Blaine Taylor returns to Montana

[Colter_Nuanez56]

In today's episode, we broke down Griz hoops during the Montana Sports Hour and we were joined by former Montana head coach Blaine Taylor (31 minutes in). Taylor, now an assistant at UC Irvine, will coach against his alma mater for the first time on Tuesday.

https://soundcloud.com/tootell/tt-december-18-2017

 

[lotsa]

Blaine is a great coach and a fabulous guy. He has been back hitting on all cylinders for some time. Hope he gets a head job soon.

 

[Mousegriz]

First memory of Blaine on the long-haired, puka shell laden 1976 Hellgate Knights team. State tourney Saturday morning elimination game he popped a cool 36 or so on my school...and the West High bus headed out shortly thereafter. Real good playing career with the Griz then coached a couple of the all-time great Griz teams.

1991 - 1992 Delvon Anderson, Darren Engellant, Roger Fasting, Keth Crawford, Travis Decuire, Gary Kane, Nate Atchison, Matt Kempferty......my favorite Griz team.

Delvon Anderson.......toughest Griz ever!

 

[AZDoc]

First memory of Blaine on the long-haired, puka shell laden 1976 Hellgate Knights team. State tourney Saturday morning elimination game he popped a cool 36 or so on my school...and the West High bus headed out shortly thereafter. Real good playing career with the Griz then coached a couple of the all-time great Griz teams.

1991 - 1992 Delvon Anderson, Darren Engellant, Roger Fasting, Keth Crawford, Travis Decuire, Gary Kane, Nate Atchison, Matt Kempferty......my favorite Griz team.

Delvon Anderson.......toughest Griz ever!

My favorite team as well. totally shafted in the tourney. 27-3 if I remember correctly and Florida State with Charlie Ward in the first round as a 14??? I guess I could look it up, but someone else can! :lol:

 

[NorthEndZoneDan]

First memory of Blaine on the long-haired, puka shell laden 1976 Hellgate Knights team. State tourney Saturday morning elimination game he popped a cool 36 or so on my school...and the West High bus headed out shortly thereafter. Real good playing career with the Griz then coached a couple of the all-time great Griz teams.

1991 - 1992 Delvon Anderson, Darren Engellant, Roger Fasting, Keth Crawford, Travis Decuire, Gary Kane, Nate Atchison, Matt Kempferty......my favorite Griz team.

Delvon Anderson.......toughest Griz ever!

no offense to Delvon, loved watching that guy play and I really like the tribute that Coach has set up. But the toughest Griz ever would have to go to Gary Kane.

 

[Mousegriz]

First memory of Blaine on the long-haired, puka shell laden 1976 Hellgate Knights team. State tourney Saturday morning elimination game he popped a cool 36 or so on my school...and the West High bus headed out shortly thereafter. Real good playing career with the Griz then coached a couple of the all-time great Griz teams.

1991 - 1992 Delvon Anderson, Darren Engellant, Roger Fasting, Keth Crawford, Travis Decuire, Gary Kane, Nate Atchison, Matt Kempferty......my favorite Griz team.

Delvon Anderson.......toughest Griz ever!

My favorite team as well. totally shafted in the tourney. 27-3 if I remember correctly and Florida State with Charlie Ward in the first round as a 14??? I guess I could look it up, but someone else can! :lol:

Lost 78 - 68 to FSU to end up 27 - 4.....FSU also had a guy named Sam Cassell who played a little NBA (duh?)....and Bob Sura who I think also made the NBA.

 

[AZDoc]

First memory of Blaine on the long-haired, puka shell laden 1976 Hellgate Knights team. State tourney Saturday morning elimination game he popped a cool 36 or so on my school...and the West High bus headed out shortly thereafter. Real good playing career with the Griz then coached a couple of the all-time great Griz teams.

1991 - 1992 Delvon Anderson, Darren Engellant, Roger Fasting, Keth Crawford, Travis Decuire, Gary Kane, Nate Atchison, Matt Kempferty......my favorite Griz team.

Delvon Anderson.......toughest Griz ever!

