Homegrown Griz: Jordan Hasquet
2/21/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
We've watched him grow up ... and up, and up, and up.
From tagging along with his dad the coach, to his days in YMCA ball, to an all-state prep career at Missoula Sentinel, to an all-Big Sky Conference performer with an NCAA win under his belt.
Now Jordan Hasquet will play what might be his last meaningful basketball game in his hometown when the Montana Griz host Idaho State on Saturday at 4:35 p.m. in Dahlberg Arena. Hasquet and classmates Kyle Sharp and Ceylon Elgin-Taylor will be honored in senior day ceremonies before the game.
When it's all said and done, Hasquet will be remembered as one of the greatest Missoula-born-and-raised Griz of all time, up there with the likes of Bob Cope and Lou Rocheleau. His career numbers bear that out, but this is a kid who was literally born to be a Grizzly.
There's the lineage - Hasquet's grandfather Bob, mother Doris and father Pete all played basketball at the University of Montana - and then there are his sheer dimensions. Hasquet was a load to handle when he entered the world at 9 1/2 pounds. By six months, he was 30 pounds and 30 inches.
???The other funny thing about him - and this is a true story - the doctor looked at him and said, ???Jiminy Christmas, Doris, this kid is going to have to be 6-foot-8 to grow into this head,' ??? said Pete Hasquet, who watched his son top out at 6-9. ???I remember the doctor looking at Doris during one of his checkups and saying, ???Would you quit feeding him every time he opens his mouth.' ???
Hasquet was something of a prodigy. At 19 months, he broke a femur by stepping on a basketball. He was in traction for a time, then had both legs put in casts that were connected by a bar.
???My dad said he'd set up a little basketball hoop and I'd just sit there and shoot, because all I could do is sit there,??? said Jordan, whose dad has the photographs to prove it.
The Hasquets live a couple of blocks from Lewis and Clark Elementary and have for nearly all of Jordan's life. The hoops evolved from the infant-sized variety he used while he was laid up, to Nerf backboards hung on doors, to rims nailed to trees in the backyard, finally to a regulation basket on a sport court.
???So then we had a hoop that holds a thousand pounds so we could dunk on it and hang as much as we wanted,??? said Hasquet, who spent hours playing with his younger brother Kellen.
Pete Hasquet coached the Sentinel girls' basketball team while Jordan was young. So part of Jordan's initiation to the game came from watching his dad coach, then attending camps in the summer.
???I lived in a gym right from the beginning,??? Jordan said.
Partly because of his size and partly because of his advanced skills, Hasquet was nearly always playing against kids who were at least a couple of years older. By the time he reached high school, he was ready to contribute. The Spartans took third at state in his sophomore season and he went on to be named all-state twice, earning Montana's Gatorade Player of the Year Award and the state's title of Mr. Basketball as a senior.
Scholarship offers, however, didn't exactly come pouring in.
???Initially, I kind of wanted to get away a little bit,??? Hasquet said. ???But I didn't want to go too far because I wanted to be able to come home on some weekends if I wanted.???
Washington State told him he could walk on and Santa Clara offered him a scholarship after a visit.
???But I decided that was too out of my neck of the woods,??? Hasquet said. ???It seems like a pretty good decision (to come to UM) because I've had a pretty good career up to this point.???
Griz coach Wayne Tinkle says ???the knock on Jordan, quite frankly, was that he was soft in high school.???
Six-foot-9 guys who love to shoot the 3-pointer often take that rap. But his outside touch has served him well. He's seventh on the school's career 3-point list and shoots a respectable 36 percent from deep.
Pete Hasquet and former Griz coach Larry Krystkowiak argue over who should take the credit - or is it the blame? - for Hasquet's propensity to shoot the long ball.
Pete Hasquet, like Krystkowiak a native of Shelby, says he thinks Jordan learned the value of an outside jumper by watching Krystkowiak play in the NBA. The Hasquets had a keen interest in Krystkowiak's pro career because the Grizzlies' all-time leading scorer and rebounder lived in their basement in Missoula for parts of about five summers.
???Where Larry was valuable in the NBA was his ability to defend and pass, but moreso to hit an open 20-footer,??? Pete Hasquet said. ???I think maybe Jordan picked up a little too much of that. He's always been in love with the long ball.???
