Freshman Orientation :: Mackendra Konig

You hear the stories, the ones that precede meeting someone for the first time, and you start painting a picture in your mind, one based on assumptions, expectations.

You think you know Mackendra Konig before she arrives as a Lady Griz.

How she grew up in Vancouver, B.C., her father a college basketball player turned coach, her mom part of basketball royalty, she and her three sisters all taking their talents to the U.S. to play collegiately.

How she moved to Washington to play high school basketball, scored 47 points in a game as just a sophomore at Henry M. Jackson High, averaged more than 25 on the season.

How her sister was the real deal at North Carolina State, winning 105 games over four seasons with the Wolfpack, five of those coming in the NCAA tournament, how Aislinn was named the MVP of the ACC tournament her senior year.

How Frank and Tanya moved their youngest of two children to Ontario for her senior year of high school, how she led King Christian Collegiate to an undefeated regular season and a spot in the title game at the Final 8 Championships.

How she has dual citizenship, neither of which is for where she lives now, in Missoula, in the U.S. She can say she's both Canadian and Austrian, the latter of which she represented at the FIBA U16 Women's European Championship in Bulgaria in 2019.

How she was a hot-shot, top-100 recruit who had at least eight scholarship offers that she can recall without looking it up. How her sister now plays professionally in France and how Mackendra would like to one day join her in playing in Europe.

You learn all that and wonder what Montana might be getting, a program that has recruits who typically arrive on campus a little less … worldly.

Because Mackendra Konig, given all that, must be about herself, right? Hard to coach, right? Must see Montana as a stop-over for what comes next, right? Must be in with only one foot, the other still doing its own thing, marching to its own tune, right? She's a girl of big ambitions after all.

Wrong. All of your preconceptions.

"She's more experienced than our other freshmen, but she's been so easy to coach. She's an awesome teammate," said Lady Griz coach Brian Holsinger.

It's part of Konig's dichotomous nature, that for all she's done, all she's seen, she has the ability, wherever she is, to be where she is. And be all in.

"The lesson overall was the world is what you make of it," she says of her parents' influence on their two daughters. "There are endless options out there.

"When I got here during the summer, it didn't feel like I was leaving home. It felt like I was entering a new part of my life. We take experiences very seriously. I get homesick. I do. But my parents focus on just taking it how it is right now. Appreciate where you are and who's around you to support you."

She was part of a class that signed last November, the other three more traditional Lady Griz recruits, Draya Wacker from small-town Montana, Libby Stump from small-town Washington, Alex Pirog from Colorado, with Missoula just an extension of the only thing she's ever known looking out her window.

"That has to be the coolest part about it, that we're so different but so similar in the same way. We come from the most different backgrounds but we're really caring people. We have a lot of the same values," said Konig.

You wonder: Did Holsinger plan this? Did he know how they might fit together? "If it was intentional, he's a pretty talented man. It makes it fun to get to know each other because we have such different perspectives about things, but we care and love each other, just like a family. It's really fun."

If you're wondering how Konig landed at Montana, there are two things: her intuition and a trip to Corvallis, Ore., that Frank and his daughter took a while back.

Holsinger was an assistant coach with the Beavers back then. He and the staff knew about Aislinn, had even recruited her a little bit, so there was a familiarity when Frank Konig reached out asking about making an unofficial visit with his other daughter.

Holsinger did what Holsinger does: He made them feel like they were his only priority that day. They got the full treatment allowed by the NCAA under such circumstances.

"I remember everything about it. He was a great host, a great person," says Frank. "He has a lot of the characteristics of a coach I think Mackendra was looking for. Mackendra is such an intuitive person. I think she really made a connection with Coach Holsinger. She was impressed with him."

And then both sides went their separate ways, Holsinger back to coaching the Beavers, Konig back to the recruiting grind. And then Holsinger got hired by Montana and he wondered if Konig might still be available.

He asked one of his assistants to give Konig a look. She did. Her report: Wow, do we have a chance at her? Because she's really good.

His staff thought he might be reaching. Top 100 recruits don't typically give Montana a second look. At least they didn't. But he had an intuition of his own, the gut instinct of a coach. He thought Montana had a chance.

Konig and her mom were passing through town the summer before her senior year, on her way from Seattle to Toronto, and could she stop by for a few hours? And since it was too warm to keep Kiwi and Ash in the car, could he look after her cats, maybe keep them in his air-conditioned office?

"It goes back to my philosophy of treating people right. Just treat people well no matter what. That always comes back. That's what I believe," Holsinger says.

"They kind of knew me already, but we hit it off. I gave them the vision of what I want to do here. I told her she could come here and make an impact for us."

Moving far from home wouldn't be an issue. She's got that in her blood.

