Montana Grizzlies Sports, Football and Basketball : Grizzoulian

The posts haven't been as frequent as we sink into the offseason and the Missoula weather starts to change but here's something new: the first ever Grizzoulian podcast. I hope to do one more this month then make it a more consistent feature in the fall.

My guest on the first one is University of Montana Athletic Director Jim O'Day. We start by talking about next years hoops team then move onto football scheduling, the draft, the expansion and more.

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For the reporters out there who think they can endlessly update their live blogs on NCAA bowling, watch out. Your days of giving up-to-the-minute, detailed reports on strikes and spares are over. The NCAA has set a limit on the number of updates that can be given in a live blog on an NCAA event. If the reporter exceeds the limit, they'll lose their press credentials.

Deadspin has the complete .pdf and a list of just how many updates you can give per sport:

Fall Sports
Soccer: Five times per half; one at halftime
Field Hockey: Five times per half; one at halftime
Volleyball: Three per Competition; one in between Competitions
Football: Three per quarter; one at halftime
Cross Country: Ten per day/session
Men's Water Polo: Three per quarter; one at the halftime

Winter Sports
Ice Hockey: Three per period - one in between (includes overtime)
Basketball: Five times per half; one at halftime; two times per overtime period
Wrestling: Ten per session
Indoor Track and Field: Ten per day/session
Swimming and Diving: Ten per day/session
Bowling: Ten per day/session
Gymnastics: Ten per session

The best response I've seen to this comes from a commenter on Deadspin:

Help Wanted: NCAA Blog Wrangler

Must have prior experience looking over other people's shoulders. Abacus provided for counting, but applicant must procure own horse-and-buggy ride to/from athletic facility.

The reason behind the regulation: the NCAA is worried fans will go to a live blog instead of getting their updates from media who paid for the writes to broadcast the game. Yeah, right. I read a lot of live blogs and I've never thought of reading one instead of watching or listening to a game. Who would? Well, I could watch this game on tv... or I could read a sarcastic and satirical post on it without any play-by-play. Right.

The NCAA needs to wake up. Not only does this have little effect seeing as most live blogs are done by people who themselves are at home watching games watching TV, but it also negatively affects college sports. More coverage means more exposure and attention for athletes. It means more information for fans. Why limit that when, realistically, it isn't hurting anyone? On top of limiting the big time sports, they limit posts on other, non-revenue, ones as well. If a member of the press wants to provide an endless stream of updates to a cross country or a track meet that otherwise has no media exposure, why stop them?

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The Montana Grizzlies volleyball is currently on the outside looking in on the Big Sky playoff race. They're seventh. Six Teams make the playoffs. We need wins. And fans.

The volleyball team needs 2,085 to break the record so they're moving the game down to Dahlberg instead of playing up at the West Auxiliary Gym.

Here's some info and a quote from the coach from The Missoulian:

The Grizzlies are facing off against the last-place Bobcats (0-12, 1-23), while NAU hosts two of the top three teams in the league this weekend in Eastern Washington (9-3, 10-13) and Portland State (10-2, 17-6). Fifth-place Northern Colorado (6-5, 8-16) also hosts both EWU and PSU this weekend.

“We'll need the teams that are playing well at the top of the conference to continue to play well and help us get back into a position where we may have a chance at making the tournament,” second-year Griz coach Jerry Wagner said. “Certainly we need some help, but we also have a lot to play for in the upcoming three weeks.”

We better win. Not because we need it to make the playoffs, but because the Cats are 0-12 in conference and 1-23 overall. That's awful.

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The Griz volleyball team had two match points but they were not able to put the Eagles away last night in Cheney. The Griz won games one and three before losing to the Eagles in the fifth game. This marks the Eagles' 17th straight victory over the Griz.

The Griz sit at seventh place in the Big Sky and could've moved to within a half game of sixth place Northern Arizona had they won. The team now sits at 8-13 overall and 4-7 in league play.

Article on the game found at MontanaGrizzlies.com.

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The Montana Grizzlies Volleyball team faces the Sacramento State Hornets at 7:00 in the WAG tonight. Sac State came into this season as the favorite to win the conference. They're currently 15-3 overall and 4-0 in conference. The Griz aren't sitting quite as nice. They're 6-9 overall and 2-3 in conference. This matchup is looking a lot like last year's.

From MontanaGrizzlies.com.

Last year in early October Sacramento State made a visit to Montana under similar circumstances to this week. The Hornets were 18-4 and a perfect 6-0 in Big Sky Conference play, having won all six league matches in 3-0 sweeps.

This year Sac State is 15-3 and 4-0 in Big Sky play, with all four wins coming in three-game sweeps.

