Montana Grizzlies Sports, Football and Basketball : Grizzoulian

Going into this season many fans expected this talented Griz hoops program to continue its upward trend. This really didn't happen as the Griz season ended in a BSC semifinal loss to NAU. I thought I would take a look at a couple reasons why this team fell short of high expectations.

Note: Yeah, Danny Davis did something similar but I did start first.

This season started with the Griz hoops program returning almost everyone from a team that finished as one of top 32 teams in the country. Returners included the Griz's best player and all-conference performer Andrew Strait as well as freshman stud and Big Sky Tournament MVP Jordan Hasquet. Things weren't looking too bad after losing guards Kevin Criswell and Virgil Matthews. Most Griz fans thought we'd still be fine even though Larry Krystkowiak left for the Association. Well, as we know now, it didn't go smoothly.

Seems like we should've known after all the previews pointed to these things as a reason we wouldn't be as good. However, it wasn't Criswell and Matthews' 26.1 combined ppg or Krysko's X's and O's that led to a subpar season. It was something you can't teach. It was leadership.

After the jump I'll take a closer look at the leadership on this team.



When looking at leadership, one has to start at the top. On a basketball team, it's the head coach. Wayne Tinkle had a tough spot to fill replacing one of the most popular figures in Griz hoops history. Many now are pinning the failures of this season solely on him, and even I have had my frustrations, but blaming the coach is too easy and too cliche; that's not how we roll around here.

I do acknowledge that coaching was one of the reasons that for the Griz's poor performance this year but it wasn't because Tinkle is a bad coach. One reason coaching hurt is is that Tinks took over after long tenure as a Griz assistant. It must've been hard for veterans like Matt Dlouhy so see Tinks as THE guy instead of just the backup coach. Here's a little analogy: remember the feeling when you walked in for a grade school class one day and instead of seeing  your usual teacher you saw some random sub? Sure, there may have been a good lesson plan and this individual may have even been a better teacher but you know you were planning on spending the next eight hours staring out the window.

Just take a look at how some of the freshman — who never had the LK experience — have done. Cameron Rundles was playing way above his head this year as he, a true point guard, started at the two and even finished the Big Sky regular season as the best three point shooter in the conference. Ryan Staudacher also made the most of his minutes and contributed as a freshman. Then look at Dlouhy; Matt had Tinkle as an assistant for the three years prior to his senior season and sometimes it seemed as though he'd rather be in bed than trying to get a stop on the defensive end.

Another problem with coaching (once again, Tinks is not a bad coach) was the giant difference in coaching styles. Krysko was a very very passionate and fiery coach while Tinkle has a much more laid back personality. Many use a "good cop/bad cop" analogy bud I'd rather use a Chicago Cubs manager analogy. Larry Krystkowiak is your Lou Pinella, the total hardass and hothead. He would be all over his players and the officials. Tinkle is your California-style Dusty Baker. Baker once said that when he was a player and his manager flipped over the locker room food table in anger, he'd just pick up a hot dog and eat it. Now before you point to the fact that he ruined my favorite team, remember what Baker did with the strong veteran leadership of Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent. This is where the loss of Criswell and Matthews comes into play.

The Griz just did not have the strong veteran leadership that Criswell and Matthews gave the 05-06 team. Here are the seniors on this team: Bryan Ellis, Stuart Mayes, Matt Dlouhy and Michael Chavez. Only two of these guys start. Two of them served suspensions and Matt Dlouhy just isn't really a leader.

The next step in the search for a leader would be to look at the team's best players. In my opinion, there's a trio of Griz "stars" including Jordan Hasquet, Andrew Strait and Cameron Rundles. Hasquet and Rundles especially are probably too young to be respected and heard by the upperclassmen. Then from what I've seen of Drew that he's really kind of a quiet guy, kind of like Tim Duncan. Has anyone ever seen him get really fired up during a game?

Going into next year many fans, including myself, believe that Cameron Rundles will be the primary leader on this team. His position and demeanor just make it seem so inevitable; like how every thought that Avery Johnson becoming a good NBA head coach was inevitable.

A real wild card could be Matt Martin. Martin has a confident, sometimes arrogant personality, that could make him a leader. An MJ/Kobe personality maybe... maybe not. Even so, he may start at the 2 next year and if he contributes look for him to be even more vocal than he already is.

You may disagree with me on some of things (if so, voice your opinion) but every Griz fan knows that this years team was in desperate need of a strong leader. If this team wants to return to being a formidable Mid-Major foe, this is one area they will definitely need to improve on.

