On a recent Griz Fan Podcast with Bobby Hauck, they asked Hauck about could you be successful at the FCS level with just Montana kids. He said no. He went on to say you might be average, but their goal (his words) was to win championships and you can't do it with Montana kids alone.
I understand the need to have Montana kids on our roster, and I know this has long been a sore spot for Griz fans. Remember people were pissed on this board that Bobby ran off his share of Montana kids. I mean 2003 was a long time ago, but the Justin Hartmann (who certain posters who shall remain nameless thought was going to be the next Dave Dickenson) event is still very fresh in my mind. We spent this winter going round and round about Travis's dustup with Rollie Worster. This is a conversation about the Schweyen's, Momberg, and Murphy getting cut and their place of birth.
Do you really think winning Big Sky Conference Championships possible with a roster made up of mostly Montana girls? You are flat out delusional if you think so. First, we haven't been getting the best Montana girls for some time. They've ended up at Washington, Stanford, Gonzaga and most recently Montana State and Idaho. The Lady Griz program is a Montana tradition, but if you want the program to competitive it can't be a birthright for Montana natives. We should be handing out scholarships to players who can help the program achieve the heights of which we have become accustomed.
We are 35 games less successful than Montana State over the past five years. Tricia Binford is 10-2 in her last 12 games against Montana. If this is football, the coach would have been run out of town on a pine rail years ago. Montana State is the class program of the state, and Montana isn't even in the third best program in the conference right now. We have ceded a ton of the built-in advantages this program because we stuck with continuity for far too long. Binford is flat out owning us and frankly I never thought that would EVER be possible with the women's program.
We had a small recruiting foot print because Montana girls used to be good enough to fill a roster and win conference titles. In the past twenty years, the VAST majority of top tier Lady Griz haven't been Montana girls. The last bone-fide star? Probably Mandy Morales. Used to be those Montana girls even as reserves would be good enough to start elsewhere in the conference. That isn't even close now. Stiles is likely the only player that would have started anywhere else in the conference.
Remember we haven't won an NCAA game since 1995. The program hasn't won an outright title in more than five years. We haven't been doing it with Montana girls, heck we haven't been doing it with anyone. We've had one first team all-conference performer in the past five years and a roster that averaged roughly about 4 defections per year for the past four years. We've literally had more ACL injuries than all-conference performers. That isn't a good trend folks. Shannon didn't recruit well and all her ballyhooed recruits didn't last more than a year or two. Montana or not.
If we want continuity and tradition, then by all means continue to recruit wholly Montana girls but unless you get the best girls you aren't going to get results. The program is going to be mediocre and I am not here for that. This program has too much capital to waste it on provincialism and sub-standard results. It is one thing to get the best Montana girls, who are capable of playing at a high level regionally, but we haven't. That started under Robin but accelerated under Shannon.
However lets stop pretending that Holsinger did something awful and dastardly. He didn't. Schweyen ran off Montana girls in her time and there were barely crickets from the tradition and continuity crowd. She average somewhere around four departures a year since 2017. So tell me what is better. You are a coach that communicates up front that you aren't in their plans for the long term or having a coach run you off because the way they run the program is dysfunctional. One is a healthy way to run a program and one isn't.
The model has been broken for a while. Shannon wasn't good enough to make it work the way Robin did. All the candidates who interviewed understood precisely what I am talking about. Every finalist spoke to the importance of extending recruiting, modernizing the program and its philosophies. If that means we have to be up front and honest to girls that they aren't going to be in the current coaches plans, then so be it. Might hurt our Montana native sensibilities, but the longer we wait to rebuild the program the less likely it happens.
There is too much tradition and legacy in this program to expect anything less than the best. Tradition and continuity guarantees you have expectations, but not wins. You can honor the history of the program by recognizing its current roster wasn't up to snuff. The girls are victims to one degree of faulty recruiting and coaching by the prior administration. That was communicated to each and every one of the girls. They were wronged by the situation, and not Holsinger. He made that clear in their first conversations as a squad, and he made it abundantly clear that he was here to win and put the program back where it should be. He's not here for mediocrity. He's here to win Big Sky Conference titles and win tournament games. By in large most of the girls understood it, might not have liked it, where he was coming from.
We just have to stop thinking about the Lady Griz program as some sort perverse parochial birth-right. This is a flagship institution not only in the state, but regionally for women's basketball. We have to evolve. Holsinger was brought in to do just that. He's cleaning up a mess that wasn't his. If you have a quibble, blame Schweyen or even Haslam for not fixing it soon enough. Holsinger is not here for mediocrity. He's here to win Big Sky Conference titles and win tournament games and I am all for that.