Her dad's ties go back to Europe. His dad was from Austria, his mom from Holland. His brothers were born in Europe but he was born in western Canada, after the family relocated in the late 1960s as part of a work program.

Australia, Colorado and Canada all needed forestry workers. They chose door No. 3 and didn't look back, and all the boys fell into sports in Prince George. "Hockey kind of became too expensive for my family, so I gravitated toward basketball and fell in love," says Frank.

Before basketball took hold of his heart, there was Tayna, two kids born just 26 days apart who attended the same preschool, then the same elementary school.

"As much as boyfriend and girlfriend are in elementary school, we were together," he says. "We went our separate ways in high school but our first year of college (at Glenville State in West Virginia) we got back together, got married and the rest is history."

He married into one of the first families of B.C. basketball. One of Tanya's sisters, Natasha, went to San Jose State and scored 1,172 points. Another went to UC Riverside, another to Northern Colorado. Her brother won multiple national championships in Canada.

"My wife's family is probably one of the most successful basketball families in all of Canada," Frank says.

He coached at Fraser Valley when the Cascades won a national championship. He coached at the high school level. He coached at Simon Fraser, all on the men's side. Then he had two daughters, five years apart.

And you might have some ideas percolating around your head about Frank Konig and what that must have been like for the girls. And you'd be wrong. Again. He's not even close to landing on the youth-sports spectrum where you think he might.

"I tell parents all the time, there is no rush. You can start a kid in basketball at 13 and as long as the dedication and the good skill development are there, they are going to blossom as a player," he says.

"What we've found is that kids who started a little bit later on didn't have bad habits. When you're undersized or under-strength, you tend to compensate and develop bad habits. When you're older and have more control of your body, you can learn faster."

So, the emerging U.S. trend of specialization, because the only way to get from here to there is to start as early as possible and go all in, that everything else is just taking time away from what really matters? Don't bring that up in the Konig house.

"I'm not a big believer in specialization but I am a big believer in prioritization. If you want to be a great basketball player, you don't have to do 40 hours a week of it," he says. "You just need one and a half hours per day of focused skill development and the rest will take care of itself.

"That's what I told Aislinn. Put in an hour a day and you're going to be as good as they get. I told the same thing to Mackendra. They started playing basketball when they were 11 or 12 and, hey, look at that, they are both pretty good."

All Aislinn did was become the 34th player in North Carolina State history to reach 1,000 career points. She finished with 294 made 3-pointers, second in program history.

"Our house loved basketball but we were encouraged to play other sports and found our way to basketball independently," Aislinn says.

Both girls grew up in the gym, though that doesn't mean they were basketball junkies. They were there because that's where their dad was, his avocation coaching basketball to go with his vocation in cyber security.

Mackendra wouldn't have been found at a side basket but at a flat surface, her interest in art surpassing her desire to dribble a basketball.

"When my sister was playing, I never watched. I was always on the sideline coloring in my coloring book," she says. "I love it. It's a good interest to have just to spend time with yourself and enjoy creativity."

At home, Frank and Tanya would sometimes forget she was even there.

"She'd be quiet for a whole day and we'd know she was upstairs painting," says Frank. "She just loved to do it on her own. She's amazing and I don't know where it came from. I'm not that terribly artistic and I don't think her mom is either. At least I've never seen it. She's so good in so many different mediums."

But it can't be a project, something assigned to do. That would take all the enjoyment out of it.

"Art is best when it's something you want to do," she says. "It's hard to be creative when you have to. That takes all the fun out of it. I do it when I want to reconnect with myself a little bit, spend some time enjoying my own company. It's a way to reconnect your brain."

Ah, but athletics were always a big deal as well.

"Mackendra was a great soccer player and an undefeated cross country runner before she decided to specialize in basketball," says Aislinn, hinting at the competitiveness that threads through the family.

Frank tells the story of the time Mackendra was in the 10th grade, when he came to her with some … concerns about her basketball fitness and the work she'd been putting in. They went to the track at Henry M. Jackson High. He said, run a six-minute mile or we're going to have to do some extra training.

Wearing sweatpants, a hoodie and shoes that wouldn't ever be seen on a serious middle-distance runner, she covered the mile in five minutes, 21 seconds. Take that, dad.

"She would have finished eighth in the 3A state championship with that time, with no training," he says. "I was surprised, embarrassed actually that I challenged her."

But this is a basketball story, and it's the basketball court where both Konig girls eventually found their passion.

After being named the provincial player of the year two times and leading Brookswood Secondary to three provincial titles, Aislinn was the No. 38 overall prospect in the class of 2016 and chose North Carolina State.

After graduating, she led a team in Switzerland to a championship, was an alternate for the Canadian team that competed at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and now is playing for Flammes Carolo in France.

Trailed five years in age by her younger sister, the gap allowed Mackendra to take it all in before she started her own recruiting journey.

