Over the many (many!) years that I've followed Griz basketball, I've seen a lot of games, all on the road, in sometimes hostile environments. I've witnessed a victory at Pacific in Stockton when the fabulous Micheal Ray Richardson beat Pacific all my himself (and a good friend of mine from Butte and I nearly got into a brawl leaving the gym). I've seen a victory at Pepperdine when future NBA player Doug Christie was a star for them. A victory at San Jose State when this kid Derrick Pope stole the show. A victory over Oregon at the old Mac Court, yet another at Pauley Pavilion over UCLA ( a game that was not close.) Even as recently as 2016 I sat courtside at Galen Center at USC to watch Ahmaad Rorie and the Griz jump out to a 14-4 lead, then after squandering the lead, come back late to make a game of it--a game USC won despite being outscored them from the field. (In other words, we got homered.)
So I am witness to the entire history of the Great Montana Basketball Tradition, going back to Jud Heathcote, and I cannot remember watching any Griz game, win or loss, without a great deal of pride, not in only the quality of the team but the way we played. You knew we always had a shot to win.
But right now? I still like the quality of the team. Travis and Chris Cobb can recruit. Money Williams is a steal for Montana. Joe Pridgen is terrific, based on what I saw last night. Zach Davidson will be a great low post player. And we haven't even seen 4-star recruit Tyler Thompson. Where is he?
And yet...I no longer have any hope of winning or being remotely competitive against Power Five teams. They've become body bag games. The one guarantee is that we'll play hard, then suffer a scoring drought that dooms us. It happened at Stanford a few years ago, it happened against the Cats in the championship game last March and it happened again last night. You know it's coming; you just wait for it. And there seems nothing our staff can do to pull us out of these tailspins.
You say, "Same ol' Citay," yet it was Mike Montgomery who said in a game against Oregon a few years that he could not see any design to our offense. We go entire games without a single lob dunk, or cut to the basket, or baseline drive. We weave endlessly around the top of the key, then Whitney drives into the key and kicks it back out while four other guys stand around. Very little movement off the ball.
The point is, this is not FCS, 1-AA level competition. In basketball, we're playing with the big boys. And if we're to excel at this level, which means winning a game at the Big Dance, we have to be better than our opponents. We can recruit, but we can't win without an exciting or at the very least inventive offense.
We've got to get this fixed. If this staff can't do it DeCuire has to go out and find somebody who can help. When you are in charge of a program, and you have a weakness as glaring as this one, you cannot keep making apologies for it. Please, Travis. Git 'er done!
So I am witness to the entire history of the Great Montana Basketball Tradition, going back to Jud Heathcote, and I cannot remember watching any Griz game, win or loss, without a great deal of pride, not in only the quality of the team but the way we played. You knew we always had a shot to win.
But right now? I still like the quality of the team. Travis and Chris Cobb can recruit. Money Williams is a steal for Montana. Joe Pridgen is terrific, based on what I saw last night. Zach Davidson will be a great low post player. And we haven't even seen 4-star recruit Tyler Thompson. Where is he?
And yet...I no longer have any hope of winning or being remotely competitive against Power Five teams. They've become body bag games. The one guarantee is that we'll play hard, then suffer a scoring drought that dooms us. It happened at Stanford a few years ago, it happened against the Cats in the championship game last March and it happened again last night. You know it's coming; you just wait for it. And there seems nothing our staff can do to pull us out of these tailspins.
You say, "Same ol' Citay," yet it was Mike Montgomery who said in a game against Oregon a few years that he could not see any design to our offense. We go entire games without a single lob dunk, or cut to the basket, or baseline drive. We weave endlessly around the top of the key, then Whitney drives into the key and kicks it back out while four other guys stand around. Very little movement off the ball.
The point is, this is not FCS, 1-AA level competition. In basketball, we're playing with the big boys. And if we're to excel at this level, which means winning a game at the Big Dance, we have to be better than our opponents. We can recruit, but we can't win without an exciting or at the very least inventive offense.
We've got to get this fixed. If this staff can't do it DeCuire has to go out and find somebody who can help. When you are in charge of a program, and you have a weakness as glaring as this one, you cannot keep making apologies for it. Please, Travis. Git 'er done!
