First-year orientation with Hannah Thurmon
11/6/2020 6:09:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Jordan Sullivan remembers quite vividly her welcome-to-college moment. Or maybe better expressed: her welcome-to-Division-I-basketball moment.
It was 10 years ago this fall. She was a freshman. Sarah Ena, three inches shorter but three years older and by then a master at using her strength to her advantage, schooled Sullivan at an early practice.
The lesson: That may have worked at Sidney High School and Class A in Montana but it's not going to get the job done here, not at this level. You've got some work to do, young one.
"I was like, whoa," says Sullivan of guarding Ena the first day of the season.
So she knew what Hannah Thurmon was feeling that day three months ago when she was the fourth player invited to a posts-only practice session.
The others: 6-foot-2 Lauren Mills, 6-foot-1 Carmen Gfeller and 6-foot Kylie Frohlich, all of them not only strong but physical.
Thurmon is 6-foot as well but lithe, more balletic than bruiser.
When the transfer was a freshman at Three Rivers College in Poplar Bluff, Mo., she blocked a team-high 71 shots, more than Abby Anderson had last season for the Lady Griz.
She has point-guard skills, a shooting guard's touch from the 3-point line. She also was her team's tallest player, so she found herself mostly with two feet in the paint on the defensive end.
Her length and quickness were enough to get the job done. She blocked 35 more shots as a sophomore.
Then, in August, her own welcome moment, with an empathetic Sullivan running the session that had Thurmon defending the type of players she had rarely had to battle before.
"That stood out as an eye-opener. She left there thinking she had just gotten beat up inside. She was getting posted up and posted up," says Sullivan.
Thurmon adds, "The other players knew what to expect, and I was kind of thrown into the mix. I didn't think that much of it. I thought, I can do this.
"Then we started going one-on-one. Wow, these girls are a lot stronger than me, a lot tougher."
It was a moment of reckoning, an ultimatum. Her answer to the challenge came over the next two and a half months and continues as the start of the season approaches. A player can shrink or rise up.
"It was a let's-see-how-she-responds kind of thing," says Sullivan. "Players need to take that upon themselves, and she's played bigger and stronger ever since. She is very determined.
"She's one of those kids who wants to do things right. She'll keep getting better because she cares."
None of which would come as a surprise to her dad, Matt, himself a four-sport athlete. He played basketball in the spring, basketball in the summer, basketball in the fall and basketball in the winter.
That devotion to the sport led to a spot on the team at Culver-Stockton and gave him a love for the game he'll carry for life.
"I've always told the coaches who recruited Hannah that you're getting a kid you'll be able to coach," he says. "If you tell her she needs to do something, she's in the gym getting it done."
That she's here, in Missoula, is another feather in her cap, if you appreciate someone who is willing to leave their comfort zone for expanded opportunities far, far away.
She calls herself a homebody, someone who will always be pulled back toward southeast Missouri, just like Sophia Stiles, who calls hers an obsession, feels about her hometown of Malta.
It feels like they haven't left home as much as they've ventured out, relocated for the chance at an education paired with the chance to hoop, always with the intent to return to where they began.
She was Matt and Mindy's first of two daughters. He was raised in Qulin, she grew up in Fisk, small southeast-Missouri towns you could walk the perimeter of without much effort after dinner.
A bird could fly between the two towns with just 12 miles of air time. They met in high school, married and raised two daughters who landed at opposite ends of the personality spectrum.
"Chloe is more outgoing. Like me, she's never met a stranger," says Matt. "She'll talk to anybody and loves to cut up. She'll leave a mark on anybody she talks to. She's a spunk. Hannah is more reserved."
As different as they are, both girls would blossom as athletes. Chloe, a high school senior, will be playing collegiate volleyball next fall.
The Thurmons would settle in Dexter, a city of 8,000 just a handful of miles from their hometowns. Drive an hour from Dexter and a person could be in Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee or Arkansas.
Drive two hours and you can reach Mississippi. It's Small Town USA says Matt. It's the type of place that has a majority of its citizens feeling less than thrilled at the events of the week on the national scene.
The two families are tight on both sides, many of them nearby, that bond of family the most important thing in the world. That's what she left behind to come to Montana. And that means something.
"The more I get to know her, the more I get to know her family, I give Hannah a lot of credit," says Lady Griz head coach Mike Petrino. "She is a very family-oriented person.
