Griz basketball primer as Maroon-Silver Scrimmage arrives

Basketball season is just around the corner, with the Maroon-Silver scrimmage tipping off Tuesday the first chance for Grizzly fans to watch the team before Montana begins the season with a road trip to Duquesne and Xavier on Nov. 8 and Nov. 11.

The men's scrimmage, which follows the Lady Griz scrimmage, will start between 6:30 and 7 p.m. Both scrimmages are free of charge.

For those who need a refresher, below is what you need to know heading into the 2022-23 Griz basketball season:

Returning To The Floor
As the transfer portal becomes more prevalent across college athletics, a lot was made in the offseason of who was leaving the Griz basketball team. Seven players who had remaining eligibility left the program to pursue opportunities elsewhere. It's a high number, especially considering that Montana previously had one of the lowest transfer rates in the Big Sky Conference.

But, in an era where nearly half of Division-I student-athletes transfer at some point during their careers, it shouldn't be a surprise that there was some turnover.

The more important thing to head coach Travis DeCuire is not who left, but who is coming back.

Returning are four starters and five of Montana's top-eight rotation players from last year. That group includes all-conference forward Josh Bannan and defensive player-of-the-year candidate Brandon Whitney, in addition to senior Mack Anderson – who is returning for a fifth season – Lonnell Martin Jr. and Josh Vazquez.

The returning players have shown improvements in major areas of their games. Now, the key will be getting them on the same page with Montana's newcomers. Through a few weeks of practice, how would DeCuire describe his team?

"Bigger, stronger, faster. Right now we're still finding ourselves in terms of developing chemistry. I don't mean chemistry in regards to liking one another or willingness to play together, but learning how to play together," DeCuire said. "We have a lot of new faces that have never played a game together before so we're just trying to create basketball chemistry."

Bannan is Back
Josh Bannan is becoming the epitome of Griz basketball. On the court, he earned All-Big Sky honors in 2021-22, ranking second in the league for rebounding, second for shooting and seventh for scoring. Off the court, he became the eighth player in school history to earn Academic All-America status, one of 15 players recognized nationally and the only sophomore.

He was the Big Sky's only player in 2021-22 to average 17.0 points and 8.0 rebounds per game, also ranking in the top 15 for free-throw shooting, blocked shots and minutes played. At his current pace, he's on track to finish his career ranked in the top four in school history for rebounding and top 10 for scoring.

Bannan led the Grizzlies in 2021-22, and it wouldn't be a surprise to see his name listed on the Preseason All-Big Sky team, which will come out next week.

Whitney Brings the Defense
As for Brandon Whitney, don't be surprised to see him earn a defensive player-of-the-year award at some point during his career. Ask his coaches, and they'll tell you that he should have already earned one. As a sophomore in 2021-22, Whitney often matched up against – and shut down – opponents' top scorers. Prime examples include: Idaho's Mikey Dixon (zero points on 0-of-6 shooting after entering the contest averaging a Big Sky-best 21.8 points per game); Eastern Washington's Steele Venters (five points on 2-of-9 shooting after entering averaging 18.1 points per game); and Northern Arizona's Jalen Cone (12 points on 3-of-12 shooting after entering averaging 18.4 points per game).

Whitney can also contribute with the ball in his hands, though, ranking second on the team for assists and third for scoring, also ranking seventh in the Big Sky with a .792 free-throw percentage in 2021-22. In an early-season game at North Dakota, Whitney scored 30 points, the most by a Griz sophomore in more than a decade.

Key Contributors Return
Lonnell Martin Jr. had an up-and-down first Division-I season, with more ups than downs and even more promise to come. He averaged 6.3 points per game while playing in all 32 contests, starting 18. He led Montana for steals (10^th in the Big Sky) and is the Grizzlies' top-returning 3-point shooter, draining 46 a season ago. The highlight Griz fans will remember was his in-the-air spinning layup as time expired to beat Weber State, a shot that was featured on SportsCenter's Top 10 plays.

Like Martin, Josh Vazquez is ready for more in 2022-23. With 90 career games played, 469 points, 95 made 3-pointers and 110 assists, Vazquez has established himself through three seasons. He's also seen his minutes fluctuate, averaging more than 25 minutes per game through his first two seasons before seeing the number drop to 10 a season ago.

All indications show that Vazquez may be ready for the next step:

Anderson Back For More
If there's a fan favorite on the Griz basketball team, Mack Anderson is the obvious choice. For starters, he's a Bozeman native who chose Missoula to spend his college career. He has played in 109 games over the past four seasons and loves Montana so much that he wanted more, electing to use his COVID-19 waiver to come back for a fifth season.

