Senior Spotlight: Q&A with Ahmaad Rorie

Prior to the conclusion fo the 2018-19 men's basketball season, Glenn Junkert of GoGriz.com sat with each departing senior to reflect on his Montana career, his favorite memories and more. Junkert's entire senior feature about the players' continued focus on academics and athletics can be found online.

Ahmaad Rorie / Tacoma, Wash.

On his favorite memories as a Grizzly: My best memories are definitely winning the Big Sky and going to the NCAA tournament. For myself, being first-team Big Sky, that meant a lot to me, because it means that a lot of coaches respected me as a player. Also, playing Michigan in the NCAA tourney was big, and of course beating Montana State in this huge rivalry, which always brought the best out of me.

On becoming the fastest player in school history to 1,500 career points: Every day I'm thankful for being in that territory, and now in that history is definitely a special blessing, so I thank God for that. It's definitely a pretty cool milestone, but I always think that there's definitely a chance for more. If I could have played here four years, maybe I would have gotten to 2,000. Doing 1,500 with Mike (Oguine) is really special. I'd just like to say that it's been a pleasure of mine playing as part of the same back court with Mike these past three years. I'm going to miss him. I feel like last year during the tournament we had a talk and kind of turned the heat up a bit, and that changed our mindset this year.

On his relationship with his coaches: We have a real good relationship, but it's bigger than me; it's bigger than coach DeCuire, as well, because it's all about the team. I've just been the kind of player that if I lead and help other players, then I'm also going to get what I want in the final outcome. I've always decided to play to the best of my abilities, and that involves leading this team right now… still scoring, playing D, doing every little thing on court. Right now, for me, I always ask myself, 'How can I be the best player I can be? The best point guard I can be? The best player I can be in order to lead this team?

Rachi (Wortham) is that guy who's always at me making sure I'm sharp and at the top of my game and also on top of everything off the court as well. He's making sure to encourage us and making sure we're sharp and ready to go, and making sure I'm focused on leading. Coach (Chris) Cobb brings a lot of challenges to the court, but he has helped me a lot by telling me to play my own game and never leave the court with any regrets. And Coach Flo (Jay Flores) is so positive after all games, especially a down game, in helping us to bounce back. He's always so encouraging.

On his relationship with his teammates: I've really valued my time with Sayeed (Pridgett), my roommate and best friend on the team. We've played together for two years and we really compete on the court and off the court. You know, that friendly competition. Definitely Freddy (Brown) and Eddy (Egun), and Kendal (Manuel), a good friend who himself has a lot of aspirations. For Freddy and Eddy, I try to serve a bit as a role model, I hope.

On his time as a student at Montana: It really all started with my mom, because she was the first one in my family who graduated besides me now (Rorie received his degree the fall 2018 semester). I'm not really a top academic student, but my brother kept pushing me and gave me the motivation to push through for my degree here in communications.

On his future: I don't know what level of basketball I'm going to play, but I know I'm going to play full bore, but a goal I really want to accomplish is to get back to my city, Tacoma, Washington. I'm not going to be one of these guys who becomes a professional athlete and then forgets about his city. I feel like I owe it to a lot of people in Tacoma. So, I hope I can make some money playing professional basketball and then maybe work for my uncle, who is a vice president with Nike. I definitely want to stay around the game.

Head coach Travis DeCuire on Rorie: We constantly ask our guys how they help the team win without scoring, because there are going to be games when you don't make shots. Can you still be on the floor? Ahmaad, at a very young age, was built to score. He and his cousin played together as a combo-guard tandem. He had always played until college alongside another handler, so he never really had the responsibility of the team's offensive production. It was kind of, 'If I get my 20, you get your 20, we'll be alright.' So now, you get to college and want to play point guard – that's a tough transition. Ahmaad has been able to do that. He's been top one, top two in the league over three years in assist-to-turnover ratio – while scoring. What he's done this year, that I wasn't sure he could do, is defer, not just to one person, but to multiple people. He is still aggressive and still leads in shots taken, but there are games where, 'Oh, Sayeed's the guy— go get your 25. Mike's the guy — go get your 22. Donaven's (Dorsey) hot, let's get him six treys.' That's why we have the record we do right now. Ahmaad's grown as much as anybody I've ever coached. His coach-ability is the biggest area that will impact his future.

Associate head coach Chris Cobb on Rorie: One of the things that Mike, Bobby and Ahmaad do is that they're the models of what we are attempting to do. It's not just basketball. Those guys show up every single day with their hard hats on. You know, that's life. The biggest thing about Ahmaad is we don't ever have to worry about him. At 2:30 today, Ahmaad's going to show up as one of the first two to three in the gym to work out. And there's power in that. To have a guy that's one of your best players that we never have to worry about, that says a lot about him as a person.

University of Montana Athletics

Related News

Players Mentioned

Ahmaad Rorie

Related Videos