"For her to move that far to a place she'd never been to, for her to embrace this challenge, I give her a lot of credit."
She wanted to be Lady Vol long before she had ever heard of the Lady Griz.
Her dad is an agent for Shelter Insurance. The company has some agents in Knoxville, five and a half hours away in Tennessee.
They would hook the Thurmons up from time to time with tickets so dad and daughter could join Pat Summitt's sea of orange for a couple of glorious and boisterous hours.
"She wasn't a typical kid at a basketball game, looking around, running around and wanting popcorn," says Matt. "She was in her seat watching the game."
They would talk about the game driving home. Then she and her teammates would return each summer for one of Tennessee's camps.
"Playing for Pat Summitt would have been a dream of hers," says Matt. "Tennessee was the program back then. That's when they were in their prime.
"Every little girl who played basketball wanted to be a Lady Vol, especially around here."
She began playing organized basketball in the fourth grade. By the fifth grade she was on a travel team. Matt was the coach. That season they played in tournaments in six different states.
She couldn't get enough of it, even back then. It made for a full heart.
"Seeing her love for the game very early, as a basketball player and dad, you hope it takes off into something you can enjoy, and it did," he says.
She played point guard in those days, learning ball-handling skills and picking up the expanded view of the game a floor general requires.
Then she grew seven inches seemingly overnight. By the seventh grade she was on colleges' recruiting boards. When she was a freshman, the family was making unofficial visits to campuses.
Murray State, just two hours to the east, felt like it would be the right fit: Division I basketball, not too far from home, the best of both worlds.
Then: four days into her sophomore year, a fast-break drill to end practice, a slippery spot on the floor, an ACL tear.
"Two days later I was walking like nothing had happened. We didn't think anything of it. It made no sense to me. But anytime I tried to jump, that's when I knew," she says.
Knee injury? As a sophomore, with her junior year in jeopardy? When the schools that had been interested found out, they scattered, moving on to the next name on their board. That's the business.
"The schools fled and it dried up. It was unfortunate for her," says Matt.
As a junior, her body was increasingly willing and able but her mind wasn't always ready. The ghosts of her injury, a noncontact one at that, which didn't help, kept hanging around, messing things up.
She played cautiously. If any recruiters had been watching, looking to see if the old Hannah Thurmon, the one they had first fallen for, was back and good as new, they would have moved on for good.
"My mindset was that everything I'd worked for was ruined," she said last spring. "That's probably why my junior year wasn't as good as it could have been."
Junior college had never been the dream but it was the best alternative, a detour, a route to take before hopefully getting back on the path toward loftier goals.
Three Rivers was 30 minutes away, and she had a bit of an in, not that a Division I talent needed one.
The women's team was coached by Jeff Walk. Three decades earlier he was just starting his coaching career, at Twin Rivers High. A freshman on his first team: Matt Thurmon.
She would start all 63 games as a freshman and sophomore, she and her roommate, who was from nearby Fisk, bringing in a bulk of the crowds, family night every night.
They would cheer on a team that would go 53-10 over two years, with one trip to the NJCAA national tournament.
"The team was successful and she was successful," Matt says. "Once two years rolled around, the schools started coming back once they knew she was the player she could still be.
"Yes, (the injury) was a setback and disheartening for her, but I don't think she'd take those two years back. She truly loved them and they helped her develop as a person and a player."
Along the way, a new skill emerged, not through good fortune but hard work: the 3-point shot. She'd played the four at Dexter. She didn't have to be a sniper. She expanded her game at Three Rivers.
"I worked and worked on it. I'd shoot with my coach every day, every morning," she says. "It clicked."
She hit 45 as a freshman. Last winter she went 72 for 180 (.400). In Lady Griz history, only McCalle Feller, with 75 in 2015-16, has made more. It's been a missing part of the team's arsenal for years now.
Her sophomore season ended on Feb. 29, with a loss in the NJCAA Region 16 championship game.
A little more than a month later, Montana was in scramble mode. A coaching change in early April had left Petrino in charge of a thin roster that had five freshmen coming in.
It was a time unlike any other, the sudden change coinciding with a pandemic that shut off recruiting outside of electronic options. Even the staff was limited to Zoom chats to course the chart ahead.
"It's comical to think about," says Petrino. "We were researching a couple dozen players at a time, probably talking to a dozen of them, just seeing where they were in the process."