Wait a minute, says Krystkowiak.
???I tell you what, I wouldn't put too much of that on me,??? Krystkowiak said. ???That was more of his dad. I remember watching Pete back in Shelby High School. He was on the same team with a couple of guys who played at Carroll College, Paul Dumas and Brian Kavanaugh, and Shelby had some really good teams during that era. They'd get a ton of people going to watch their ballgames and I remember just worshipping the ground they walked on.
???Had they had a 3-point shot back in that time I'd be curious to know how many points Pete would've scored. He used to shoot from 30 feet away, that's not an exaggeration. ... It was ridiculous how far away Pete used to shoot from and the range he had.???
We'll let Jordan settle the dispute.
???It's probably the genes,??? the younger Hasquet said. ???I remember watching (his dad) play in tournaments like the Estes, or in rat ball at the U and at Sentinel, and he was always casting away.???
But getting back to the rap of being soft, soft players don't end up among the top 10 rebounders in school history.
???We paid him a lot of compliments early in his career for the amount of work he put in and I think that fueled his fire a little bit,??? Tinkle said. ???Yes, he played a lot of minutes as a redshirt freshman and that doesn't always happen. But his level of dedication, focus and consistency I think is going to sit in people's minds. ... Now people won't be able to say (he's soft). He's developed into a pretty good warrior.???
Hasquet was recruited to the Griz by Pat Kennedy, but never played for him. He redshirted for Krystkowiak's first season of coaching in 2005, then started 26 games for his former boarder as a redshirt freshman in 2006.
It could have been awkward. Here was a guy who's known Hasquet from infancy, is good friends with his father and now he's the kid's coach.
This is the same guy who bought Hasquet his first baseball mitt.
???The mitt was way too big for him, but he was going to wear it come hell or high water because Larry bought it for him,??? Pete Hasquet said.
???I wasn't always the best shopper,??? Krystkowiak said with a laugh.
???One hundred percent genuine cowhide,??? Hasquet recalls. ???I don't even think it had a brand name on it, but I think I still have that mitt. I played with that for years.???
Krystkowiak is also the same guy who showed up at Hasquet's house with an unexpected visitor one day. Doris Hasquet was preparing dinner and looked out the window and saw Krystkowiak and someone she assumed to be Mike Callaghan loading some stuff into Krystkowiak's Bronco.
???I remember looking out and saying, ???Oh, that butt looks too small to be Callaghan's butt,' and didn't think much of it,??? said Pete Hasquet, the consummate storyteller. ???Then I left the window and I heard Doris squeal, ???John Stockton's here!' ???
The Dream Teamer came in, visited and signed autographs for Jordan and Kellen. When they left, Pete Hasquet turned to his oldest son and asked what he thought of that.
???Yeah, but when's he going to bring Michael (Jordan) over???? Hasquet said.
Without a doubt, Krystkowiak had an impact on Hasquet's career long before he was hired to be UM's coach.
???My dad would always be trying to get Larry's games on TV and record them,??? Hasquet said. ???When you're a little kid and you see him play on national TV, you go out in the backyard after watching the game and start shooting. It just kind of rubs off on you.???
But what could have been awkward wasn't.
???When we were on the court, he was coach and I was player,??? Hasquet said. ???Then off the court we knew a little bit about each other, so he could give me crap about having a big head when I was a year old and I could give him crap about something else.???
Krystkowiak enjoyed the symmetry. After watching Pete play at Shelby, now Pete was in the stands watching his son play for his good friend.
???In my years of playing for Coach (Mike) Montgomery, I felt like he was always able to push the buttons necessary to get the most out of me and I felt like I had the same ability with Jordan in the couple of years I was with him,??? Krystkowiak said.
That second year under Krystkowiak was something special. Led by guys like Kevin Criswell, Virgil Matthews, Andrew Strait and Hasquet, the Griz earned a second straight trip to the NCAA tournament, where they upset Nevada in the first round.
???There's nothing that compares to that,??? Hasquet said. ???That team had such good chemistry on the offensive end. The way we moved the ball and shared it was unbelievable.???
Thursday night's loss to Weber State notwithstanding, Hasquet has been getting a similar feeling from this year's team. The Griz started out 3-3 in Big Sky Conference play, then reeled off seven straight wins to move into second place.
