Lady Griz Rewind :: 1988-89

When Montana walked off the court on March 20, 1988, after its 74-72 overtime loss to Stanford in the second round of the NCAA tournament, you could have forgiven the coaches of the Mountain West Athletic Conference for having an Is It Finally Over? sense of relief.

After all, the Lady Griz had started four seniors in that game for a team that had gone 28-2.

Wouldn't it make sense that the 1988-89 team might come back to the pack, at least a little, after Montana had gone 45-3 in its games against league opponents the previous three seasons, with those losses coming by two, three and seven points?

No Marti Leibenguth? No Dawn Silliker? No Karyn Ridgeway? No Kris Moede? Sounds promising!

As the teams of the Mountain West moved to a new home in the Big Sky Conference in 1988-89, would those personnel losses signal the end of Montana's dominance and the start of a new, more balanced league when it came to women's basketball?

As Johnny Hates Jazz sang in its chart-topping hit "Shattered Dreams" that year, Woke up to reality, And found a future not so bright.

"Their five best players could be the All-Big Sky team this year," said Montana State coach Gary Schwartz of Montana's 1988-89 squad, after his team lost twice to the Lady Griz. "This is the best team they've ever had."

Schwartz's team had defeated the Lady Griz in Bozeman on the final day of the regular season the year before. Montana would bounce back from its first defeat of the season -- which came on March 5 -- with wins over Boise State and Eastern Washington in the Mountain West tournament in Missoula.

The Stanford game eight days later wasn't the end of an era. It was a springboard to new heights.

Montana would win 67 straight games against league opponents from the end of the 1987-88 season to midway through 1991-92. Fifty-nine of those outcomes would be decided by a margin of 10 points or more.

The Lady Griz weren't coming back to the pack. They were becoming almost untouchable.

"(Someone from the Big Sky can beat them) if it comes out and plays 40 good minutes," said Idaho coach Laurie Turner in 1988-89, before adding the all-important qualifier. "But you'll still need help from Montana."

Why was there no drop-off in 1988-89, even after losing those four senior starters? Because of what coach Robin Selvig had waiting offstage, more talent, more depth to unleash on his opponents the next winter.

There was Jean McNulty, the team's third-leading scorer in 1986-87 who had missed the 28-2 season of 1987-88 while recovering from shoulder surgery.

There was Cheryl Brandell, sidelined with another knee injury in early February 1988 but somehow back and ready to start by the opening game of 1988-89, a recovery she learned well while doing the same thing her senior year of high school.

And there was point guard Vicki Austin, who sat out the 1987-88 season after transferring in from Long Beach State, known by Lady Griz fans but not seen in action that year except by her teammates in practice.

"She brought something that none of the other point guards who have been in the program had," says McNulty, now McNulty-King, who has maintained a connection to the Montana program over the years by serving as an agent for those wanting to play professionally after their Lady Griz careers are over.

"She was absolutely phenomenal. She was explosive, she saw the floor and her basketball IQ was amazing. She could score when she needed to, she could dish, she could handle pressure. She brought a piece that was amazing."

None of which should be a surprise given her bona fides. She had been recruited out of high school in Illinois to Long Beach State by Joan Bonvicini, who had one of the nation's powerhouse teams in the 80s.

In the six seasons between 1983-84 and 1988-89, the 49ers would make the Elite Eight five times, the Final Four twice, in 1986-87 and 1987-88.

Austin was a sophomore on Long Beach State's first Final Four team, the one that had Penny Toler and Cindy Brown, two players who would twice be named Kodak All-American and who combined to average nearly 50 points between them that season.

Austin was great but could see that it would be a lineup that would be tough to crack.

"I had gotten to know Joan out recruiting and at Final Fours and things like that," says Robin Selvig, who was in his 11th year leading the Lady Griz in 1988-89. "She had maybe the two best guards in the nation at the time.

"She called me about Vicki and asked if I'd be interested, and I was. I ended up talking to Vicki and she ended up coming here. It worked out great. She was a really good, heady point guard."

The team's lone returning starter in 1988-89 was senior center Lisa McLeod, all-district as a sophomore and again in 1987-88 when she averaged 13.1 points on 52.3 percent shooting, 7.3 rebounds and more than two blocks per game.

The player who would become the fifth starter in 1988-89 was still a high school senior at Billings Central when Montana faced Stanford in the 1988 NCAA tournament in front of nearly 9,000 fans.