Sullivan had a connection in the coaching profession who knew Thurmon and her family. Montana's coaches each did their own research, then convened on screen to talk about her.
"We all liked her. If you watch The Voice, it was a four-chair turn," says Petrino. "Everybody turned their chair when we came across Hannah."
The coaches had boxes they were looking to check. A veteran presence on what would be a young team. A high-percentage 3-point shooter. Somebody who was used to winning. Check, check, check.
"What stood out the most to me was that she was a 3-point threat," says Petrino, who was an assistant last season for a Lady Griz team that made just 144 triples.
"And I liked that she came from a successful junior college that has a history of going to the national tournament."
Thurmon originally committed to UC Riverside. That was a positive sign for Petrino and his staff, who rightfully wondered if a player from a tight family in Missouri would be happy so far from home.
She seemed ready to give it a shot.
"When we started sitting down, we pulled a map out," says Matt. "Here's Dexter. You need to draw a circle as far as you want to go. If that circle is one or two hours away, then that's what you need to do.
"If you're being recruited by someone outside of that circle, you need to be up-front and honest with them that you're not willing to go that far away. Hannah's circle was a map of the entire United States."
When Riverside had its own coaching transition, Thurmon de-committed and started seeking out new options. That's when Montana entered the picture.
"We enjoyed having her close for a long time," says Matt. "We didn't want that to be a hindrance to where she attended school.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime deal. Once you're done with basketball, you're done. Go somewhere you can look back and say, no regrets."
Thurmon now lives with Mills and Nyah Morris-Nelson, both of whom transferred into the program from schools in Iowa. Both are Australian.
Last April all three were looking into their options to continue their playing careers. Montana was recruiting all three of them at the same time.
"We really enjoyed getting to know Hannah," says Petrino. "Very mature kid, great family. She had a very team mindset. Nothing was about her. So her character stood out to us."
What is recruiting if not some sort of high-level dating game? You woo someone with a phone call and feel like you get good feedback, but what are they thinking after you hang up?
Who else are they talking to? Do they like you or is it a front? How open and honest are they being? How many other suitors are out there seeking to win them over?
Montana didn't know it, but Thurmon had feelings for North Alabama, a team coming off a 21-win season and only a four-hour drive from Dexter. Strong feelings. There was a lot to like.
But there was something about Montana's approach she couldn't get past, and it kept the Lady Griz in the running.
When North Alabama called, it was ever only the head coach. When Montana called, it might the entire staff or it might be any of the assistants. Courtship by committee. They were winning the dating game.
"That didn't happen at the other schools," she says. "All the coaches worked really well together. I saw how they fed off each other. Everyone had a say in what went on.
"If you want to recruit a kid, you have to get everyone involved. If it's only the head coach, do the other coaches even have a say in anything, because that's important."
Her dad could sense how his daughter was feeling. So he went out on a limb. Once there, he went online to the Montana bookstore.
Heading their way, before his daughter had made up her mind, was a shipment of Griz gear for all the family to wear when the right time arrived.
"I didn't even tell my wife I ordered the stuff," he says. "I could tell the comfort level she was feeling with them.
"Hannah is the type of kid who feels if you want her there, she's going to do everything in her power to make you realize you made the right decision in offering her a scholarship."
She contacted the coaches again. Asked for all of them to be on a Zoom call. She had some more questions. They were happy to oblige. They were on a collective high.
Within the previous 24 hours, they had gotten commitments from Mills and Morris-Nelson. Their team-based approach and hard work was starting to pay off.
When the screen from Dexter popped up, there was the family, each one in maroon, the final piece of good things coming in threes.
"In her great accent, she goes, 'I don't have any more questions. I'm just telling y'all I'm coming to Montana," says Petrino. There was cheering on both ends of the connection.
"It goes back to those long hours. All four of us could go, wow, our efforts are working. Days and days of wondering if we're going to have enough players, then three kids in 24 hours who had other choices."
Even though they had interacted plenty on a screen and over the phone, neither side had met the other in person when the Thurmons -- outside of Matt, who drove -- flew to Missoula three months ago.
Matt met them at the airport. The coaching staff was there as well, ready to welcome not only Hannah to the Lady Griz but the rest of the family as well. Because they are all in this together. It's how they roll.
