First-year orientation with Nyah Morris-Nelson

It was perfectly fitting that Nyah Morris-Nelson ended up living in ROAM, the new student housing complex near Montana's campus.

She left her home of Gold Coast, Australia, at the age of 17 and traveled, sight unseen, to South Plains College in Levelland, a city of 13,000 in north Texas named without irony.

"It was definitely different," she says. "It was just flat land and cows. I remember when I stepped off the plane and the assistant coach picked me up. This is it?" Yep, he said, this is it.

Then it was on to Iowa Western in Council Bluffs, hard against the Missouri and across the river from Omaha. It's where she dropped everything and packed her bags in March. Destination: Gold Coast.

"That was scary. It was scary hearing from our coach that we needed to get on the next flight home," she says, echoing the thoughts of college athletes everywhere, as the coronavirus became real.

It's where she was last spring, when program after Division I program reached out across the Pacific, trying to win her over across phone line and computer screen.

After a postseason shakeup of the roster and coaching staff, Montana was in need of someone just like her: a 3-pointer shooter, a six-foot guard, someone who wasn't a freshman.

"A year ago (our current freshmen) had to ask for a hall pass to go to the bathroom," says Lady Griz coach Mike Petrino, who has five players on his team fresh out of high school, or one-third of the roster.

"We wanted to get older, not younger with anyone else we brought in."

So he'd set his alarm once again for the middle of the night. He wanted to make it as convenient as possible for the player when he called that recruit in England, in Spain, in Australia.

Morris-Nelson? She was set to commit to a program in Florida the day she first heard from Montana.

Her dad, a construction engineer responsible for changing Gold Coast's skyline with his latest high-rise, who'd helped guide her through her life-changing decisions, told her to put everything on hold.

He knew of this place named Montana. He knew of this place called Missoula.

His brother is a professor of the Maori language at Massey University in New Zealand. He's been to the state before, in a professional role to work with its Native Americans.

He'll likely be back next year. He loves Missoula.

"So it was meant to be for her to go there. As soon as Montana reached out, I knew it was the one for her. She knew I wanted her to go there, but I had to leave the final decision up to her," he says.

That's family for Morris-Nelson: fully supportive of a 17-year-old to chase her dreams in a different country but also ready, with arms spread wide, to welcome her home when those blessed times come.

This is family as well: Her mom coaching a youth travel team that was going to play in Indonesia. It was made up of 17- and 18-year-old girls. She added Nyah, then 14, to the roster.

It wasn't a basketball game that day as much as it was an indoor festival. Drums, horns and music, loud, crazy fans, 5,000 of them.

They wanted to see the little one, the girl that was so much younger than the rest, the one whose size was out of place but whose game wasn't. She was the first substitution into the game.

"They started screaming and cheering for her. It was epic. She had a great game and won a massive fan base straight away," says her mom, area manager for the local Police-Citizens Youth Club in Gold Coast.

"After every game, Nyah had to sign so many autographs, take millions of selfies with people and literally had fans screaming her name and holding big Nyah signs up. It was insane."

This family? It needs some sibling shenanigans, courtesy of her older brother Jaze, five years her elder, who plays semi-professionally with the Gold Coast Rollers of the NBL1 league.

His favorite story: "Easy. When she chased me around the house with a steak knife because I ate something she was wanting when we were younger," he says.

Thankfully that particular story didn't coincide with her dad's preferred method of having fun with his daughter, which is to "scare the crap out of her," he says.

"I'll hide behind doors and anywhere else to jump out at her. It's something we've been doing to each other since she was little. She tries to get me back but never can."

So, yeah, the idea of family -- of trust, of love, of fun -- was on her mind when she was looking for her next landing spot last spring.

She dances around the year she spent at South Plains, when she averaged 4.6 points and hit 37 3-pointers despite playing less than 12 minutes per game.

"It was a big learning year for me," she says. "If there was something positive from that year, it was that (the coach) gave me a tough, strong mentality with everything she made us go through."

Iowa Western was more like it, more of what she wanted out of a college experience.

"They offered me before I committed to South Plains, but I turned them down," she says. "They were still really passionate about me. They followed me through my entire freshman season.