Armed with a tape of that game, Selvig paid a visit that spring to the home of Shannon Cate, still undecided on where to take her talents as a collegiate player.

"Back then, not everyone made up their minds early, and she was still looking at other schools," says Selvig. "I know she visited Hawaii and Kentucky and New Mexico."

Selvig flew to Billings, took a taxi to the Cate home, made his pitch, then decided to walk back to the airport. "It was a lot longer walk than I thought it was going to be," he says.

It had worked. Cate committed to the Lady Griz. By the time she was a senior, four years later, after scoring 2,172 career points, she was voted one of just 10 Kodak All-Americans. Two decades after that, she was voted the top female athlete in Big Sky Conference history.

"I knew she was a good player, but you never know how much they're going to grow as a player or how good they're going to become," says Selvig. "She obviously became a great player and had a heck of a career."

Fanfare and hype were a little more subdued in the late 80s than today -- just slightly -- but McNulty and her teammates still knew who Cate was and were aware of the rumblings.

"We all heard how great she was and how she was going to come over and take this program to new heights," she says. "I'm sure there was a little bit of, But wait, what about us? We're still here.

"But she did all the right things and was accepted quickly. She was obviously a phenomenal player. She came in and was a big missing piece."

McNulty scored just 29 points all season as a true freshman in 1985-86, on Montana's 27-win, NCAA-tournament team. She had a breakout sophomore campaign the next season, averaging 9.1 points and 5.4 rebounds.

The following summer she would injure her shoulder badly enough that it would require surgery and force her to redshirt the 1987-88 season.

She had gone hiking on Mount Rainier and slipped on some ice and was sliding down a steep snowfield toward a deep crevasse when she reached out for the last fixed object she could find before falling out of sight and into the darkness, never to be seen or heard from again.

She would dangle over the opening of the abyss until help from the rest of her climbing party could reach her. She had saved her life but destroyed her shoulder, in the big picture, a worthy tradeoff.

Wait, that's not right.

"It's so embarrassing. I was at Lady Griz Cage Camp as a coach and I saw a kid from my high school," McNulty says. "I ran up behind her and slid to the ground. You know how you put your arms down to catch yourself? My elbow stayed straight and my shoulder dislocated."

She tried to play it cool. "She said, 'Are you okay? You're white.' I said, 'You know, I'm going to run up to the training room.' I had surgery and had it fixed and rehabbed it and came back strong," but she would miss that magical 1987-88 season.

Of course no two redshirt seasons are ever quite the same. Austin? She got to practice against her teammates every day in 1987-88, even if she couldn't play in any games. McNulty couldn't even do that as she rehabbed her shoulder.

"It was tough. I was really close with a lot of the players on that team. You're part of it but you're really not," she says. "I was super excited for the success they had, but it was tough to watch."

When the 1988-89 season opened, Selvig was beyond optimistic. He was certain he had another good team on his hands.

"Sure, we're going to miss those (seniors). They were great players. But we have a nucleus of very good returnees and new players," he said at the time.

Despite losing four senior starters, Selvig's team would be just as experienced: McLeod, a senior and in her third year as a starter. Brandell, a fifth-year senior. McNulty, a fourth-year junior. Austin, a fourth-year junior. And Cate, no ordinary freshman.

It was a reloading, something no other team in the Big Sky was able to match.

Today he adds, "Every one of those years we were experienced. We didn't miss a beat in that regard. All those kids playing were good players and experienced."

The season would open at Kansas State's tournament against Eastern Illinois, a team that had played in the NCAA tournament the year before behind the play of Barb Perkes.

Perkes would go for 27 points and 14 rebounds against Montana in Manhattan, but the Lady Griz would prevail 70-64.

Cate scored a team-high 18 points in her collegiate debut and matched the team lead with nine rebounds in 32 minutes off the bench.

Marti Kinzler would actually start the season's first two games in place of Cate. "She was somewhat injured. Pulled a groin doing a cartwheel in practice or something," says Selvig.

It also signaled a new era. Montana had made limited use of the new 3-point shot in 1987-88, the first year it was used across women's college basketball. The Lady Griz attempted just 43 triples all season, making 15.

Montana would go 5 for 10 from the arc against Eastern Illinois, with Cate going 4 for 8. She would set the early program record with 37 makes that season on 43.5 percent shooting.

