Grizbacker1
Well-known member
Nice article in the 2/7/06 Billings Gazette
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Awakening The Griz: Basketball coach helps restore pride
By The Associated Press
BOZEMAN -- The records were awful, attendance meager and the palpable aura of pride that had shrouded the University of Montana men's basketball program for better than three decades was gone.
From afar, Larry Krystkowiak watched and winced.
What in the name of Micheal Ray Richardson, Jud Heathcote, Mike Montgomery, Stew Morrill, Blaine Taylor, Jiggs Dahlberg and -- though he'd never say it himself -- Larry Krystkowiak was happening?
"I don't know if there was anybody out there who was taking it any harder that the program had slumped," Krystkowiak told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle recently. "Seeing the team in the bottom half of the standings and talking to people here about lack of fan support ... that put a dent in me." It wasn't just that a perennial Big Sky Conference powerhouse had suffered through four losing seasons in six years.
Or that attendance had slipped to less than 4,000 per game for a program that averaged better than 7,000 when Krystkowiak was the league's premier player in the early 1980s.
Worst of all, the aura had vanished, lost in a mortal combination of defeats, fieldhouse renovation and the unpardonable sin of hiring an outsider, Pat Kennedy, as head coach in 2002.
Grizzly pride gone
"We used to have a lot of Grizzly pride, not just among the kids on the team but in the community," said Krystkowiak, 41. "I felt like it was gone. And a lot of people in town felt like it was gone."
Fast forward to some 20 months after the former Grizzly all-leaguer and NBA fixture is announced as the school's 25th coach.
The Grizzlies, 16-5, are winning. They have the league's best overall record, won the postseason tournament a year ago and played in the NCAA Tournament.
Attendance has averaged nearly 5,700 over the past five home games.
Most important, that old aura shrouding the program is creeping back.
Discipline on and off the floor has returned. The team grade-point average for fall semester was 3.21, with senior Colstrip product Kevin Criswell earning a 4.0. The players have immersed themselves in the community.
"He brings so much respect to the program as somebody who was a great player here," UM athletic director Jim O'Day said. "I commend him for what he does. He's always one step ahead of us. He's just so sharp."
Respect is the buzzword for "Krysko", who earned it during a four-year career (1983-86) in which he became the Big Sky's only three-time Most Valuable Player and was three-time honorable mention all-America.
From the beginning, he realized respect wouldn't come merely because he is the school's leading career scorer and rebounder, or because he's the only UM player whose uniform number (42) is retired, or because he played nine years in the NBA.
Community work
Krystkowiak, his staff and his players worked nearly as hard in the community as they did in Dahlberg Arena.
They splashed 160 gallons of white paint on the 'M' overlooking the campus on Mount Sentinel. They've donated blood as a group. They participated in a heart walk.
They spend countless hours in area schools and try to schedule non-conference games so they don't conflict with Missoula's high school nights.
"It's part of the whole process," Krystkowiak explained. "We try to reach out and let people know it's not a one-sided deal. We're not just asking them to come out to the games."
Meanwhile, O'Day said the image is enhanced by Krystkowiak's humble nature and Montana-esque work ethic, a fixture since his checkered upbringing in his native Shelby.
At 6-foot-9, he presents a menacing figure pacing the sidelines, particularly when he's scowling at referees, but off the floor he's known as a family guy who doesn't mind if the glare of cameras is elsewhere.
Krystkowiak's picture isn't on the cover of the team's annual media guide, and the coaches' biographies appear after the players.
"I think that's very big," O'Day said of his coach's character. "You'd say the same things about Mick Durham at Montana State. The guy really believes in the program, knows the quality of student-athletes he wants to bring in, knows the correct fit. The core values for both are great, and they are guys who worked extremely hard to get where they were and are.
"There's something to be said for that."
Winning so quickly has merely been an unexpected bonus.
The Grizzlies lost their opener at Boise State and won 10 straight, including a rout of Stanford, before losing at home to Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the alma mater of Krystkowiak's wife, Jan.
Krystkowiak, an assistant at Montana and Old Dominion before coaching the Idaho Stampede of the Continental Basketball Association, describes his brief tenure as "a learning experience."
Suffice it to say, though, it has been rewarding to bring back the feeling in a cherished place craving its return.
"If we were trying to go somewhere that's never happened before, it might have been a pipe dream," Krystkowiak said. "But having been there at one point, we knew we were capable of the challenge here.
"Knowing it should've been that way all along, that was part of my excitement for getting involved again."
