anomaly. If we played them ten times we would beat them 9. Do they have a single MT player that would be a Big Sky all-conference player? I'm not so sure they would. Maybe they have 1-2 guys that could be a part of the rotation but like come on.

And yes the LG have dropped the ball as have Football. They do have some good MT players coming in next year, but the absence of MT players definitely hurt both programs this year.

How in *the fuck* can you say it was an anomaly?? They beat us soundly. Yes, out of 10 games, they may beat us 6, or even more. But that wasn't an anomaly. Hell, they beat us 5/6 years ago here!! You aren't being honest with yourself about competition if you think that.

I 100% think the kock kid could be all conference. He was quicker than any of our guards, and absolutely has a better pure shot, with elevation, than any of our current guards. I was at the game and am giving you first hand analysis. The deikhauss (sp?) Kids from Geraldine, a 6'7" guard / forward with athleticism and a motor could absolutely be all conference. None of the is hyperbole. I find it actually wild that people are sticking to your narrative so closely. Whats even crazier? Travis himself played on gris great teams that had griz greats ON HIS TEAM.

 

[nicktaber58]

Its obvious, but to clarify, yes it is not possible to build the entire griz d1 competitive roster with ALL Montana kids. They have to go elsewhere to get additional top level talent. But we absolutely should have a culture of bringing in the top 1 or 2 players we can get each year. I can guarantee you we'd have dudes thats compete. Or wven ringing in the top frontier as a transfer every so often. There is precedence for that, too.

 

[Griz til I die]

How in *the fuck* can you say it was an anomaly?? They beat us soundly. Yes, out of 10 games, they may beat us 6, or even more. But that wasn't an anomaly. Hell, they beat us 5/6 years ago here!! You aren't being honest with yourself about competition if you think that.

I 100% think the kock kid could be all conference. He was quicker than any of our guards, and absolutely has a better pure shot, with elevation, than any of our current guards. I was at the game and am giving you first hand analysis. The deikhauss (sp?) Kids from Geraldine, a 6'7" guard / forward with athleticism and a motor could absolutely be all conference. None of the is hyperbole. I find it actually wild that people are sticking to your narrative so closely. Whats even crazier? Travis himself played on gris great teams that had griz greats ON HIS TEAM.

I think you're giving Tech way too much credit. I guarantee you if we play them again next season, we will smoke them. Part of the reason why Tech has so many MT kids on their team is because there's good NAIA caliber Bball players in the state, but there aren't a lot of D1 caliber players in MT unless some of these Fball players decided to play hoops instead. If Tech played in the Big Sky this year, where would they finish? Maybe in 9th just ahead of NAU and maybe Eastern? Kudos to them for coming in and playing with a lot of confidence and catching us at a time where we were still figuring out a lot of stuff with rotations and our defense, but I guarantee you if we played them again next week we would beat them by double digits.

All this to say that maybe the Griz could go after a kid like Kock but beyond that, to act like a Griz hoops team loaded with 10 MT kids on it would be a championship caliber team is not true. There aren't 10 D1 caliber kids from MT. Is there even 5? I'm not so sure.

 

[TrueGriz]

How in *the fuck* can you say it was an anomaly?? They beat us soundly. Yes, out of 10 games, they may beat us 6, or even more. But that wasn't an anomaly. Hell, they beat us 5/6 years ago here!! You aren't being honest with yourself about competition if you think that.

I 100% think the kock kid could be all conference. He was quicker than any of our guards, and absolutely has a better pure shot, with elevation, than any of our current guards. I was at the game and am giving you first hand analysis. The deikhauss (sp?) Kids from Geraldine, a 6'7" guard / forward with athleticism and a motor could absolutely be all conference. None of the is hyperbole. I find it actually wild that people are sticking to your narrative so closely. Whats even crazier? Travis himself played on gris great teams that had griz greats ON HIS TEAM.

Griz were not playing very well when they played Tech. Actually, they were playing downright terrible well below what they were capable of doing. Maybe you could be right if the Griz played like they did back then. But, as the way the Griz are playing now, and if they played the way they were capable of back then, I don't think Tech wins any.

 

[nicktaber58]

I think you're giving Tech way too much credit. I guarantee you if we play them again next season, we will smoke them. Part of the reason why Tech has so many MT kids on their team is because there's good NAIA caliber Bball players in the state, but there aren't a lot of D1 caliber players in MT unless some of these Fball players decided to play hoops instead. If Tech played in the Big Sky this year, where would they finish? Maybe in 9th just ahead of NAU and maybe Eastern? Kudos to them for coming in and playing with a lot of confidence and catching us at a time where we were still figuring out a lot of stuff with rotations and our defense, but I guarantee you if we played them again next week we would beat them by double digits.