His stats are just a small part of what makes Anderson who he is. At a recent booster dinner, nearly every player said that Anderson was the player they most look up to. He's a leader off the court and his tenacious style of play – diving for loose balls and doing the dirty work – make him a leader on it.

To show his value, DeCuire points to one statistic. Anderson suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in mid-February. From that point forward, the Griz, once a realistic Big Sky contender, went 2-6.

Welcome To Missoula
The Grizzlies also took advantage of the transfer portal, bringing in nine newcomers, including four transfers. A lot can play out between now and the start of the season, but the expectation is that most of the transfers will compete for significant roles right away.

Among the transfers is forward Dischon Thomas, who was a starter for a Colorado State squad that earned a No. 6 seed in the 2022 NCAA tournament. In the Rams' game tournament game against Michigan, Thomas led CSU with 15 points, sinking five 3-pointers, despite a 6-9 frame that allows him to play inside or outside.

Graduate transfer Aanen Moody is a familiar name to fans of the Big Sky Conference. Moody, a North Dakota native, started his career with the Fighting Hawks before spending the past two seasons at Southern Utah. He excels from beyond the perimeter, where he led the Thunderbirds with 53 triples on .402 shooting in 2021-22.

Laolu Oke is a welcome sight to Griz fans who have been frustrated with the program's inability to rebound the basketball. Montana ranked last in the Big Sky and bottom 10 in the NCAA for rebounding a season ago, but should get a major boost from the MSU Denver transfer who averaged a double-double (14.4 points per game, 11.6 rebounds per game, 67 percent shooting).

Jonathan Brown is also an intriguing addition. After excelling at Fresno Pacific and Central Methodist (18.6 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.0 assists per game last season), Brown has shown that he is ready for the next level, and will look to make a step similar to what Lonnell Martin Jr. did a season ago.

The newcomers also include five freshmen: forward Caden Bateman (Missoula); guard Isaiah Kerr (Palo Alto, California); forward Jaxon Nap (Renton, Washington); forward Rhett Reynolds (Shelby, Montana); and guard Dorell Thomas (Phoenix, Arizona).

"Our biggest focus was to find guys who impact winning," DeCuire said of the offseason makeover. "It's easy to look at the stats sheet and see how many points someone scores, or what they shoot, but I'm looking at how someone can impact a game without making shots. As a staff, I think we did a really good job of finding four guys who do a really good job of doing things outside of just scoring the ball. Whether they can defend their position or rebound their position or create shots for other people, I think our newcomers really add to our group of returners.

"I feel like we got bigger, I feel like we got more athletic and I feel like we got tougher. The competitive environment that we've created this summer… we have more guys, I think, who are more willing to fight through adversity, and that's how you get to the top of the standings and finish strong."

Circle The Dates
Montana released an exciting schedule that features a home tournament, a home game against a 2022 NCAA tournament team and a trip to play against the possible No. 1 team in the country in Gonzaga.

Overall, Montana's non-conference slate features opponents from the Atlantic 10 (Duquesne), Big East (Xavier), Conference USA (Southern Miss), Mountain West (Air Force), Summit League (North Dakota State, South Dakota State) and West Coast (Gonzaga), among other leagues.

Among the teams visiting Missoula, the highlight is South Dakota State (Dec. 6), one of the top mid-major programs in the country over the past several seasons and one that played as a No. 13 seed in last year's NCAA tournament. It will mark the first time since 2018 that an opponent will play in Dahlberg Arena a year after making the NCAA tournament.

Also on the home slate is the 2022 Zootown Classic, a tournament Montana won last November. The round-robin tournament will feature six games over three days between Montana, Merrimack, St. Thomas and Troy.

The non-conference slate will close with a trip to The Kennel, on the campus of Gonzaga. The Bulldogs have advanced to seven consecutive Sweet 16s, playing in the national title game in both 2017 and 2021. Gonzaga received the No. 2 ranking in the preseason AP Top 25.

Located just 3 hours apart, Montana has played Gonzaga more times than any other opponent aside from Montana State, Idaho and Idaho State. Montana is 86-64 all-time against the Zags, but more recently, it's been difficult to schedule a game with the national power. The two teams last met in December 2015, a three-point Griz loss after Montana held a 58-56 lead with under 1 minute to play and had a game-tying shot attempt at the buzzer.

Big Sky Conference play will open at home against regional rivals Eastern Washington (Dec. 29) and Idaho (Dec. 31), and will feature 18 games (home and home against each school) before the Grizzlies travel to Boise, Idaho, for the reconfigured Big Sky tournament.