???We know who our go-to guy is and obviously it's Anthony (Johnson),??? Hasquet said of the league's leading scorer. ???Everyone has kind of built up around him on offense and our defense as a whole has picked up.???
Hasquet's scoring is down from 13.7 ppg last season to 10.9 this season, but he still ranks among the league leaders in rebounding. Just last week, he finished three assists shy of a triple-double (12 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists) at Northern Arizona.
???He'll never admit to feeling pressure to do this or that, but we've really stressed the last couple of years for him to focus on defense and rebounding while putting the spotlight on his teammates,??? Tinkle said. ???That really allows him to release any tension on the offensive end. He's done a great job of doing that and what's really helped is the emergence of (Johnson). It's allowed Jordan to relax a little more.???
No doubt.
???It's definitely taken the heat off of me for scoring,??? Hasquet said. ???I don't feel like I have to score 15 a game. I can score two and we can still blow a team out.???
Being a hometown kid, there have been times when Hasquet has felt a little more pressure to lift his team on his shoulders.
???I think you might feel the pressure of reaching expectations a little bit more when you're homegrown,??? Tinkle said. ???Because people know you and feel comfortable with you, they feel like they can be fairly opinionated. If you listened to that stuff, it could add to the pressure.???
There aren't many places a 6-foot-9 kid can go in his hometown and not be recognized.
???You start listening to all these people you know, everyone, everywhere you go,??? Hasquet said. ???Sometimes you kind of want to get away from that and just be a face in the crowd. I've definitely felt like that. I know somebody just about everywhere I go.???
But staying home has its advantages, too. Making the transition to college life can be a challenge for any student, athlete or not.
???But it was probably an easier transition than most kids have because anytime I wanted to I could just run down the street and get a home-cooked meal,??? Hasquet said.
Looking at the walls in Hasquet's apartment, it's easy to see the emphasis he places on family, friends and basketball. There's a poster of Michael Jordan that came off the wall of former North Carolina coach Dean Smith's office when Hasquet's aunt Karen Deden was being recruited by the Tar Heels, there's a note from his grandfather Bob, and another from Krystkowiak.
???My grandpa was kind of the first person close to me who had ever died,??? Hasquet said of Bob Hasquet, who played for the Griz from 1947-50 before returning to Shelby to run the family farm. ???I was pretty close with my grandpa, we talked a lot. He got to see my whole freshman year, then he died after that. We went up there on my birthday and had to bury him - that was kind of a tough time. I just always looked up to him, growing up on a farm and the way he lived, who he was. He had a big influence on me.
???Same goes for Krysko. He wrote me a little note about keeping going and with a saying we used a lot my freshman year: It's a good day to be a Griz.
???And then Michael, the first year I was born my dad bought me a pair of Jordan shoes. Ever since I was young I was watching him. It was just amazing what he did in his career and how unbelievably good he was.???
Hasquet has a nonchalant air about him. You won't see him dunking when a simple layup will suffice or fist-pumping after one of his back-breaking 3-pointers. Don't let it fool you. His placid demeanor belies an intense fire.
???What gets lost because of how he carries himself a little bit is how competitive he is,??? Tinkle said. ???He's learned how to channel that. It has him playing at a pretty high level right now.???
High enough that Hasquet will finish no worse than seventh on the career scoring list with more than 1,300 points, ninth on the career rebounding list with more than 700, and seventh on the career list for 3-pointers with more than 140.
???I've put a lot into basketball in my life,??? Hasquet said, ???a lot of work, a lot of summer hours when I could have been doing something else. I put a lot of focus on that because I felt like it was something I could be good at and it would get me places in my life.
???It also means I've been given a great opportunity by coaches for them to put me out there and let my game excel a little bit.???
And the fact that he's doing it at his hometown university?
???It is kind of cool, you don't see that much any more,??? Hasquet said. ???Recruiting in basketball has opened up to the whole world.???
And the whole world may soon open up to Hasquet, an information systems major. Playing overseas is a possibility, if the right opportunity came along. Hasquet's good friend Matt Martin, second on UM's career list for 3-pointers, was playing well in England this year before questions arose about whether he would continue to be paid. On the other hand, former teammate Andrew Strait is having a good experience playing in Austria.
