Gina and Maggie and the power of second chances

You wouldn't know it by looking at her, how she plays, how she's one of the nation's top 3-point shooters. You wouldn't know it from the joy that radiates off her every minute of the day, none more so than when she steps on the basketball court, home again, with her besties.

Or from when the final buzzer sounds on another home game and Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw is surrounded -- mobbed more like it -- by a group of kids who are too young to remember the Be Like Mike era. They could care less. They want to Be Like Maggie. At least be around her for a few minutes.

She just has it, however you want to describe it, the latest Lady Griz to be the Pied Piper of the pint-sized, they and she getting fulfilled in equal measure from the experience, her smile as large as theirs, one big kid surrounded by younger ones.

What she doesn't have are healthy legs. And you'd never know it. "As long as my legs haven't snapped, it's just pushing through," she says, laughing, but you get the sense if they ever did, she'd just ask for them to be wrapped tighter so she could find a way. She doesn't want to miss a minute of this.

She arrived last summer, after graduating from Iowa State with a degree in communication studies, after playing for the Cyclones for four years, though "playing for the Cyclones for four years," needs some clarifying.

For a girl from Indianola, playing for Iowa State was everything, from the moment her dreams started to involve basketball. It was her family's school and there she was as a freshman starting regularly. It was life as perfection, for all of them, for her, for her family who filled so many seats every home game.

Then the pain set in and no one could tell her why, the origin of it or what she could do to make it go away. It cost her practice time, her spot on the team as she'd known it, as she'd envisioned it becoming as a sophomore, as a junior, as a senior, growing in importance every season, all of it storybook.

Things got strained, on the team but feeling like an outsider, like she was stranded on the side of the road, broken down, while the Cyclone Express moved on without her, scoring more points as a freshman than she would total the next three seasons combined.

She had an offer to remain for a fifth year, to stay in the minor role she filled last season, 30 games played, 52 points scored, a small part, a very small part, of a Power 5 program. She started to wonder: Could there be more out there for her, even for just one more season?

Could she find the joy she'd lost, the happiness once again that her legs had cost her?

It had gotten dark. Really dark. "There was a time I took a step back from the team and really didn't know what my plan was, if I was going to return or be done," she says. "We couldn't get my injury figured out, which was taking a big toll on my mental health.

"There were moments when I was worried I wasn't going to be able to play again."

That's why she's here, at Montana, owner of one of the sweetest jump shots you'll ever see, the ball leaving her fingers and floating toward the basket like a butterfly, in betrayal of basic physics, making the journey, with just the right amount of backspin, in what feels like slow motion.

Then it settles softly into the net at an almost 50 percent success rate.

It's why you won't find her without a smile, because she knows what was almost lost. And what's been found. And no matter how much she has to fight through the pain, it's not slipping through her fingers this time.

She is thankful for her time at Iowa State, the friendships, the memories, the opportunity to play in front of family. She just wishes her time at Montana, which felt like it just started, could go on forever. She's having the time of her life.

"I wish I had another year or two or three, but I know my body wouldn't be able to handle it," she says. "It makes me really emotional that it's coming to an end. The seniors do a good job of making sure we value each moment we have left."

February as a college basketball player, at least the daily grind of practice, is like an endless string of appointments to the dentist. Yes, you have to go and yes, you know it's good for you, but that doesn't make the experience any more enjoyable.

You just want to get through it, get to the games, get to March.

But go to a Lady Griz practice these days, arrive early, before the players start rolling out of the locker room, and it feels like October, like it's still fresh, like everyone can't wait to get together again, even though they just saw each other yesterday, or even that morning at lift.

Part of that was intentional, roster construction by design, getting the right players, then adding more and more of them, girls from all over becoming a sisterhood, a family. Part of that is having players on the team like Espenmiller-McGraw and fellow senior Gina Marxen, experience bringing perspective.

Marxen, who played three years at Idaho, went one step further than Espenmiller-McGraw. She called it quits, even at full health, even with all-league talent, turned her back on the game, spoiled on the experience. She put the ball down one spring, didn't pick it up until the next spring, a full year off.

Once her name was back out there, once coaches learned she was willing to give it one more chance, she screened potential suitors like she was in possession of something precious. And she was: time. She wanted to make the most of it if she was going to do this again.

"Location, the name of the school, none of that really mattered to me," says Marxen. "My only box to check was, does this team have a coaching staff that really cares about its players, is relational, are good people that I would want to play for?"

She got on the phone for the first time with Montana coach Brian Holsinger. Game over. "Literally from the very first conversation I had with him, I knew he was the real deal, that he cared about people over players."

Marxen is a special talent, same as Espenmiller-McGraw. She's also an amazing human being, just like Espenmiller-McGraw, just like all the players Holsinger is adding to the Lady Griz on an annual basis, never settling until he finds and then signs what he wants.

That's why they arrive, even in February, not as chore but more with the excitement that they are about to go clubbing. "That speaks to the type of people we have in the program. We love being around each other," Marxen says. "I love coming because I get to play basketball every day with my friends."