The Lady Griz would make 44 as a team, with the starting backcourt of Austin and Brandell knowing their limitations and their strengths. Austin did not attempt a 3-pointer all season, Brandell just eight. She made one.

Austin, instead, preferred the mid-range, space she could get to on a regular basis given her handle and quickness. "The dribble-jumper was her shot," says Selvig. "It was unbelievably good."

It must have been. She shot 51.7 percent on the season, and Montana, with five starters averaging between 9.1 and 14.3 points per game (71.3 as a team), shot 45.6, one of seven consecutive seasons the Lady Griz shot better than 45 percent.

Montana has not shot 45 percent for a season since 1997-98.

"We were really balanced, and percentage-wise back in those days, we could really shoot the ball," says Selvig.

"When you lined up to guard us, we had a point who could score, Jean and Lisa, then Shannon, who could score inside and out."

In the title game of the season-opening tournament, Montana would face host Kansas State, which had advanced with a win over Colorado State.

The Lady Griz built a 28-21 halftime lead and increased their advantage to 20 points, 61-41, with five minutes left. The lead was still 17 with three and a half to play.

"That's why when people say, That coach is up 15, why doesn't he just sit down? That game is why you don't," Selvig says.

What's remarkable is that the Wildcats did not hit a single 3-pointer in the final three minutes on their way to a shocking 66-65 win.

They got hot just in time, closing the game on an 18-0 run, and received plenty of help from Montana, which four times went to the line for a one-and-one in the final 3:03 and four times missed the front end.

The Lady Griz were held scoreless the final 3:30, after McLeod hit a pair of free throws to make it 65-48.

"I remember two or three ways we blew that thing, but they obviously made a good run too," says Selvig.

"We totally dominated that game for 35 minutes. It was amazing. They had a pretty good team, but it wasn't going well for them. Then it turned around for them."

McNulty remembers that game well, one play in particular quite vividly.

"We went ice cold and they went crazy hot, but we still had it in control," she says. "I remember there was a minute to go and we were maybe up by two. Rob drew a play for me to go long and for Shannon to throw it full court.

"I'll never forget it. It was just out of my reach, but I was able to tip it back with my fingers. It would have been a breakaway layup and game sealed, but I tipped it back onto my toe and it went out of bounds."

An offensive-rebound put-back at the buzzer completed the stomach-punch loss. "We had some defensive breakdowns and we didn't make free throws. It was the perfect storm against us," says McNulty.

Montana's 74-73 home loss to Gonzaga in 2000-01 is the only other game with a similar finish that comes to Selvig's mind when asked about it.

"Hopefully I can't remember too many 20-point leads we lost," he says.

In that game, Montana led by 18 points in the second half and was up 12 with 61 seconds left. Two turnovers, four missed three throws and a put-back at the buzzer led to a stunning loss.

"It can happen. Basketball games can turn in a hurry. I know we've come from 20 down a number of times, though maybe not in the final four minutes," says Selvig.

Montana returned home and won the Domino's Pizza Classic, with victories over Pacific and Nebraska, the latter the reigning Big Eight champion that had been a No. 5 seed in the NCAA tournament the season before.

Montana led 40-28 at the break and opened the second half on a 16-2 run to blow the game open. McLeod finished with 23 points and 16 rebounds.

The season before, when Montana blitzed No. 14 Washington, Huskies coach Chris Gobrecht blasted the officiating in her postgame quotes. Nebraska coach Angela Beck was irate as well, not at the officiating but at the fans.

"These were the rudest people I've ever been around," she said. "Nebraskans are great. They support their team, they support the other team. I was very disappointed in the atmosphere here."

The game drew a crowd of 3,227. The teams' game in Lincoln two seasons before drew a very un-supportive 342. Nebraska was ranked in the top 25 at the time.

"Most coaches who came in here loved the environment," Selvig says, which followed what he really wanted to say about it, after which he said, "maybe leave that out." You can use your imagination.

After nearly a two-week break from games, Montana hopped aboard a bus and did the Washington-Portland State-Portland-Washington State circuit, four games in six days.

"Cost-wise I'm sure that saved a ton of money, bussing a four-game trip like that, but it was the trip from hell, and I'm sure I scheduled it," says Selvig. "Scheduling was sometimes difficult to get things right."

Montana had defeated Washington soundly the year before in Missoula, one of just five losses that season for the Huskies, who were in the process of going to seven straight NCAA tournaments and 12 in 14 years.