???I could see myself coaching some day,??? Hasquet said. ???After being around the game so much, it comes easy, so why not.???
But first, it's time to leave the nest.
???I think I have to get away for a little bit just to see what's new,??? Hasquet said. ???I have to figure out what else is out there for a few years.???
And then?
???You can always come back to your hometown.???
Career records
Where senior Jordan Hasquet ranks on Montana's career scoring, rebounding and 3-point shooting lists:
Scoring
1. Larry Krystkowiak (1983-86)?????? 2,017
2. Micheal Ray Richardson (1975-78)?????? 1,827
3. Bob Cope (1947-50)?????? 1,808
4. Kevin Criswell (2002-06)?????? 1,663
5. Andrew Strait (2005-08)?????? 1,617
6. Wayne Tinkle (1985-89)?????? 1,500
7. Jordan Hasquet (2006-09)?????? 1,362
8. Ken McKenzie (1973-75)?????? 1,321
Rebounding
1. Larry Krystkowiak (1983-86)?????? 1,105
2. Daren Engellant (1989-92)?????? 874
3. Ken McKenzie (1973-75)?????? 859
4. Wayne Tinkle (1985-89)?????? 836
5. Shawn Samuelson (1993-96)?????? 791
6. Russell Sheriff (1955-58)?????? 788
7. Steve Lowry (1960-62)?????? 763
8. Andrew Strait (2005-08)?????? 711
9. Jordan Hasquet (2006-09)?????? 702
10. Derrick Pope (1980-83)?????? 675
3-pointers
1. Kevin Criswell (2002-06)?????? 218
2. Matt Martin (2005-08)?????? 214
3. David Bell (2001-03)?????? 196
4. Jeremy Lake (1991-95)?????? 191
5. Mike Warhank (1996-2000)?????? 189
6. Jared Buckmaster (1998-2001)?????? 156
7. Jordan Hasquet (2006-09)?????? 147
From tagging along with his dad the coach, to his days in YMCA ball, to an all-state prep career at Missoula Sentinel, to an all-Big Sky Conference performer with an NCAA win under his belt.
Now Jordan Hasquet will play what might be his last meaningful basketball game in his hometown when the Montana Griz host Idaho State on Saturday at 4:35 p.m. in Dahlberg Arena. Hasquet and classmates Kyle Sharp and Ceylon Elgin-Taylor will be honored in senior day ceremonies before the game.
When it's all said and done, Hasquet will be remembered as one of the greatest Missoula-born-and-raised Griz of all time, up there with the likes of Bob Cope and Lou Rocheleau. His career numbers bear that out, but this is a kid who was literally born to be a Grizzly.
There's the lineage - Hasquet's grandfather Bob, mother Doris and father Pete all played basketball at the University of Montana - and then there are his sheer dimensions. Hasquet was a load to handle when he entered the world at 9 1/2 pounds. By six months, he was 30 pounds and 30 inches.
???The other funny thing about him - and this is a true story - the doctor looked at him and said, ???Jiminy Christmas, Doris, this kid is going to have to be 6-foot-8 to grow into this head,' ??? said Pete Hasquet, who watched his son top out at 6-9. ???I remember the doctor looking at Doris during one of his checkups and saying, ???Would you quit feeding him every time he opens his mouth.' ???
Hasquet was something of a prodigy. At 19 months, he broke a femur by stepping on a basketball. He was in traction for a time, then had both legs put in casts that were connected by a bar.
???My dad said he'd set up a little basketball hoop and I'd just sit there and shoot, because all I could do is sit there,??? said Jordan, whose dad has the photographs to prove it.
The Hasquets live a couple of blocks from Lewis and Clark Elementary and have for nearly all of Jordan's life. The hoops evolved from the infant-sized variety he used while he was laid up, to Nerf backboards hung on doors, to rims nailed to trees in the backyard, finally to a regulation basket on a sport court.
???So then we had a hoop that holds a thousand pounds so we could dunk on it and hang as much as we wanted,??? said Hasquet, who spent hours playing with his younger brother Kellen.
