Lady Griz Rewind :: 1993-94

The argument over the best season in Lady Griz history? Arm yourself with any one of maybe a half dozen seasons over the decades and prepare to defend yourself in a debate that could last to next winter. And even then there still wouldn't be a resolution that everyone could agree upon.

But the best season in Big Sky Conference women's basketball history? That is not up to debate. That came in 1993-94, a high-water mark for the league that will likely never be reached again.

"Those teams were some of the best, if not the best, in the Big Sky," says Montana State women's basketball coach Tricia Binford, who is something of an authority on the topic, given her history with the subject matter.

She's now been in the league for 20 of the Big Sky's 32 years sponsoring women's basketball, as either a player or a coach.

She was a Boise State Bronco for five years in the 90s, three times earning All-Big Sky Conference honors as a point guard, and just wrapped up her 15th season as the head coach at Montana State by leading her team to a 19-1 league record.

Montana would enter the AP top 25 in late December in 1993-94 after opening the season 9-1 against a strong nonconference schedule, the Lady Griz' only loss coming in a competitive game in their season opener at No. 1 Tennessee.

Boise State would break into the top 25 in early January after its own strong showing through a similarly stacked nonconference schedule. The Broncos were 10-2 entering league.

Both teams would go 12-2 in league, splitting their head-to-head matchups and dropping a game to Montana State.

By the flip of a coin, Montana would host and win the Big Sky tournament, defeating Boise State in the championship game in front of more than 6,300 fans to earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

All three of their matchups that season -- one in Boise, two in Missoula -- would be ranked team against ranked team. The three games were played in front of an average attendance of more than 8,600.

"To have two teams in the Big Sky with that kind of atmosphere and that kind of attendance, that was a pretty big deal," says Binford, noting that the regular-season game in Boise drew a sellout crowd of 11,558. "It was the first time the Pavilion sold out, and it was for a women's game."

What sets the 1993-94 season apart from all the rest? Boise State earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, with Montana going in as a No. 7 seed, the Broncos a No. 10 seed.

Ever since the Big Sky Conference has been a one-bid league.

"At the time we knew what the two teams were accomplishing was really special," says Binford, who was voted All-Big Sky as Tricia Bader in what was her junior year, in 1993-94, after averaging 4.8 assists for a team that scored nearly 75 points per game.

The Lady Griz hosted a first-round NCAA tournament game, knocking off No. 10 UNLV at Dahlberg Arena before falling 66-62 at No. 2 Stanford three days later with a chance to go to the Sweet 16.

The Broncos were sent to Washington and lost in the first round. "I really felt both teams should have hosted a first-round game," says Binford. "We didn't think we got the seed we deserved."

It wasn't always like that, at least at Boise State. But it was business as usual for Montana.

When the Lady Griz, the No. 4 seed, hosted No. 5 Stanford in March 1988 in the second round of the NCAA tournament, the Cardinal escaped with a 74-72 overtime win. The game drew a crowd of 8,709.

June Daugherty was then an assistant to Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer. A little more than a year later she was being introduced as the new coach at Boise State. And she brought all her mental notes with her, including from that day in Missoula.

"I think Montana was an inspiration for what she did at Boise State," said Binford. "She had seen what Montana had done. Montana was what the Big Sky represented."

The program she took over wasn't in dire straits. The Broncos were coming off back-to-back 18-10 seasons under Tony Oddo and finished third in the Big Sky in 1988-89, his final year. But Montana was going 27-4 that season and swept through the Big Sky at 16-0.

That's what Daugherty wanted. To get there, she needed an elite point guard.

To most people, Carbondale, Colorado, is nothing more than an easy-to-overlook turnoff on the road up to Aspen. To Binford it was home.

Her dad had been a basketball player and track athlete at Millikin University in Illinois, and she had an older brother and sister, both of whom were basketball players. It was the perfect incubator.

"My dad one day put a hoop up and we were always outside in the driveway," says Binford, who ultimately chose basketball over her other love, skiing, despite Carbondale's close proximity to some of the nation's best slopes.

"My brother threw me into the garage door a lot and I would run in crying. My parents told me I didn't have to shoot, but I'd go back out and do it again."