"Iowa Western just had a lot more to give. (Lindsey Vande Hoef) was a coach but she acted like a mom. There was so much love there. She was big on relationships and the team being like a big family."

Her dad knew Missoula and Montana, but he didn't know Petrino and the Lady Griz. That gave the coach at least a foot in the door, but he and his staff would still have to talk their way through it.

"My dad got me leaning toward this place. As soon as I had a school message me, he was on it and learned everything about it," she says. "He felt this area and a college town would fit me best."

They made their best pitch, the best they could make from a distance. A text. A group Zoom call with all the coaches. A one-on-one with one of the assistants. They nailed it. Morris-Nelson was in.

"Something that's really big is, the way they were recruiting me, they are still the same way," she says. "It wasn't a fake act kind of thing.

"The passion they showed when they were recruiting me, they are still showing it. And it's the same with all the players. They are fair to all the players. That's different compared to the JUCO's I was at."

Her dad adds, "Quite a few colleges reached out to her, but I told her to wait. They just weren't a good fit for her. As soon as Montana reached out, I knew it was the one for her.

"I love everything about Montana and the town of Missoula. And I loved the communications that the coaches had with us while recruiting."

This series on the Lady Griz newcomers began two weeks ago with Kyndall Keller, whose parents both played collegiately. Morris-Nelson's parents were both into the sport as well in a big way.

Rebecca was born in Australia but her family is from New Zealand. Gordon was born and raised in New Zealand and played in the National Basketball League for a team in his home country.

She was playing in the State Basketball League in Australia when they met.

They would have two kids, Jaze and Nyah, neither of whom had the love of the game they did, at least early on.

"We hoped our kids would play basketball when they were young, but they both decided to play other sports, like rugby, touch football and dance through primary school," says Rebecca.

Their mom remembers the exact age her kids were when they fell for basketball. Think it wasn't important to their parents that they all finally shared the same passion?

"Jaze found the love of basketball in high school when he was 13. Nyah started when she was 14 years old. Gordon and I were very happy they both finally wanted to play the sport we loved so much."

Jaze, who would go on to attend the Australian College of Sport in Melbourne, thinks he could have played collegiately in the U.S. as well.

"I didn't know enough about the college system and where or how to go about getting into college," he says. "Because I didn't get a chance over there, she works twice as hard for me.

"Watching her go through college has been absolutely incredible. Every time she comes home, she is bigger, stronger and smarter, on and off the court. But she still hasn't matured. Kidding!"

Not only did his younger sister get the benefit of those experiences and missed opportunities, she began attending Hillcrest Christian College, whose basketball team was coached by Pero Cameron.

While that name may not stick out to you, he's a legend in both New Zealand and Australia basketball circles. And he liked what he saw in Nyah Morris-Nelson.

"He basically guided me through high school the whole way," she says. "He was someone who really believed in me, someone who wasn't my family."

And he got her into AUSA Hoops, an organization whose primary purpose is getting Australians to the U.S. to play college basketball.

There are not a lot of reasons to want to ever leave Gold Coast, which has a beach that faces the Pacific and runs its entirety, and has neighborhoods named Surfers Paradise, Mermaid Beach and Paradise Point. That's good living!

Not far inland is Lamington National Park, with its rainforests, mountains and waterfalls. That's good living, too!

But it was at Hillcrest and playing for Cameron that Morris-Nelson began looking east. "She wanted to go to college in America. Making a Division I team was at the top of her goal list," says Rebecca.

"Gordon, Jaze and I have always been very supportive of Nyah chasing her dreams to play college basketball."

But there were some concerns, especially the transition directly to a Division I program in the U.S. right out of high school in Australia. There were Division I options, but the family chose South Plains.

"With such a heavy basketball schedule and training program, school-work load and on top of that, living on the other side of the world, away from your family at the age of 17, it was hectic, so we decided on JUCO first to ease her into it," says her mom.

"Many coaches called. It was an exciting process, but in the end she clicked with Texas the most and off she went at 17 years of age."

She was joining a team where Sheryl Swoopes got her start as a player, one of the best junior-college programs in the nation.