My favorite team as well. totally shafted in the tourney. 27-3 if I remember correctly and Florida State with Charlie Ward in the first round as a 14??? I guess I could look it up, but someone else can! :lol:

Lost 78 - 68 to FSU to end up 27 - 4.....FSU also had a guy named Sam Cassell who played a little NBA (duh?)....and Bob Sura who I think also made the NBA.

Oh that's right. forgot about those 2. Man...been a while.

 

[zengriz]

...give the ol' ball coach a warm welcome...
...then proceed to do everything...
...kick his everlovin'...

... ...

 

[Mousegriz]

First memory of Blaine on the long-haired, puka shell laden 1976 Hellgate Knights team. State tourney Saturday morning elimination game he popped a cool 36 or so on my school...and the West High bus headed out shortly thereafter. Real good playing career with the Griz then coached a couple of the all-time great Griz teams.

1991 - 1992 Delvon Anderson, Darren Engellant, Roger Fasting, Keth Crawford, Travis Decuire, Gary Kane, Nate Atchison, Matt Kempferty......my favorite Griz team.

Delvon Anderson.......toughest Griz ever!

no offense to Delvon, loved watching that guy play and I really like the tribute that Coach has set up. But the toughest Griz ever would have to go to Gary Kane.

Respectfully disagree; probably some "tough ones" we're both missing. Delvon at 6'4" banged inside and out relentlessly; Kane more of an outside shooter....but he's from Butte so he's got that going for him.

 

[Zirg]

First memory of Blaine on the long-haired, puka shell laden 1976 Hellgate Knights team. State tourney Saturday morning elimination game he popped a cool 36 or so on my school...and the West High bus headed out shortly thereafter. Real good playing career with the Griz then coached a couple of the all-time great Griz teams.

1991 - 1992 Delvon Anderson, Darren Engellant, Roger Fasting, Keth Crawford, Travis Decuire, Gary Kane, Nate Atchison, Matt Kempferty......my favorite Griz team.

Delvon Anderson.......toughest Griz ever!

no offense to Delvon, loved watching that guy play and I really like the tribute that Coach has set up. But the toughest Griz ever would have to go to Gary Kane.

Bull F-in s*** was Kane a better defender than Delvon. You don't know jack! Kane had a great frosh year shooting 3's,then got lazy and never achieved what he "might have been". Delvon was a warrior on defense in his 2 years every game. No way I am gonna allow some ignorant comment like that stand on here.

 

[grizzlyjournal]

I think you could name a starting 5 of toughest Griz players. Using grit as a criteria, I'd probably place Delvon on the team. But I have at least 6-7 others in mind to fill out a team. Gotta think about this for awhile...

 

[citygriz]

I think you could name a starting 5 of toughest Griz players. Using grit as a criteria, I'd probably place Delvon on the team. But I have at least 6-7 others in mind to fill out a team. Gotta think about this for awhile...

Number one tough guy, Montana, all-time--Larry Kystkowiak.

 

[Potomac Griz]

First memory of Blaine on the long-haired, puka shell laden 1976 Hellgate Knights team. State tourney Saturday morning elimination game he popped a cool 36 or so on my school...and the West High bus headed out shortly thereafter. Real good playing career with the Griz then coached a couple of the all-time great Griz teams.

1991 - 1992 Delvon Anderson, Darren Engellant, Roger Fasting, Keth Crawford, Travis Decuire, Gary Kane, Nate Atchison, Matt Kempferty......my favorite Griz team.

Delvon Anderson.......toughest Griz ever!

My favorite team as well. totally shafted in the tourney. 27-3 if I remember correctly and Florida State with Charlie Ward in the first round as a 14??? I guess I could look it up, but someone else can! :lol:

Yup, a 14 seed and had to play 3 seed Florida State. Meanwhile Pepperdine (who the Griz beat @Pepperdine in triple overtime) got an 11 seed & played Memphis.

There were actually 4 first round draft picks on that Florida State team. Three of them were starters (Bob Sura, Doug Edwards and Sam Cassell of course). Had to look up when they were drafted.

Doug Edwards was drafted #15 in the 1993 NBA Draft.
Sam Cassell was drafted #24 in the 1993 NBA Draft.
Charlie Ward was drafted #26 in the 1994 NBA Draft.
Bob Sura was drafted #17 in the 1995 NBA Draft.

