Lady Griz looking to take the next step

The Lady Griz open their season with a team practice on Sept. 24, 2024 at Dahlberg Arena.

Photo by: Tommy Martino/University of Montana

9/25/2024 6:07:00 PM | Women's Basketball

2024-25 Prospectus

By: Montana Sports Information

When Montana women's basketball coach Brian Holsinger was hired in the spring of 2021, he was essentially handed a checklist, things that had been done with regularity back in the Days of Selvig but had slipped since the hall of fame coach's retirement in 2016.

It would have been overwhelming to most, the hill too steep, the expectations too high, this task of taking a program that has a storied history with few peers on the national level and returning it to its former glory.

But that was the appeal for the coach, who spent more than a dozen seasons as an assistant at Washington State and Oregon State, preparing for the time he'd once again lead a program, for the first time since 2006-07, his first Division I team.

He embraced it, embraced it all, those expectations, the invested fan base that is loyal to its core but was getting restless, the bright spotlight on his position and his program, the weight that comes with everything being viewed through a prism that uses the successful past as a baseline for moving forward.

It's the college football model but applied to women's basketball, a rare thing indeed. That's what he took on, what he wanted, the pressure but also the chance to build not something from the ground up but to use the foundation that still remained and make the Lady Griz the Lady Griz again.

He needed patience. We all did, because he needed time, recruiting with an eye on the future, one, two, three years ahead while getting everything he could out of his first team. Then his second. Then his third, the one last season that won 23 games, the most since the Selvig Era.

The boxes started getting checked, slowly at first, then more quickly, three words – hadn't happened since – becoming the norm with each week's games, a sign that the work put in was being rewarded.

* Twenty wins in a season, hadn't happened since 2015-16
* Spot in a national tournament, hadn't happened since 2014-15
* Big Sky Conference tournament win, hadn't happened since 2017-18
* National tournament win, hadn't happened since 2013-14
* Three All-Big Sky selections, hadn't happened since 2008-09
* Thirteen league wins, hadn't happened since 2014-15
* Ten true road wins, hadn't happened since 2008-09

Last year was close. So, so close. Three games out of first, behind Eastern Washington, the team Montana was in a one-possession game with on the road with less than a minute left and held a six-point, fourth-quarter lead over at home, only to drop both.

The Lady Griz defeated Idaho at the Big Sky tournament in Boise, another box checked, buried Boise State at home 92-66 in the opening round of the WNIT. Another box.

The tallest task still out there, waiting to be accomplished: Win a Big Sky championship. Then do it again. And again. And repeat until everyone else in the league asks with exasperation: Them again? Yep, them again, just like the good old days.

"We're close. We're really close," said Holsinger, whose team opened the 2024-25 season on Tuesday with its first official practice.

"We're at a place where we've built the talent up to compete for championships year in and year out. We have the players and the type of people that it takes to win championships."

Last year was unlike any other in Lady Griz history, not the 23 wins but the way they arrived, from the 3-point line, Montana going 10 for 26 from the arc in its season-opener against Gonzaga and never looking back.

That team would make 357 from the 3-point line, by far the most in program history and the fifth-most in Big Sky history, four players making 50 or more, seven hitting at least 25, more than 47 percent of the team's shots for the season coming from 22 feet or deeper, sometimes much deeper.

Montana would average 10.8 makes for the season, a number that ranked second in the nation behind only Iowa, the team maxing out with 19 makes in a home win over Sacramento State.

It wasn't a tactic of last resort, the only thing the team could do. It was the team's primary weapon, the Lady Griz shooting 38.5 percent from the arc, the fourth-best percentage in the nation. If a coach's job is to develop a style of play that highlights the team's strengths, Holsinger and the Lady Griz nailed it.

"Basketball isn't rocket science," he said. "You look at the numbers and the percentages and go, okay, we're shooting this type of percentage from three, so we need to shoot more.

"We had the initial goal of being more inside-out, but as the season wore on, we figured out our strength was to play really fast and space the floor and drive it and kick it. We shot such a good percentage, we just needed to keep on shooting."

