Lady Griz--Cats

[citygriz]

Sad thing for me is, I'm no longer even curious. From being an early rabid fan of the Lady Griz, I've reached a sad nadir: I just don't care.

Yet you started a thread.

Old habits die hard. Lasted one quarter.

 

[DoubleNicks]

Our men have played four Power Five programs this year. In those games we played credibly against two (USC and Georgia), very well against another (Arizona) and won one (against Washington.) You put our men's team up against anybody in the country and they will not embarrass us.

I get frustrated sometimes but never embarrassed by any Griz teams.

Not to bring them down but just to play devil's advocate, the men's team has lost to Northern Colorado (RPI 287), Northern Arizona (300), and Sac State (305). Even mighty Washington only has a RPI of 190 (worse than Montana State, EWU, Weber State, and SUU). Comparatively, the women's worst loss is to Utah State (RPI 232). The men are 3-5 in the conference, while the women are now 4-3 (despite the BSC men being ranked 26th while the BSC women are ranked 19th). Yes, both USC and Arizona are receiving votes and the men had respectable games against each but the women also played well against currently 18th ranked Gonzaga (2 point game with less than 3 minutes to go...5 point game with 10 secs to go).

I will agree that the men haven't lost by 24 this year but just last year they lost to a NAIA school as well as had 18, 17, and 33 point (to Oregon) losses. Sometimes things just snowball...

Is this program going to come into the modern era of college basketball and recruit nationally as our men's program has?

Uh, how often have the men recruited outside the West Coast during DeCuire's tenure?

The men have 7 players recruited from CA, 1 from WA, 1 from MT, 1 from Sacred Heart (originally from OR), 1 from UMass Lowell (originally from CA), and 1 still here from Australia. Transfers came from the Mountain West Conference, Northeast Conference, and the America East Conference.

There's nothing wrong with 8 out of 12 players coming from one state, if they are your best options. I just find it odd that your measuring stick for recruiting "nationally" is a team where almost all their players usually come from 3 states.

Yes, the majority of the LG come from MT but also have 2 recruited from OR, 2 from WA, 1 from ID, 2 from IA (the Aussies), and 1 from MO. They got a transfer from nationally-ranked Iowa State of the Big12 (since some seem to be infatuated by big name recognition).

Resume-wise coming in, the LG have landed the Associated Press Washington Player of the Year (Gfeller), 2016 & 2017 2x Gatorade Montana Player of the Year (Stiles), 2020 Gatorade Montana Player of the Year (Keller), Oregon's Metro League Player of the Year (Anderson), and Bria Dixson who was Oregon's leading scorer as a frosh, and the leading or 2nd best three point shooter for Oregon all 4 years of HS and in the top 50 nationally. Also, landed Jamie Pickens who was a 4 star, ESPN Top 100 recruit and had won the Montana Gatorade Player of the Year in both 2018 & 2019.

I never saw one D1 basketball player on the floor for Montana.

How far we have fallen off in talent :shock:

I hardly miss any LG games and catch a lot of other Big Sky women's games. The talent is not the problem, in my opinion. Which is what makes some of these seasons so frustrating. The potential is there as shown by stretches of LG dominance this year. The Northern Colorado series was a good example of two games where one could see the difference in the good and bad stretches of each game. When they made up the 19 and 24 point deficits, the LG were playing more confident and aggressively (especially when the brought defensive pressure). They started dictating the pace and style of play and therefore took Northern Colorado out of their rhythm/comfort (just like MSU did to the LG on Thursday). Coach Petrino has stated that inconsistency is an issue the team was trying to address.

Shooting talent has been proven from beyond the arc as well as at the free throw line (have been among the top 5 nationally...btw, there are 351 D1 women's teams). The LG had the most efficient scorer in the conference coming into the week.

Stiles has shown her ability to get to the hoop at will with her quickness, even against smaller quicker teams like NAU and Sac State. Stiles and Darian White kind of neutralized each other in the last game but seeing the MSU-Portland game where White outran and ran off about half the shot clock herself for a couple possessions at the end when the Pilots were sending everybody to foul, that's actually quite the statement. Stiles and White are the two best athletes in the conference. Sure, I assume the LG would like White on the team, as well, but she's from Boise, ID so that wouldn't help expand our recruiting footprint.

I agree that overall team quickness could be improved and focused on in the future. It would be especially beneficial on the defensive end for getting out on perimeter shooters as well as being able to get in front and cut off dribble penetration. But does quickness necessarily stand out at the girls' high school level for recruiting? I honestly don't know as I don't watch high school. I doubt there are too many that stand out specifically for quickness and they are probably all scooped up by bigger schools. Even a lot of the LG bench players have good or impressive track resumes from high school. So, what can the coaching staff do to develop quickness further for the DI game? More explosive strength training? More agility drills? Aren't the Physiology and Sport Training programs prominent for the UM? I saw where the volleyball and soccer teams are using new data tracking technology. Maybe some similar knowledge/insight would be helpful for basketball.

