Griz mentor Wayne Tinkle named BSC Coach of the Year
3/12/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 12, 2012
Sixth-year University of Montana head basketball coach Wayne Tinkle has been named the Big Sky Conference's Coach of the Year, the league announced today. He was chosen by his fellow league coaches.
"It is certainly a good feeling for myself and the Grizzly basketball program to get that kind of recognition," Tinkle said. "Like we tell our players, with team success you're going to enjoy individual success. This would not have happened without the great staff that I am fortunate enough to have, and the players obviously are the ones who get it done on the court."
He has an overall record of 116-70 (.624) and is making his second trip to "The Dance" as UM's head coach, as the team travels to Albuquerque, N.M. to play 4th-seed Wisconsin in a second round game at 12:10 p.m. on Thursday, March 15. It will be his fifth trip to the NCAA tournament with the Grizzlies as a head coach or an assistant coach.
"It has been a special season so far, and we will be able to reflect back in the off-season all of the things that this team has achieved," Tinkle said. "It is exciting. Certainly we want to try to stay in the moment. We don't want to just make an appearance at the Big Dance. I guess as you could put it as a metaphor, `we want to stay on the dance floor as long as possible.' We know we have a really tough match-up in Wisconsin - what a great team. But, our guys have been able to accept the challenge in the past, and hopefully we'll prepare the right way, and they will be ready to go on Thursday."
Coach Tinkle's teams have won 20 or more games the past three seasons in a row. His team's 15 victories in Big Sky games this season are the most ever at UM. "Tinks" is ranked fourth in school history with 116 wins at his alma mater. This season Tinkle became just one of three coaches in school history to win 20 or more games in three straight seasons.
Last season he guided Montana to a 21-11 record and received a berth in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) Tournament. Two seasons ago, the Griz went 22-10, won the league's post-season tourney, and advanced to the NCAAs, losing 62-57 to New Mexico, in a first-round game played in San Jose, Calif.
Montana now has 18 20-win seasons in school history, and four in the past 15 seasons. Just nine Griz teams have won 22 games or more in a season.
This is the fifth NCAA tournament berth for Tinkle. He has also been in it three times as an assistant coach, and twice now as the head mentor. His NCAA trips as an assistant came in 2001-02 against Oregon with head coach Don Holst; in 2004-05 vs. Washington and 2005-06 (against Nevada and Boston College) with head man Larry Krystkowiak; and then in 2009-10 and 2011-12 as the head man, playing New Mexico and Wisconsin, respectively.
Tinkle is the first Montana coach to win Big Sky Coach of the Year honors since Blaine Taylor in 1991-92. Stew Morrill won the honor in 1990-91. Taylor is currently the head coach at Old Dominion, while Morrill is at Utah State.
This marks just the fifth time a Montana coach has won the honor. Jud Heathcote was named Coach of the Year in 1974-75, and Jim Brandenburg shared the honor with Weber State's Neil McCarthy in 1977-78.
The Grizzlies had two players - junior guard Will Cherry and sophomore guard/forward Kareem Jamar, named to the all-conference first team. Senior forwards Derek Selvig and Art Stewart were tabbed to the second team. Cherry was named the league's Defensive Player of the Year.
Montana beat Eastern Washington 74-66 in a semifinal game last Tuesday in Missoula, Mont., before topping Weber State (85-66) a night later to win the school's eighth Big Sky championship.
Tinkle played for Montana from 1985-89, earning all-conference honors three times.
Tinkle is assisted by Bill Evans, Freddie Owens and Jono Metzger-Jones. Matt Erickson is the director of basketball operations.