But there was something missing, a championship element, a defensive mindset and stoutness that comes to the fore in a close game, the unit on the floor declaring: No way. This game is ours. We're going to win it and send you on your way.

Montana held a 12-point halftime lead at Northern Colorado and lost. Held a 14-point first-half lead at Montana State and lost. Had the two nip-and-tuck games against Eastern Washington, which had that something special last year and ran with it to the Big Sky championship and NCAA tournament.

"We did some things really well last year, scoring the ball, shooting the ball. And there were some things that weren't up to what I want our program to be on the defensive end. You have to get all those things clicking to win championships."

Holsinger's fourth team won't look like his third team and not just because Carmen Gfeller, Gina Marxen and Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw were lost to graduation.

The team will once again have four players who could make 50 or more 3-pointers this season – Dani Bartsch and Mack Konig, who did so last year, and newcomers Tyler McCliment-Call and Aby Shubert, transfers from Stephen F. Austin and Xavier, respectively.

The biggest difference, both stylistically and visually, will be the interior presence that this year's team will have, between transfer Izabella Zingaro, the improving Alex Pirog and the returning-to-full-health Imogen Greenslade, all of them 6-foot-3 or taller.

"This team looks completely different, mainly because of the inside post play," said Holsinger, who knows the best way to defeat an opposing team's game plan is to have options.

Last year's team had fast as its first option, then faster and fastest as its next two. "This year's team will play to how we're defended," Holsinger added. "Last year teams tried to slow us down while we tried to increase the number of possessions every game.

"This year's team may very well shoot well from three again, but it will look different. We're way bigger inside, way stronger and we'll score a lot more around the rim."

Three starters return, the Lady Griz in capable hands because of it, with seniors Dani Bartsch and MJ Bruno back for their final season, point guard Mack Konig for her junior year.

"The leadership this year with Dani and MJ, and even Mack being a third-year player, the leadership and culture are as strong as ever," said Holsinger.

"Dani and MJ are two of the more competitive kids on our team. That's what I think our team will be this year. I look for our program to be a little bit more consistent in the areas that lead to winning."

Bartsch was part of a four-player freshman class on Holsinger's first team, in 2021-22. She is the last one remaining, her numbers rising over the seasons like a hot stock, last year averaging 7.9 points and 10.4 rebounds to earn second-team All-Big Sky honors and a spot on the Big Sky All-Defensive Team.

Her 342 rebounds last season were a Lady Griz record, notable for a program that had rebounding dominance as a hallmark under Selvig. She led the Big Sky in that category, the first time that's happened for a Montana player since 1995-96.

She enters her final season 306 rebounds from 1,000 for her career, a milestone only six players in Big Sky history have reached.

It's been a pretty sweet career arc for a player that Holsinger inherited, Bartsch signing with the Lady Griz a few months before the coach was hired.

"The thing about Dani that is really unique is that I could see the potential, but a lot of time you say that as a coach, it never seems to come to fruition," he said.

"Credit to her, once she got here and concentrated on basketball, her competitiveness, how hard she plays, her willingness to be coachable, because of all of it she just continues to improve every year. When you're recruiting to replace her, you realize there are not that many Dani Bartschs out there."

The senior class, with Bartsch and Bruno and the addition of McCliment-Call, is why Holsinger is so high on the season ahead. They are his kind of players. And people.

"They've really bought in to how we try to do things," Holsinger said. "They know we try to do things a little differently in terms of being relational, holding yourself accountable and playing at a high level.

"They've bought into that and exemplify it in their actions. They've wrapped their arms around what I want this thing to be. They see the value of it."

McCliment-Call, who began her career at Portland, then spent the last three seasons at Stephen F. Austin, is a round peg fitting perfectly into a round hole, the ideal offseason acquisition in terms of culture fit and also the skillset she brings from the Ladyjacks to Lady Griz.