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Going into this season many fans expected this talented Griz hoops program to continue its upward trend. This really didn't happen as the Griz season ended in a BSC semifinal loss to NAU. I thought I would take a look at a couple reasons why this team fell short of high expectations.

Poor shooting from the foul line was one of the most frustrating aspects of watching the UM basketball team throughout this season. The final NAU game was probably as sickening as any: the Lumberjacks outshot the Griz a full by a full 23% from the line.

The Lumberjacks made 24 of their 30 free throws; the Griz made 7 of 13. Obviously, getting to the line is also a problem but a team should put up better than Ben Wallace type numbers from the stripe in the biggest game of the year. It's easy to see that there is a problem, the bigger issue is finding the cause.

Many basketball experts say free throw shooting is all legs and often declines when a player is fatigued. This can't be the cause because the Griz are so deep that Tinks' substitutions sometimes resemble that of a hockey team.

A second possible cause is technique. None of these guys have overwhelmingly poor technique but with these numbers it may be time to take a look at the Rick Barry method. Sure, it may be a little extreme but it can't hurt at this point.

The most likely cause for the awful shooting has to be their mental mind-state at the line. Let's look at Andrew Strait: Drew shot over 90% from the line when he was in high school but now is down in the 50s. Skill can't just disappear, can it? The best quote on free throw shooting comes from the best player who ever played.

Michael Jordan on free throws and fear:

"I never looked at the consequences of missing a big shot. Why? Because when you think about the consequences, you always think of a negative result.

"...I think fear sometimes comes from a lack of focus or concentration. If I had stood at the free-throw line and thought about 10 million people watching me on the other side of the camera lens, I couldn't have made anything. So I mentally tried to put myself in a familiar place. I thought about all those times I shot free throws in practice and went through the same motion, the same technique that I had used thousands of times. You forget about the outcome. You know you are doing the right things. So you relax and perform. After that you can't control anything anyway. It's out of your hands, so don't worry about it."

Is there any better outlook than this "just do it" approach. The important part of this practice is that the Griz need too be shooting a ton of free throws in practice. Some seem rattled at the line, making a bunch in practice could go a long ways towards calming these guys down.

To anyone who's ever played basketball competitively, how many foul shots are you guys shooting per day? Seems like it should be at least a 100, every day, offseason or not. This is just one of several areas the Griz can improve on to make sure their not sitting at home once the Big Dance starts.

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It's really hard to adequately describe just how this game felt. I don't know if I've every really experienced anything like it. The ride this game took Griz fans is really only comparable to how this whole season felt.

The Griz were down by 22 early in the game and I really can't describe how much I hated the team at this point in the game. Most fans know what I'm talking about. You know; those moments when you can't help but wonder why they can go out and not give a damn while you have so much emotionally invested in them. You can't help but wonder why the players can't get up for a game that decides their season. You have to ask how a coach can't get his team pumped the most important 40 minutes of the season.

Then they go and remind you why you've never been more obsessed with any sports team by playing like their hair is on fire and making up a deficit you thought was far too large. At one point the Griz couldn't be beat on the defense end and could not be stopped when they had the ball. Things were looking up and it appeared as though I would be hopping on a bus tomorrow morning to go watch our Griz get their passes punched for the Big Dance.

Then things started to slip a bit. The lead decreased and Drew headed to the line before a media timeout. Coming out of the timeout, the world was thrown off its tilt for all Griz fans as it seemed like the nothing was right on Earth.

The time out ended and the game was over. The music cued on the radio broadcast for the game to come back but it just wasn't right as the cheesy techno-ish music cut out for a few seconds only to be replaced by cheesy country music and someone announced that they were having technical difficulties.

As the technical difficulty break went on I tried to convince myself that when the game came back we would be up but I couldn't help but be afraid that when it did come back we would be down by some insurmountable margin. Mick came back on what sounded like an old Nokia cell phone and we were down by 9. I had a feeling this was going to happen but had no idea how it did.

The roller coaster went up again as the Griz cut the lead to 5 on a big trey with less than thirty seconds to play. Then it shot downwards for good as the Griz turned it over and the Lumberjacks made two free throws.

It was the story of the season with a poor showing in preseason play then showing strong signs in early conference play.Things dipped after a couples losses but we picked it up again and at one point it looked like we were going to host the tournament. Then we lost a couple big ones and didn't even get a bye. Now it ends in a disappointing loss that we should've won.

That rant is all I have on the game for not but more analysis on the game is sure to come.

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