Maybe even just slight technique adjustments would help. Gabi Harrington was a good example. She had good enough straight-line speed/quickness as evidenced by her ability to drive baseline but would get beat off the dribble herself or get a lot of fouls from putting her hands on when they started driving. Seeing her defensive stance, I believed it was an easy fix. Her defensive crouch was with her weight back on her heels as if she was doing a back squat in the weight room instead of up on her toes.

Similarly, I've noticed some wasted energy type of things like the "arms-up-in-the-passing-lanes" thing before the ball is even in the front court. I mean, maybe it helps some players mentally. But they should do a drill where they max out on deltoid exercises or just hold their arms up for a long time and then get the visual of just how much it affects reaction time. Probably have a much better chance of disrupting a pass when the hands are coming up from the hips instead of down from the shoulders.

 

[citygriz]

So let me put it this way.

Unless you're Bainville versus Culbertson, you cannot compete at any level, college or pro, in any mainstream sport anywhere in America without black athletes.

Period.

Anytime you make a list of the all-time great NBA players, at least 75% of that list will consist of black players.

If you make a list of the great basketball players at the University of Montana, that list will be chapter and verse of black players, including the greatest, Micheal Ray Richardson, and one of my all-time favorites, Derrick Pope.

Kentucky learned the talent of black players when the noted racist, Adolph Rupp, with an all-white team, lost a national championship to an all-black UTEP squad in 1965-66.

Want to field a competitive pro or collegiate football team without black players? You wouldn't dare! In fact, it was the recruitment of black players by B.Y.U. in the early 70's that eventually led the Mormon church to change their entire policy of admitting blacks to their priesthood--and helped put B.Y.U. on the map as a football power.

Montana's men's teams have a long history of recruiting black athletes from the legendary Naesby Rhinehart back in the 30's through to Ray Howard, Zip Rhodes, Ray Lucien, Marv Suttles and John Lands through the 50's and 60's.

The black members of our current basketball, football, soccer and volleyball teams lit up the Fall 2020 issue of the Montanan with their insightful comments about race in America.

No Lady Griz were included because of the same glaring omission that has been a hallmark of this program since its inception.

Today they lost again to the Lady Cats, whose Darian White was the best player by far on the court--the type of player you have not and apparently will not see in a Lady Griz uniform.

So be it.

P.S. I'm a white kid. From Helena.

 

[gotgame75]

So let me put it this way.

Unless you're Bainville versus Culbertson, you cannot compete at any level, college or pro, in any mainstream sport anywhere in America without black athletes.

Period.

Anytime you make a list of the all-time great NBA players, at least 75% of that list will consist of black players.

If you make a list of the great basketball players at the University of Montana, that list will be chapter and verse of black players, including the greatest, Micheal Ray Richardson, and one of my all-time favorites, Derrick Pope.

Kentucky learned the talent of black players when the noted racist, Adolph Rupp, with an all-white team, lost a national championship to an all-black UTEP squad in 1965-66.

Want to field a competitive pro or collegiate football team without black players? You wouldn't dare! In fact, it was the recruitment of black players by B.Y.U. in the early 70's that eventually led the Mormon church to change their entire policy of admitting blacks to their priesthood--and helped put B.Y.U. on the map as a football power.

Montana's men's teams have a long history of recruiting black athletes from the legendary Naesby Rhinehart back in the 30's through to Ray Howard, Zip Rhodes, Ray Lucien, Marv Suttles and John Lands through the 50's and 60's.

The black members of our current basketball, football, soccer and volleyball teams lit up the Fall 2020 issue of the Montanan with their insightful comments about race in America.

No Lady Griz were included because of the same glaring omission that has been a hallmark of this program since its inception.

Today they lost again to the Lady Cats, whose Darian White was best player by far on the court--the type of player you have not and apparently will not see in a Lady Griz uniform.

So be it.

Ding ding ding!!!!! This x1000000 and it's frustrating to watch.

As much as we all love Robin, his inability to recruit black players is a small but significant blight on his legacy and continues to this day. To be honest, Robin was pretty much mailing it in on the recruiting trail in his final seasons here and Griz fans saw the results as other programs that we dominated for decades passed us by. If you weren't located in a state either bordering or very close to Montana, you simply weren't on our radar.

That same failed recruiting strategy filtered down to Shannon, but I don't necessarily believe that Petrino adheres to it too. We will see in his subsequent recruiting classes, but Petrino seems to be a realist and the reality is that our quickness and athleticism has left a lot to be desired for quite some time.

 

[Colter_Nuanez56]

https://twitter.com/skylinesportsmt/status/1355702365714714624?s=21