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Grizzly Athletics 2021-22 Recap

Griz til I die

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Grizzly Athletics 2021-22 Recap

I thought it would be fun to grade each teams performance this season and look at the areas where the athletic department succeeded and sports that we struggled in this year. I’m going to grade each sports team as well as the athletic department and the things they did to improve the department as a whole. I’ll list them below in order from highest grade to lowest grade.

Soccer: A+. Chris Citowicki has turned this program into a dynasty. In his 4 years at the helm, he’s won 3 Big Sky tournament championships and 1 regular season Big Sky championship. The guy just continues to churn out championship after championship and develop pro player after pro player. It’s really quite impressive and this past fall may have been his best coaching job to date. He lost a lot of talent from his Spring 2021 team including Alexa Coyle and the best goalkeeper in school history in Claire Howard, so what does he do? He comes back out in the fall with a very young team, including a freshman in net in Camelia Xu and they hardly skip a beat. The next step for this team is to win an NCAA tournament game which Citowicki has alluded to as the next step for this program. In their 3 appearances in the tournament, they’ve gotten blown out by Washington State twice, and had a heartbreaker against South Carolina. This program is absolutely capable of winning a tournament game and with a much older roster next season with more experience, they could very well do it if they win the Big Sky tournament, but because of the youth that was on this year’s team, they have absolutely earned an A+ in my mind and Citowicki and his staff deserve a ton of credit.

Football: A. It was great to finally have Griz Football back in 2021 after no season in 2020, and boy did they come out with a bang. Football had a lot of great moments by knocking off #20 Washington, stomping the cats, and getting revenge against Eastern in-route to a second consecutive quarterfinal appearance in a year where injuries became the norm. There’s a lot of teams around the country where if they would have found themselves in the situation we were in with all of the injuries, they would have just folded up shop and called it a year, but not this team. They scrapped, clawed, and found a way to win 10 games last season before they finally ran out of gas against JMU. Bobby and co deserve a ton of credit for being able to field a winning team week in and week out to give ourselves a chance throughout the entire course of the year. That being said, this team needs to take the next step and win the Big Sky and at the absolute minimum reach the semis this upcoming season. I personally think this team is capable of reaching Frisco if the staff is able to bring in a couple of big dogs this summer, but we got some tough games @Weber @Sac State and @MSU but with our defense being potentially more dangerous than last years defense, we will be in every one of these games next season. Shore up the O-line this summer, and this team could be really special.

Men’s Tennis: B. It was a pretty successful year for Men’s Tennis as they became a nationally ranked team for the first time in program history and were able to stay in the rankings for 8 consecutive weeks while also picking up marquee wins against perennial good teams in Boise State and Air Force. I know this team would’ve liked to have won the regular season title and they dropped a couple of matches that they shouldn’t but that happens, it’s the nature of sports. Like Football, Men’s Tennis battled injuries during most of the conference slate, particularly at #1 singles with Ed Pudney (Big Sky MVP) playing on a sprained ankle most of the conference season. Jason Brown has this program headed in the right direction, but he graduates 4 seniors who happen to be 4 of the 5 best players on the team, so expect Men’s Tennis to take a little bit of a step back next season.

Lady Griz: B-. In what was a changing of the guard this year for the Lady Griz in Brian Holsinger’s first season, you could really tell he has reset the culture and got this team believing, which was something that had been missing for a while. The Lady Griz were able to win 19 games this year, including defeating the cats at home which was something that hadn’t happened since Shannon Schweyen’s second season, but the Lady Griz were still unable to win a game at the conference tournament, and that needs to change. The Good news is that Holsinger is an incredible recruiter and has a phenomenal class coming in that includes 2 of the top 150 point guards in the country, one of which is an ESPN 100 recruit in Mackendra Konig from Mill Creek Washington. The Lady Griz do lose significant contributors as it sounds like the only Senior who is contemplating returning for an additional year next season is Sophia Stiles and it sounds like she hasn’t made a decision yet. If she decides not to take it, this team will be significantly younger next year, and I will be interested to see where we stack up with the rest of the conference next season.

Women’s Golf: C+. This is probably the best season Griz Golf has had since Kris Nord took over the program. They won 2 different tournaments in the fall which was something that the team hadn’t done since 2015, and beat the cats on 3 separate occasions this year, including beating them in 2 of their own tournaments (and winning one of them at the Battle at Old Works) and also placing higher then them at the Big Sky Conference tournament securing the Brawl of the Wild point for UM in Golf which was a sport we had not beaten them in for a while. While there were many highs, the team also struggled to find consistency this season and had a couple of really bad tournaments including finishing in 8th place at the conference tournament. After day 2 of the tournament, the Griz were sitting in dead last (11 of 11) but rallied in a big way to move up 3 spots to finish in 8th after the third and final day. I personally thought going into the conference tournament they were capable of finishing in the top 5, so I do consider this a disappointing result, and Kris Nord said the same thing. The program is finally starting to trend up and Kris Nord has his best recruiting class ever coming in next year. Nord’s also not afraid to utilize the transfer portal and has done it in the past. He’s got 2 players on the team currently who have both transferred in. Golf does lose their top 2 players in Kylie Esh and Allison Sobol but has a lot of talented young players returning and Griz fans should be excited about the direction the program is headed. Golf receives a C+ in my mind but would’ve received a B- had they been able to finish in the top 5 at the conference tournament. I think this is a fair grade.