In 2006 Montana not only took a game off the Hornets, the first league team to do so, but pushed Sacramento State to a fifth game. Tied at 12-12 in game five, the Hornets produced three straight kills to put the match away.

"The similarities are the same every year when you talk about Sacramento State," Montana coach Jerry Wagner said. "They are coached by a fabulous coach, and they are always more consistent than you. The difference between last year and this year is I think they might be even better this year than they were last year.

"You've got to be more than at the top of your game to put yourself in position to challenge for a victory. Last year we were able to really come together and put an extremely hard-fought and consistent effort together, and that gave us an opportunity to have a breakthrough outcome against an exceptional opponent. We'll have to follow the same recipe on Friday night if we're going to have another opportunity."

I'm hoping this year's matchup compares to the '06 version as I'll be attending my first volleyball game of the season tonight.

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The Bears aren't who everyone thought they were.

The University of Northern Colorado volleyball team, which was picked to finish 8th in the conference, beat the Griz, who were picked 3rd, in three straight games. The team is pretty thrilled and rightfully so. The Bears ended the Griz's season last year and they start this conference season off by dealing the Griz another loss.

From The Greeley Tribune:

With a sound 3-0 victory Thursday night over the University of Montana at Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion, the Bears volleyball team sang the fight song in unison as it blared through the gymnasium speakers following the match.

For a moment, I was proud to be a Bear again.

It's been a while since I've felt that.

Not only did Northern Colorado beat Montana in a Big Sky Conference sporting event -- boy, that has a nice ring to it -- the Bears did it in convincing fashion. Not bad for a team, with only two seniors, which was picked to finish eighth in the Big Sky preseason poll. Montana was picked third.

"That's a huge win for us," UNC volleyball coach Lyndsey Benson said. "We knew we weren't an eighth-place team so every match we are going to go prove to the Big Sky teams that we are better than that."

The Griz play at Northern Arizona on Saturday before returning home for a game against Portland State next Thursday.

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The University of Montana's first athletic competition of the 2007-2008 school year took place last night and, unfortunately, it was a loss. The volleyball team suffered a defeat at the hand of UC Irvine.

The University of Montana volleyball team lost 3-1 to UC Irvine Friday evening in the the season-opening match for both schools at the Ruby's Montana Invitational. The Anteaters improved to 1-0 with the 30-27, 24-30, 30-20, 30-20 win at the West Auxiliary Gym in Missoula.

The Griz (0-1) face a pair of matches on Saturday, the final day of the weekend tournament. UM has a noon (MTN) contest against Canisius (0-1) and a 7 p.m. tilt against Gonzaga (1-0). Gonzaga rolled to a 3-0 sweep of Canisius in Friday's earlier contest.

Three Grizzlies recorded double-figures in kills against the Anteaters, led by junior outside hitter Jade Roskam who recorded a team-best 14. Senior middle blocker Jessica Petersen tallied 11 kills while hitting a team-best .381. Also contributing offensively was junior outside hitter Micaela Parker who registered 10 kills with a .222 hitting percentage.

The Griz volleyball team didn't stay under .500 for long as they won the noon match against Canisius, 3-0. Wow, tough tournament for them. Travelled all the way from Buffalo too. Sorry ladies.

Yes, the Griz sports season is officially underway, time to put the rest of your life on hold for a few months.

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I don't think I could stand attending any other school in the Big Sky Conference besides Montana. It'd suck. When it comes towards being one of the best teams in the conference, the University of Montana has just about every sport covered.

The volleyball team, which opened practice last week, was picked to finish third in the Big Sky Conference. Coming off a 9-7 season, third place seems pretty fair for a team returning a lot of starters.

The Griz soccer team, which opens camp on Wednesday, was picked to finish second in the conference. Sacramento State beat them by a single vote.

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Griz volleyball practice probably didn't garner the same amount of anticipated spectators as yesterday's football practice but the ladies were in the gym, putting in their time. No one was there to get a look at garnered transfers and potential-filled freshman but there's still excitement, even if it's just from the team itself.

The Missoulian has a basic look at what to expect from this team and their thoughts on the upcoming season:

The University of Montana volleyball team had its first practice of the season on Wednesday and hopes to build on its success from last season when it went to the Big Sky Conference tournament for the first time since 2000.

A lot of the players think that last year's tournament appearance can be a stepping stone for future success.

“I think it really helped our confidence,” said UM junior Jade Roskam. “I think it really helped our mental game getting past the block of not being there so many years in a row. It's something we've experienced now.”

