The Intriguing 10 :: Who to watch for in 2016-17

Kayleigh Valley :: Senior :: Women's basketball

You might think that of all the possible people to put on this list, Kayleigh Valley is one of the last you'd choose. Because where's the intrigue when someone will likely enter her senior year as the Big Sky Conference's preseason MVP?

But get a load of these season point totals: 150, 378, 678, from Valley's first three years in a Lady Griz uniform. Whoever becomes Montana's next women's basketball coach will inherit a scorer who is on a serious upward-trending trajectory.

The intrigue comes not from wondering if she can repeat the performance of her junior campaign -- her 678 points last year broke Shannon Cate's longstanding single-season program record of 668 and was the third-best total in league history -- but if she can be even better.

"When we recruited Kayleigh, we told her we thought she was the type of kid who could be a Big Sky Conference MVP," says Shannon Schweyen, a Montana assistant coach the last 24 seasons. "She had all the intangibles, and she's so long and strong."

Valley played in all 34 games as a true freshman, as Montana made the second round of the WNIT. She likely could have taken on a larger role, but she mostly deferred to the team's veterans. "Kayleigh had a great freshman year, but I don't think she felt like it was her time yet," says Schweyen.

Valley was the team's second-leading scorer as a sophomore, behind Big Sky co-MVP Kellie Cole-Rubel, and Montana advanced to its 21st NCAA tournament to face No. 1 seed Notre Dame.

And then her junior year: She didn't score fewer than 15 points over the team's final 26 games. She had 18 20-point scoring games, and three times she scored 30 points or more on her way to first-team All-Big Sky Conference honors. By March she was mostly unstoppable.

Had Montana finished higher than fifth in the Big Sky standings, Valley would have been the easy choice for league MVP.

"She was just unbelievably consistent. She hardly ever had a bad game. People were keying on her all year, and she'd still get her 22, 24 points. She had a bull's-eye on her, and people still couldn't stop her. She came through for us night after night," says Schweyen.

Catch her: At the Maroon and Silver scrimmage on Oct. 25, at one of Montana's two exhibition games in early November or at the team's home opener on Nov. 15 against Great Falls.

Keenan Curran :: Sophomore :: Football

From the staff that brought you stellar performances last season from Jamaal Jones, Ben Roberts and Ellis Henderson -- 190 combined catches, more than 2,680 yards -- please welcome Keenan Curran.

If your first thought was, Who?, you're excused. After all, Curran caught just four balls last season.

But what you see on the field every Saturday is only a small glimpse of what's going on behind the scenes the rest of the week. Some players are preparing for the here and now, others are working toward future opportunities. And that future is here for Curran, who's expected to be the next big thing.

"He's a completely different receiver, in terms of where he came in last year, on the first day of camp, to where he is today," says UM passing game coordinator and outside receivers coach Nolan Swett.

"And it's 100 percent attributed to his work ethic and the importance he places on making himself and his team better."

Curran, who excelled while playing positions on both sides of the ball during his prep career, hadn't played wide receiver since his freshman year at Federal Way (Wash.) High School when he joined the Grizzlies last season.

He saw the field the final nine games, playing both offense and special teams. He caught just four passes for 55 yards, with a 30-yard reception in Montana's loss at Portland State. But Jones, Roberts and Henderson were getting it done, and then there was everything you didn't see.

"He only had a handful of catches last year, but at practice we saw the improvements he made that gave us the confidence he could do it in a game situation," says Swett. "Because of the guys we had in front of him, we didn't need to throw him into the fire quite yet."

The match gets lit in 36 days. Don't be surprised if it's Curran who's doing the burning.

Catch him: When Montana opens the season against Saint Francis under the lights at Washington-Grizzly Stadium on Sept. 3.

University of Montana Athletics

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Keenan Curran

Ellis Henderson

Jamaal Jones

Ben Roberts

Kayleigh Valley

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