Men’s Basketball: C. There’s no doubt this was a really disappointing year for Men’s Basketball, and anyone associated with the program would tell you that. Things were looking good for a while as the team came out of non-conference at 7-4 and were in the race for the league title through the first half of the conference schedule, and then the calendar turned to February and that’s when the wheels fell off. The Griz won only 2 games in the months of February and March and lost to several bottom feeders such as Idaho and Idaho State. The team finished 18-14 and really the only bright side this season was beating the cats in Missoula and ruining their chance to sweep us despite having their best team in 20 years. The good news though is I love the additions we made to the team in the transfer portal bringing in Dischon Thomas from Colorado State and Laolu Oke from D2 Metro State. Both guys are 6’8, excellent rebounders, can score the ball really well (Thomas especially) and bring a lot more size to a team that has been lacking size for the past few seasons. We struggled immensely rebounding this year, particularly on the offensive glass, and these 2 guys will provide a major boost for us in that regard. The Griz will have the benefit of finally after 3 seasons of being one of the youngest teams in the conference, now being one of the oldest teams in the conference as several other Big Sky teams lost a lot of star caliber players via graduation. I personally think next years team is capable of winning the conference now that we’ve added the necessary pieces out of the portal, but they need to put in the work this offseason. The thing that’s held us back the last 2 years is a lack of cohesiveness and chemistry. The 2 new guys are gonna have to come in, work hard and earn the trust of the rest of the team and I believe they will be able to do that. Griz Basketball will be much improved next season IMO.

Track & Field: C. Not a bad year for Griz Track & Field, but it also wasn’t anything special. The men finished 6th overall at the conference championships this past weekend, while the women finished in 9th. We did get two individual titles with Tanessa Morris winning the women’s Hammer Throw and Evan Tood winning the men’s javelin. Cade Johnstone was pretty impressive on the track on the men’s side, as was former Griz Soccer player turned sprinter Catie Buck on the women’s side. Watch out for those 2 year next year. I’m interested to see if our Track & Field program finally takes a step forward in the coming years with the new indoor practice facility. They’ll finally have a decent place with lots of space to practice during the winter.

Softball: C-. The program seems to have been stuck in neutral ever since Melanie Meuchel took over as head coach. This was not a good year for Griz Softball, but I will cut them some slack as their pitching rotation was pretty young this year. I believe they will be improved next season but how much improved will be the question in my mind. There is a bunch of talented players returning including all 3 pitchers, but I do think the staff is gonna have to try and hit a couple of home runs in the transfer portal if GrIz Softball wants to put themselves back into the conversation next season. They have 5 Seniors, 4 of which are eligible to return for an additional year if they choose to take it, and we’ll wait to see how many of them elect to take it.

Volleyball: D+. Like Softball, this program also seems to be stuck in neutral, but it’s been stuck there for a much longer time. I seriously do not remember the last time we had a good Volleyball team that was capable of contending for the conference. Volleyball was 11-16 this year with a schedule that wasn’t all that hard. They just barely made the conference tournament, but then it was short lived as they lost to top seed Weber in the opening game. The good news for Volleyball next season is their top player, Sarina Moreno elected to take the additional year of eligibility and return to the team. I can’t say I’m overly confident that Volleyball is going to take much of a step forward next year, but I’ll consider it a win if they finish over .500 next year.

Women’s Tennis: D-. This was not a good year for Women’s Tennis, and I don’t understand why. They had a really experienced team coming back this year and they just didn’t produce any favorable results. They failed to qualify for the conference tournament by not finishing in the top 6, and it was just all around bad for Women’ Tennis. The good news is they return basically the entire team so we will see if they can turn it around next season, which I would think they’d be able to.

Cross Country: D-. We’ve just never had very good distance runners. The men finished in 7th while the women finished in 10th. Not much more to say.


Facilities/Fundraising: A+. It was a great year for the athletic department when it came to facilities. We finished the men’s basketball locker room (which looks amazing), we opened up the Coyle Recovery Room, we announced the addition of an indoor practice facility which is set to break ground any time now, they’re gonna start construction on the women’s basketball locker room I believe in the fall. There’s not much more we could have hoped for on the facilities side of things. Thank you to all the generous donors who committed their time and money to these projects.