One of Daugherty's early assistant coaches at Boise State was from Colorado. He turned the coach onto the point guard who had learned how to get knocked down and get right back up and ask for more.

A home visit was set up.

"I felt like I was going to stay close to home and go to Colorado. When June came on my home visit, it was just different than every other coach," says Binford, who would choose Boise State over offers from the home-state Buffaloes and Saint Mary's.

"I opened the door and I remember her being in a green suit. And she is 6-4. I'd never seen a lady that tall in my entire life. Our starting center was maybe 5-6 or 5-8. She looked at me and said, 'You look taller.' I was like, "Okay, you got me.'"

Boise State would go 19-12 in Year One under Daugherty, when Binford was a still a junior in high school, with the Broncos tying for second in the Big Sky with Idaho at 11-5.

Good but not good enough, not when Montana was going 27-3 and sweeping through the league again at 16-0. The Lady Griz defeated the Broncos in Missoula, 75-50, and in Boise, 79-42.

They were in the same league in conference affiliation only. But Daugherty was undaunted. She knew it would take time. And her vision of what was possible never changed.

"She had a way of making you feel like you could accomplish anything," says Binford. "When she sat in our house, she said we're going to win a Big Sky title and we're going to sell out the Pavilion and we're going to be ranked in the top 25.

"She just had me locked in. I wanted to be part of her vision of doing something that hadn't been done. And she ended up doing all of those things."

Fun fact about Binford: The first college basketball game she ever saw in person was the first game she played in as a Bronco, when Boise State hosted and defeated Colorado State 87-68 to open the 1991-92 season.

That was Daugherty's third year, and Boise State was ready to escape the stranglehold Montana had on the rest of the league.

The Lady Griz went 16-0 the first three years of the Big Sky -- 1988-89 to 1990-91 -- and they opened 1991-92 winning their first 11 league games before falling 74-71 at Montana State.

When Boise State and freshman point guard Tricia Bader arrived for a game on Feb. 27, 1992, Montana was working on a streak of 54 consecutive regular-season conference victories at home, a streak that dated back to the 1984-85 season.

Behind Lidiya Varbanova's 26 points and nine rebounds -- and Bader's eight points and three assists in 16 minutes off the bench -- Boise State stunned the home team and home crowd, winning 81-77.

It drew Boise State even with Montana atop the Big Sky standings at 11-2.

"We were fired up for those atmospheres. June made a big deal about all our rivalries. She was all about motivation and atmosphere," says Binford.

"You weren't going to hear anything, so she made practices super loud. We knew we wouldn't hear anything in (Dahlberg Arena). She prepared us extremely well."

Montana would drop a surprising game at eighth-place Nevada the final week of the regular season, giving Boise State a one-game lead and the Broncos their first Big Sky championship, just as Daugherty had envisioned.

Boise State hosted the Big Sky tournament but Montana knocked off the top seed 82-67 in the championship game.

The Lady Griz would go on to win a first-round NCAA tournament game at Wisconsin four days later before falling to USC in the second round.

Montana and Montana State would tie atop the Big Sky at 13-1 in 1992-93, with Boise State finishing third, which set the stage for the historic 1993-94 season.

The Lady Griz entered that year with a loaded five-player senior class: Jill Frohlich, Ann Lake, Trish Olson, Kristin Omlid and Kelly Pilcher.

All were from Montana. As was the entire junior class. And sophomore class. And freshman class. Sixteen players, all from the state that was represented on the front of their uniforms.

"We were all Montana kids that year and were in the top 25. That was definitely unusual," said Lady Griz coach Robin Selvig, then in his 16th year.

Lake and Pilcher had both been All-Big Sky the year before, as was Kristy Langton, a junior on the 1993-94 team.

Lake, Pilcher and Langton would be joined in the starting lineup that season by Olson and sophomore guard Sherri Brooks.

Montana lost at Tennessee to open the season, then won nine straight, capped by a victory over Old Dominion, one of that era's iconic women's basketball programs, in the title game of the Lady Griz Classic five days after Christmas.

Montana also had home wins over Iowa State, Utah and Missouri State, which back then went by Southwest Missouri State. It was a program that had made it to the Final Four just two years prior with the high-scoring Jackie Stiles capturing a nation's attention.