Last year the Griz went 12-15 and finished fourth in the conference at 9-7. They open their season Aug. 24 by hosting the Ruby's Montana Invitational. Conference play starts Sept. 13 when Montana travels to Northern Colorado.

The Griz return five starters and eight letterwinners from last year's team. The returning starters are seniors Shelley Boyd and Jessica Petersen, juniors Micaela Parker and Roskam and sophomore Taryn Wright.

Boyd said having so many returning starters is crucial to making a run at the conference title.

“It helps a ton,” said Boyd, who is a team captain. “Team chemistry is a huge part of volleyball. Having five out of the six people out on the court having all that experience, it definitely adds a lot of confidence. We've all played with each other. We know how each of us play, so it's a lot easier to play together.”

For those of you focused solely on the football field, give volleyball a chance. Try going to just a couple games. I went to one last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's exciting. Just about every play ends in a exciting moment of confrontation. Everything builds up into a Baron Davis-esque crescendo. Trust me, it's fun.

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For quite some time, I have neglected to write about anything other than Montana football and I think it's about time for a change.

Prior to just a few weeks ago, I didn't think that many people really cared about sports like volleyball. But after attending a match against Weber State I saw this wasn't the case, and for very good reason.

Volleyball is very fast paced and far more entertaining than I could've imagined. Just about every point in a volleyball match ends in one girl setting the ball up into the air and another smashing it down in the face of one, two, and sometimes even three opponents who are trying to send it back Dikembe Mutombo style. Each game, besides the fifth which is first to 15, is first to 30 in the best of 5 match; this means there is probably over 100 alley-oop dunks worth of action.

The Griz volleyball team is coming off its second straight loss, this one being a sweep (is that term used in volleyball?) at the hands of EWU. I guess they had to make up for the football beating somewhere. With the losses, the Griz fall to 4-3 in Big Sky Conference play and 8-9 overall.

Thursday night the Griz face firts-place Sacramento State so everyone should try and make it. I hate to sound like a high school  announcement but every sports fan really try and attend, even if they're pretty sure they won't like volleyball. Not like they need it, the volleyball team already gets a great turnout with the likes of Craig Chambers (coming off a 5 catch 82 yard performance against Sac State), ineligible OU transfer JD Quinn and Andrew Strait all at the last game I attended.

In other action: The Griz soccer team beat Northern Arizona 4-0 on Friday and lost to Northern Colorado 2-1 on Sunday. In Friday's match Lindsay Winans scored three goals in 18 minutes. I think just about everyone knows how great it feels to be in such a groove, whether it's a varsity high school basketball game or just being "on fire" while playing NBA Jam on Sega Genesis. I'm guessing doing so while playing D-1 soccer is a little different... but still kind of close to the same.

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Chalk up another use for those many parental funded MacBooks that seem to be as popular as shower sandals and a laundry sack when it comes to dorm supplies.

Yes, you can now watch all Montana Grizzlies football, basketball, and volleyball games by way of the internet says the Missoulian.

SportsCast Network out of Salt Lake City has developed and produced the project, which is at www.bigskytv.org. Prices are $99.99 for all site content (called the Annual Conference Pass), $59.99 for single-school content or for a month-long all-site pass, $39.99 for a monthly single-school pass, and $6.99 if a fan just wanted to watch a single event.

“This will be unlike anything else currently available to fans of collegiate athletics,’’ BSC commissioner Doug Fullerton added. “SportsCast Network possesses some of the best technology available. Plus our nine athletic departments will all benefit from the agreement. When you buy a subscription the revenue will go back to your favorite school.”

To me, this seems a bit steep. Ryan at Big Sky Blog refers to value in his post about the development.

I saw an advance screening of "Lady in the Water", which even for free wasn't worth the price.

A bit pricey, but if the quality is TV tantamount, then your money may be well spent. It is well that the Bobcats and Griz have nearly all their games broadcast in Montana, but I never have the opportunity to watch other schools in the conference. A happy fan this would make.

I included his opinion  on the movie because the value of  Griz games on the internet is every bit as much about value as yet another movie with some paradoxical twist at the end where it all ends up being in the protagonists head. (Is it still a twist if we expect it?)

How much better would this story be if it included a line like "free for students?" At the very least, there should be some kind of variation between how much a student  and some wealthy MSU alumn pays for the content. Ok, maybe that doesn't exist, but you know what I mean. Out of staters pay around 20k per semester so aren't the schools getting enough already?

They could do what facebook used to do and verify enrollment using a University email address; no @umontana.edu email address and no discount.

Just about every single college student has the high speed connection to watch the games. The problem hardly any have the money to spend. That is unless until if they sell the free iPod nano that comes with the MacBook.

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