Griz definitely deserved a better seed than a 14. Would have been interested to see how that Griz team would've done as a 12 or 11 seed (like Pepperdine got). That was a hell of a team and a lot of fun to watch.

The previous year's team was a lot of fun to watch too. Kevin Kearney starting at PF, Eric Jordan at PG (Atchison backed up Kearney and Crawford backed up Jordan). Gary Kane played a lot more that year than he did in the 91-92 season (was injured a lot of the 91-92 season and wen he did play only played about 11 mins a game & his percentages were way down). They got a bit of a rough draw in the 1st round of the 90-91 season... 1 seed UNLV who was undefeated at the time. UNLV had Larry Johnson (#1 overall pick in the draft), Greg Anthony (#12), Stacey Augmon (#9), Elmore Spencer (#25) & George Ackles (#29 in the 2nd round). Evric Gray briefly played in the NBA too.

The 2005-2006 team (which went 24-7 and beat Nevada in the tournament as a 12 seed) reminded me a bit of the 91-92 team in that there were so many players on those teams that could put up big numbers on any given day (often 2 or 3 of them doing it at the same time). No glaring weak spots on O or D really.

 

[grizzlyjournal]

I think you could name a starting 5 of toughest Griz players. Using grit as a criteria, I'd probably place Delvon on the team. But I have at least 6-7 others in mind to fill out a team. Gotta think about this for awhile...

Number one tough guy, Montana, all-time--Larry Kystkowiak.

Yes, Larry Krystkowiak is #1. Add to that list: Eric Hays, Ken McKenzie, Scott Zanon, Derrick Pope, John Stroeder, Andrew Strait, Will Cherry, Kevin Criswell, Matt Kempfert, Kevin Kearney, J. R. Camel. There are others who left it all on the court after every game. They built the signature of Montana basketball.

 

[GrizWhiz]

First memory of Blaine on the long-haired, puka shell laden 1976 Hellgate Knights team. State tourney Saturday morning elimination game he popped a cool 36 or so on my school...and the West High bus headed out shortly thereafter. Real good playing career with the Griz then coached a couple of the all-time great Griz teams.

1991 - 1992 Delvon Anderson, Darren Engellant, Roger Fasting, Keth Crawford, Travis Decuire, Gary Kane, Nate Atchison, Matt Kempferty......my favorite Griz team.

Delvon Anderson.......toughest Griz ever!

no offense to Delvon, loved watching that guy play and I really like the tribute that Coach has set up. But the toughest Griz ever would have to go to Gary Kane.

Bull F-in s*** was Kane a better defender than Delvon. You don't know jack! Kane had a great frosh year shooting 3's,then got lazy and never achieved what he "might have been". Delvon was a warrior on defense in his 2 years every game. No way I am gonna allow some ignorant comment like that stand on here.

As I recall, Gary had some medical problems later in his Griz career.

 

[ordigger]

Jiggs Dahlberg, hands down. He played football and basketball. Tough as nails. And none of the others would be playing in Dahlberg if not for him.

 

[NorthEndZoneDan]

First memory of Blaine on the long-haired, puka shell laden 1976 Hellgate Knights team. State tourney Saturday morning elimination game he popped a cool 36 or so on my school...and the West High bus headed out shortly thereafter. Real good playing career with the Griz then coached a couple of the all-time great Griz teams.

1991 - 1992 Delvon Anderson, Darren Engellant, Roger Fasting, Keth Crawford, Travis Decuire, Gary Kane, Nate Atchison, Matt Kempferty......my favorite Griz team.

Delvon Anderson.......toughest Griz ever!

no offense to Delvon, loved watching that guy play and I really like the tribute that Coach has set up. But the toughest Griz ever would have to go to Gary Kane.

