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LadyGriz The Lady Caucasians

C

citygriz

Well-known member
I've railed about this for years and will continue to rail about this until it gets fixed in any meaningful substantial way. Which is to look at the dearth of Black talent in the Lady Griz program versus the other revenue sports at Montana.

Football: Black Head Coach, four Black assistant coaches, north of twenty Black players. History of Black players in the program? Chapter and verse of great ones, going all the way back to Naseby Rhinehart.

Basketball: Black Head Coach, three Black assistant coaches, more than half a roster of Black players for the past several years. History of Black players in the program? A galaxy of stars going all the way back to Zip Rhoades, Ray Howard, and Ray Lucien in the 50's and 60's.

Lady Griz: In more than 50 years of its existence, no Black head coach, no Black assistant coaches, and one (?) Black player on the current roster. History of Black players in the program: Three? (Four?)

Sure, point to the sainted Robin Selvig and the incredible program he built at Montana. But times change. That was ten years ago--and in his last year he finished fifth in the Big Sky conference--the while the major schools put more resources into their women's basketball programs.

One of Selvig's worst legacies in my opinion is that he failed to recruit Black players, such that when this "Big Sky Power" got to the NCAA tournament, it routinely got crushed. Notable too that while Selvig is in the Big Sky Hall of Fame, despite his incredible record he is not in the Naismith Hall of Fame. Apparently his peers at the national level had little respect for the Montana program.

It remains a mystery to me why this program cannot recruit Black talent when Football and Men's Basketball can. Until that gets fixed, this program will remain in the doldrums, in my humble opinion.
 
citygriz said:
I've railed about this for years and will continue to rail about this until it gets fixed in any meaningful substantial way. Which is to look at the dearth of Black talent in the Lady Griz program versus the other revenue sports at Montana.

Football: Black Head Coach, four Black assistant coaches, north of twenty Black players. History of Black players in the program? Chapter and verse of great ones, going all the way back to Naseby Rhinehart.

Basketball: Black Head Coach, three Black assistant coaches, more than half a roster of Black players for the past several years. History of Black players in the program? A galaxy of stars going all the way back to Zip Rhoades, Ray Howard, and Ray Lucien in the 50's and 60's.

Lady Griz: In more than 50 years of its existence, no Black head coach, no Black assistant coaches, and one (?) Black player on the current roster. History of Black players in the program: Three? (Four?)

Sure, point to the sainted Robin Selvig and the incredible program he built at Montana. But times change. That was ten years ago--and in his last year he finished fifth in the Big Sky conference--the while the major schools put more resources into their women's basketball programs.

One of Selvig's worst legacies in my opinion is that he failed to recruit Black players, such that when this "Big Sky Power" got to the NCAA tournament, it routinely got crushed. Notable too that while Selvig is in the Big Sky Hall of Fame, despite his incredible record he is not in the Naismith Hall of Fame. Apparently his peers at the national level had little respect for the Montana program.

It remains a mystery to me why this program cannot recruit Black talent when Football and Men's Basketball can. Until that gets fixed, this program will remain in the doldrums, in my humble opinion.
Click to expand...
Be sure to copy this post and repost it next year. The one black player on current roster won't be back next year. So, you may need to modify your post a little.
 
citygriz said:
I've railed about this for years and will continue to rail about this until it gets fixed in any meaningful substantial way. Which is to look at the dearth of Black talent in the Lady Griz program versus the other revenue sports at Montana.

Football: Black Head Coach, four Black assistant coaches, north of twenty Black players. History of Black players in the program? Chapter and verse of great ones, going all the way back to Naseby Rhinehart.

Basketball: Black Head Coach, three Black assistant coaches, more than half a roster of Black players for the past several years. History of Black players in the program? A galaxy of stars going all the way back to Zip Rhoades, Ray Howard, and Ray Lucien in the 50's and 60's.

Lady Griz: In more than 50 years of its existence, no Black head coach, no Black assistant coaches, and one (?) Black player on the current roster. History of Black players in the program: Three? (Four?)

Sure, point to the sainted Robin Selvig and the incredible program he built at Montana. But times change. That was ten years ago--and in his last year he finished fifth in the Big Sky conference--the while the major schools put more resources into their women's basketball programs.

One of Selvig's worst legacies in my opinion is that he failed to recruit Black players, such that when this "Big Sky Power" got to the NCAA tournament, it routinely got crushed. Notable too that while Selvig is in the Big Sky Hall of Fame, despite his incredible record he is not in the Naismith Hall of Fame. Apparently his peers at the national level had little respect for the Montana program.