The Lady Texans went 30-5 in Morris-Nelson's lone season in Levelland, falling by two points in the Elite 8 at the national tournament to Gulf Coast State, the team that would win the championship.

For all that success, the program wasn't the right fit, so Morris-Nelson looked north. She averaged 9.4 points last winter for Iowa Western, missing eight games due to an ankle injury.

This is what caught Montana's eye last spring, when Petrino and his staff were looking for reinforcements: Morris-Nelson went 43 for 108 (.398) from 3-point range.

That was more than any Lady Griz made last season, when the team shot a collective 32.5 percent from the arc. It was more than any Lady Griz since McCalle Feller made 75 in 2015-16.

"We recruited her because we thought she could be a 3-point threat, which we desperately need," says Petrino.

"And we were also looking for programs who have a history of producing players who could make an impact at the mid-major level. It couldn't be from just any junior college."

If you're wondering if that will translate to the Big Sky, think back to Feb. 15, when Montana played at Idaho State last winter.

You might remember Dora Goles putting up 36 points on the Lady Griz. Only five players have ever scored more against Montana in its history.

Goles, from Croatia, began her collegiate career at Western Wyoming Community College. Last winter, as a junior, she was voted second-team All-Big Sky Conference.

Over the last six years, seven players who began their careers at the junior-college level, have earned some type of All-Big Sky honors.

"There is a proven history of junior college players coming into our league and having an impact," says Petrino.

So it wasn't an act of desperation on Petrino's part. It was an acknowledgement that the landscape of college athletics has changed and that there are good players out there who maybe haven't followed the traditional pathway.

Morris-Nelson fit that category. Petrino made contact.

Her family listened to a number of coaches last spring offering a number of great opportunities. Then Montana came into the picture.

"It was Coach Mike, Jordan, Nate and Jace that won her heart," says her mom. "She loved the connection she made with them.

"Once they called to say she could return to America and start making her way to beautiful Montana and become a Lady Griz, she was ready and busting to go.

"We miss her like crazy every day, but we are also so proud of her chasing her dreams and loving it every day."

The day Morris-Nelson committed was one of validation for Petrino and his staff. They were trying and trying and trying, and had yet to have anything, or anybody, to show for it.

Then Lauren Mills committed. An hour later Morris-Nelson did too. It wouldn't be long before Hannah Thurmon did as well.

"That morning I woke up, this program had had zero outside-the-U.S. scholarship players. That night we'd get two, about an hour apart. That was an exciting night," he says.

But there was still some angst. He'd seen her on film and had been told she was six-feet tall. But it wasn't until he picked her up at the airport one night two months ago that he could finally exhale.

"That's happened more than once. A kid says they're a certain height and even the program says it, then they show up and somehow they shrunk," says Petrino.

"I watched her get off the plane and thought, this is exactly what we were expecting. I remember telling the staff, 'Good news, Nyah is as advertised.'"

She may be the roam-iest of any Lady Griz ever, but having Mills join the program at the same time certainly helped.

The 6-foot-2 center is from Tasmania, an island state of Australia. She spent two-plus seasons at Iowa State. She and Morris-Nelson met for the first time one morning in early August in the Campus Inn parking lot.

"We just clicked straight away. You can ask any of our teammates. They think it's crazy we didn't know each other beforehand," she says.

"We act like we're really close friends. It's like a dynamic duo kind of thing. Having her here has made the move so much easier. She's someone I can count on. And she gets me."

Her teammates are trying to get her as well. Really they are. They are not laughing at Morris-Nelson when she says baw-sket-ball but they can't help but giggle, even two months later.

"Chur," an expression of gratitude, is going to take some time to work its way into the Lady Griz lexicon, same with "sweet as," which appears to have 1,001 applications.

Who knows? Maybe new Voice of the Lady Griz Shawn Tiemann can make it into a signature call for the two Australians.

"When you're doing smaller schools, your listenership is going to be tailored mainly to friends and family of the players," he said this week from his home in Oklahoma.

"I try to learn as much about the players as I can. That's a way to make a personal connection from my standpoint. I think it's added value if you have some sort of personal attachment to it, when you know who is listening."

