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Off Season topic

Paytonlives

Moderator
Staff member
Egriz has became a little stale this offseason, so lets talk about the past.

What was your favorite griz B-Ball game that you went to and why?
 
A lot to chose from... but I'll go with.

1- The Idaho/Protestor game. Protestors on the court and Potaotoes being flung at them... I was never prouder then when the National Anthem that night was sung loudly by everybody there.

2- The near miss '75 game against UCLA. The Griz lose by three to one of the best college teams ever.

3- Sugar Ray drops 40 on MSU... I was just a kid but remember the drubbing that he put on them. Dunk Dunk Dunk!!!!
 
I have three (which are all early 90's late 80's game incidentally)
1. Protestor game-potatoes flying every where and maybe the single greatest block known to man, delvon slapping the ball off the backboard.
2. Crawford dunk game against UNR. Facialed herron I believe from a near FT line extended dunk.
3. UM-UI game in the late 80's. Griz come from 10 down with a minute to play. On the back of tinks.

Another Close one, Bell beating Stanford on a last second bucket.
 
if you count television as "went to," then there is only "the one"--montana v ucla, 1975, the greatest game in the history of the montana program by any standard--national recognition, overachievment against a far superior foe and the incredible singular effort by eric hays, who won honorable mention all-american status in most of the next year's pre-season basketball publications based on that performance alone.

put in today's terms, it was essentially a 16 seed against a one seed, and since a 16 seed has never beaten a one seed, this game has to rank as one of the greatest near-upsets in ncaa history. it was also john wooden's last year, and if we'd won, it would have been the next-to-late game of his career, as they played a consolation game back in those days.

years later you still have to wonder: what if micheal ray, who was a freshman on that team and scored zero points, had been a sophomore or junior, performing up to his sophomore and junior standards? what if those ucla uniforms had read "boise state" instead of ucla? what if ken mckenzie hadn't missed a shot in the late going that he almost never missed?

as jack dempsey said, you don't have to be the greatest, just the greatest on the night you fight for the title, and on that night, montana turned in the greatest performance in the history of the griz basketball program. anything else--even the idaho games--are small potatoes by comparison.
 
A couple more that have not been mentioned:

1. Doug Selvig's rebound and score to beat ranked Idaho in the early 80s.

2. Dan Trammel's dunk as time expired to beat the Cats in Bozeman during the Big Sky tournament.
 
citygriz said:
if you count television as "went to," then there is only "the one"--montana v ucla, 1975, the greatest game in the history of the montana program by any standard--national recognition, overachievment against a far superior foe and the incredible singular effort by eric hays, who won honorable mention all-american status in most of the next year's pre-season basketball publications based on that performance alone.

put in today's terms, it was essentially a 16 seed against a one seed, and since a 16 seed has never beaten a one seed, this game has to rank as one of the greatest near-upsets in ncaa history. it was also john wooden's last year, and if we'd won, it would have been the next-to-late game of his career, as they played a consolation game back in those days.

years later you still have to wonder: what if micheal ray, who was a freshman on that team and scored zero points, had been a sophomore or junior, performing up to his sophomore and junior standards? what if those ucla uniforms had read "boise state" instead of ucla? what if ken mckenzie hadn't missed a shot in the late going that he almost never missed?

as jack dempsey said, you don't have to be the greatest, just the greatest on the night you fight for the title, and on that night, montana turned in the greatest performance in the history of the griz basketball program. anything else--even the idaho games--are small potatoes by comparison.
That was a great game, but to be fair to UCLA, they had played a double overtime game with Michigan the night before while the Griz waltzed over Utah State....still, it was a great showing for UM and had just one ref call not been blown, Montana might well have won that game..sadly, it was followed up the next game with the usual lop sided loss to Arizona St in the old format....The Griz began to build a great tradition with that game only to lose it.......so, I would rank the win over Nevada in the 2007 NCAA as a great win...but followed by yet another blown chance to create a winning tradition...
 
The UCLA/Michigan game was not the night before it was the week before in Pullman, I was there for both games. Both teams had a week to prepare for this game.

p.s. we played and lost to UNLV in the consolation game btw.
 
I would add the Griz victory at nationally-ranked Idaho in which Derrick Pope broke the backboard with a tremendous dunk, and Grizzly Bill had to kill a lot of air-time while they put up a new one and cleaned up the glass.
 
AllWeatherFan said:
I would add the Griz victory at nationally-ranked Idaho in which Derrick Pope broke the backboard with a tremendous dunk, and Grizzly Bill had to kill a lot of air-time while they put up a new one and cleaned up the glass.