Bull F-in s*** was Kane a better defender than Delvon. You don't know jack! Kane had a great frosh year shooting 3's,then got lazy and never achieved what he "might have been". Delvon was a warrior on defense in his 2 years every game. No way I am gonna allow some ignorant comment like that stand on here.

ignorant comment? Go back and read my post. I never said Kane was a better defender than Delvon. Dont attribute quotes to me that I never said. Let me type this real slow so you can get it. In the pantheon of Griz greats Delvon is there, in the list of the Toughest Griz, Gary Kane is there. Kane played tough, hard-nosed, Butte tough ball. Dont just take my word for it, go read this thread from the FB side about the Butte Tough Mofo's and see who's name from BB turns up.
https://egriz.com/grizboard/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=62133

 

[Zirg]

First memory of Blaine on the long-haired, puka shell laden 1976 Hellgate Knights team. State tourney Saturday morning elimination game he popped a cool 36 or so on my school...and the West High bus headed out shortly thereafter. Real good playing career with the Griz then coached a couple of the all-time great Griz teams.

1991 - 1992 Delvon Anderson, Darren Engellant, Roger Fasting, Keth Crawford, Travis Decuire, Gary Kane, Nate Atchison, Matt Kempferty......my favorite Griz team.

Delvon Anderson.......toughest Griz ever!

no offense to Delvon, loved watching that guy play and I really like the tribute that Coach has set up. But the toughest Griz ever would have to go to Gary Kane.

Bull F-in s*** was Kane a better defender than Delvon. You don't know jack! Kane had a great frosh year shooting 3's,then got lazy and never achieved what he "might have been". Delvon was a warrior on defense in his 2 years every game. No way I am gonna allow some ignorant comment like that stand on here.

As I recall, Gary had some medical problems later in his Griz career.

I can't remember what exactly de-railed Kane after his spectacular frosh yr, but I never thought I'd hear "toughest Griz ever" associated with him. That is beyond absurd. I can't say Delvon was tougher than Krysko or other worthy players mentioned in recent posts, like Hays, McKenzie, Pope, Kearney, Strait,Cherry and Criswell, which are all legit considerations. Kane isn't even in the running compared to these guys.

 

[Zirg]

First memory of Blaine on the long-haired, puka shell laden 1976 Hellgate Knights team. State tourney Saturday morning elimination game he popped a cool 36 or so on my school...and the West High bus headed out shortly thereafter. Real good playing career with the Griz then coached a couple of the all-time great Griz teams.

1991 - 1992 Delvon Anderson, Darren Engellant, Roger Fasting, Keth Crawford, Travis Decuire, Gary Kane, Nate Atchison, Matt Kempferty......my favorite Griz team.

Delvon Anderson.......toughest Griz ever!

no offense to Delvon, loved watching that guy play and I really like the tribute that Coach has set up. But the toughest Griz ever would have to go to Gary Kane.

Bull F-in s*** was Kane a better defender than Delvon. You don't know jack! Kane had a great frosh year shooting 3's,then got lazy and never achieved what he "might have been". Delvon was a warrior on defense in his 2 years every game. No way I am gonna allow some ignorant comment like that stand on here.

ignorant comment? Go back and read my post. I never said Kane was a better defender than Delvon. Dont attribute quotes to me that I never said. Let me type this real slow so you can get it. In the pantheon of Griz greats Delvon is there, in the list of the Toughest Griz, Gary Kane is there. Kane played tough, hard-nosed, Butte tough ball. Dont just take my word for it, go read this thread from the FB side about the Butte Tough Mofo's and see who's name from BB turns up.
https://egriz.com/grizboard/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=62133

I admit that I did somewhat turn my stance into a defensive thing, but I stand by my assertion that Kane is not the "toughest Griz ever" to quote you exactly. You are, obviously, Butte-biased as you mention Butte twice in 5 lines, and the only ppl to back you up are also from Butte. If Kane had 4 years like his frosh year, then you might have an argument, but I just disagree with your assertion, as does everyone not from Butte in this thread.

 

[Potomac Griz]

Delvon Anderson.......toughest Griz ever!

Agreed, one of my favorites ever. I was digging around a bit in a folder where I backed up the old montanagrizzlies.com site found this a while back (then put it on youtube). Thought some here might enjoy the old highlights from the NCAA tournament game against FSU back in 92.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7V-nbs5SHE[/youtube]

Wish it was a longer highlight video showing some of the 11-2 run for the Griz towards the end of the game, but it's still got some good highlights.

I'm pretty sure I have at least one other video from that game too but haven't been able to find it yet.