It remains a mystery to me why this program cannot recruit Black talent when Football and Men's Basketball can. Until that gets fixed, this program will remain in the doldrums, in my humble opinion.
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All lady griz teams? Or just basketball?
 
Allezchat said:
Why is that?
Click to expand...
Because the women's basketball team was called the Lady Griz since they started and it became kind of trade marked for marketing purposes. This was way before there was a women's soccer or baseball team. When they started the soccer and baseball teams, Just about every other school in the country stopped calling the women's team as "Lady whatever". But UM kept it for the women's basketball team but not the other women's sports. At least, that is the way I remember.
 
TrueGriz said:
Because the women's basketball team was called the Lady Griz since they started and it became kind of trade marked for marketing purposes. This was way before there was a women's soccer or baseball team. When they started the soccer and baseball teams, Just about every other school in the country stopped calling the women's team as "Lady whatever". But UM kept it for the women's basketball team but not the other women's sports. At least, that is the way I remember.
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You are correct. Only a few schools have retained that "Lady's" name. like the Lady Monarchs of ODU, and the Lady Griz.
 
TrueGriz said:
Be sure to copy this post and repost it next year. The one black player on current roster won't be back next year. So, you may need to modify your post a little.
Click to expand...
Cursory view of NDAK teams similar, few black players. WYO similar, but what stood out were international players, clearly the outreach/recruitment efforts made it that way. But WYO went 10-20, so not exactly a great ROI. Interesting topic, black players likely some sociologic, certainly geographic since we are so far north, surrounded by so many competitive schools.
 
citygriz said:
I've railed about this for years and will continue to rail about this until it gets fixed in any meaningful substantial way. Which is to look at the dearth of Black talent in the Lady Griz program versus the other revenue sports at Montana.

Football: Black Head Coach, four Black assistant coaches, north of twenty Black players. History of Black players in the program? Chapter and verse of great ones, going all the way back to Naseby Rhinehart.

Basketball: Black Head Coach, three Black assistant coaches, more than half a roster of Black players for the past several years. History of Black players in the program? A galaxy of stars going all the way back to Zip Rhoades, Ray Howard, and Ray Lucien in the 50's and 60's.

Lady Griz: In more than 50 years of its existence, no Black head coach, no Black assistant coaches, and one (?) Black player on the current roster. History of Black players in the program: Three? (Four?)

Sure, point to the sainted Robin Selvig and the incredible program he built at Montana. But times change. That was ten years ago--and in his last year he finished fifth in the Big Sky conference--the while the major schools put more resources into their women's basketball programs.

One of Selvig's worst legacies in my opinion is that he failed to recruit Black players, such that when this "Big Sky Power" got to the NCAA tournament, it routinely got crushed. Notable too that while Selvig is in the Big Sky Hall of Fame, despite his incredible record he is not in the Naismith Hall of Fame. Apparently his peers at the national level had little respect for the Montana program.

It remains a mystery to me why this program cannot recruit Black talent when Football and Men's Basketball can. Until that gets fixed, this program will remain in the doldrums, in my humble opinion.
Click to expand...
Six by my count prior to this year.

Vicki Austin 88-89
Keeli Burton-Oliver 22-23 (not under Selvig)
Gina Marxen 22-24 (not under Selvig)
Shaunte Nance-Johnson 08-10
Katerina Tsineke 21-23 (not under Selvig)
Tianna Ware 08-12

I made this argument for years while he was here, if he was such a great coach, why couldn't he recruit outside of the small schools that he seemed to love so much as part of his own roots.

He did a great job with giving the Native American girls from Montana the opportunity to play Division I basketball. You would have thought he could see that getting crushed by USC in back to back years in the 80's would have given the clue, but what I remember from that vividly was media question to one of the Lady Griz before the game where they asked to the effect of 'when was the last time you went up against anyone who was 6'4". The reply, 'this morning at practice.'

The real question should be, when was the last time we had any player who was 6'4" who had the physicality to play against that kind of physicality that you find in the women who grew up playing against boys in the inner cities and such where this is just part of how you learn to play the game. Certainly though, my opinion was that this is the crossroads where Robin could have learned what he needed to elevate the program to the next level and he chose to recruit heavily out of Fairfield, Lewistown and Malta instead.
 
Northern Colorado has a couple of African American women in their team. They lost to Eastern (who was sub .500 and has a lot of white girls) to knock them out of the big sky tourney and barely beat the Lady Griz the last game of the season. Heather Baymon was the only one yo be on an award team(3rd team) though they had one on the all defense team. I do like George, their point guard. Jordan from Idaho state was 1st team though I would argue she mostly disappeared against good teams.

