Griz head east to start 2022-23 season

The new-look Montana Grizzlies will make their season debut on the east coast, taking on Duquesne and Xavier to begin the 2022-23 campaign.

It's a Griz team that that returns several key players and also added significant talent during the offseason through recruiting and the transfer portal, and one that should bring a new style and identity to Montana basketball.

The focus early in the season will be on creating the chemistry and figuring out exactly how the puzzle pieces fit together. After some closed-door scrimmages and plenty of intrasquad work, head coach Travis DeCuire is excited to see his team finally kick off the regular season.

"It's a hard team to read with so many new faces. We're doing a lot of things different and I think there is a lot of potential, but just not sure if we're all on the same page this early quite yet," DeCuire said. "We've shown signs of a team with potential in our scrimmages, so I'm just excited to see what happens when the lights actually come on."

Montana starts the season travelling over 2,000 miles for a Tuesday evening game against the Duquesne Dukes. They then travel to Cincinnati, Ohio for a matchup against perennial BIG EAST power Xavier. The Grizzlies are playing just the 5^th and 6^th true road games in the Eastern Time Zone since the year 2010.

They face a team that, not dissimilar to Montana, has brought in plenty of new faces via transfer that should be tough to read in Duquesne. Xavier is more established, coming off a championship last season in the NIT and returning three starters and eight letterwinners.

"It's going to be a tough one. Two physical teams. The style of play on the east is way more physical than on the west," DeCuire said. "You watch how the game is officiated watching film of these teams, and it's a blood bath. It's going to be interesting to see how we adjust."

Montana is eager to get started on a campaign that should have them figuring into the Big Sky championship conversation yet again.

GRIZ GO EAST
Montana will play just its fifth and sixth road games in the eastern time zone since 2010 to open this season. Despite a losing record, the Griz typically play well against big time competition on the east coast. They are 1-3 in the previous four with close losses to Georgia (63-50, 2021) and Penn State (70-57, 2018).

They had a notable overtime victory against Pitt in 2018, winning 83-78. Their other previous appearance was in a 2013 ESPN BracketBusters game against Davidson, which Montana lost 93-87 in overtime.

PRESEASON POLLS
The Grizzlies were picked to finish third in the Big Sky by both the coaches and the media. After a fifth-place finish in 2022, Montana jumped ahead of Weber State and moved up another spot as Southern Utah has left the Big Sky.

Montana trail preseason favorite Montana State and second-place Northern Colorado in both polls. The Grizzlies won the 2018 and 2019 Big Sky regular-season and tournament titles. They then finished third in 2020, after being in first place entering the final week of the regular season (the Big Sky tournament was canceled due to COVID-19), and sixth in 2021 (before upsetting No. 3-seed Weber State and advancing to the tournament semifinals). The were eliminated in the quarterfinals last year.

GETTING TO KNOW THE GRIZ

Montana were picked third in the Big Sky preseason poll, trailing only Montana State and Northern Colorado in both the coaches' and media polls.
The 18-14 record last year fell short of the program's lofty expectations, but it did mark the 14^th consecutive season Montana has 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 10th 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.

SCOUTING DUQUESNE

Sixth year head coach Keith Dambrot had his first losing season at the helm of the Dukes program last year, finishing 6-24. Over the offseason, he completely revamped his squad, bringing back just a pair of starters and 10 newcomers.
Only three members of the current Duquesne roster have scored multiple baskets in a Dukes uniform.
The two returning starters (Kevin Easley Jr. and Tre Williams) both averaged double-digit points and over five rebounds per game last season.
Newcomer Dae Dae Grant scored 1,171 career points in three seasons at Miami (OH) before transferring to Duquesne. He leads a group of four transfers who combine for 2,692 points and over 200 career starts. In comparison, Duquesne's returning players provide 1,745 points and 156 career starts.
Tevin Brewer, a transfer from FIU, is one of six returning D-1 players who averaged at least 15 points and 5.0 rebounds per game last year.
Montana and Duquesne have met just once previously. They played a first round game in the 2011 CBI tournament. Duquesne won 87-76, negating a 22 point performance from Grizzly freshman Kareem Jamar, then a career high for the future Big Sky MVP.

COACH DeCUIRE ON DUQUESNE

"Similar to us. I think, not happy with the year you've had before and you regroup. They've brought in 10 new faces, most of which are guys that put up numbers elsewhere. All-Conference players in other conferences, so I think that the talent is there."
"It's hard to prepare for teams like Duquesne because you don't have a game to watch. You don't know how they put the pieces together, you just know there is talent."

SCOUTING XAVIER

The defending NIT champions finished the 2022 season 23-13 overall and 8-11 in Big East play. After losing six of the final seven games of the season, they got hot at the right time to win the five games on their way to the NIT crown.
Sean Miller has returned as the head coach of Xavier after spending 12 years at Arizona. He initially spent five seasons at Xavier, and in his 17 years as a head coach at the D-1 level he has a 422-156 (.730) record. It is the 10^th best winning percentage among all active coaches with at least 10 years of experience.
Colby Jones was named to the preseason All-BIG EAST First Team and is also on the watch list for the 2023 Julius Erving Award given to the top small forward in college basketball. The NIT MVP last season averaged 11.6 points and 7.3 rebounds.
Jack Nunge joined Jones on the Preseason All-BIG EAST First Team and is also on the watch list for the 2023 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award that honors the nation's top center. He led the team last season in points (13.4), rebounds (7.4) and blocks (1.4).
Xavier has put together 26 consecutive winning seasons, and active streak that ranks tied for 4^th in the country with Michigan State. They have made 27 NCAA Tournaments in the last 39 years.
The Musketeers are receiving votes in both the AP Top 25 and the Coaches Poll. They received the 33^rd most points in the preseason AP Poll. Last season, they were ranked as high as No. 17 in the country.

COACH DeCUIRE ON XAVIER

"If you look at a team like Xavier, they return a lot of players. There is a ton of experience with a very experienced coach that's had success at a high level.
"Coach Miller is a really good coach. I think he's a motivator when you see how hard and how physical his teams play. A team such as Xavier that didn't have a great season but did have a great ending. There's a lot of guys on that team that feel like they have a good team, and then when you add someone like Coach Miller to that bunch, there is just going to be a ton of confidence."

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