Coaches, media pick Montana second in Big Sky preseason polls

Montana head basketball coach Travis DeCuire was intrigued by where his peers would select his team in this year's preseason poll.

On one hand, Montana graduated its top three scorers and returns just one upperclassman from last year's roster. That includes the loss of Sayeed Pridgett, the school's fourth-leading scorer, plus two more top-eight scorers graduated the previous season. Overall, the Grizzlies return roughly one-third of their scoring, assists and steals, and less than half of their rebounding and minutes played.

On the other hand, though, Montana has a rich history. The Grizzlies have won 20 total Big Sky Conference championships in the past 30 years, more than any other program, including both titles in 2018 and 2019. They've played in the Big Sky tournament finals eight times in the past decade, including four times in five complete seasons under DeCuire.

Add on the fact that Montana's roster, while very different from last year, isn't exactly bare.

The Grizzlies bring in four transfers who have yet to put on a Montana uniform but have Division-I playing experience, plus a group of freshmen who are competing for serious playing time right away, if not starting roles.

In the end, Montana's history and potential outweighed the team's numbers on paper. In the Big Sky Conference preseason polls, announced Wednesday, both the league's coaches and media picked Montana to finish second.

"We're grateful to be in this situation," DeCuire said. "I like it, but I don't like it, too, because sometimes your student-athletes read those articles and think it's just going to happen. We have to become a top-two team, and we have a lot of work to be that."

DeCuire has never taken much stock in preseason polls, especially since he got to Montana. During his first season, the league's head coaches picked his 2014-15 squad to finish eighth out of 12 teams. The Grizzlies went on to win the regular-season title and host the Big Sky Conference tournament.

The Grizzlies also exceeded preseason expectations in 2017-18, winning both the regular-season and tournament titles after being picked third. In fact, in six seasons under DeCuire, Montana has met or exceeded its preseason expectations four times; the other two, it was within one spot.

"When you've had success and you continuously finish in the top three, with the exception of one season, I think what happens is that your peers start to have an expectation for you to continue to do that," DeCuire said. "We, as a program, talk a lot about how people think success breeds success, but identifying that it doesn't. We don't want to get complacent based off of what we've done in the past. We have to have a fear of complacency."

Internally, Montana knows the talent it has on the court. Preseason All-Big Sky Conference selection Michael Steadman will play a major role after sitting out last season, following his transfer from San Jose State. The 6-10 forward is expected to be one of the league's top players. Joining Steadman as transfers are Cameron Parker (Sacred Heart) and Cameron Shelton (Northern Arizona), in addition to midyear transfer Darius Henderson (UMass Lowell), who will be eligible shortly after the season begins.

Knowing how young Montana's roster would be, DeCuire and his staff purposefully sought out veteran transfers who had Division-I experience. Steadman, for example, ranked among the Mountain West leaders for scoring, shooting and rebounding during his lone season at San Jose State. Parker holds an NCAA single-game record for assists (24) and was among the nation's top passers as both a freshman and sophomore. Satterwhite has spent time in the Big Sky, not to mention NCAA tournament experience during his time at Loyola Chicago, with the Ramblers advancing all the way to the Final Four.

The Grizzlies also have high expectations for their freshmen, who were all highly touted as prep stars.

And while Montana has just one player from last year's squad with more than one season of collegiate experience – Mack Anderson has played in 59 games over the past two seasons, starting six contests as a sophomore and shooting .591 from the floor for his career – Montana likes the young returning talent it has.

The group includes 2020 Big Sky Conference Freshman of the Year Derrick Carter-Hollinger, who led the Grizzlies for shooting and blocked shots as a true freshman. It also includes Kyle Owens, who averaged 4.6 points and 2.3 rebounds per game and scored in double figures five times, and Josh Vazquez, who ranked sixth in Big Sky play for steals and second on the Grizzlies for 3-pointers. All three freshmen played in every game in 2019-20, with the trio setting a school record with 40 combined starts. Also returning is Eddy Egun, who averaged 7.8 minutes per contest across 28 games, and Freddy Brown III, who played in 15 contests in 2018-19 before redshirting a season ago.

Each Big Sky Conference team will play each other twice in 2020-21, but the format will look different from previous seasons. In order to fit all games in, each team will hold one week of conference action in December. For the Grizzlies, that comes Dec. 3 and 5 at Southern Utah, in the middle of a non-conference slate that has yet to be finalized due to COVID-19. Secondly, instead of a home-and-home series with each team, Montana will play the same team back-to-back, with most games being held at the same location.

The Grizzlies will play two games at Southern Utah, Sacramento State, Portland State and Idaho State. They will twice host Northern Colorado, Northern Arizona, Weber State and Idaho. Rivalries against Montana State and Eastern Washington will still be played back-to-back, but with one game in Missoula and one on the road.

The Eagles, who won the 2020 regular-season title and lost to the Grizzlies in both the 2018 and 2019 title games, were picked to finish first in both polls. The Eagles received nine of 11 first-place votes from the head coaches, who weren't allowed to vote for their own team. Montana received one first-place vote, as did Portland State, which was picked to finish fourth by the coaches. Weber State and Northern Colorado are in the top five of both polls.

2020-21 Big Sky Preseason Coaches' Poll
1. Eastern Washington – 99 (9)
2. Montana – 86 (1)
3. Weber State – 73
4. Portland State – 67 (1)
5. Northern Colorado – 65
6. Montana State – 60
7. Southern Utah – 56
8. Northern Arizona – 34
9. Sacramento State – 31
10. Idaho State – 24
11. Idaho – 10

2020-21 Big Sky Preseason Media Poll
1. Eastern Washington – 304 (24)
2. Montana – 250 (2)
3. Northern Colorado – 222 (2)
4. Montana State – 200
5. Weber State – 183
6. Southern Utah – 173
7. Portland State – 147
8. Northern Arizona – 143
9. Sacramento State – 93
10. Idaho State – 86
11. Idaho – 50
() – First-place votes

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University of Montana Athletics

Coaches, media pick Montana second in Big Sky preseason polls

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Players Mentioned

Mack Anderson

Freddy Brown III

Derrick Carter-Hollinger

Eddy Egun

Darius Henderson

Kyle Owens

Cameron Parker

Sayeed Pridgett

Michael Steadman

Josh Vazquez

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