Griz Hoops opens season with two home games

Montana vs. Northwest Indian
Monday, Nov. 3 / 7:00 PM / Watch / Live Stats / Tickets

Montana vs. Ottawa (AZ)
Wednesday, Nov. 5 / 7:00 PM / Live Stats / Tickets

PREVIEW
The Montana Grizzly men's basketball team will get the season officially underway on Monday when they welcome Northwest Indian College into Dahlberg Arena. The Griz follow it up two days later with a first-time matchup against Ottawa (AZ).

The games will both tip off at 7:00 p.m. The Northwest Indian game will be streamed on ESPN+ with the Ottawa game only available via radio.

Head coach Travis DeCuire, now in his 12^th season, will bring another new-look team to the floor in 2025-26 and should get plenty of opportunity to get his new guys run as the Grizzlies begin the campaign with two non-division-1 opponents.

There are three players back this season that played minutes on the 2024-25 Championship team and six returners overall. DeCuire added eight newcomers in the offseason, six transfers and two freshmen.

Monday night should see plenty of Grizzly debuts as DeCuire and the staff figure out rotations coming out of fall practices.

The Grizzlies have won seven straight games inside Dahlberg Arena and have won eight straight home openers. Coach DeCuire has lost the first home game of the season just once in his previous 11 years.

This will be the third straight season that Montana has played Northwest Indian. The Griz won 107-59 back in 2023 and 94-44 last year.

Montana, the preseason favorites in the Big Sky Conference as voted on by both the league's head coaches and media, have won 49 games over the previous two years. DeCuire, the program's all-time winningest coach, is looking to add to his record total and reach the postseason yet again.

It will all start on Monday evening inside Dahlberg Arena in the first of eight home non-conference games. They will play four Division-I opponents in Missoula and four non-D1, beginning with Northwest Indian and Ottawa.

The first big test of the season will come in just over a week's time when they hit the road for a trip that includes games at Stanford and UNLV on Nov. 8 and 11.

HOME OPENER SUCCESS
The Grizzlies have won the previous eight home openers dating back to 2016 and are 10-1 in the first home game of the season under Travis DeCuire. They have outscored opponents 891-629 in the 11 years, winning by an average margin of 23.8 points per game.

Montana is 22-3 in home openers this century. The three losses have come by a combined eight points. This is the second time that Montana has played Northwest Indian in the home opener in the last three years. It's the 8^th home opener against a non-D1 opponent that the Griz have played under DeCuire.

DEFENDING DAHLBERG ARENA
Montana went 15-1 at home last season inside Dahlberg Arena. When playing on Robin Selvig Court over the previous two seasons, the Grizzlies are 28-4 (.875) overall. It's tied for the 33^rd best home winning percentage in the NCAA and the best in the Big Sky.

Under head coach Travis DeCuire, the Grizzlies have an .807 home winning percentage.

WILLIAMS NAMED PRESEASON MVP
Junior guard Money Williams was named the Big Sky Conference Preseason MVP, as voted on by the league's head coaches and media. He joins Ahmaad Rorie as the only two players in program history to earn the honor.

Williams was the Top Reserve in the league and a 2^nd Team All-Big Sky pick in 2024-25. He went on to earn a spot on the All-Tournament team as Montana won three games in Boise to punch its ticket to the NCAA Tournament.

He led the team in scoring at 13.2 points per game and in assists at 3.1 last season, and is expected to take on an even larger role with the team after the departures of guards Malik Moore, Kai Johnson, and Brandon Whitney.

Williams was the only player in the league to be a unanimous Preseason All-Big Sky selection.

GRIZ TABBED AS PRESEASON FAVORITES
The Big Sky head coaches and media both picked Montana as the conference favorites in the league's annual preseason poll. The Grizzlies received 78 points and six first-place votes in the Coaches' Poll and 323 points and 21 first-place votes in the Media Poll.

They edged out Portland State in both polls as the Vikings, who return three preseason All-Conference selections, received 72 points and three first-place votes from the coaches and 302 points and nine first-place votes from the media.

Northern Colorado and Idaho were three and four, in that order, in both polls.

This is the third time overall under DeCuire and second straight year that Montana has been voted first by the league's coaches. It's the fourth time in 12 years for DeCuire that his team has been picked as the favorites by the league's media.

BACK-TO-BACK 24-WIN SEASONS
Montana is in a rare grouping of teams that have won at least 24 games over the previous two seasons. There are only 28 programs in the country that have two straight 24+ win seasons, and only 10 mid-major programs have accomplished the feat.

The Griz join UC Irvine, Drake, McNeese State, High Point, St. Mary's, Akron, College of Charleston, Gonzaga, and Norfolk State as the only mid-majors with at least 24 wins in each of the previous two seasons.