The return game in Seattle was just as one-sided. Washington shot 52.5 percent, Montana 30.4 percent, and the Huskies won 80-47. The Lady Griz wouldn't lose by a margin that large again until 1994-95 against Duke.

Gobrecht played four of her starters 30 or more minutes, the other 29 as her team put up 47 second-half points. "I cleared the bench early in that one and they didn't," says Selvig, revealing just enough to make his feelings known.

Guard Jacki Myers, one of four Washington starters in double figures, said after the game, "Our fans can't understand why we get so pumped up for Montana, but we want to kill Montana when we play them."

Montana swept the Portland schools, then finished its pre-Christmas schedule with a 62-60 loss at Washington State, a team that would finish below .500, a defeat that probably had just as much to do with the road trip as it did the Cougars.

The Lady Griz went into the short break 5-3. It would be 87 days before they would lose again.

Montana posted an 82-23 victory over Rocky Mountain on Dec. 28, still the fewest points allowed to an opponent in program history, then had wins over Utah, 69-60, and Gonzaga, 74-54.

The Utes would go 24-6 that season and make the NCAA tournament as a No. 11 seed out of the High Country Athletic Conference. The Zags were coming off a West Coast Conference regular-season title.

Montana would open league with wins at Northern Arizona and Nevada in early January.

The season before, the Lady Griz had ranked sixth nationally in attendance, averaging 3,119 for its home games. Northern Arizona had a listed crowd of 100, Nevada listed just 35.

"More than anything you felt bad for the girls who played there. And I think it made us more appreciative of what we had at home and how fortunate we were," says McNulty.

Montana would go 16-0 in league, winning by an average of more than 20 points per game.

In March, after her team had lost to Montana in the first round of the NCAA tournament, Cal State Fullerton coach Maryalyce Jeremiah said, "In a way it's too bad they don't have the competition or they'd be even better."

It's a valid point but one McNulty says she and her teammates never really thought about. Turns out they were having too much fun to worry about the strength of the league they were dominating.

"It was just awesome," says McNulty. "It was an awesome team and family, and Robin is such a phenomenal coach and leader and human being that it was just fun to perform for him and our fans.

"Rob made us want to give him everything we had, every minute" ... wait for it ... "and if you didn't, he pulled you."

In a season of league games with little drama or games to remember, there was one.

Montana was scheduled to play at Montana State on Friday, Feb. 3. But because of a historic cold snap, the game was moved to Saturday, the same day as the UM-MSU men's game. That way Brick Breeden Fieldhouse would only have to be heated for one day instead of two.

Even then Montana State could only do so much to make it a playable environment.

"It was absolutely frigid in the gym," says McNulty, who did just fine despite the conditions. She had 22 points at the half, 28 for the game on 12-of-15 shooting as Montana rolled to an 84-58 win.

"That was a crazy, crazy experience. I don't even know if people could go outside the wind chill was so low. I think they canceled classes and everything."

When that's the high point on the drama meter of a 16-game league schedule, you know the rest of it was pretty chill as well.

Montana went 18 for 29 in the first half and led 44-25 at the break in its 76-59 Big Sky tournament semifinal win over Weber State and held Idaho to 30 percent shooting in the championship game, a 63-49 win.

Austin, who scored 18 points in the title game on 9-of-12 shooting and added six assists, was voted the tournament MVP. McLeod and McNulty were named all-tournament.

McLeod, who broke Leibenguth's career scoring record in the team's home win over Northern Arizona, was named the Big Sky's first MVP.

Austin was voted the Top Newcomer, Cate the co-Outstanding Freshman.

Schwartz's midseason claim that all five of Montana's starters could be All-Big Sky was close. McLeod and McNulty were first team, Austin and Brandell second team. Cate was honorable mention.

Montana would be playing in the NCAA tournament for the fifth time and for the fourth time was able to turn its supportive crowd -- and proportionally strong bid with the NCAA -- into a home game, this time against Cal State Fullerton.

CSUF, which had an average home attendance that season of 264, estimated it would have lost $4,000 by hosting a first round game, so the school did not even put in a bid.

That sent the No. 7 Titans to Missoula for a game against the No. 10 Lady Griz.

The NCAA tournament had expanded from 40 to 48 teams that season, which allowed four teams from the Big West to get in, including Fullerton, which had finished fourth and was 21-8 overall.