She had modest numbers at SFA a year ago, averaging 8.4 points and 4.9 rebounds, but she knocked down 101 3-pointers over her last two years at the school and is one of those players whose game and mentality tend to result in winning.

That Stephen F. Austin won 77 games and advanced to one NCAA tournament and one WNIT in three years with McCliment-Call on the roster was not coincidence. She makes things better, a team tougher, better positioned to win.

"She can score, she can shoot, she does a little bit of everything," said Holsinger. "She is very competitive and does not back down from anyone. She's been through the battle and been on good teams that have won championships. She wants to be part of another one."

That she is closer to her hometown of Spokane than she's ever been in college, that she is a pea in the right pod, it all points toward a player who will be the difference-maker that opposing teams never saw coming.

"Tyler really likes it here and has embraced what we are," said Holsinger. "She's really enjoyed the team aspect of what we do. My belief is that when someone is really enjoying where they are and are really comfortable, they will usually play their best. She's going to be a huge part of what we do."

The Lady Griz brought in two other transfers who will be heard from this season, Zingaro, a 6-foot-4 post player from Iowa State who hasn't played in a game since March 2023, and Shubert, who played limited minutes last year as a true freshman at Xavier after getting injured as a senior in high school.

Zingaro, who is on her way back to being made whole and loving the game again, just like Gina Marxen was when she joined the Lady Griz for her final two seasons, will give Montana the type of post presence the Lady Griz have not had since Hollie Tyler was intimidating the Big Sky two decades ago.

"She will without a doubt be a factor in the post," said Holsinger. "We're just continuing to help built her up and be confident in who she is and how she does things. She is talented, someone who can shoot it and has great touch around the rim. And her size is obviously a factor.

"She will contribute right away for us and will get better and better. She will look like a different player in January and February than she will in November, and, like Gina, she'll be even better in her second year."

Espenmiller-McGraw, with 83 makes, and Marxen, with 73, had two of the top three 3-point shooting seasons in program history last year. Shubert won't be asked to replace their 156 makes, but she will be the added threat to give Montana the inside-out balance that Holsinger wants.

Defend us how you wish. Just know you can't take away everything.

"Aby is a true sophomore and played sporadically last year coming off an injury, so she's in a different situation than Tyler and Izzi," said Holsinger. "She is continuing to learn our system and how we do things, but anytime she catches it, she is a threat to make a three, every single time."

If Montana is in good hands, in a more figurative sense, with its senior leaders, the Lady Griz also are in the good, capable hands of point guard Mack Konig, who already has 63 games and more than 1,600 minutes played to her credit.

All that experience has added up to make Konig, skilled from the day she set foot on campus two years ago, a savvy veteran by this point, the type of player who knows what needs to be done not just from her position but from the team perspective as well.

"She is better, more consistent now. She makes the right play way more often," said Holsinger. "That's just her game maturing and understanding what a point guard is and making the right play when it's needed."

Konig was the Big Sky Freshman of the Year in 2022-23 and last season had some remember when? games, like the time she went for 24 points and seven assists in Montana's road win at Northern Arizona. She ended the season scoring 10 or more points in 12 of the team's final 14 games.

"She is so much improved in all those decisions that go into being a point guard. She is more vocal because she knows what the right thing to do is and is turning into a leader and a really good teammate. She is more giving and has really grown as a human. I'm really proud of her. She's grown a ton."

The three transfers are only half of the new faces on the team, the other three being freshmen.

Avery Waddington, a 6-foot-3 guard from Coeur d'Alene who can operate anywhere from the paint to the arc, will immediately bring a number of questions to mind upon first seeing her play. Wait, she's only a freshman? Did Montana get the steal of the century? How did she get to be this good?

The answer to the first two: Yes. The answer to the third: Well, you'll have to wait until Friday to learn more.

"Avery has come in very prepared," said Holsinger. "She is strong, she is really long and she is really skilled. There are players who are good in high school but then are even better when they get to college because of the level of players around them.