Pete Hasquet coached the Sentinel girls' basketball team while Jordan was young. So part of Jordan's initiation to the game came from watching his dad coach, then attending camps in the summer.
???I lived in a gym right from the beginning,??? Jordan said.
Partly because of his size and partly because of his advanced skills, Hasquet was nearly always playing against kids who were at least a couple of years older. By the time he reached high school, he was ready to contribute. The Spartans took third at state in his sophomore season and he went on to be named all-state twice, earning Montana's Gatorade Player of the Year Award and the state's title of Mr. Basketball as a senior.
Scholarship offers, however, didn't exactly come pouring in.
???Initially, I kind of wanted to get away a little bit,??? Hasquet said. ???But I didn't want to go too far because I wanted to be able to come home on some weekends if I wanted.???
Washington State told him he could walk on and Santa Clara offered him a scholarship after a visit.
???But I decided that was too out of my neck of the woods,??? Hasquet said. ???It seems like a pretty good decision (to come to UM) because I've had a pretty good career up to this point.???
Griz coach Wayne Tinkle says ???the knock on Jordan, quite frankly, was that he was soft in high school.???
Six-foot-9 guys who love to shoot the 3-pointer often take that rap. But his outside touch has served him well. He's seventh on the school's career 3-point list and shoots a respectable 36 percent from deep.
Pete Hasquet and former Griz coach Larry Krystkowiak argue over who should take the credit - or is it the blame? - for Hasquet's propensity to shoot the long ball.
Pete Hasquet, like Krystkowiak a native of Shelby, says he thinks Jordan learned the value of an outside jumper by watching Krystkowiak play in the NBA. The Hasquets had a keen interest in Krystkowiak's pro career because the Grizzlies' all-time leading scorer and rebounder lived in their basement in Missoula for parts of about five summers.
???Where Larry was valuable in the NBA was his ability to defend and pass, but moreso to hit an open 20-footer,??? Pete Hasquet said. ???I think maybe Jordan picked up a little too much of that. He's always been in love with the long ball.???
Wait a minute, says Krystkowiak.
???I tell you what, I wouldn't put too much of that on me,??? Krystkowiak said. ???That was more of his dad. I remember watching Pete back in Shelby High School. He was on the same team with a couple of guys who played at Carroll College, Paul Dumas and Brian Kavanaugh, and Shelby had some really good teams during that era. They'd get a ton of people going to watch their ballgames and I remember just worshipping the ground they walked on.
???Had they had a 3-point shot back in that time I'd be curious to know how many points Pete would've scored. He used to shoot from 30 feet away, that's not an exaggeration. ... It was ridiculous how far away Pete used to shoot from and the range he had.???
We'll let Jordan settle the dispute.
???It's probably the genes,??? the younger Hasquet said. ???I remember watching (his dad) play in tournaments like the Estes, or in rat ball at the U and at Sentinel, and he was always casting away.???
But getting back to the rap of being soft, soft players don't end up among the top 10 rebounders in school history.
???We paid him a lot of compliments early in his career for the amount of work he put in and I think that fueled his fire a little bit,??? Tinkle said. ???Yes, he played a lot of minutes as a redshirt freshman and that doesn't always happen. But his level of dedication, focus and consistency I think is going to sit in people's minds. ... Now people won't be able to say (he's soft). He's developed into a pretty good warrior.???
Hasquet was recruited to the Griz by Pat Kennedy, but never played for him. He redshirted for Krystkowiak's first season of coaching in 2005, then started 26 games for his former boarder as a redshirt freshman in 2006.
It could have been awkward. Here was a guy who's known Hasquet from infancy, is good friends with his father and now he's the kid's coach.
This is the same guy who bought Hasquet his first baseball mitt.
???The mitt was way too big for him, but he was going to wear it come hell or high water because Larry bought it for him,??? Pete Hasquet said.
???I wasn't always the best shopper,??? Krystkowiak said with a laugh.
???One hundred percent genuine cowhide,??? Hasquet recalls. ???I don't even think it had a brand name on it, but I think I still have that mitt. I played with that for years.???
Krystkowiak is also the same guy who showed up at Hasquet's house with an unexpected visitor one day. Doris Hasquet was preparing dinner and looked out the window and saw Krystkowiak and someone she assumed to be Mike Callaghan loading some stuff into Krystkowiak's Bronco.