"It painted a picture of how to spot genuine coaches, genuine people and a program that is really interested in improving kids. I was really lucky to see that," she says. "I can't imagine what it's like for people who have no idea what it's supposed to be like."

Which brings us back to Kiwi and Ash, who relaxed in the Lady Griz basketball offices back in the summer of 2021 for a few hours while Konig put the Montana program under the microscope.

If the coaches were thinking long shot, little did they know everywhere they took Konig and her mom, everything they did in practice that day, a checklist was being addressed.

"I watched my sister go through her recruitment and it helped me put into perspective what I was looking for in terms of campus and coaches and community," she says. "I had an idea of what I was looking for.

"I didn't know what to expect with Montana, but when I came here, it pretty much checked all the boxes. The staff was amazing, the city is really cool and unique, it's a beautiful campus and you feel really connected to the community, which makes it fun and what I was looking for."

Then they were on their way, cats too, leaving Holsinger to wonder how it had all gone. He still believed she was interested but wouldn't have been surprised, either, to receive a call telling him she was headed somewhere else. "I felt good about it but I was cautious," he says.

What he had going for him was Frank Konig, who has coached club and high school long enough to have worked with dozens of Division I coaches in both the men's and women's game.

"I've met many, many coaches at Division I, and he's one of the best. I think Mackendra felt the same way," Konig said about Holsinger. "When she took her visit to Montana, she fell in love. It's such a beautiful place, then with the coaches and players, she just fell in love.

"I have a lot of respect and appreciation for Brian and we're glad our daughter is at the University of Montana."

Her sister was there when she needed to be during the recruiting process. Otherwise she allowed Mackendra to go through it on her own. It was the only way it would be her decision and not someone else's.

"Mackendra ultimately made her decision all on her own," Aislinn said. "I only gave counsel when she asked me for it. We believed it was something she had to figure out for herself.

"I remember her telling me after her official (visit) how much she loved the location and the people. I could tell by her excitement that it was likely going to end up being her home for the next four years."

His assistant coaches were skeptical, but Holsinger kept waiting, believing. Then one day, when he wasn't expecting it, Konig's number showed up on his phone.

"She called and said, 'Coach, I want to come to Montana. I want to commit.' Out of the blue. We were just hoping to get her on an official, then she just calls one day and commits," Holsinger said.

"Her sister's experience shaped what she was looking for. She was looking for the chance to be an impact quickly. She just really liked Montana and the idea of Montana."

Her parents live in Ontario, outside Toronto. Her sister is in Europe. She's in Montana. Frank calls it "unintended consequences, but we're happy for them," he says.

They're strong, independent women, by design. "It was a conscious thing to make sure they could handle themselves. Did I think they'd be as independent as they are? Maybe not.

"The intention was when they were 19, they could deal with life. They are both happy with the choices they've made, so I'm happy for them. Do we miss them? Sure, but we know they can handle their stuff."

He said this on Wednesday evening. The night before he'd watched Kansas State defeat Fort Hays State 74-63, a game that was one point going into the fourth quarter. It was an exhibition, a Division I team against one from Division II. "Our life is pretty much basketball," he joked.

It was again in August, when Konig departed Montana to compete for Austria at the FIBA 3x3 Europe Cup. The coach of that team: her dad, who must be thrilled that his daughter is representing the home of his father's family.

"Mackendra is quite a commodity in Austria. A lot of the Austrian young players look up to her and see opportunity," he says.

A few days after she flew out of Missoula, she was in Romania, going up against ex-WNBA players and other experienced women. She missed the first two weeks of classes, but the experience was an education in itself.

"It was really valuable. I had to develop a different speed to my game really quickly," she said.

"I was pretty intimidated at first, but through that I learned how to see the court just a little bit better and develop a little better IQ and speed to my game I didn't have before. I think it changed my game a lot."

Then she returned to Montana, with her Canadian and Austrian citizenships. "I'm like a nomad. I'm a free agent. There is a little bit of beauty in that," she says.

But she's not looking for the next thing. She's only concerned about the latest thing, which is Montana and getting the Lady Griz back to a championship level. "That would be amazing," she says. "(The freshmen) are so close. It's our dream to get to the NCAA tournament. It would be beautiful."

She's not Draya Wacker, who grew up on land that her family has ranched since 1885. She's not Alex Pirog, who lived in the same house from birth to this past summer. She's not Libby Stump, whose world mostly consisted of her home in Ferndale and a gym in Lynden, because that's all she needed.

Mackendra Konig has been around, to two different high schools, one in the U.S., one in Canada. She's played in Europe. Twice. Have ball, have game, will travel.

But that doesn't mean she doesn't know what she's looking for. Or know when she's found it. "I don't have nostalgia for a certain place," she says. "Home is more who you surround yourself with than where you live."

University of Montana Athletics

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