All this to say that maybe the Griz could go after a kid like Kock but beyond that, to act like a Griz hoops team loaded with 10 MT kids on it would be a championship caliber team is not true. There aren't 10 D1 caliber kids from MT. Is there even 5? I'm not so sure.

They should have bare minimum 5 guys on the roster from Montana. Minimum. That allows them to be more precise in who they go after out of state. The pridgens, money Williams etc etc.

Im not giving tech too much credit. They are a giod ball club, that came in and whooped the griz. Griz were a bit short handed etc etc. Totally get it. But what I saw with my own 2 eyes was at least 4 kids, 3 from Montana and 1 frosh from bonkers ferry Idaho, who could absolutely play, and compete at a high level on our team.

 

[Griz til I die]

They should have bare minimum 5 guys on the roster from Montana. Minimum. That allows them to be more precise in who they go after out of state. The pridgens, money Williams etc etc.

Im not giving tech too much credit. They are a giod ball club, that came in and whooped the griz. Griz were a bit short handed etc etc. Totally get it. But what I saw with my own 2 eyes was at least 4 kids, 3 from Montana and 1 frosh from bonkers ferry Idaho, who could absolutely play, and compete at a high level on our team.

I'm gonna be brutally honest with you, I don't even think there's 5 D1 caliber players in the state of Montana. There's no way the Griz could occupy 5 roster spots for kids just from MT and be a competitive Big Sky team. Zero chance of that in the Men's game. A couple of those MT kids for Tech punched well above their weight against a Griz team that flat didn't show up that night.

 

[citygriz]

I was told that Campbell was offered, but his wife wouldn't move to Missoula. Was told on good authority.

Fair enough. I did not know that. I heard that was the same reason Krysko left, that his wife did not like Missoula.

I am knocked out by the abundance of women's basketball talent that Montana has turned out over the years. The list of players mentioned in this thread is staggering. And I think we forgot Mandy Morales.

 

[nicktaber58]

I'm gonna be brutally honest with you, I don't even think there's 5 D1 caliber players in the state of Montana. There's no way the Griz could occupy 5 roster spots for kids just from MT and be a competitive Big Sky team. Zero chance of that in the Men's game. A couple of those MT kids for Tech punched well above their weight against a Griz team that flat didn't show up that night.

Youre off base. I can name 5 for you right now:
Connor Dick griz
Braden Koch tech
Deikhans tech
Ray Johnston college of idaho frosh
Lincoln Rogers sentinel highs school

I havent looked at Carroll or western yet, im sure there are a few more

 

[5280Griz]

Youre off base. I can name 5 for you right now:
Connor Dick griz
Braden Koch tech
Deikhans tech
Ray Johnston college of idaho frosh
Lincoln Rogers sentinel highs school

I havent looked at Carroll or western yet, im sure there are a few more

You’re forgetting Seth Amunrud at MSU.

 

[Allezchat]

The problem in men's basketball is all the top Bball players also play Football for the most part and they choose to play Football instead.

And I really don't care where our players are from, just as long as we're winning. This is such an exhausting take.

Plus most of the D1 capable boys in MT go out of state. Rare is the in-state recruit that is good enough and picks to stay in state.

 

[nicktaber58]

You’re forgetting Seth Amunrud at MSU.

Yep, him too

 

[5280Griz]

Plus most of the D1 capable boys in MT go out of state. Rare is the in-state recruit that is good enough and picks to stay in state.

Actually from what I could find there are currently no D1 mens basketball players on out of state teams from Montana high schools. UM and MSU each have one. Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Allezchat]

Actually from what I could find there are currently no D1 mens basketball players on out of state teams from Montana high schools. UM and MSU each have one. Please correct me if I am wrong.

I posted that before I read the 2nd page of the thread. So ive since amended my post.

I should say when one is capable, they usually go out of state.

 

[nicktaber58]

Actually from what I could find there are currently no D1 mens basketball players on out of state teams from Montana high schools. UM and MSU each have one. Please correct me if I am wrong.

There was a kid out of Lewiston a few years ago that finished his high school at a prep school back east, and I think ended up at a d1, ill confirm.

 

[nicktaber58]

There was a kid out of Lewiston a few years ago that finished his high school at a prep school back east, and I think ended up at a d1, ill confirm.

Fischer brown, soph at western Carolina. Looks he played last season but may be red shirting this season