Griz to face pair of Mountain West teams

Montana continues through the most difficult stretch of its schedule this week with a pair of games against Mountain West competition. They begin on the road against an undefeated Nevada Wolf Pack team on Wednesday before returning home to host San Jose State for an afternoon game on Saturday.

The Griz will look to shake off a loss to No. 6 Houston last Friday. The top-ranked team in the country according to Pomeroy Ratings, with the second-best scoring defense, held Montana in check in a dominant victory.

There were still some bright performances for Montana, most notably from the two Williams' on the team. Giordan Williams had his best game in a Grizzly uniform, grabbing a career-high nine rebounds and scoring six points in a team-high 28 minutes.

Money Williams continued his torrid start to his Grizzly career. He scored 15 points with all of them coming in the second-half and is averaging the second-most points by a Grizzly freshman since 1992.

Things will get easier, but not by much, as Montana face off against a talented Nevada team off to a terrific start to this season. The Wolf Pack are 4-0 with one of the top offenses in the country, scoring 89.0 points per game.

It will be a change of pace against San Jose State, who will enter Saturday 5-2 and fresh off a 13-point win against a similar opponent in North Dakota State. The Spartans play at a slower tempo, and have been winning games behind a top 40 scoring defense in the country.

As Montana transition from November to December, the games will begin to open up a bit with a pair of NAIA opponents in the near-future. But for now, Montana is locked in against another pair of teams with impressive records from big conferences.

THE DAVIDSON BROTHERS
Montana freshman forward Zack Davidson is the younger brother of Nevada's leading rebounder Nick Davidson. Their parents – Kirk and Kelly – met at Nevada while playing collegiately. Kirk played basketball, while Kelly was one the volleyball team.

GRIZ NOTES

Laolu Oke has had at least three offensive rebounds in three straight games. He is averaging just under three per game, but 4.0 offensive rebounds per game in the last three.
Dischon Thomas is averaging a block per game, and has at least one in four of the five games so far this season.
Money Williams has been in double-figures in four out of five games to start his Grizzly career. He's been excellent in the second half, scoring 47 of 65 total points in the final 20 minutes.
Williams is 29^th among all freshmen in the NCAA in scoring at 13.0 points per game. He is the top rookie in the Big Sky in the category. He would be just the 5^th Grizzly since 1992 to average 10-plus points per game. Kevin Criswell has the most points per game with 15.1 in 2002-03. Williams is currently 2^nd.
Montana was held under 50 points for just the ninth time in the Travis DeCuire era last Friday against Houston. The Cougars held Montana to 44 points, the second-lowest point total since DeCuire took over in 2014.
Once a team takes a lead in a game Montana plays this season, they usually hang onto it. There have been zero lead changes in three of the five games, and just five lead changes against North Dakota State. The game with the most back-and-forth was at Oregon, where there were 11 lead changes and 13 tied scores.
Houston's dominant defensive backcourt achieved something no other Grizzly opponent has over the past two years; holding Aanen Moody scoreless. The senior guard entered averaging over 18 point per contest, but got off just five field goal attempts in 18 minutes against the Cougars.
The Grizzly bench has been effective this season, largely behind the scoring of Money Williams. The Grizzlies have scored at least 16 points off the bench in all five games and have reached 25 points in four of them. Montana had 25 bench points in a game just twice all of last season.
The free throw line has proven crucial to UM's success in the past and this year is no different. Montana are 2-0 when shooting and making more free throws than their opponent, and 0-3 when allowing more attempts and makes from the charity stripe.
If the opponent scores over 70 points, Montana is winless this year. They are 2-0 when holding opponents under the 70-point line, and 0-3 when giving up 70-plus. Last season, the race to 67 points was a telling indicator of whether or not Montana would win or lose. The Grizzlies were 10-1 when reaching 67 points first in league games, and 0-4 when allowing their opponent to get to 67 before them.
Montana have yet to pick up a win in the away maroon jerseys. They wore them once at home in the only loss inside Dahlberg Arena. They are 2-0 in the home whites.

WHITNEY 1K WATCH
Senior guard Brandon Whitney has averaged at least 10.0 points per game in all three seasons at Montana. He's on the verge of becoming the 36th player in program history to reach 1,000 points, and is currently just 41 points away.

Whitney also made his 90th career start in 91 appearances for Montana on Friday against Houston. He is also three rebounds away from 200. Whitney would be the 15th player in Grizzly history with 1,000 points/200 rebounds/200 assists.

He would be the 7th player in Montana's 1,000-point club coached by Travis DeCuire. Aanen Moody has also reached 1,000 points, but scored 682 of them for other schools.

OTHER MILESTONES

Josh Vazquez is playing in his 125^th career game today. He is also closing in on 100 career steals, needing just two more to reach the milestone.
Dischon Thomas made his 100^th career three-pointer in the loss to Houston. He is two points away from reaching 400 in his Grizzly career.