News Classifieds Obits Advanced Search • Archives
Awakening The Griz: Basketball coach helps restore pride
By The Associated Press
BOZEMAN -- The records were awful, attendance meager and the palpable aura of pride that had shrouded the University of Montana men's basketball program for better than three decades was gone.
From afar, Larry Krystkowiak watched and winced.
What in the name of Micheal Ray Richardson, Jud Heathcote, Mike Montgomery, Stew Morrill, Blaine Taylor, Jiggs Dahlberg and -- though he'd never say it himself -- Larry Krystkowiak was happening?
"I don't know if there was anybody out there who was taking it any harder that the program had slumped," Krystkowiak told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle recently. "Seeing the team in the bottom half of the standings and talking to people here about lack of fan support ... that put a dent in me." It wasn't just that a perennial Big Sky Conference powerhouse had suffered through four losing seasons in six years.
Or that attendance had slipped to less than 4,000 per game for a program that averaged better than 7,000 when Krystkowiak was the league's premier player in the early 1980s.
Worst of all, the aura had vanished, lost in a mortal combination of defeats, fieldhouse renovation and the unpardonable sin of hiring an outsider, Pat Kennedy, as head coach in 2002.
Grizzly pride gone
"We used to have a lot of Grizzly pride, not just among the kids on the team but in the community," said Krystkowiak, 41. "I felt like it was gone. And a lot of people in town felt like it was gone."
Fast forward to some 20 months after the former Grizzly all-leaguer and NBA fixture is announced as the school's 25th coach.
The Grizzlies, 16-5, are winning. They have the league's best overall record, won the postseason tournament a year ago and played in the NCAA Tournament.
Attendance has averaged nearly 5,700 over the past five home games.
Most important, that old aura shrouding the program is creeping back.
Discipline on and off the floor has returned. The team grade-point average for fall semester was 3.21, with senior Colstrip product Kevin Criswell earning a 4.0. The players have immersed themselves in the community.
"He brings so much respect to the program as somebody who was a great player here," UM athletic director Jim O'Day said. "I commend him for what he does. He's always one step ahead of us. He's just so sharp."
Respect is the buzzword for "Krysko", who earned it during a four-year career (1983-86) in which he became the Big Sky's only three-time Most Valuable Player and was three-time honorable mention all-America.
From the beginning, he realized respect wouldn't come merely because he is the school's leading career scorer and rebounder, or because he's the only UM player whose uniform number (42) is retired, or because he played nine years in the NBA.
Community work
Krystkowiak, his staff and his players worked nearly as hard in the community as they did in Dahlberg Arena.
They splashed 160 gallons of white paint on the 'M' overlooking the campus on Mount Sentinel. They've donated blood as a group. They participated in a heart walk.
They spend countless hours in area schools and try to schedule non-conference games so they don't conflict with Missoula's high school nights.
"It's part of the whole process," Krystkowiak explained. "We try to reach out and let people know it's not a one-sided deal. We're not just asking them to come out to the games."
Meanwhile, O'Day said the image is enhanced by Krystkowiak's humble nature and Montana-esque work ethic, a fixture since his checkered upbringing in his native Shelby.
At 6-foot-9, he presents a menacing figure pacing the sidelines, particularly when he's scowling at referees, but off the floor he's known as a family guy who doesn't mind if the glare of cameras is elsewhere.
Krystkowiak's picture isn't on the cover of the team's annual media guide, and the coaches' biographies appear after the players.
"I think that's very big," O'Day said of his coach's character. "You'd say the same things about Mick Durham at Montana State. The guy really believes in the program, knows the quality of student-athletes he wants to bring in, knows the correct fit. The core values for both are great, and they are guys who worked extremely hard to get where they were and are.
"There's something to be said for that."
Winning so quickly has merely been an unexpected bonus.
The Grizzlies lost their opener at Boise State and won 10 straight, including a rout of Stanford, before losing at home to Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the alma mater of Krystkowiak's wife, Jan.
Krystkowiak, an assistant at Montana and Old Dominion before coaching the Idaho Stampede of the Continental Basketball Association, describes his brief tenure as "a learning experience."
Suffice it to say, though, it has been rewarding to bring back the feeling in a cherished place craving its return.
"If we were trying to go somewhere that's never happened before, it might have been a pipe dream," Krystkowiak said. "But having been there at one point, we knew we were capable of the challenge here.
"Knowing it should've been that way all along, that was part of my excitement for getting involved again."