International players in Idaho made up the best team so it's not innercity girls there.
 
citygriz said:
I've railed about this for years and will continue to rail about this until it gets fixed in any meaningful substantial way. Which is to look at the dearth of Black talent in the Lady Griz program versus the other revenue sports at Montana.

Football: Black Head Coach, four Black assistant coaches, north of twenty Black players. History of Black players in the program? Chapter and verse of great ones, going all the way back to Naseby Rhinehart.

Basketball: Black Head Coach, three Black assistant coaches, more than half a roster of Black players for the past several years. History of Black players in the program? A galaxy of stars going all the way back to Zip Rhoades, Ray Howard, and Ray Lucien in the 50's and 60's.

Lady Griz: In more than 50 years of its existence, no Black head coach, no Black assistant coaches, and one (?) Black player on the current roster. History of Black players in the program: Three? (Four?)

Sure, point to the sainted Robin Selvig and the incredible program he built at Montana. But times change. That was ten years ago--and in his last year he finished fifth in the Big Sky conference--the while the major schools put more resources into their women's basketball programs.

One of Selvig's worst legacies in my opinion is that he failed to recruit Black players, such that when this "Big Sky Power" got to the NCAA tournament, it routinely got crushed. Notable too that while Selvig is in the Big Sky Hall of Fame, despite his incredible record he is not in the Naismith Hall of Fame. Apparently his peers at the national level had little respect for the Montana program.

It remains a mystery to me why this program cannot recruit Black talent when Football and Men's Basketball can. Until that gets fixed, this program will remain in the doldrums, in my humble opinion.
Click to expand...
Just to clarify, do you need the race that was recorded at birth, dna, color they identify as, or is it just your eye test to determine if they are your preferred color
 
Having known quite a few women’s coaches fo
Griz in Texas said:
Six by my count prior to this year.

Vicki Austin 88-89
Keeli Burton-Oliver 22-23 (not under Selvig)
Gina Marxen 22-24 (not under Selvig)
Shaunte Nance-Johnson 08-10
Katerina Tsineke 21-23 (not under Selvig)
Tianna Ware 08-12

I made this argument for years while he was here, if he was such a great coach, why couldn't he recruit outside of the small schools that he seemed to love so much as part of his own roots.

He did a great job with giving the Native American girls from Montana the opportunity to play Division I basketball. You would have thought he could see that getting crushed by USC in back to back years in the 80's would have given the clue, but what I remember from that vividly was media question to one of the Lady Griz before the game where they asked to the effect of 'when was the last time you went up against anyone who was 6'4". The reply, 'this morning at practice.'

The real question should be, when was the last time we had any player who was 6'4" who had the physicality to play against that kind of physicality that you find in the women who grew up playing against boys in the inner cities and such where this is just part of how you learn to play the game. Certainly though, my opinion was that this is the crossroads where Robin could have learned what he needed to elevate the program to the next level and he chose to recruit heavily out of Fairfield, Lewistown and Malta instead.
Click to expand...
Having known multiple Griz assistants over the years and one current that is a good friend, i can tell you it is not for a lack of trying. The facts are and this is no secret, is very difficult to recruit black women far from their homes, which typically are cities. Women’s recruiting is much more regionalized than men. The bigger issue for Lady Griz in the last 10 years is not locking down the local D1 girls, regardless of race or size. Robin elevated the program to a level higher than most would ever expect to happen again, he did it by consistently signing the top Montana girls from places like Fairfield, Malta, and Lewistown. The 6’4 player you describe has never and will never sign with the Lady Griz, that is just reality
 
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wyomingriz said:
Having known quite a few women’s coaches fo

Having known multiple Griz assistants over the years and one current that is a good friend, i can tell you it is not for a lack of trying. The facts are and this is no secret, is very difficult to recruit black women far from their homes, which typically are cities. Women’s recruiting is much more regionalized than men. The bigger issue for Lady Griz in the last 10 years is not locking down the local D1 girls, regardless of race or size. Robin elevated the program to a level higher than most would ever expect to happen again, he did it by consistently signing the top Montana girls from places like Fairfield, Malta, and Lewistown. The 6’4 player you discuss has never and will never sign with the Lady Griz, that is just reality
Click to expand...

And there's also the simple fact that the percentage of D-1 men's players who are black is double the equivalent percentage for women's players. I have no idea what the underlying reasons for that are, but that surely plays a major role in why women's teams in mostly white areas of the country will tend to have predominantly white women's basketball teams even if the men's team has more black players on the roster.
 
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