SHOW ME THE MONEY
True freshman Money Williams has made an instant impact for Montana in his first month at the collegiate level. He is second on Montana with 12.5 points per game and is the third-leading rebounder at 3.8 per game.

Williams kept Montana in the game in the second half against Oregon, scoring eight points and grabbing five rebounds in the final period. He became the first Grizzly freshman to score in double-figures in his first two career games since Michael Oguine in 2015.

He had another great scoring streak against Houston, scoring 15 second-half points to lead the Grizzlies for the game. He's been excellent in second halves for Montana this year. He has scored 47 of 65 total points in the second half of games.

MONTANA AGAINST THE MOUNTAIN WEST
The Grizzlies have a long history against the members of the Mountain West Conference. Montana is 132-147 all-time against teams from the league. Travis DeCuire is 3-8 in his career against teams from the Mountain West.

Montana will play three games against Mountain West competition this season with two of them coming in a home-and-home series against San Jose State.

NON-CONFERENCE HOME-AND-HOMES

This is the first time in program history that Montana will play three non-conference opponents in home-and-home series. The last time they did it against a single opponent was Wyoming in 2016-17, and the only other time they've had multiple series in the Big Sky era was in 1970-71 when they played Washington and Puget Sound.

The Grizzlies will have the first matchup with San Jose State on Saturday. They will meet again later in December. Montana also played the first game of two against UC Davis and North Dakota State at the start of November.

Montana are the only team in the country with three non-conference home-and-home series this year.

SCOUTING NEVADA (4-0, 0-0 MWC)

Nevada are receiving votes to be ranked in the AP Top 25, and are currently 40^th overall. They are currently 45^th in the Pomeroy Ratings.
Head coach Steve Alford is 73-51 in his 5^th season at Nevada. The longtime head coach has a career record of 660-349 in 33 seasons across multiple stops.
They have the 12^th-best offense in the country with 89.0 points per game. They have increased their point total in every game so far this season, most recently pouring in 108 points in a win over Portland.
Nevada is 18^th in the NCAA with 18.3 assists per game. Kenan Blackshear is tops on the team with 6.0 per game, which ties him for 18^th in the country in the individual rankings. Blackshear also averages 17.8 points per game.
Jarod Lucas is the Wolf Pack's leading scorer with 18.3 points per game. The second-year transfer from Oregon State has over 1,600 points in his career and was a Second Team All-Mountain West selection last year.
The Wolf Pack have allowed the fewest total rebounds in the entire country this year. Part of that is due to just four games played, but they do average more than 10 rebounds per game than their opposition, ranking 16^th in the NCAA in rebounding margin.

SERIES HISTORY VS. THE WOLF PACK
Montana leads the all-time series with Nevada, a former Big Sky Conference member, 23-18. The Grizzlies have picked up most of their wins against the Wolf Pack in Missoula, going 17-4 at home. On the road, it has been another story. Nevada is up 13-5 all-time in games played in Reno.

Nevada have won the last three meeting, including a 79-75 win in the most recent matchup back in 2015. The last Grizzly win in the series is certainly a memorable one. Montana defeated Nevada 87-79 at the 2006 NCAA Tournament in a 12-5 matchup. The win is the last NCAA Tournament win by a Big Sky team, and the last time Montana won against a ranked opponent.

SCOUTING SAN JOSE STATE (5-2, 0-0 MWC)

San Jose State are currently on a three-game winning streak with one more game prior to traveling up to Montana. They face Cal Poly on Wednesday night.
The Spartans most recently defeated North Dakota State on Monday night by 13. It's a common opponent with Montana, who lost at home to North Dakota State.
Head coach Tim Miles has turned the program around in San Jose. The Spartans went 21-14 last year, which tied the program record for wins in a season. They are following it up with an impressive start to the 2023-24 season.
They have been great defensively this year, allowing just 62.7 points per game to rank in the top 40 in the country. They have held three opponents under 60 points so far this season.
There are four players currently averaging more than 13.0 points per game this year for San Jose State. Tibet Gorener leads the way with 14.6 points per game.
San Jose State has made 67 three-pointers this year, which ranks 24^th in the country. They have done it on efficient shooting, also ranking in the top 90 in the NCAA by shooting 36.4 percent.

SERIES HISTORY VS. THE SPARTANS
San Jose State leads the all-time series against Montana 7-6. Montana has the slight edge at home with a 3-2 record in Missoula. The teams have met twice in the Travis DeCuire era, splitting results in 2015 and 2016.

Montana won the last matchup in 2016 at home 81-62. Walter Wright led Montana with 19 points off the bench in the win.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Zack Davidson

Aanen Moody

Laolu Oke

Dischon Thomas

Josh Vazquez

Brandon Whitney

Giordan Williams

Money Williams

University of Montana Athletics