I understand the need to have Montana kids on our roster, and I know this has long been a sore spot for Griz fans. Remember people were pissed on this board that Bobby ran off his share of Montana kids. I mean 2003 was a long time ago, but the Justin Hartmann (who certain posters who shall remain nameless thought was going to be the next Dave Dickenson) event is still very fresh in my mind. We spent this winter going round and round about Travis's dustup with Rollie Worster. This is a conversation about the Schweyen's, Momberg, and Murphy getting cut and their place of birth.
Do you really think winning Big Sky Conference Championships possible with a roster made up of mostly Montana girls? You are flat out delusional if you think so. First, we haven't been getting the best Montana girls for some time. They've ended up at Washington, Stanford, Gonzaga and most recently Montana State and Idaho. The Lady Griz program is a Montana tradition, but if you want the program to competitive it can't be a birthright for Montana natives. We should be handing out scholarships to players who can help the program achieve the heights of which we have become accustomed.
We are 35 games less successful than Montana State over the past five years. Tricia Binford is 10-2 in her last 12 games against Montana. If this is football, the coach would have been run out of town on a pine rail years ago. Montana State is the class program of the state, and Montana isn't even in the third best program in the conference right now. We have ceded a ton of the built-in advantages this program because we stuck with continuity for far too long. Binford is flat out owning us and frankly I never thought that would EVER be possible with the women's program.
We had a small recruiting foot print because Montana girls used to be good enough to fill a roster and win conference titles. In the past twenty years, the VAST majority of top tier Lady Griz haven't been Montana girls. The last bone-fide star? Probably Mandy Morales. Used to be those Montana girls even as reserves would be good enough to start elsewhere in the conference. That isn't even close now. Stiles is likely the only player that would have started anywhere else in the conference.
Remember we haven't won an NCAA game since 1995. The program hasn't won an outright title in more than five years. We haven't been doing it with Montana girls, heck we haven't been doing it with anyone. We've had one first team all-conference performer in the past five years and a roster that averaged roughly about 4 defections per year for the past four years. We've literally had more ACL injuries than all-conference performers. That isn't a good trend folks. Shannon didn't recruit well and all her ballyhooed recruits didn't last more than a year or two. Montana or not.
If we want continuity and tradition, then by all means continue to recruit wholly Montana girls but unless you get the best girls you aren't going to get results. The program is going to be mediocre and I am not here for that. This program has too much capital to waste it on provincialism and sub-standard results. It is one thing to get the best Montana girls, who are capable of playing at a high level regionally, but we haven't. That started under Robin but accelerated under Shannon.
However lets stop pretending that Holsinger did something awful and dastardly. He didn't. Schweyen ran off Montana girls in her time and there were barely crickets from the tradition and continuity crowd. She average somewhere around four departures a year since 2017. So tell me what is better. You are a coach that communicates up front that you aren't in their plans for the long term or having a coach run you off because the way they run the program is dysfunctional. One is a healthy way to run a program and one isn't.
The model has been broken for a while. Shannon wasn't good enough to make it work the way Robin did. All the candidates who interviewed understood precisely what I am talking about. Every finalist spoke to the importance of extending recruiting, modernizing the program and its philosophies. If that means we have to be up front and honest to girls that they aren't going to be in the current coaches plans, then so be it. Might hurt our Montana native sensibilities, but the longer we wait to rebuild the program the less likely it happens.
There is too much tradition and legacy in this program to expect anything less than the best. Tradition and continuity guarantees you have expectations, but not wins. You can honor the history of the program by recognizing its current roster wasn't up to snuff. The girls are victims to one degree of faulty recruiting and coaching by the prior administration. That was communicated to each and every one of the girls. They were wronged by the situation, and not Holsinger. He made that clear in their first conversations as a squad, and he made it abundantly clear that he was here to win and put the program back where it should be. He's not here for mediocrity. He's here to win Big Sky Conference titles and win tournament games. By in large most of the girls understood it, might not have liked it, where he was coming from.
We just have to stop thinking about the Lady Griz program as some sort perverse parochial birth-right. This is a flagship institution not only in the state, but regionally for women's basketball. We have to evolve. Holsinger was brought in to do just that. He's cleaning up a mess that wasn't his. If you have a quibble, blame Schweyen or even Haslam for not fixing it soon enough. Holsinger is not here for mediocrity. He's here to win Big Sky Conference titles and win tournament games and I am all for that.
