Non-conference basketball slate features home tournament, home game against 2022 NCAA tournament team, trip to Gonzaga and more

Montana head basketball coach Travis DeCuire announced the Grizzlies' 2022-23 non-conference schedule on Thursday, featuring the return of the Zootown Classic, a home date against a 2022 NCAA tournament team and a highly anticipated showdown at Gonzaga.

With opening tip scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 8, the season is less than 3 months away.

"The most important thing for us is to try and play as many games as we can in front of our home fans, so I'm excited to once again offer a strong home slate," DeCuire said. "I think that this schedule offers a little bit of everything and will really help us as we get to Big Sky Conference play."

Montana's season will officially open on Nov. 8 at Duquesne. While the Griz and Dukes have met just once before – a March 2011 meeting in the opening round of the CBI postseason tournament – Griz fans will likely remember the last time Montana visited the Steel City. One of Montana's signature wins from its 2017-18 championship team came at Pitt of the ACC.

While Duquesne, which plays in the Atlantic 10 Conference, had a down year in 2021-22, the Dukes are just two years removed from a 20-win season.

From Pittsburgh, Montana will stay on the road for one of its steepest challenges of the season, facing Xavier on Friday, Nov. 11. The Musketeers have been to six of the past 10 NCAA tournaments, playing as a No. 1 seed in 2018. This will be the first all-time meeting between the two schools.

"That first week will be a really good challenge for us to see early on who we are and where we are," DeCuire said. "Duquesne will be tough travel, and then Xavier will potentially be a top-25 opponent that is really physical and a strong defensive team under Sean Miller."

After beginning the season on the road, Montana fans will get a healthy dose of Griz basketball over the ensuing weeks. Montana returns to Missoula to play five home games in nine days, including the round-robin Zootown Classic, which will feature Montana, Merrimack, St. Thomas and Troy (Nov. 17-19). The homestand also will include games against Providence (Nov. 14) and MSU-Northern (Nov. 22).

"It's always a challenge to get teams to come to Missoula and play in an environment where it's very difficult to get a win, so when you're able to have a tournament and offer teams multiple games, I think it's key, which is why the tournament is so important to us," DeCuire said. "We're excited that we will have so many home games early on in the season."

The Grizzlies will close November with return trips to Air Force (Nov. 27) and Southern Miss (Nov. 29), after the Falcons and Golden Eagles visited Missoula a season ago. The Grizzlies dismantled Air Force in one of their best games of the season and beat Southern Miss to claim the inaugural Zootown Classic tournament title.

"The more that we can spread out with conferences that may be considered as a little bigger than us, the more opportunities it is for us to establish ourselves as a potential household name outside of our own region," DeCuire said. "To get a home-and-home with Air Force of the Mountain West and Southern Miss of Conference USA is huge for us, and that will be a tough road trip with those games being back-to-back. It will be a great test."

The 2022-23 season will mark the final year of the Big Sky Conference-Summit League Challenge, and it will end with a bang for Montana.

One of the top mid-major programs in the country will come to Missoula when South Dakota State visits on Dec. 6. The Jackrabbits have played in four of the past six NCAA tournaments, including as a No. 13 seed last March. It will mark the first time in four years that an opponent will play in Dahlberg Arena a year after making the NCAA tournament (Georgia State in November 2018).

The last time the two teams met, during the 2018-19 season, Montana beat a Mike Daum-led South Dakota State squad that won 24 games that year and qualified for March Madness. The victory snapped the Jackrabbits' nation-leading 26-game home win streak.

"I think that will be a big game for us and for our fan base to come see us play at a high level against a team that has a lot of the same dreams and aspirations as we do year in and year out," DeCuire said. "I see a lot of similarities in us and what they try to accomplish."

After playing South Dakota State, Montana will make a trip to the Midwest to play at North Dakota State (Dec. 10). The Bison won 23 games last year, coming one win away from an NCAA tournament berth after playing South Dakota State in the Summit League championship game. North Dakota State has had four consecutive winning seasons, including in 2018-19, when it lost to the Grizzlies in December before going on to make the NCAA tournament that spring.

Montana will then take part in a unique tournament in Houston, Texas, where the Grizzlies will play Prairie View A&M (Dec. 17). The neutral-site tournament is presented by Coaches vs. Racism and features several teams playing against Historically Black College and Universities (HBCUs). In addition to Montana, other games include Houston vs. North Carolina A&M and Texas Tech vs. Jackson State.

"I thought it was a huge opportunity for the University of Montana to participate in an event like this, so we jumped at it," DeCuire said. "It's an opportunity for a group of coaches to come together and stand alongside each other, which I think is very important in this country. I'm going to jump at any opportunity where I can stand next to someone who wants to make a stand against racism or any other topic that is inhumane or unfair to any portion of our population."

The Grizzlies' non-conference finale will come against one of the nation's top and most-recognizable programs, as Montana travels to Gonzaga to play inside the famed Kennel (Dec. 20). The Bulldogs have advanced to seven consecutive Sweet 16s, playing in the national title game in both 2017 and 2021. Most media outlets have Gonzaga ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in the nation in their preseason top-25 polls.

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.

"We're excited," DeCuire said. "We had a really close game the last time we played, and we'd love to have another opportunity to play against a team in our region that's at an extremely high level."

With Southern Utah departing the Big Sky, Montana's non-conference schedule jumped from 11 to 13 games. The Grizzlies' league slate, which was announced earlier this summer, will begin at home on Dec. 29 vs. Eastern Washington.

Despite some offseason turnover, Montana returns four starters and five of its top-eight players from last year in terms of minutes played. The 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. Montana also brought in a bevy of new talent. The newcomers include five freshmen and four transfers: forward Caden Bateman (Missoula); guard Jonathan Brown (Central Methodist); guard Isaiah Kerr (Palo Alto, California); forward Jaxon Nap (Renton, Washington); guard Aanen Moody (Southern Utah); forward Laolu Oke (MSU Denver); forward Rhett Reynolds (Shelby, Montana); forward Dischon Thomas (Colorado State); 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."

University of Montana Athletics

Non-conference basketball slate features home tournament, home game against 2022 NCAA tournament team, trip to Gonzaga and more

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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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