???I remember looking out and saying, ???Oh, that butt looks too small to be Callaghan's butt,' and didn't think much of it,??? said Pete Hasquet, the consummate storyteller. ???Then I left the window and I heard Doris squeal, ???John Stockton's here!' ???
The Dream Teamer came in, visited and signed autographs for Jordan and Kellen. When they left, Pete Hasquet turned to his oldest son and asked what he thought of that.
???Yeah, but when's he going to bring Michael (Jordan) over???? Hasquet said.
Without a doubt, Krystkowiak had an impact on Hasquet's career long before he was hired to be UM's coach.
???My dad would always be trying to get Larry's games on TV and record them,??? Hasquet said. ???When you're a little kid and you see him play on national TV, you go out in the backyard after watching the game and start shooting. It just kind of rubs off on you.???
But what could have been awkward wasn't.
???When we were on the court, he was coach and I was player,??? Hasquet said. ???Then off the court we knew a little bit about each other, so he could give me crap about having a big head when I was a year old and I could give him crap about something else.???
Krystkowiak enjoyed the symmetry. After watching Pete play at Shelby, now Pete was in the stands watching his son play for his good friend.
???In my years of playing for Coach (Mike) Montgomery, I felt like he was always able to push the buttons necessary to get the most out of me and I felt like I had the same ability with Jordan in the couple of years I was with him,??? Krystkowiak said.
That second year under Krystkowiak was something special. Led by guys like Kevin Criswell, Virgil Matthews, Andrew Strait and Hasquet, the Griz earned a second straight trip to the NCAA tournament, where they upset Nevada in the first round.
???There's nothing that compares to that,??? Hasquet said. ???That team had such good chemistry on the offensive end. The way we moved the ball and shared it was unbelievable.???
Thursday night's loss to Weber State notwithstanding, Hasquet has been getting a similar feeling from this year's team. The Griz started out 3-3 in Big Sky Conference play, then reeled off seven straight wins to move into second place.
???We know who our go-to guy is and obviously it's Anthony (Johnson),??? Hasquet said of the league's leading scorer. ???Everyone has kind of built up around him on offense and our defense as a whole has picked up.???
Hasquet's scoring is down from 13.7 ppg last season to 10.9 this season, but he still ranks among the league leaders in rebounding. Just last week, he finished three assists shy of a triple-double (12 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists) at Northern Arizona.
???He'll never admit to feeling pressure to do this or that, but we've really stressed the last couple of years for him to focus on defense and rebounding while putting the spotlight on his teammates,??? Tinkle said. ???That really allows him to release any tension on the offensive end. He's done a great job of doing that and what's really helped is the emergence of (Johnson). It's allowed Jordan to relax a little more.???
No doubt.
???It's definitely taken the heat off of me for scoring,??? Hasquet said. ???I don't feel like I have to score 15 a game. I can score two and we can still blow a team out.???
Being a hometown kid, there have been times when Hasquet has felt a little more pressure to lift his team on his shoulders.
???I think you might feel the pressure of reaching expectations a little bit more when you're homegrown,??? Tinkle said. ???Because people know you and feel comfortable with you, they feel like they can be fairly opinionated. If you listened to that stuff, it could add to the pressure.???
There aren't many places a 6-foot-9 kid can go in his hometown and not be recognized.
???You start listening to all these people you know, everyone, everywhere you go,??? Hasquet said. ???Sometimes you kind of want to get away from that and just be a face in the crowd. I've definitely felt like that. I know somebody just about everywhere I go.???
But staying home has its advantages, too. Making the transition to college life can be a challenge for any student, athlete or not.
???But it was probably an easier transition than most kids have because anytime I wanted to I could just run down the street and get a home-cooked meal,??? Hasquet said.
Looking at the walls in Hasquet's apartment, it's easy to see the emphasis he places on family, friends and basketball. There's a poster of Michael Jordan that came off the wall of former North Carolina coach Dean Smith's office when Hasquet's aunt Karen Deden was being recruited by the Tar Heels, there's a note from his grandfather Bob, and another from Krystkowiak.