Sammy Fatkin was back in town last week, done playing in Germany, soon off to Australia to play professionally Down Under, remembering what it was like, being drawn back to get the feels again, to reconnect with those who gave Fatkin her own second chance.

"You don't miss a place if it's not a really good experience," says Holsinger. "You miss it because of the people and how they made you feel and how they helped you. That's the case for all these (transfers). They had different experiences that didn't fit them for whatever reason."

Espenmiller-McGraw started the season opener, has started every game since, averaging more than 11 points per game and playing more than 27 minutes. She's going on fumes and athletic tape and rest at this point, but she's not stopping before the finish line, whatever and wherever that happens to be.

She hasn't played this many minutes since that magical freshman season, or what feels like about one lifetime ago.

"I feel like a fifth-year senior. I have definitely felt it more in my body this year than I have in the last four years," she says. "My teammates and the environment make all of it worth it and make me want to keep pushing through all the pain.

"I've made it this far. What's one more month of managing the pain so I can play with this team?"

Marxen arrived a year before Espenmiller-McGraw, started all 29 games in which she played last season, averaged 31 minutes, more than 11 points, led the team in assists and 3-pointers made. After the season she decided, heck yeah, I'm coming back for one more year. More of that please, a lot more.

At the team's preseason retreat in September, one of the core values it came to full agreement on was the acceptance of roles. That can be tricky with the depth of skill the Lady Griz now have, a potential stumbling block, with game minutes capped at 200, more talent than playing time available.

With the offseason addition of not only Espenmiller-McGraw but of MJ Bruno, and with Big Sky Freshman of the Year Mack Konig back, Marxen, who had started 111 games through three years at Idaho and one at Montana, was told she would be coming off the bench for the first time in her career.

Uh-oh. Had Camelot just created a self-inflicted crack in its foundation? Nah. "My goal with every kid who comes into the program is to give them the best experience possible," says Holsinger, "and in order to do that, it can't be just basketball.

"It's growing as a person, being a part of a special team culture and then also being successful on the court. If you can provide those three things, you're going to have a good experience."

It's a tough ask of a fifth-year senior, to literally take a seat. But it's not a tough ask at all if it's the right fifth-year senior, someone who gained a world of perspective from a situation that didn't turn out to be right, who learned from it, who isn't just happy to be here but is, at the same time, happy to be here.

"We have so many good people on this team who could play big minutes and produce," says Marxen, who is going to have the same type of numbers this season despite playing six or so fewer minutes, meaning she's gotten even more efficient than she was last year, maxing out her time on the court.

"You never know what your role is going to look like year to year. I adopted the mindset that I trust the coaches and want to do whatever I can to help the team, whether that's start or come off the bench, play 10 minutes or 40. Any minute I get, I'm going to try to make the most of it."

With Bruno sidelined for a game last Saturday, Marxen made her first start of the season. Seventeen points on nine shots, 35 minutes, two assists, two rebounds, two steals in an 82-73 win.

"Every team talks about family and culture. This is the first team I've been on where it's true and genuine," she says. "Having that two-way trust, I don't know of many teams that have that."

It's the essence of Holsinger's coaching philosophy. Get the right kind of players, ones overflowing with talent and character, then build a solid relational foundation, one that can handle any type of stress. Hard coaching will never alienate that type of player or push her away. It will make her dig even deeper.

"One hundred percent," says Marxen. "From a player's standpoint, it makes you want to do your best, not only for yourself but for your teammates and your coaches. You welcome the coaching and the criticism because you want to be better."

She thinks back to that year away from basketball, when she was just a regular student at Idaho, working toward her degree, when her plans were focused on post-college life, a career, not on playing basketball again. She knows how close she was to just moving on.

And you think a practice in February is going to get her down? Marxen is playing with house money now. That's where the joy comes from. "I'm so grateful I made that decision and have had this experience," she says, "to have this extra time to keep playing and be in this program and this community."

That's all Holsinger wants when and if he looks to the transfer portal for future Lady Griz. Can she help Montana on the court, help the Lady Griz be better as a program? And can she thrive in the environment he's created, the team culture he's built?

"We've been very fortunate to make the match," he says. "Every kid is different and wants something different. We're not for everybody but we try to find the kids who do want what we have to offer."

Espenmiller-McGraw never would have dreamt it -- Montana? -- four years ago. She wouldn't have needed to. She was already living the dream, a freshman starter at Iowa State. But situations change, life evolves, goes off script, injuries happen, programs move on.

Sometimes a girl needs to be open to new opportunities, to be brave enough to say, you know what, I'm going to go for it. And then a few months later, when it's already close to coming to an end, it's all you can do to wish it could last forever.

"That makes my story and my journey out to Montana a little more special for me, knowing I was able to play one final year and have a big impact on a team," she says. "That means a lot to me.

"It's gone too fast. I've talked to my mom about this. I don't think I could have gone anywhere else and enjoyed it and been as happy as I've been here. It's been really special for me. I've loved every second of it."

For those who've watched her -- and Marxen -- play as a Lady Griz, they could say the same thing. Because it's not always only the players who are left wanting more.

University of Montana Athletics

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MJ Bruno

Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw

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Gina Marxen

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