It was a long fabulous ride that the Lady Griz took us fans on, and I was there for the entirity of it.
What made it so special, and why the Lady Griz resonate so deeply still with the members of this board, is that they represented Montana through and through.
From a coach from Outlook, Montana, to all the incredible homegrown players over the years--Greta Koss, Skyla Sisco, Ann Lake, Lisa McLeod and of course the legendary Shannon Cate--but also all the Naitve American talent, led by Malia Kipp, the Lady Griz won our hearts. They were us. Our kids. And they made us proud.
It seemed natural then than a former great from Montana should take over the program. Who could have argued with that? But once that experiment failed, it seems Haslam fell into a trap: Trying desperately to maintain the program's historically great ties to Montana.
When it came time to hire a successor to Shannon, he had two choices: Mark Campbell from Oregon or Brian Holsinger, a fiery guy with ties to Montana Tech. He chose Holsinger, who in turn hired another Montana guy as an assistant, Nate Harris. And how did that work out?
Holsinger is gone, and Harris just coached one of the worst most one-side basketball games I have ever witnessed, where our players turned the ball over fourteen times in one quarter, could not dribble or get shots off, or even make layups on the few occasions they did get to the rim.
The while Mark Campbell took over a 3-21 team at Sac Sate, and led them to an NCAA berth in two years, before departing for TCU, where he turned around a 3-22 team and was the Big 12 2025 Coach of the Year.
Time to recognize that women's hoops have changed from the glory days of the Lady Griz. Just as the NBA is now understanding the incredible dollar potential of women's basketball, the college adminstrators, thanks to Gino Auriemma, had already found that gold and begun to pour money into coaches, facilities, recruiting and promotion.
And now it's time for Montana to catch up, by ditching the quaint notion that a modern-day women's collegiate program can be coached as before by small-town guys from Montana.
It means hiring a coach with national recuriting chops, of the level of Campbell, who recruited the fabulous Sabrina Ionescu to Oregon. If basketball is an urban game, it means finding a coach with recruting ties to Black talent in major urban centers--long a criticism of mine as the Board well knows. Fifty plus years of Lady Griz basketball and you can count the Black palyers on the fingers of one hand?
For those of you who disagree, let me pose this question: How many more embarrassments of the sort we witnessed last Saturday in Bozeman are you willing to endure.
What made it so special, and why the Lady Griz resonate so deeply still with the members of this board, is that they represented Montana through and through.
From a coach from Outlook, Montana, to all the incredible homegrown players over the years--Greta Koss, Skyla Sisco, Ann Lake, Lisa McLeod and of course the legendary Shannon Cate--but also all the Naitve American talent, led by Malia Kipp, the Lady Griz won our hearts. They were us. Our kids. And they made us proud.
It seemed natural then than a former great from Montana should take over the program. Who could have argued with that? But once that experiment failed, it seems Haslam fell into a trap: Trying desperately to maintain the program's historically great ties to Montana.
When it came time to hire a successor to Shannon, he had two choices: Mark Campbell from Oregon or Brian Holsinger, a fiery guy with ties to Montana Tech. He chose Holsinger, who in turn hired another Montana guy as an assistant, Nate Harris. And how did that work out?
Holsinger is gone, and Harris just coached one of the worst most one-side basketball games I have ever witnessed, where our players turned the ball over fourteen times in one quarter, could not dribble or get shots off, or even make layups on the few occasions they did get to the rim.
The while Mark Campbell took over a 3-21 team at Sac Sate, and led them to an NCAA berth in two years, before departing for TCU, where he turned around a 3-22 team and was the Big 12 2025 Coach of the Year.
Time to recognize that women's hoops have changed from the glory days of the Lady Griz. Just as the NBA is now understanding the incredible dollar potential of women's basketball, the college adminstrators, thanks to Gino Auriemma, had already found that gold and begun to pour money into coaches, facilities, recruiting and promotion.
And now it's time for Montana to catch up, by ditching the quaint notion that a modern-day women's collegiate program can be coached as before by small-town guys from Montana.
It means hiring a coach with national recuriting chops, of the level of Campbell, who recruited the fabulous Sabrina Ionescu to Oregon. If basketball is an urban game, it means finding a coach with recruting ties to Black talent in major urban centers--long a criticism of mine as the Board well knows. Fifty plus years of Lady Griz basketball and you can count the Black palyers on the fingers of one hand?
For those of you who disagree, let me pose this question: How many more embarrassments of the sort we witnessed last Saturday in Bozeman are you willing to endure.
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