More From 2021-22

While its 18-14 record fell short of the program's lofty expectations, it did extend an impressive streak. For the 14^th consecutive season, Montana finished with a .500 or better record. The Grizzlies are one of just 18 schools nationally who can boast that claim.
Montana went 14-3 at home and at one point held a 14-game home winning streak dating back to the 2020-21 season, which was the eighth-longest active streak in the country at the time. The Grizzlies have built quite the home-court advantage, going 59-12 (.831) on their home floor over the past five seasons.
Montana won seven non-conference games, going 7-4 to post its fourth winning non-conference in the past five seasons. Along the way, Montana beat Air Force of the Mountain West and Southern Miss of Conference USA, with the win over the Golden Eagles helping the Grizzlies secure the Zootown Classic tournament title in late November.
For the second consecutive season, Montana set a school record from the charity stripe, knocking down nearly 80 percent of its free-throw attempts. The figure ranked 10^th nationally and eclipsed the 2020-21 team's mark of 78.2 (which beat the 2012-13 squad's school record).
The Grizzlies averaged just 10.2 turnovers per game, a figure that ranked 20th in all of college basketball. Montana also had the nation's 35th-best turnover margin (+2.9) and 46th-best assist-to-turnover ratio (1.28).
Montana's stingy defense held six opponents below 50 points. In fact, in a season-opening win over Dickinson State, the Blue Hawks were held to 27 points, the Grizzlies' best defensive performance since 1977 and the fewest points allowed at home since 1936, three decades before Dahlberg Arena was constructed.
Montana set a school record with 118 points scored in a December win over SAGU AIC. Several additional school records were set that night, including margin of victory (69), assists (38) and 3-pointers made (19).

DeCuire Moving On Up
When it's all said and done, Travis DeCuire will have his name listed several times in the Grizzlies' record book. He's the only Griz coach to lead Montana to three regular-season conference titles, also winning the tournament twice, going to back-to-back NCAA tournaments in 2018 and 2019. That two-year stretch was the best in school history, setting a record with 52 wins.

In 2022, however, DeCuire added several additional personal achievements.

In late January, he became the fourth coach in Big Sky history to win 100 league games. He has since moved into third on the all-time list, at 103. Later in the season, DeCuire also moved into second place on Montana's all-time wins list, passing College Basketball Hall of Famer Mike Montgomery and his predecessor, Wayne Tinkle. DeCuire has now won 160 games at Montana, second to only George 'Jiggs' Dahlberg, who won 221 games across two stints and whom the arena is named after.

Back To High Expectations
After winning back-to-back Big Sky titles in 2018 and 2019, and again being in position to three-peat going into the final week of the regular season in 2020 before COVID-19 shut down the league tournament, DeCuire has preached patience over the past two seasons.

The overwhelming majority of starts since then have been by underclassmen, as Montana graduated three of the program's top-eight scorers. DeCuire doesn't like to use the word 'rebuild', but even he will admit that the last two years weren't what he expected, as Montana went a combined 18-18 in league play, earning a No. 6 seed at the 2021 Big Sky tournament and No. 5 seed in 2022.

He doesn't expect Montana to be the favorites in 2022, but he likes the potential of his team and thinks Griz fans will see more of what they've been accustomed to (Montana won five Big Sky titles in a decade span from 2010-19).

The league's official preseason coaches' and media polls will be released later this week, but the Blue Ribbon Basketball Yearbook issued its preseason poll earlier in September, slotting Montana second.

"It's been a long time since I've had to back guys off in terms of the level of competitiveness and physicality that takes place in practice, which is a very good sign for a group that needs to be better in terms of competing physically," DeCuire said. "Rebounding, loose balls, hustle plays. I think we have a group that will compete in those areas, and that's how you win tough games."

Catch The Griz Live
After the Maroon-Silver scrimmage Montana will hit the road for a week before returning home for the Zootown Classic tournament Nov. 17-19. It will be three straight days of Griz hoops, as they take on St. Thomas, Merrimack and Troy.

University of Montana Athletics

Griz basketball primer as Maroon-Silver Scrimmage arrives

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Players Mentioned

Mack Anderson

Josh Bannan

Caden Bateman

Jonathan Brown

Isaiah Kerr

Lonnell Martin Jr.

Aanen Moody

Jaxon Nap

Laolu Oke

Rhett Reynolds

Dischon Thomas

Dorell Thomas

Josh Vazquez

Brandon Whitney

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