The Lady Griz would defeat the Bears, who would be a No. 6 seed in the 1994 NCAA tournament, 64-51 in front of nearly 5,000 fans at Dahlberg Arena.

The game's most unusual stat: Montana would force 31 turnovers -- Pilcher and Brooks would both have six steals -- but commit just nine fouls. Southwest Missouri State did not shoot a single free throw.

It was enough to get Montana into the national rankings, at No. 25. The Lady Griz jumped up to No. 20 after wins over Providence and Old Dominion in the Lady Griz Classic, rallying back from halftime deficits in both.

The new year could not have started any more inauspiciously. Montana lost 70-62 at Gonzaga, in coach Julie Holt's final year at the school, and two days later trailed 39-25 at the half at Portland.

A 0-2 road trip would not sit well with the poll voters, nor would it be a good way to enter league.

"I remember that one. We were really struggling. It wasn't looking good," said Selvig. "The second half we just took over and were hitting everything."

After shooting 7 for 30 in the first half, Montana went 18 for 29 over the final 20 minutes, outscoring the Pilots 51-26 in the second half to win 76-65.

"It was going to make for a long trip, but the second half we got it cooking. I guess that's why you play for 40 minutes. That was a really nice momentum pickup heading into conference," Selvig said.

Montana wasn't the only Big Sky team that had put together a challenging nonconference schedule and had used the results to draw some attention.

Boise State opened 9-2 despite playing just three of those games at home. Losses came against Arkansas in Hawaii and at Minnesota, which would be an NCAA tournament team, with home wins over Washington State and Oregon State.

The Broncos closed out their pre-Christmas schedule with a two-point win at UCLA and opened the 1994 calendar year with a win at Western Kentucky.

In 2020, the former would seem like the more impressive win. It wasn't.

The Hilltoppers had played in the national championship game two years earlier -- they fell to Stanford -- and lost games at home about as often as Montana did.

They were in the process of going to 11 straight NCAA tournaments, between 1985 and 1995, and had previously advanced to the Final Four in both 1985 and '86.

Western Kentucky had won 56 of its previous 60 home games under coach Paul Sanderford when Boise State rolled into town in early January and was 153-14 at home since the start of the 1982-83 season.

The Hilltoppers had won their first two home games that season, 83-41 over Utah and 79-50 over Wright State, and had gone 3-0 at a tournament in Puerto Rico with a strong field right before Christmas.

Final: Boise State 75, Western Kentucky 71.

"Late in that game, their coach was foaming at the mouth in blue, like a dog with rabies. He bit through his pen because we were about to upset them," said Binford.

It was enough to get Boise State noticed and into the top 25.

"That type of scheduling by both teams was what we had to do to become nationally ranked," says Binford. "We knew we had to do something different.

"June had a philosophy of scheduling big opponents in the preseason. So did Robin. For those two teams to do the things they did was pretty special."

Montana was 5-0 in league when it arrived in Boise on Jan. 29 for the teams' first regular-season matchup. Boise State was 4-1 after dropping a 69-68 decision to Montana State the night before.

The game drew a crowd of 11,558 to the Boise State Pavilion. They were rewarded with a victory after the home team shot 51.9 percent and won 70-61.

Binford played 37 minutes and had four points, seven rebounds and five assists. She and her teammates held Montana to 36.7 percent shooting.

"I'm pretty sure we got to the point where we were averaging 3,000 (fans) that season," says Binford, who ranks third in career assists at Boise State and was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame in 2001.

"That's because June was doing so much in our community all the time to bring attention to our program."

It's something Binford tries to do today at Montana State. Her team averaged more than 2,300 last winter while going 12-2 at home.

"When you think about what you're asking your kids to commit to and the time they're putting in, you want them to be rewarded for that," she says.

"I think atmosphere is a big part of that. You want to have people come out and support them."

Both teams had just one league loss when Boise State played at Montana on Feb. 25.

Behind Lake's 36-point, 11-rebound double-double (she shot 16 for 19) and Pilcher's 15 assists (still tied for the program record), Montana shot 57.1 percent and won 87-81 in front of a crowd of 7,938.

Montana State would finish one game behind co-champions Montana and Boise State, which both went 12-2 in league. The Lady Griz lost a chance to win the title outright when they fell to the Bobcats in Bozeman on the final day of the regular season 58-52.