Overall Athletic Department grade: C+. There were a lot of really positive things that happened this year, but also a lot of bad, probably more bad than we’ve seen in quite a while. It was a pretty extreme year as the good stuff was really good and the bad stuff was really bad and not a whole of in-between. This was not the strongest year by the athletic department, but I do expect next year to be a stronger year as all the sports at the top should be just as good, if not better next year, and I do believe we will be much improved in Basketball (both men and women), Softball, women’s Tennis, and maybe even Track & Field. Regardless, it was a fun year, it was great to have a normal sports season with the exception of like 1 month during Basketball season, and that alone is a win itself.

Have a great Summer Griz Nation, and here’s to next year! Go Griz!
 
I think you’re being generous to the men’s basketball team. They returned literally everyone and yet closed out the season 3-8 including an early exit from the tournament. I’d have given them a D, and an F for the final month/tournament. ZERO heart, zero energy, zero enthusiasm.
 
As for softball and volleyball stuck in neutral, I’d disagree. If softball was in nuetral, then they’re beginning to coast backwards down the hill they were climbing. Only four of their Sr’s are eligible to return since Cami Sellers used her extra year this year. Returning is also something that is very rare in women's sports but I might expect McGrath to return being the heart and soul of this team and having left a ton of unfinished business at the con tourney. Their conference season win totals have been steadily declining since Pinkerton left and I don’t see a big change for next year.

Volleyball showed life this year for maybe for the 1st time in almost a decade taking a step forward. Doubling their win totals from the previous two seasons and back to back to back solid recruiting, I think Allison Lawrence has this program heading in the right direction. Unfortunately they’ll still have to play power house Weber every year.
 
AZGrizFan said:
I think you’re being generous to the men’s basketball team. They returned literally everyone and yet closed out the season 3-8 including an early exit from the tournament. I’d have given them a D, and an F for the final month/tournament. ZERO heart, zero energy, zero enthusiasm.
I thought about giving the men a lower grade, but big picture wise they still did some good things this season. They beat the cats and Weber at home, they beat a Mountain West school (albeit a bad one), and despite all the bad still finished 4 games above .500 and had a winning record in conference play. Compared to some of the other sports this year, they deserved this grade.
 
Griz til I die said:
AZGrizFan said:
I think you’re being generous to the men’s basketball team. They returned literally everyone and yet closed out the season 3-8 including an early exit from the tournament. I’d have given them a D, and an F for the final month/tournament. ZERO heart, zero energy, zero enthusiasm.
I thought about giving the men a lower grade, but big picture wise they still did some good things this season. They beat the cats and Weber at home, they beat a Mountain West school (albeit a bad one), and despite all the bad still finished 4 games above .500 and had a winning record in conference play. Compared to some of the other sports this year, they deserved this grade.

I appreciate what your attempting here but I all in all, a grade should be based on what reasonable expectations are of the individual sport, not how they compared to the other sports.
 
alabamagrizzly said:
Griz til I die said:
I thought about giving the men a lower grade, but big picture wise they still did some good things this season. They beat the cats and Weber at home, they beat a Mountain West school (albeit a bad one), and despite all the bad still finished 4 games above .500 and had a winning record in conference play. Compared to some of the other sports this year, they deserved this grade.

I appreciate what your attempting here but I all in all, a grade should be based on what reasonable expectations are of the individual sport, not how they compared to the other sports.

Why? I'd bet any amount of money...EVERY single team has a goal to win the BSC. Why wouldn't they all be graded according to that?
 
SoldierGriz said:
alabamagrizzly said:
I appreciate what your attempting here but I all in all, a grade should be based on what reasonable expectations are of the individual sport, not how they compared to the other sports.

Why? I'd bet any amount of money...EVERY single team has a goal to win the BSC. Why wouldn't they all be graded according to that?

Yes, good point. The point I was making was that GrizTID was saying that part of the reason MBB deserved the grade he gave them was they did better then some of the other Griz teams like cross country and women's golf. I was saying they should be graded only on their own results in their respective sport.
 
alabamagrizzly said:
SoldierGriz said:
Why? I'd bet any amount of money...EVERY single team has a goal to win the BSC. Why wouldn't they all be graded according to that?

Yes, good point. The point I was making was that GrizTID was saying that part of the reason MBB deserved the grade he gave them was they did better then some of the other Griz teams like cross country and women's golf. I was saying they should be graded only on their own results in their respective sport.

Gotcha. Learning to read. :)
 
AZGrizFan said:
I think you’re being generous to the men’s basketball team. They returned literally everyone and yet closed out the season 3-8 including an early exit from the tournament. I’d have given them a D, and an F for the final month/tournament. ZERO heart, zero energy, zero enthusiasm.

100%
 
AZGrizFan said:
I think you’re being generous to the men’s basketball team. They returned literally everyone and yet closed out the season 3-8 including an early exit from the tournament. I’d have given them a D, and an F for the final month/tournament. ZERO heart, zero energy, zero enthusiasm.
More important than W/L's in my mind. No effort on rebounds or loose balls, etc. No fight except in the MSU game in Missoula. May be good that some are leaving; a house-cleaning could be of benefit. Conf. record over the last two years is 18-18, 2-2 in the BSC tournaments.
 
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