???My grandpa was kind of the first person close to me who had ever died,??? Hasquet said of Bob Hasquet, who played for the Griz from 1947-50 before returning to Shelby to run the family farm. ???I was pretty close with my grandpa, we talked a lot. He got to see my whole freshman year, then he died after that. We went up there on my birthday and had to bury him - that was kind of a tough time. I just always looked up to him, growing up on a farm and the way he lived, who he was. He had a big influence on me.
???Same goes for Krysko. He wrote me a little note about keeping going and with a saying we used a lot my freshman year: It's a good day to be a Griz.
???And then Michael, the first year I was born my dad bought me a pair of Jordan shoes. Ever since I was young I was watching him. It was just amazing what he did in his career and how unbelievably good he was.???
Hasquet has a nonchalant air about him. You won't see him dunking when a simple layup will suffice or fist-pumping after one of his back-breaking 3-pointers. Don't let it fool you. His placid demeanor belies an intense fire.
???What gets lost because of how he carries himself a little bit is how competitive he is,??? Tinkle said. ???He's learned how to channel that. It has him playing at a pretty high level right now.???
High enough that Hasquet will finish no worse than seventh on the career scoring list with more than 1,300 points, ninth on the career rebounding list with more than 700, and seventh on the career list for 3-pointers with more than 140.
???I've put a lot into basketball in my life,??? Hasquet said, ???a lot of work, a lot of summer hours when I could have been doing something else. I put a lot of focus on that because I felt like it was something I could be good at and it would get me places in my life.
???It also means I've been given a great opportunity by coaches for them to put me out there and let my game excel a little bit.???
And the fact that he's doing it at his hometown university?
???It is kind of cool, you don't see that much any more,??? Hasquet said. ???Recruiting in basketball has opened up to the whole world.???
And the whole world may soon open up to Hasquet, an information systems major. Playing overseas is a possibility, if the right opportunity came along. Hasquet's good friend Matt Martin, second on UM's career list for 3-pointers, was playing well in England this year before questions arose about whether he would continue to be paid. On the other hand, former teammate Andrew Strait is having a good experience playing in Austria.
???I could see myself coaching some day,??? Hasquet said. ???After being around the game so much, it comes easy, so why not.???
But first, it's time to leave the nest.
???I think I have to get away for a little bit just to see what's new,??? Hasquet said. ???I have to figure out what else is out there for a few years.???
And then?
???You can always come back to your hometown.???
Career records
Where senior Jordan Hasquet ranks on Montana's career scoring, rebounding and 3-point shooting lists:
Scoring
1. Larry Krystkowiak (1983-86)?????? 2,017
2. Micheal Ray Richardson (1975-78)?????? 1,827
3. Bob Cope (1947-50)?????? 1,808
4. Kevin Criswell (2002-06)?????? 1,663
5. Andrew Strait (2005-08)?????? 1,617
6. Wayne Tinkle (1985-89)?????? 1,500
7. Jordan Hasquet (2006-09)?????? 1,362
8. Ken McKenzie (1973-75)?????? 1,321
Rebounding
1. Larry Krystkowiak (1983-86)?????? 1,105
2. Daren Engellant (1989-92)?????? 874
3. Ken McKenzie (1973-75)?????? 859
4. Wayne Tinkle (1985-89)?????? 836
5. Shawn Samuelson (1993-96)?????? 791
6. Russell Sheriff (1955-58)?????? 788
7. Steve Lowry (1960-62)?????? 763
8. Andrew Strait (2005-08)?????? 711
9. Jordan Hasquet (2006-09)?????? 702
10. Derrick Pope (1980-83)?????? 675
3-pointers
1. Kevin Criswell (2002-06)?????? 218
2. Matt Martin (2005-08)?????? 214
3. David Bell (2001-03)?????? 196
4. Jeremy Lake (1991-95)?????? 191
5. Mike Warhank (1996-2000)?????? 189
6. Jared Buckmaster (1998-2001)?????? 156
7. Jordan Hasquet (2006-09)?????? 147
March Madness Denver Pep Rally - 3/19/25
Thursday, March 20
Montana? Yes, Montana!
Wednesday, March 19
Griz Basketball Open Practice [March Madness] - 3/19/25
Wednesday, March 19
Griz Basketball Arrival To Denver [March Madness] - 3/18/25
Tuesday, March 18
