Griz announce 2010-11 schedule
8/25/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The University of Montana will play non-league games against teams from the Western Athletic Conference, the Mountain West Conference and the Pac-10 Conference, announced fifth-year head coach Wayne Tinkle.
Tinkle noted that he plans to add one more non-league home game to the schedule.
Montana is coming off a season in which it won the league tournament championship with a dramatic 66-65 victory over regular-season champion and host Weber State to earn its eighth trip to the NCAA tournament (a 62-57 first-round loss to New Mexico). The Grizzlies were 22-10 overall and 10-6 in the Big Sky Conference last season.
UM???s two returning starters are 6-11 senior center Brian Qvale and 6-1 sophomore guard Will Cherry. Lettermen back include 7-0 junior forward Derek Selvig, 6-1 junior guard Shawn Stockton and 6-7 sophomore forward Mathias Ward.
Also returning is 6-9 redshirt freshman Eric Hutchison. The Grizzlies added seven new players to their program from both the high school and junior college ranks.
The Grizzlies begin their 2010-11 season with road games at the University of Nevada of the WAC on Saturday, Nov. 13, and then a few days later play Utah of the MWC on Wednesday, Nov. 17.
???We are very excited to be near the completion of our schedule for the 2010-11 season,??? said Tinkle. ???We are kicking off the season at Nevada then play at Utah a few days later. It has quickly become one of the tougher parts of our job, but we are excited about who we are playing both on the road and at home.???
UM plays two Pac-10 teams in December starting with a trip to Los Angeles to face the UCLA Bruins on Sunday, Dec. 5, and then a week and-a-half later the Grizzles host the Oregon State Beavers on Wednesday, Dec. 15.
???UCLA is our marquee game, no doubt about it, and the University of Portland has had great teams the past couple of seasons,??? Tinkle said. ???We are also very excited about signing a home-and-home agreement with the Oregon State Beavers.???
The Griz will play 10 non-conference teams prior to Big Sky Conference play, including home contests against Montana Tech, Idaho, Fullerton, Portland, and OSU. UM also plays at Idaho and at Fullerton later in December.
???We are thrilled about the level of competition,??? Tinkle said. ???Again, it is tough to get a quality schedule that fits all of your needs and criteria, but we feel fairly confident that this is going to be a good one.
???It is certainly going to be a challenge for us,?? especially for a team with seven new players,??? Tinkle continued. ???We???ll take out lumps, but it???s going to be part of the process as we prepare for the most important part of the year ??? league play in the Big Sky. We are looking forward to a fantastic season coming off the success and momentum of last year.???
Montana opens its Big Sky slate at home against the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks on Wednesday, Dec. 29, and the defending regular-season champion Weber State Wildcats on New Year's Eve, Friday, Dec. 31. Both the NAU and WSU games start at 1:05 p.m.
