Great article, I am really looking forward to having Cam play with more emotion regardless of stats. His play can be contagious for the whole team. That is the kind of energy and enigmatic personality Cam Rundles is. Anyone that follows basketball at EGRIZ can confirm I have said many times over, the key for this years success is Cam getting back to being the player he can be. Cam playing badly, we are an average team at best. Cam playing well, we are a contender.
I have no reason to doubt Tinkle or Rundles. Everything else is falling into place nicely for the GRIZ. My believe is Rundles too will fall into place by tourney time. I cannot wait to be at Dahlberg this weekend for both games, Sac State and NAU. :thumb: Hopefully Cams play will be solid and give GRIZNATION reason to be more positive. GOOD LUCK Cam and GRIZ!!!! :thumb:
Also by the sounds of this Article, I am even more impressed with Hasquet.
For those that want to read it here:
Rundles looks for way out of slump
By BOB MESEROLL Missoulian sports editor
Montana men's basketball player Cam Rundles is familiar with the term sophomore slump.
“If you look it up in the dictionary, there's probably a picture of me under sophomore slump,” said Rundles. “I'm having a rough sophomore season.”
Never rougher than in the past two games. Rundles, last season's Freshman of the Year in the Big Sky Conference, played just seven minutes against both Eastern Washington and Montana State. Three turnovers were his only meaningful stat.
Rundles scored 105 points with 48 assists in Montana's first 12 games. In the next 11, he scored 51 points with 26 assists and 22 turnovers.
“Cam's just got to find a way to get himself going,” Montana coach Wayne Tinkle said. “I think his confidence is down a little bit. I know if he brings the energy and focus to practice, he'll get out of the funk.”
Toward that end, Rundles and Tinkle met Tuesday at 8 a.m. for a one-on-one tutorial.
“We just worked out and talked and bonded a little bit,” Rundles said. “I talked about his family, so it was fun. The main thing he told me to do to get out of this is just feed off my teammates.
“Next game, I'm going to come out and I'm not going to worry about scoring, I'm not going to worry about the scoreboard, I'm not going to worry about anything but playing hard and getting my teammates involved and trying to be a leader again.”
It appeared as if Rundles might pull out of the tailspin in the Grizzlies' game at Portland State on Jan. 31. He hit a pair of clutch 3-pointers as the Griz rallied from 12 down to tie the game in the final seconds.
“Jordan Hasquet didn't play well that game, he had a surprising zero points,” Rundles said. “He told me before I came in that game ... that he needed me to pick him up. When Jordan Hasquet tells me that - Jordan Hasquet is a great player but he's not outspoken - so when he told me that I was inspired. I came out there and hit a couple shots, but missed the game-tying shot. That got me going. ... I've just been too much up and down like a rollercoaster.”
In Saturday's 88-76 win over Montana State, Rundles missed his only two shots from the field and his only free throw. His seven minutes were all in the first half.
“I got kind of down,” Rundles said. “I wasn't mad at the coaches or anything, I came out there not ready to go. A couple of guys on the bench, Jordan Hasquet and some of the starters, came up to me and slapped me on the butt and told me I gotta keep my head up because in order for us to do anything in late February and March, they need me. That felt good. I was ready to go in the second half, even though I didn't get put in.”
Tinkle said Rundles received encouragement from his teammates at halftime.
“We told him, ‘We need you for the stretch run, you're too good a player,' ” Tinkle said. “He'll bounce back, he's a tough kid. The one thing each player did when we challenged him at halftime was everybody gave him a hug and said ‘we've got your back, we're going to get you out of this thing.'
“I won't be surprised if he does.”
At his best, Rundles is the Grizzlies' emotional leader. There aren't many Grizzlies who wear their heart on their sleeve to the extent of Rundles.
“That's the type of player I am,” Rundles said. “That's why I haven't been playing well because when I don't play like that I tend to get casual with things and turn the ball over, miss shots and miss assignments. I've got to get back to that because that's how I play. Even if I'm only out there for five minutes, I've got to bring the emotion. We had a great crowd (Saturday) and I missed out on that.
“Even if I play bad Thursday, I'm not going to play bad without emotion. So look for me to have some emotion on the court.”