GRIZ NOTES

Montana was 20-1 last season when shooting better than its opponent from the 3-point line.
DeCuire is 6-5 overall in season openers. He is 6-0 when the first game of the season comes at home and 0-5 when the first game of the season is on the road.
The Grizzlies will debut new Nike N7 uniforms this season. They went 2-0 in the turquoise set last year. The Grizzlies were 13-1 in their home white uniforms, 8-4 in the maroon, and 2-4 in the gray uniforms.
Montana played four of its final five games of the season on national television last year. The Grizzlies were 3-0 in games played on ESPN2.
There are six transfers on this year's roster, the second largest transfer class in program history. The only larger group was last year's transfer class of eight.
Last year, Montana had four 1,000-point scorers on the roster. This season, Te'Jon Sawyer is the leading scorer with 724 points in his career. There are several Grizzlies that could reach the 1K mark by the end of the season.

COLLEGEINSIDER.COM MID-MAJOR TOP 25
Montana is starting the 2025-26 season at the same spot they finished the previous year in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25. In the final version of the season released on March 17, Montana slotted in at No. 21. They open this year at No. 21 as well.

BIG SKY CHAMPS AGAIN
Montana won the 2025 Big Sky Conference Tournament for a record-extending 12th time this season. The Grizzlies have more Big Sky Tournament Championships than any other school, and have also won the most games (51) at the tournament.

It was the third title under DeCuire in six appearances in the championship game. He's reached the title game in 60 percent of his tournament appearances, winning it in 30 percent.

The Grizzlies have 18 wins at the Big Sky Conference Tournament under Coach DeCuire. It's the 14th most conference tourney wins in the NCAA in that time.

Montana also shared the regular season championship with Northern Colorado. It was the 13th regular season Big Sky Championship for Montana, the 2nd most in league history.

The Grizzlies have now won seven Big Sky Regular Season Championships this century, more than any other school in the Big Sky. The 13 titles trail only Weber State, who have the most all time with 22. The Wildcats won eight of the first 10 championships from 1964-73.

This is the longest time between trophies for Montana since going eight years from 1978 to 1986.

CONTINUING THE SUCCESS IN 2025
In the calendar year 2025, Montana has seen incredible success. The Grizzlies are 18-4 since Jan. 1. The .818 winning percentage is the best in a calendar year for the program this century and tied with Colorado State for the 16^th best winning percentage in all of college basketball in 2025.

DeCUIRE BREAKS DAHLBERG'S RECORD
Head coach Travis DeCuire won his 222nd career game at Sacramento State on Feb. 27, 2025. The win pushed DeCuire ahead of George "Jiggs" Dahlberg for the program record.

In 12 seasons, DeCuire's teams have averaged over 20.5 wins per year, and they have reached the 20-win mark for the sixth time under DeCuire last season. DeCuire earned his second career Big Sky Coach of the Year award at the end of the season.

TWO-YEAR STRETCH OF SUCCESS
Montana won 49 games from the previous two seasons. It is the fourth most in a two-year span in program history. The 2018 and 2019 teams won 52 games, followed by 50 wins from the teams in '91 & '92 and '12 & '13.

The 49 wins tied for the 29th most in the NCAA during that time, and it is the 16th among mid-major teams.

THE .500 STREAK
Montana is one of just 14 teams in the entire country that has been .500 or better in 17 straight seasons. The Grizzlies have reached 20 wins 10 times in the previous 16 years, and have reached the 20-win mark 26 times in program history.

Montana has had just one losing season in the last 20 years, and they have also had just five losing seasons in the previous half century. Since 1970, Montana has gone .500 or better 49 times.

FROM THE BAY TO THE ZOO
Montana has a long-line of successful players that call the Bay Area home, and this year is no different. There are five Montana players from the area in California on this year's roster; Te'Jon Sawyer (San Francisco), Money Williams (Oakland), Tyler Thompson (Fairfield), Tyler Isaak (Danville), and Courtney Anderson Jr. (Vallejo). Several other Griz greats, including Sayeed Pridgett, Will Cherry and David Bell, have come from Oakland. Sawyer is the first Montana player to have called San Francisco home since Griz legend Delvon Anderson.

Sayeed Pridgett (18-19), Will Cherry (12-13), and Delvon Anderson (91-92) were all impactful players on those six championships. DeCuire also spent six seasons as an assistant coach at the University of California in Berkeley and associate head coach Chris Cobb was born and raised in the Bay Area.

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Players Mentioned

Courtney Anderson Jr.

Tyler Isaak

Kai Johnson

Malik Moore

Te'Jon Sawyer

Tyler Thompson

Brandon Whitney

Money Williams

University of Montana Athletics