That set up coin flip the next day at the league office in Boise to determine which of the co-champions would host the tournament.

"The coin flip would have been done in Boise. That's where the conference office was," said Selvig. "I think it was the next day. I remember waiting by the phone to find out how it turned out."

Montana won the coin flip and the next weekend won the tournament, holding Northern Arizona to 10-of-50 shooting in a 74-41 semifinal win and pulling away from Boise State for an 81-65 win in the title game.

Lake (26 points, 15 rebounds), Pilcher (12 points, 11 assists) and Langton (21 points, 12 rebounds) all had double-doubles.

Fittingly, Lake and Varbanova shared Big Sky MVP honors, while Selvig and Daugherty were both voted Coach of the Year. Lake was MVP of the tournament.

Montana made the NCAA tournament for the sixth time in seven years, drawing a No. 7 seed and hosting No. 10 UNLV on a Wednesday night.

The Rebels shot 50 percent, but Montana's size was the difference. The Lady Griz out-rebounded the visitors 43-26, including 21 offensive boards, to win 77-67 in front of a crowd that was eight people shy of 8,000.

Lake had 24 points and nine rebounds, Pilcher 20 points, eight assists, five steals and four rebounds.

"It wasn't a blowout, but we beat them pretty good. I remember we played well," said Selvig. "And obviously it was exciting to win an NCAA game and get to go to the next round."

Three days later Montana faced No. 2 Stanford in Palo Alto. It looked on paper like a challenge three steps beyond daunting.

The Cardinal were averaging 91.6 points in their home games that season and had recently had a pair of lopsided home wins against ranked opponents, 80-50 over No. 6 USC and 97-70 over No. 17 Washington.

Stanford's only home loss that season came by six points to No. 1 Tennessee early in the year.

"We were obviously heavy underdogs. They were beating people bad at their place. One of the ways they were beating people so bad is they were pressing and causing a lot of turnovers," said Selvig, whose memory is right on. The Cardinal forced 681 turnovers that season. Montana would have 19.

"The other thing was we had played zone almost all year. We watched video and decided to man them. I think they were a little surprised by that."

Stanford led 36-31 at the half and 57-47 with six and a half minutes to play when Montana scored six points in less than a minute to make it 57-53.

Brooks scored on a driving layup, Olson a 16-foot jumper and Langton a layup, the last two coming off assists by Pilcher.

The Lady Griz would keep coming and tie the game at 60-60 on a short jumper by Olson, who led Montana in scoring with 14 points, with 3:15 to go.

After Stanford answered to go up 62-60, there would follow 85 tense seconds when neither team scored.

"I remember a couple of plays in that game. They had a gal make a heck of a play. We called a play that was a backdoor cut. She was open, but one of their help defenders just got a fingertip on it," says Selvig, who will likely carry some memories with him for life.

Stanford went up 64-60 on a pair of free throws with 1:28 left. Neither team scored again until Pilcher drove for a layup with six seconds left to make it 64-62.

Stanford hit two more free throws with four seconds left for the final score, 66-62. Montana lost despite holding the Cardinal to one made field goal the final 5:18.

"There were a lot close plays. It was close the whole way and a good game. It was a good opportunity. We had chances. It was a heartbreaker but definitely a good showing."

And it was a good showing for the Big Sky in 1993-94, the best season for women's basketball in league history.

(Notes: Daugherty would leave Boise State after the 1995-96 season. She was the head coach at Washington for 11 years, at Washington State for another 11 years. Today she and her husband are retired and living in Boise. ... Binford suffered an ACL injury three games into the 1994-95 season, at Oregon State. She would redshirt and finish out her career as a fifth-year senior in 1995-96. ... Boise State left the Big Sky following the 1995-96 season for the Big West. The Broncos finished in the top three in the Big Sky their final five years in the league. ... Binford worked as an assistant coach for two years at Boise State and was an assistant at Utah State when she was hired by Montana State in the spring of 2005. ... One of Binford's incoming freshmen for 2020-21 is Leia Beattie, the daughter of Kelly (Pilcher) Beattie. The family lives in Midland, Texas.)

University of Montana Athletics

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