"Her sister is a hoot. Hannah is the grounded one. It was fun to see them interact. You can see how important the family relationship is to Hannah by being with them," says Sullivan.
"You can see that family is very close. She has a really good support system. This is two years of her life and it's going to open her world, give her a new experience. Home will always be there."
It didn't take long for Thurmon to find kindred spirits in the Australians she is living with, or Gfeller, who is that group's fourth.
One thing Thurmon had in common with Morris-Nelson: both of their teams saw their seasons come to an end last season at the hands of Moberly Area Community College.
Three Rivers lost by 13 in the Region 16 title game on Feb. 29. Six days later Moberly ended Iowa Western's season on the Reivers' home floor by 12 in the district championship game.
"Nobody likes Moberly," says Thurmon, knowing that a shared dislike of something can create just as strong a bond between two people as something liked.
"I think (Nyah, Lauren and I) have connected, because we can't go home. And then Carmen is an all-around good person. It works with us."
It may not feel like it, culturally, but Dexter is actually west of the Mississippi by 40 miles, so Thurmon won't become the fourth Lady Griz player from east of the Great River.
But the others were from Illinois and Maryland, so it feels like Thurmon is in a category all her own.
"She is someone who could be on Sweet Home Alabama," says Sullivan. "She's not really from the South, but she has that accent and is always smiling. She's got that charm of a Southern belle."
Sullivan doesn't want to give you the wrong impression, so she adds, "But she's pretty sassy on the court, which is good. You can't be sweet."
Ah, back to the court, where this all began, with Thurmon being roughed up by Montana's more physical post players. "I'm glad they're on my team," she says.
She has the size to play inside and the quickness, if not yet the strength, to be effective around the basket. But she was recruited for her perimeter shooting.
Of course no good team will allow a one-dimensional player -- all shoot, all the time -- to beat them, so she's working to expand the threat she poses offensively, from distributing to driving.
"She sees the floor well and is a really good passer," says Sullivan. "The offensive game has been there. We knew we'd get that from her."
Fair or not, junior college programs have the reputation of being indifferent towards the defensive end. We don't care if we give up 80 as long as we score at least 81.
Such thinking is anathema to most Division I coaches, who want a winning efficiency at both ends of the floor. Scoring 80 while giving up 60 just helps them sleep better at night.
Even her dad acknowledges that she has some work to do on the defensive end. But it's coming, a positive byproduct of an extended preseason. The more practices before the first game the better.
"She's getting some stuff defensively," says Sullivan. "Before it didn't even cross her mind to do some of those things defensively. But she cares. She doesn't want to get beat."
Her length will be an asset, just like quickness is for Stiles. Both can employ their gifts for the betterment of the team and the frustration of the opponent.
"Sophie might have the most active hands, but Hannah gets her hands on all kinds of stuff," says Sullivan. "Deflections might be my favorite thing. She gets her hands on things that lead to steals.
"It's nice to see her take pride on that end and want to get better. And then see her get better too. She's come a long way already. She wants to show up and get better every day."
Adds Petrino, "Not only has she come here and done the things we thought she could do, she's also embracing the things she wants to get better at."
The Thurmons spent an entire week in Montana, not only seeing what the state has to offer but hanging around Missoula, the coaches and those players who were already in town.
Without a traditional recruitment, with an official visit, everything was flipped. Thurmon committed. It wasn't until months later that everyone met the coaches and spent time on campus for the first time.
"After that first day, my mom told me, 'This is the right place for you. I like the feeling I get from the coaches. I get the feeling you're going to get taken care of,'" says Thurmon.
"That's a good thing coming from a mom. I'm a first-born, so she's pretty protective of me. Having that feeling was really important. She wasn't nervous about leaving me."
And then they were gone, on a flight back to Missouri, the family unit broken up for the first time by more than a few dozen miles. It was a moment of conflicting emotions, of loss and opportunity.
"When you're getting on a plane and leaving your kid that far away for the first time, you just want to feel comfortable that she feels good. We did," says Matt. "We had no reservations.
"We shed some tears but knew she was in good hands. As parents, when you get to a place that's right, you just kind of know."
Missoula is special, but it will never be Dexter or southeast Missouri, not for the Thurmons. That's where you find family, always will be.
For the next two years, though, Missoula will be the next best thing. "It felt like home for her," Matt says, "so it felt like home to us."
