2016-17 Lady Griz schedule finalized

Online schedule | PDF schedule

Robin Selvig finished piecing together his team's 2016-17 schedule this week, and the Lady Griz coach unknowingly gave his team, which will have the preseason Big Sky Conference MVP but also be heavy on inexperience, a pair of important nonconference mile markers to gauge its early-season development.

Montana's nonconference Division I schedule opens and closes -- with 31 days in between -- with games against two of the top mid-major programs in the nation, teams that combined to win 58 games last season.

The first: South Dakota State, a team that was one play away from last year's Sweet 16, at Iowa's tournament on Nov. 19. The second: Colorado State, a team that won 31 games last year, in Missoula, four days before Christmas, an early holiday gift to Lady Griz fans at Dahlberg Arena. Must be present to receive and fully enjoy.

The two games are part of an 11-game nonconference schedule, which is preceded by the Maroon and Silver scrimmage in late October, and a pair of exhibition games in early November against Frontier Conference schools.

The Lady Griz will get six of their nonconference games at home, five will be on the road.

"It took a while to get it done, but I feel good about it," said Selvig. "It's a good, solid schedule, with a good mix of home and away."

Montana will open the regular season on Tuesday, Nov. 15, against Great Falls, a team that won 24 games last season and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NAIA national tournament. But the Argonauts are no Jackrabbits.

The opener will be followed by a trip to Iowa City for a Saturday-Sunday tournament. Montana will first face South Dakota State, a team that has won 19 or more games 15 straight seasons and has been to national tournaments 10 straight years -- seven NCAAs, three WNITs.

The Jackrabbits, who beat the Lady Griz 64-59 in Cancun in 2008-09 in the teams' only other meeting, went 27-7 last year and were one play short of making the Sweet 16.

No. 12 SDSU knocked off No. 5 Miami 74-71 last March at Palo Alto, Calif., in the opening round of the NCAA tournament and led No. 4 Stanford on the Cardinal's home floor by eight with four minutes left before falling 66-65 after Stanford converted a three-point play with eight seconds left.

"South Dakota State is a really strong program. Anyone who follows women's basketball knows that," said Selvig. "They are one of the strong (mid-majors) year in and year out."

The bracket for Iowa's (non-)tournament will be predetermined based on teams' travel home, so Montana will know later this summer if it will face Massachusetts or Iowa on day two. UMass went 12-18 last season, Iowa 19-14 on its way to the WNIT, ending a streak of eight straight NCAA appearances.

Montana has not played Massachusetts before and hasn't faced the Hawkeyes since Iowa traveled to Missoula and defeated the Lady Griz 64-53 in front of 8,575 fans at Dahlberg Arena in the opening round of the 1991 NCAA tournament.

After playing in Iowa, Montana will return home and host the three-team Lady Griz Classic, which this year will be spread over five days of Thanksgiving week.

Montana will host Incarnate Word (6-23) the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. Incarnate Word, a school located in San Antonio, Texas, will play Utah State (14-17) on Friday, Nov. 25, likely in the afternoon, and the Lady Griz will face Utah State on Sunday afternoon, Nov. 27.

It will be the second straight year Utah State has played in the Lady Griz Classic. Montana defeated the Aggies 86-70 in the championship game of December's tournament.

The Lady Griz will face Cal State Fullerton (3-27) and Seattle (9-21), which will be under a new coach, on the same road trip that takes November into December, then travel to Nacogdoches, Texas, to face Stephen F. Austin (18-12) on Saturday, Dec. 10, the front end of a home-and-home series.

It will be the first meeting between the two teams since playing at Amarillo, Texas, in the 1987 WNIT. The Ladyjacks won that game 78-68.

The nonconference schedule will conclude with three straight home games leading up to Christmas break. Montana will host Rocky Mountain on Dec. 12 and Wyoming on Sunday, Dec. 18, before taking a nonconference final exam against Colorado State on Tuesday, Dec. 21.