And that reminds me of when Nate Colville shattered the backboard on a dunk. A long wait to get the glass cleaned up and new backboard. Now we have collapsible backboards and may not see it happen again.
 
citygriz said:
if you count television as "went to," then there is only "the one"--montana v ucla, 1975, the greatest game in the history of the montana program by any standard--national recognition, overachievment against a far superior foe and the incredible singular effort by eric hays, who won honorable mention all-american status in most of the next year's pre-season basketball publications based on that performance alone.

put in today's terms, it was essentially a 16 seed against a one seed, and since a 16 seed has never beaten a one seed, this game has to rank as one of the greatest near-upsets in ncaa history. it was also john wooden's last year, and if we'd won, it would have been the next-to-late game of his career, as they played a consolation game back in those days.

years later you still have to wonder: what if micheal ray, who was a freshman on that team and scored zero points, had been a sophomore or junior, performing up to his sophomore and junior standards? what if those ucla uniforms had read "boise state" instead of ucla? what if ken mckenzie hadn't missed a shot in the late going that he almost never missed?

as jack dempsey said, you don't have to be the greatest, just the greatest on the night you fight for the title, and on that night, montana turned in the greatest performance in the history of the griz basketball program. anything else--even the idaho games--are small potatoes by comparison.

That was my recollection, as well, that MR didn't score, but here is the box from that game (ESPN). I was at the game, and I know Hayes' 32 is correct, and McKenzie's 20 is correct. I remember a lot being made of the fact that Montana got zero points from its guards. Nevertheless, I remember the game like it was yesterday.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?replayId=1052
 
info said:
The UCLA/Michigan game was not the night before it was the week before in Pullman, I was there for both games. Both teams had a week to prepare for this game.

p.s. we played and lost to UNLV in the consolation game btw.


Griz/Utah State was Saturday, March 15, 1975 in Pullman Griz 69 - Utah State 63

http://www.freebase.com/view/guid/9202a8c04000641f800000000af06563

Box: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?replayId=1529

UCLA/Michigan was Sat, March 15, 1975 at Pullman UCLA 103 - Michigan 91 (OT)

http://www.freebase.com/view/guid/9202a8c04000641f800000000af06557

Here is the completed bracket for the 1975 NCAA tournament:

http://www.allbrackets.com/1975/1975.pdf
 
Definitely slamma Trammas dunk at the buzzer to beat the cats, in the tourney to boot! Just like the 97 heartbreaker in football, rip their hearts out at the end!

The NCAA tourney game in Missoula a few years ago, Lady Griz come back from a double digit deficit to take the lead and come oh so close to knocking off nationally ranked La Tech. Julie Deming was a monster that night and the atmosphere in Adams Center was electric.

So many others, those two just jumped into my head immediatly.
 
Do games we listened to on the radio count? :)

If so, David Bell's 3 pointer with just a couple seconds left to beat Stanford (who was ranked around #17 if I remember right) in their own tournament.
http://www.montanagrizzlies.com/pages/media_item.aspx?n=7364&m=17

The NCAA tournament game against Nevada (watched on TV).

The home game earlier that same year against Stanford. The atmosphere at that game was great! The result was great too of course (what a beating) :) After that game, you pretty much knew that team was going to be something special.

The Idaho game (unsure which year) where Orlando Lightfoot hit what was apparently a 3 pointer from waaay downtown at the buzzer to Beat the Griz... All of the potato heads sitting near our seats were cheering....but wait.... ohhh... Lightfoot forgot about a little rule in Basketball where you cant take 5 freakin steps :lol: The cheering Idaho fans didn't notice that traveling was called! Griz won, potato heads and their little spuds were crushed... (or mashed?)
 
info said:
The UCLA/Michigan game was not the night before it was the week before in Pullman, I was there for both games. Both teams had a week to prepare for this game.

p.s. we played and lost to UNLV in the consolation game btw.
oops...I could have sworn it was Arizona or Az State since UNLV was just coming up...at any rate, it was not the best UCLA team but that takes nothing away from a great Griz game..I still remember the headline in the LA Times..."Big Sky nearly falls on UCLA"....the only thing John Wooden said of that game...Montana State really surprised us.....ouch!
 
Hammer said:
Definitely slamma Trammas dunk at the buzzer to beat the cats, in the tourney to boot! Just like the 97 heartbreaker in football, rip their hearts out at the end!

The NCAA tourney game in Missoula a few years ago, Lady Griz come back from a double digit deficit to take the lead and come oh so close to knocking off nationally ranked La Tech. Julie Deming was a monster that night and the atmosphere in Adams Center was electric.

So many others, those two just jumped into my head immediatly.

Lady Griz had a double digit lead in that 2004 tournament and lost it. Maybe if Lady Griz had a better backup point guard that could spell Brooklyn Lorenzen for a longer period Lady Griz would have won it. Lorenzen cramped up some near the end of the game.
Now, back in 1997, Lady Griz fell behind somewhere around double digits against Texas Tech, and almost came back and won it. Lost by 2.
 
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