It was 10 years ago this fall. She was a freshman. Sarah Ena, three inches shorter but three years older and by then a master at using her strength to her advantage, schooled Sullivan at an early practice.
The lesson: That may have worked at Sidney High School and Class A in Montana but it's not going to get the job done here, not at this level. You've got some work to do, young one.
"I was like, whoa," says Sullivan of guarding Ena the first day of the season.
So she knew what Hannah Thurmon was feeling that day three months ago when she was the fourth player invited to a posts-only practice session.
The others: 6-foot-2 Lauren Mills, 6-foot-1 Carmen Gfeller and 6-foot Kylie Frohlich, all of them not only strong but physical.
Thurmon is 6-foot as well but lithe, more balletic than bruiser.
When the transfer was a freshman at Three Rivers College in Poplar Bluff, Mo., she blocked a team-high 71 shots, more than Abby Anderson had last season for the Lady Griz.
She has point-guard skills, a shooting guard's touch from the 3-point line. She also was her team's tallest player, so she found herself mostly with two feet in the paint on the defensive end.
Her length and quickness were enough to get the job done. She blocked 35 more shots as a sophomore.
Then, in August, her own welcome moment, with an empathetic Sullivan running the session that had Thurmon defending the type of players she had rarely had to battle before.
"That stood out as an eye-opener. She left there thinking she had just gotten beat up inside. She was getting posted up and posted up," says Sullivan.
Thurmon adds, "The other players knew what to expect, and I was kind of thrown into the mix. I didn't think that much of it. I thought, I can do this.
"Then we started going one-on-one. Wow, these girls are a lot stronger than me, a lot tougher."
It was a moment of reckoning, an ultimatum. Her answer to the challenge came over the next two and a half months and continues as the start of the season approaches. A player can shrink or rise up.
"It was a let's-see-how-she-responds kind of thing," says Sullivan. "Players need to take that upon themselves, and she's played bigger and stronger ever since. She is very determined.
"She's one of those kids who wants to do things right. She'll keep getting better because she cares."
None of which would come as a surprise to her dad, Matt, himself a four-sport athlete. He played basketball in the spring, basketball in the summer, basketball in the fall and basketball in the winter.
That devotion to the sport led to a spot on the team at Culver-Stockton and gave him a love for the game he'll carry for life.
"I've always told the coaches who recruited Hannah that you're getting a kid you'll be able to coach," he says. "If you tell her she needs to do something, she's in the gym getting it done."
That she's here, in Missoula, is another feather in her cap, if you appreciate someone who is willing to leave their comfort zone for expanded opportunities far, far away.
She calls herself a homebody, someone who will always be pulled back toward southeast Missouri, just like Sophia Stiles, who calls hers an obsession, feels about her hometown of Malta.
It feels like they haven't left home as much as they've ventured out, relocated for the chance at an education paired with the chance to hoop, always with the intent to return to where they began.
She was Matt and Mindy's first of two daughters. He was raised in Qulin, she grew up in Fisk, small southeast-Missouri towns you could walk the perimeter of without much effort after dinner.
A bird could fly between the two towns with just 12 miles of air time. They met in high school, married and raised two daughters who landed at opposite ends of the personality spectrum.
"Chloe is more outgoing. Like me, she's never met a stranger," says Matt. "She'll talk to anybody and loves to cut up. She'll leave a mark on anybody she talks to. She's a spunk. Hannah is more reserved."
As different as they are, both girls would blossom as athletes. Chloe, a high school senior, will be playing collegiate volleyball next fall.
The Thurmons would settle in Dexter, a city of 8,000 just a handful of miles from their hometowns. Drive an hour from Dexter and a person could be in Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee or Arkansas.
Drive two hours and you can reach Mississippi. It's Small Town USA says Matt. It's the type of place that has a majority of its citizens feeling less than thrilled at the events of the week on the national scene.
The two families are tight on both sides, many of them nearby, that bond of family the most important thing in the world. That's what she left behind to come to Montana. And that means something.
"The more I get to know her, the more I get to know her family, I give Hannah a lot of credit," says Lady Griz head coach Mike Petrino. "She is a very family-oriented person.
"For her to move that far to a place she'd never been to, for her to embrace this challenge, I give her a lot of credit."
She wanted to be Lady Vol long before she had ever heard of the Lady Griz.