Morris-Nelson, Mills and Thurmon have all joined returner Carmen Gfeller in a four-bedroom unit at ROAM, which could be the setting for a sitcom.

Thurmon is from small-town Missouri, Gfeller from Colfax, or small-town eastern Washington.

Her favorite part of having two Australians as apartment-mates? "Seeing the different foods they make, like sweet potato tortillas. I don't know that I'd want to try them," Gfeller says.

"There is this stuff called vegemite. It smells really bad. They put it on toast and stuff. I haven't tried that either."

Food choices aside, it's been a good experience, an educational one, for everyone who lives under their shared roof.

"It's been fun. Nyah is really fun to be around. It takes a while for her to break out of her shell, but as I've gotten to know her, I've enjoyed being her friend and her teammate," says Gfeller.

"She's a feisty competitor and makes me laugh when we're off the court."

There have been plans made to visit each other's hometown, a deal that heavily favors Gfeller, who loves Colfax but doesn't always trust that same appeal will be the same for everyone.

"I think she'd have fun. I think she'd like all the animals (we have), but I think she might get bored. It's not like there is something going on all the time," she says.

"I feel like I would enjoy Australia a lot more than she might enjoy Colfax. Where I'd want to spend like a week and a half in Australia, she would probably be good after about two days."

But who knows? Morris-Nelson could probably spend two days in Walmart and not get bored. It's her fascination that shows no sign of ebbing, no matter how many trips she makes.

"I think I went four times last week. It's so different. It has everything," she says.

Players on the team go to Walmart and now just know to ask if Morris-Nelson and Mills want to go. Few things have ever kept them away. Or from stocking up.

"Even if we don't want to get anything, we always walk out with so much stuff, stuff we don't need. We don't have that in Australia. I love it."

There are more discoveries to be made, bigger ones, more important than Walmart, about the Big Sky Conference and what basketball in the league will be like.

"We have no idea. Is it a tall conference or is it more of a guard-type conference? I'm expecting it to be a lot tougher, a lot faster than what I'm used to, but I don't know what to expect skill-wise," she says.

"I feel the team we have here is really good. We can do a lot of great things with it, but I don't know what to expect."

Neither do we truly know what to expect of the Lady Griz or of Morris-Nelson. She is one of eight (eight!) newcomers playing for a new head coach.

You can read about them, but what about the basketball? What a season to have to go without the Maroon-Silver scrimmage or any exhibition games. We need our breaking-in time as well.

"She's spunky. That's a good word to describe her," says assistant coach Jordan Sullivan, helping to paint the picture. "On the court she plays with a little spunk, some attitude.

"We like that. We like kids who bring a little something something. Aussies just bring that."

Sullivan comes back to her former teammate Kenzie De Boer when thinking about Morris-Nelson. That's not to say she is De Boer, just that she could trend that way given her attributes.

"Everyone loves to find guards who are six-feet tall," she says. "She kind of reminds me of Kenzie De Boer in some ways, of what she could be.

"She has some length and athleticism but can get so much better defensively. I want to see Kenzie, someone who really pesters people and gets out in the lanes and uses her length, someone who's quick enough to get down the floor and get transition baskets."

The roamer believes she's found a home, at least for now.

After college? She wants to get everything she can out of basketball, maybe try playing professionally in Europe

Beyond that? Well, this is where her mom should probably stop reading. "I've told my parents I want to live in America. My mom knows I love it here, but it's not something she likes to hear," she says.

She likes California. More specifically she likes Laguna Beach. "That place is insane," she says, as she tends to do.

Not just Laguna Beach, but she already has the house picked out. She spotted it one day, a mostly glass structure up on a hill overlooking the Pacific. "It's so pretty. It's insane," she says, again.

She's not asking for much, just to live there one day. Some quick research reveals the home of her dreams went on the market in 2017. Asking price: $14.9 million.

Sweet as! But she's never been one to hold back on chasing her dreams.

University of Montana Athletics

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Players Mentioned

McCalle Feller

Carmen Gfeller

Kyndall Keller

Lauren Mills

Nyah Morris-Nelson

Hannah Thurmon

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