Long Beach State got the league's automatic bid, Hawaii, UNLV and Fullerton were at-large selections. Only the SEC, with six teams, had better representation in the NCAA tournament.

The Big West may have had better depth, but the Big Sky was strong enough at the top.

In front of a crowd of 6,074, Montana shot better than 50 percent in both halves, led 38-19 at the break and won 82-67, the program's third NCAA tournament victory in six years.

McNulty led both teams with 22 points on 11-of-17 shooting.

"The thing that makes Montana a good team is not their athletic ability but their execution," Jeremiah, the CSUF coach, said after the game. "When they come off screens, they have perfect timing.

"Teams we play in our conference have better overall athletes, but it doesn't matter how you get it done."

She added, "They'd do well in our conference," before saying what she did about how the Big Sky might be holding Montana back from being all it could be. "Although they're certainly good enough to beat us."

The victory upped Montana's winning streak to 22 games, tied for longest in the nation with ... Texas, the No. 2 seed in the West Regional, the team the Lady Griz would face in the second round.

The Longhorns were one of the NCAA's early women's basketball juggernauts. And the program's dominance pre-dates even the NCAA's recognition of the sport.

In the final six years of the AIAW, or Jody Conradt's first six years coaching the Longhorns, they won 198 games, with records like 36-10, 37-4 and 35-4.

At the first all-in NCAA tournament, in 1982-83, Texas made the Elite Eight. The Longhorns did so again in 1983-84.

In 1985-86 they became the first unbeaten national champion when they went 34-0.

In the six seasons before Montana would face Texas in Austin, on March 18, 1989, the Longhorns had gone 187-14 and five times advanced to at least the Elite Eight.

So it was a tall task facing the Lady Griz that night.

"Texas was one of the premier programs during those years, maybe the best program," says Selvig. "They were biggies."

The biggest of them all, if not in a literal sense, was 6-foot-1 senior forward Clarissa Davis, that season's Naismith Player of the Year, who would average 26.3 points and 9.9 rebounds.

The heat that day in central Texas -- it was already in the upper 80s even in mid-March -- didn't bother Montana, nor did the crowd of 9,108. "We fed off that," says McNulty, whose previous road game had been played in Pocatello, Idaho, in front of an announced crowd of 500.

Montana had about as good a first half as could have been expected. The Lady Griz held a team that would average more than 85 points on the season to 33 and trailed by just six, 33-27, at the break.

The trouble for Montana was its own shooting. Selvig says his team got the looks it wanted, but the Lady Griz opened 10 for 32 through the opening 20 minutes.

"We weren't missing layups, but it wasn't like we got taken out of the game and couldn't get shots," he says. "I wouldn't say we could have won if we'd made shots, but we could have hung in had we had a good shooting night.

"They really struggled against our zone and had a hard time scoring on us in the first half. If you can play someone for a half, you've got a chance."

Davis had seven points at the half and would finish with 14 in 34 minutes, her second-lowest total of the season.

"I remember Lisa blocked her first shot. That was a good sign, because she was a load, but Lisa was a heck of a defender," says Selvig.

Instead it was a pair of freshman guards who did the most damage.

Vicki Hall, the national high school player of the year the season before at Brebeuf Prep in Indianapolis, finished with a game-high 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting. Johnna Pointer, from Shallowater, Texas, scored 18 off the bench on 6-of-8 shooting.

"We shut Clarissa Davis down but their guards went crazy," says McNulty.

Texas would put up 50 points in the second half on 17-of-28 shooting to steadily pull away for an 83-54 win.

"Once it started to spiral, we didn't know what to do. We'd never been in that situation except for Washington, which wasn't even a game," says McNulty. "You panic and start rushing shots."

"When you go on the road in the NCAAs, one of the things you're going to have to do is shoot it great. We got enough shots to stay in the game, but we would have had to shoot great," says Selvig.

In her final collegiate game, McLeod, on her way to all-district honors for the third time, had 11 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks.

Austin had 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting. She fouled out with more than four minutes left, the only game she fouled out of that season.

Little would anyone know it would be the final game she played as a Lady Griz.

"This was obviously a very successful year for us," Selvig said afterwards. "This was a team that developed into a great basketball team before it was over. It was a team that blended together really well."

And Montana was showing no signs of that ever not being the case, much to the chagrin of the rest of the Big Sky Conference. Is it finally over? Nope, not even close. It was only picking up steam.

University of Montana Athletics

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