Her dad is an agent for Shelter Insurance. The company has some agents in Knoxville, five and a half hours away in Tennessee.
They would hook the Thurmons up from time to time with tickets so dad and daughter could join Pat Summitt's sea of orange for a couple of glorious and boisterous hours.
"She wasn't a typical kid at a basketball game, looking around, running around and wanting popcorn," says Matt. "She was in her seat watching the game."
They would talk about the game driving home. Then she and her teammates would return each summer for one of Tennessee's camps.
"Playing for Pat Summitt would have been a dream of hers," says Matt. "Tennessee was the program back then. That's when they were in their prime.
"Every little girl who played basketball wanted to be a Lady Vol, especially around here."
She began playing organized basketball in the fourth grade. By the fifth grade she was on a travel team. Matt was the coach. That season they played in tournaments in six different states.
She couldn't get enough of it, even back then. It made for a full heart.
"Seeing her love for the game very early, as a basketball player and dad, you hope it takes off into something you can enjoy, and it did," he says.
She played point guard in those days, learning ball-handling skills and picking up the expanded view of the game a floor general requires.
Then she grew seven inches seemingly overnight. By the seventh grade she was on colleges' recruiting boards. When she was a freshman, the family was making unofficial visits to campuses.
Murray State, just two hours to the east, felt like it would be the right fit: Division I basketball, not too far from home, the best of both worlds.
Then: four days into her sophomore year, a fast-break drill to end practice, a slippery spot on the floor, an ACL tear.
"Two days later I was walking like nothing had happened. We didn't think anything of it. It made no sense to me. But anytime I tried to jump, that's when I knew," she says.
Knee injury? As a sophomore, with her junior year in jeopardy? When the schools that had been interested found out, they scattered, moving on to the next name on their board. That's the business.
"The schools fled and it dried up. It was unfortunate for her," says Matt.
As a junior, her body was increasingly willing and able but her mind wasn't always ready. The ghosts of her injury, a noncontact one at that, which didn't help, kept hanging around, messing things up.
She played cautiously. If any recruiters had been watching, looking to see if the old Hannah Thurmon, the one they had first fallen for, was back and good as new, they would have moved on for good.
"My mindset was that everything I'd worked for was ruined," she said last spring. "That's probably why my junior year wasn't as good as it could have been."
Junior college had never been the dream but it was the best alternative, a detour, a route to take before hopefully getting back on the path toward loftier goals.
Three Rivers was 30 minutes away, and she had a bit of an in, not that a Division I talent needed one.
The women's team was coached by Jeff Walk. Three decades earlier he was just starting his coaching career, at Twin Rivers High. A freshman on his first team: Matt Thurmon.
She would start all 63 games as a freshman and sophomore, she and her roommate, who was from nearby Fisk, bringing in a bulk of the crowds, family night every night.
They would cheer on a team that would go 53-10 over two years, with one trip to the NJCAA national tournament.
"The team was successful and she was successful," Matt says. "Once two years rolled around, the schools started coming back once they knew she was the player she could still be.
"Yes, (the injury) was a setback and disheartening for her, but I don't think she'd take those two years back. She truly loved them and they helped her develop as a person and a player."
Along the way, a new skill emerged, not through good fortune but hard work: the 3-point shot. She'd played the four at Dexter. She didn't have to be a sniper. She expanded her game at Three Rivers.
"I worked and worked on it. I'd shoot with my coach every day, every morning," she says. "It clicked."
She hit 45 as a freshman. Last winter she went 72 for 180 (.400). In Lady Griz history, only McCalle Feller, with 75 in 2015-16, has made more. It's been a missing part of the team's arsenal for years now.
Her sophomore season ended on Feb. 29, with a loss in the NJCAA Region 16 championship game.
A little more than a month later, Montana was in scramble mode. A coaching change in early April had left Petrino in charge of a thin roster that had five freshmen coming in.
It was a time unlike any other, the sudden change coinciding with a pandemic that shut off recruiting outside of electronic options. Even the staff was limited to Zoom chats to course the chart ahead.
"It's comical to think about," says Petrino. "We were researching a couple dozen players at a time, probably talking to a dozen of them, just seeing where they were in the process."
Sullivan had a connection in the coaching profession who knew Thurmon and her family. Montana's coaches each did their own research, then convened on screen to talk about her.
"We all liked her. If you watch The Voice, it was a four-chair turn," says Petrino. "Everybody turned their chair when we came across Hannah."