"Since the summer, she has been really, really good and one of our better 3-point shooters. She's picked things up fast. The defensive side will be the hardest part for her to grasp, but from an offensive and competitive perspective, she is further along at this point than I would have thought."

Five-foot-nine guard Kavanah Lene didn't have the advantage of being in Missoula and practicing with her new teammates over the summer, something Holsinger views as a critical time for an incoming player, but Lene had a good excuse.

She was representing her home country of New Zealand at the FIBA U18 Women's Asia Cup in Shenzhen, China. That opportunity came less than a year after being named to the All-Star Five team at the FIBA U17 Oceania Championships in Papua New Guinea.

Lene didn't arrive in Missoula until mid-August. "If you can represent your country in anything, we want to give players the opportunity to do that," said Holsinger. "Coming in late, she's behind but physically she is ready. She is strong, she is fast, she can jump. She has all the physical attributes to be really good.

"It will take some time for her to adjust to two things, a new country and a higher expectation of doing the little things all the time. It will be an adjustment but we see flashes every day in practice. There is a wow to some of her moments."

Lauren Dick, who played at Hellgate High, joined the program two years ago as a walk-on and is entering her junior year. It's the path chosen by recent Hellgate grad Chloe Larsen, who passed on other opportunities to be part of her hometown Lady Griz.

"Chloe was with us this summer, which is unique for someone who walked on," said Holsinger. "She's been a great addition. The physicality and the speed have been an adjustment, but she's continued to get better and better. She competes hard and is very coachable.

"All three of the freshmen are really fun to be around. They are great kids who are kind, do the right thing and have a ton of character. They fit so well into the kind of people we want here."

The only time people saw Draya Wacker and Macy Donarski last season was in street clothes, sitting at the end of the bench for home games, cheering for their teammates as their bodies healed from knee injuries sustained in their first months as Lady Griz.

Wacker's injury occurred in 2022, a repeat of the injury she suffered as a junior at Melstone High. She needed the rest of the 2022-23 season and all of 2023-24 to return to (mostly) full health and to begin to regain the confidence that allowed her to score more than 2,000 points as a Bronc.

"Draya got through last year healthy. That was our main goal with her," said Holsinger, who will shift Wacker from her more natural position, shooting guard, to point guard. "She is looking stronger and more comfortable."

Donarski was injured last September, robbing Lady Griz fans of seeing a player who will soon enough become a crowd favorite. "The thing that will jump out right away is that she's a warrior," said Holsinger, who knows that trait is one that will endear anyone to the Dahlberg Arena faithful.

"She will defend as hard as anyone we have on our team. She is just a competitor. I'm excited to see how both players contribute to our team."

Sophomore Adria Lincoln, who is 6-foot-1 and looked college-ready from her first day on campus, played in 17 of 33 games last season, averaging 5.4 minutes.

She had her moments, like her 13-point, nine-rebound effort in a home win over Dickinson State, but she also discovered, like countless number of freshmen before her, that the college game is a different deal.

It doesn't care what you did in high school, only that you bring it today, right now, like you've never brought it before. And when you do it enough, that becomes the norm.

"She was like a lot of freshmen who come in and realize, okay, I have to play way harder than I ever thought," said Holsinger. "One reason I'm really proud of her is for accepting how important defense is. She's taken that to heart and gets it now. She's really turned the corner in how hard she plays.

"You have to give in to the fact it's going to be hard and it's going to take everything you've got on every possession. You've got to play with desperation on the defensive end and be calm, cool and collected on the offensive end. She has probably taken the biggest strides on our team in those two areas."

That's it. That's the team Holsinger will take to Spokane in early November, when Montana opens the season playing at Gonzaga on Tuesday, Nov. 5, a program that has done the kind of box-checking the Lady Griz are trying to do: conference heavyweight, NCAA tournament regular.

Come to think of it, Montana has not defeated Gonzaga in nearly 20 years, since 2006. The Selvig Era. Feels like the type of box that needs to be checked off, the next step in the Lady Griz becoming the Lady Griz once again.