For a guy who’s spent the last decade or so checked out of Lady Griz basketball, my legion of detractors here—Hi Mouse!—will be disheartened to know that there stirs in the deepest and most satisfying reaches of my soul a renewed interest in the program, for these reasons:
--When I recently posted my dissatisfaction with the program’s failures to recruit Black athletes, I expected the sort of vitriolic blowback that has met my many prior posts on this subject, going back to the Selvig era. But…not so! There ensued a lengthy thread of thoughtful commentary on this subject from dozens of fans with deep knowledge of the program, save of course for the ritual Mouse turd.
--For whatever reason—and nobody’s ever been able to understand it—Montana has produced and continues to produce dozens of quality women players with credible power conference potential. Is it the water? The tough outdoor background? The fact that basketball in Montana is the key sport for high school girls while for boys it is now football? No matter, it’s exciting to see players such as Lofer and Moore returning home with the very real potential to revive the Lady Griz tradition.
--The Lady Griz have a chance to attract some major schools to Missoula, like Gonzaga, Utah, BYU. Football? Men’s basketball? Been years since a Stanford came to Dahlberg—never for football.
--Finally, I have a gut feel that Nate Harris is the one to turn this program around. In the games I watched this year our kids played hard but lacked credible talent. So what? So this: He gutted the team, hit the portal, and most definitely upgraded the talent level, possibly by a lot. We’ll see.
Which is my main point. Next year? It’s worth seeing.
--When I recently posted my dissatisfaction with the program’s failures to recruit Black athletes, I expected the sort of vitriolic blowback that has met my many prior posts on this subject, going back to the Selvig era. But…not so! There ensued a lengthy thread of thoughtful commentary on this subject from dozens of fans with deep knowledge of the program, save of course for the ritual Mouse turd.
--For whatever reason—and nobody’s ever been able to understand it—Montana has produced and continues to produce dozens of quality women players with credible power conference potential. Is it the water? The tough outdoor background? The fact that basketball in Montana is the key sport for high school girls while for boys it is now football? No matter, it’s exciting to see players such as Lofer and Moore returning home with the very real potential to revive the Lady Griz tradition.
--The Lady Griz have a chance to attract some major schools to Missoula, like Gonzaga, Utah, BYU. Football? Men’s basketball? Been years since a Stanford came to Dahlberg—never for football.
--Finally, I have a gut feel that Nate Harris is the one to turn this program around. In the games I watched this year our kids played hard but lacked credible talent. So what? So this: He gutted the team, hit the portal, and most definitely upgraded the talent level, possibly by a lot. We’ll see.
Which is my main point. Next year? It’s worth seeing.