The coaches had boxes they were looking to check. A veteran presence on what would be a young team. A high-percentage 3-point shooter. Somebody who was used to winning. Check, check, check.
"What stood out the most to me was that she was a 3-point threat," says Petrino, who was an assistant last season for a Lady Griz team that made just 144 triples.
"And I liked that she came from a successful junior college that has a history of going to the national tournament."
Thurmon originally committed to UC Riverside. That was a positive sign for Petrino and his staff, who rightfully wondered if a player from a tight family in Missouri would be happy so far from home.
She seemed ready to give it a shot.
"When we started sitting down, we pulled a map out," says Matt. "Here's Dexter. You need to draw a circle as far as you want to go. If that circle is one or two hours away, then that's what you need to do.
"If you're being recruited by someone outside of that circle, you need to be up-front and honest with them that you're not willing to go that far away. Hannah's circle was a map of the entire United States."
When Riverside had its own coaching transition, Thurmon de-committed and started seeking out new options. That's when Montana entered the picture.
"We enjoyed having her close for a long time," says Matt. "We didn't want that to be a hindrance to where she attended school.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime deal. Once you're done with basketball, you're done. Go somewhere you can look back and say, no regrets."
Thurmon now lives with Mills and Nyah Morris-Nelson, both of whom transferred into the program from schools in Iowa. Both are Australian.
Last April all three were looking into their options to continue their playing careers. Montana was recruiting all three of them at the same time.
"We really enjoyed getting to know Hannah," says Petrino. "Very mature kid, great family. She had a very team mindset. Nothing was about her. So her character stood out to us."
What is recruiting if not some sort of high-level dating game? You woo someone with a phone call and feel like you get good feedback, but what are they thinking after you hang up?
Who else are they talking to? Do they like you or is it a front? How open and honest are they being? How many other suitors are out there seeking to win them over?
Montana didn't know it, but Thurmon had feelings for North Alabama, a team coming off a 21-win season and only a four-hour drive from Dexter. Strong feelings. There was a lot to like.
But there was something about Montana's approach she couldn't get past, and it kept the Lady Griz in the running.
When North Alabama called, it was ever only the head coach. When Montana called, it might the entire staff or it might be any of the assistants. Courtship by committee. They were winning the dating game.
"That didn't happen at the other schools," she says. "All the coaches worked really well together. I saw how they fed off each other. Everyone had a say in what went on.
"If you want to recruit a kid, you have to get everyone involved. If it's only the head coach, do the other coaches even have a say in anything, because that's important."
Her dad could sense how his daughter was feeling. So he went out on a limb. Once there, he went online to the Montana bookstore.
Heading their way, before his daughter had made up her mind, was a shipment of Griz gear for all the family to wear when the right time arrived.
"I didn't even tell my wife I ordered the stuff," he says. "I could tell the comfort level she was feeling with them.
"Hannah is the type of kid who feels if you want her there, she's going to do everything in her power to make you realize you made the right decision in offering her a scholarship."
She contacted the coaches again. Asked for all of them to be on a Zoom call. She had some more questions. They were happy to oblige. They were on a collective high.
Within the previous 24 hours, they had gotten commitments from Mills and Morris-Nelson. Their team-based approach and hard work was starting to pay off.
When the screen from Dexter popped up, there was the family, each one in maroon, the final piece of good things coming in threes.
"In her great accent, she goes, 'I don't have any more questions. I'm just telling y'all I'm coming to Montana," says Petrino. There was cheering on both ends of the connection.
"It goes back to those long hours. All four of us could go, wow, our efforts are working. Days and days of wondering if we're going to have enough players, then three kids in 24 hours who had other choices."
Even though they had interacted plenty on a screen and over the phone, neither side had met the other in person when the Thurmons -- outside of Matt, who drove -- flew to Missoula three months ago.
Matt met them at the airport. The coaching staff was there as well, ready to welcome not only Hannah to the Lady Griz but the rest of the family as well. Because they are all in this together. It's how they roll.
"Her sister is a hoot. Hannah is the grounded one. It was fun to see them interact. You can see how important the family relationship is to Hannah by being with them," says Sullivan.
"You can see that family is very close. She has a really good support system. This is two years of her life and it's going to open her world, give her a new experience. Home will always be there."