The Rams (31-2), who rolled through the regular season and Mountain West Conference tournament, were 31-1 last season entering the NCAA tournament, a one-point setback on the road at Pennsylvania their only loss.

One of those wins was a 75-43 victory over the Lady Griz last December on a cold, dark night in Fort Collins when Montana had more turnovers (16) than field goals (15) and shot a season-low 23.1 percent.

"They were very talented and had a great year," said Selvig. "We didn't have a good game against them. We really struggled at their place."

That body of work was only good enough for an 11 seed in the eyes of the NCAA tournament selection committee, and Colorado State lost in the opening round, 48-45 to No. 6 South Florida in Los Angeles.

"It's a nonconference schedule that should season us for conference," said Selvig. "Conference has been really competitive the last few years, with a lot of teams in the mix. It looks like it will be like that again this year.

"You hope your nonconference prepares you for that. I think this schedule will do that."

Montana will open its Big Sky schedule with games at Idaho State on Thursday, Dec. 29, and Weber State on Saturday, Dec. 31. It's the start of what should be a telling six-game stretch to open league.

Idaho State, as the No. 9 seed, made the Big Sky tournament championship game in March in Reno, and Weber State, which had won a total of 20 games the previous four seasons, won 23 last year and advanced to the championship game of the postseason Women's Basketball Invitational.

Montana will host Idaho, the Big Sky tournament champion, and Eastern Washington, two teams that went 13-5 in league last season to finish in a tie for second, one game behind regular-season champion Montana State, one game up on 12-6 Montana.

The Lady Griz will then tackle the Northern Colorado-North Dakota road trip and face two teams they won't get an opportunity to play in Missoula. The Fighting Hawks defeated Montana three times last year, including a season-ending 65-62 loss in the quarterfinals of the Big Sky tournament in Reno.

The Montana State games will both be in February -- Feb. 4 in Missoula, Feb. 25 in Bozeman -- and part of day-night doubleheaders with the UM-MSU men's games.

The Big Sky schedule closes with Weber State and Idaho State traveling to Missoula for games on Wednesday, March 1, and Friday, March 3.

For the second year, the Big Sky tournament will be in Reno, and the women's tournament will again start on Monday with first-round games. The women's tournament continues on Wednesday (quarterfinals), Friday (semifinals) and Saturday (championship).

The top four teams at the end of the regular season will earn a bye to Wednesday's quarterfinal round.

"One thing you're not doing during the conference season anymore is playing for a chance to host the tournament," said Selvig. "That's one thing that was lost from the race, and that was always interesting, but that's out of the mix.

"So you're playing to be your best at the end and hope to put together a hot weekend in Reno."

Tackling that schedule will be a team with some knowns -- senior forward Kayleigh Valley will be the preseason Big Sky MVP -- and even more unknowns. Eight of the team's 15 players will enter the season without a single game of collegiate experience, 11 will be underclassmen.

Valley, senior forward Alycia Sims and junior forward Mekayla Isaak are the team's returning starters. Sophomore guard Sierra Anderson and senior forward Rachel Staudacher are the only other players who averaged more than 10 minutes per game last season.

Montana signed Gabi Harrington of Boise, Idaho; Nora Klick of Simms, Mont.; Hailey Nicholson of Malta, Mont.; Madi Schoening of Sandpoint, Idaho; and Emma Stockholm of Chelan, Wash.; to National Letters of Intent last November.

Harrington and Schoening are 5-foot-9 guards. Klick and Nicholson, both 6-feet, can play inside and out. Stockholm is a 6-foot-2 post player.

"There will be lots of opportunities for roles, and there will be lots of questions, so that will make it interesting," said Selvig, whose team entered last season in a similar situation and still managed to go 20-11, the program's 31st 20-win season in 38 years under Selvig.

"We have some givens, with Kayleigh and Alycia back. That's the proven part. But we lost three perimeter players who played a lot, so there will be all kinds of things to figure out."

Players Mentioned

Sierra Anderson

Alycia Harris

Mekayla Isaak

Rachel Staudacher

Kayleigh Valley

University of Montana Athletics