It didn't take long for Thurmon to find kindred spirits in the Australians she is living with, or Gfeller, who is that group's fourth.
One thing Thurmon had in common with Morris-Nelson: both of their teams saw their seasons come to an end last season at the hands of Moberly Area Community College.
Three Rivers lost by 13 in the Region 16 title game on Feb. 29. Six days later Moberly ended Iowa Western's season on the Reivers' home floor by 12 in the district championship game.
"Nobody likes Moberly," says Thurmon, knowing that a shared dislike of something can create just as strong a bond between two people as something liked.
"I think (Nyah, Lauren and I) have connected, because we can't go home. And then Carmen is an all-around good person. It works with us."
It may not feel like it, culturally, but Dexter is actually west of the Mississippi by 40 miles, so Thurmon won't become the fourth Lady Griz player from east of the Great River.
But the others were from Illinois and Maryland, so it feels like Thurmon is in a category all her own.
"She is someone who could be on Sweet Home Alabama," says Sullivan. "She's not really from the South, but she has that accent and is always smiling. She's got that charm of a Southern belle."
Sullivan doesn't want to give you the wrong impression, so she adds, "But she's pretty sassy on the court, which is good. You can't be sweet."
Ah, back to the court, where this all began, with Thurmon being roughed up by Montana's more physical post players. "I'm glad they're on my team," she says.
She has the size to play inside and the quickness, if not yet the strength, to be effective around the basket. But she was recruited for her perimeter shooting.
Of course no good team will allow a one-dimensional player -- all shoot, all the time -- to beat them, so she's working to expand the threat she poses offensively, from distributing to driving.
"She sees the floor well and is a really good passer," says Sullivan. "The offensive game has been there. We knew we'd get that from her."
Fair or not, junior college programs have the reputation of being indifferent towards the defensive end. We don't care if we give up 80 as long as we score at least 81.
Such thinking is anathema to most Division I coaches, who want a winning efficiency at both ends of the floor. Scoring 80 while giving up 60 just helps them sleep better at night.
Even her dad acknowledges that she has some work to do on the defensive end. But it's coming, a positive byproduct of an extended preseason. The more practices before the first game the better.
"She's getting some stuff defensively," says Sullivan. "Before it didn't even cross her mind to do some of those things defensively. But she cares. She doesn't want to get beat."
Her length will be an asset, just like quickness is for Stiles. Both can employ their gifts for the betterment of the team and the frustration of the opponent.
"Sophie might have the most active hands, but Hannah gets her hands on all kinds of stuff," says Sullivan. "Deflections might be my favorite thing. She gets her hands on things that lead to steals.
"It's nice to see her take pride on that end and want to get better. And then see her get better too. She's come a long way already. She wants to show up and get better every day."
Adds Petrino, "Not only has she come here and done the things we thought she could do, she's also embracing the things she wants to get better at."
The Thurmons spent an entire week in Montana, not only seeing what the state has to offer but hanging around Missoula, the coaches and those players who were already in town.
Without a traditional recruitment, with an official visit, everything was flipped. Thurmon committed. It wasn't until months later that everyone met the coaches and spent time on campus for the first time.
"After that first day, my mom told me, 'This is the right place for you. I like the feeling I get from the coaches. I get the feeling you're going to get taken care of,'" says Thurmon.
"That's a good thing coming from a mom. I'm a first-born, so she's pretty protective of me. Having that feeling was really important. She wasn't nervous about leaving me."
And then they were gone, on a flight back to Missouri, the family unit broken up for the first time by more than a few dozen miles. It was a moment of conflicting emotions, of loss and opportunity.
"When you're getting on a plane and leaving your kid that far away for the first time, you just want to feel comfortable that she feels good. We did," says Matt. "We had no reservations.
"We shed some tears but knew she was in good hands. As parents, when you get to a place that's right, you just kind of know."
Missoula is special, but it will never be Dexter or southeast Missouri, not for the Thurmons. That's where you find family, always will be.
For the next two years, though, Missoula will be the next best thing. "It felt like home for her," Matt says, "so it felt like home to us."
Players Mentioned
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/ Women's BasketballUM vs USD Postgame Press Conference
Sunday, December 14
Griz football weekly press conference 12.8.25
Monday, December 08
UM vs SDSU Highlights
Monday, December 08
Griz Football Press Conference 12-1-25
Monday, December 01
