20 Years Later: A Look Back on Montana's Magic March Moment

Larry Krystkowiak led the Montana Grizzlies onto the floor of the Jon M. Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City, Utah 20 years ago. The Grizzly Hall of Famer, who still to this day is the all-time leader in points and rebounds at Montana, couldn't have known then that he would be coaching his penultimate game at Montana.

He couldn't have known that five years later, he would return to this same building to serve for a decade as the head coach at Utah. He didn't even know what he would be wearing two days later when his 12-seed Montana team would play in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament against Boston College. You can't think that far ahead in March, where your playing life survives one day at a time.

Krystkowiak did know one thing. He had a terrific basketball team with NCAA Tournament experience from the year before that wouldn't be afraid of the nationally ranked Nevada team that stood in their way.

Two hours later the Grizzlies etched their name in Montana and Big Sky Conference history, winning 87-79 to advance to the Second Round. The team, which is still the last from the Big Sky to win a game at March Madness, celebrated its 20-year anniversary this season by being inducted into the Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame.

The fact that they enter Griz history as a group is a fitting testament to a group of young men that did everything for each other in that magical run in 2006.

"Here we are going into the Hall of Fame as a team, which is kind of the essence of what we always hung our hat on just doing it collectively," Krystkowiak said. "Some guys had to sacrifice some things individually for the betterment of the team, but I think it allowed us to win a lot more games."

Krystkowiak returned a solid core of players in his second year as Montana's head coach. He inherited a team that had back-to-back losing seasons, still the only time since the late 60s that has happened at Montana. His team, picked 4^th in the preseason poll, would go on to finish 2^nd and win the Big Sky Tournament in Portland, Ore.

They would make the NCAA Tournament that year as a 16-seed and face off against 1-seed Washington. The Grizzlies faced a large deficit at halftime but rallied late and lost 88-77. The experience would prove very valuable for the four starters and six letterwinners that Montana returned in 2005-06.

After a road loss to Boise State in the season opener, the Grizzlies rattled off 10 straight wins. They won 88-69 over Stanford, the 13^th ranked team in the preseason AP Poll. They won at Drake, which finished 7^th in the Missouri Valley that year. Northern Iowa and Bradley, who tied for 5^th in the league, were both NCAA Tournament teams.

Their only other loss in non-conference play came to Milwaukee, which finished its season with 22 wins, including an NCAA Tournament victory over Oklahoma. They were 10-2 entering conference play but had one additional "Bracket Buster" non-conference game on Feb. 18 that they won over Oral Roberts.

The immediate success for the team could largely be attributed to the continuity in the roster, and that early season success played a huge role in Montana landing the 12-seed, which is still tied for the best seed by a Big Sky team since 1985.

"The amount of guys that we had back and the great coaching and leadership that we had from the 2005 team was huge," sophomore guard Matt Martin said. "We kind of knew what to do the second year. I really think you need some luck, you need hard work, but also then who you play you need to do well. That was a big part of our 12-seed was we had a hellacious schedule, and we won some good games."

Montana had one of the most efficient offenses in the country that season behind impressive depth and experience. They averaged 79.0 points per game, the 3^rd most in program history, while ranking in the top five in the country in both field goal percentage (.492) and assists (18.2 per game).

The Grizzlies outrebounded their opponents in 20 games, shot over 50 percent from the floor in 16 games, and only had a negative turnover margin nine times. They shared the ball well and took efficient shots all season long.

"We did a lot of the things that you are supposed to do to have a successful team," Krystkowiak said. "I don't think we ever consciously talked it as a team all the good things we were doing, we just kept doing them."

Sophomore forward Andrew Strait led the way in scoring and rebounding at 16.6 points and 6.4 rebounds per game. Senior guards Kevin Criswell (16.1) and Virgil Matthews (10.1) also averaged double figures on 4-plus rebounds per game.

They had nine players appear in 28-plus games that year with freshman Jordan Hasquet, junior Matt Dlouhy, and sophomore Matt Martin getting turns in the starting rotation. Mike Chavez from Heart Butte, Mont. and Bryan Ellis from Detroit, Mich. were both impactful off the bench, as were Kyle Sharp and Stuart Mayes.

The group, which Krystkowiak said were "misfits" in many ways spanned from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest, from Missoula to Heart Butte, and had plenty of different life backgrounds. Despite that, everyone interviewed for this story referenced the team's chemistry as the trait that led to them having so much success.

"It's tough to really put a finger on but it goes back to the chemistry," Strait, the team's leading scorer out of Yakima, Wash. said. "We were young but had some strong seniors with Kevin and Virgil and it's just about catching lighting in a bottle. We had the right mix of guys, the right mentality, and we had that top to bottom with the roster."

The team did have to deal with the loss of presumed starting center John Seyfert out of Stevensville, Mont. Seyfert, who averaged 5 points and 4 rebounds his junior year, injured his knee in the offseason and missed the entire year.

The injury shifted Strait up to the starting five spot and allowed for more development from the 6-9 redshirt-freshman Hasquet. The talented Missoulian was part of an impressive class when combined with Strait and Martin. The Grizzlies also had a solid group of upperclassmen from previous coach Pat Kennedy.

"Kennedy did know how to recruit because he recruited me, Andrew Strait, and Matt Martin and we all ended up being 1,000-point scorers so you have to give him the nod on recruiting," Hasquet said. "But Krysko came in as a Montana legend, and you just didn't want to cross him. It was his team and he was turning us in a new direction."

The Grizzlies went 10-4 in league play with all four losses coming on the road. They finished 2^nd place in the league standings behind Northern Arizona but defeated the Lumberjacks in Missoula in the final game of the regular season to earn a first-round bye at the Big Sky Tournament.

The flight to Phoenix for the Big Sky Tournament would start a month-long stretch that would prove to be life changing for everyone involved with the Montana team. They flew to Phoenix a day early behind the backing of the team's Grizzly Roundball Club.

Krystkowiak said that the extra time not only allowed Montana to adjust to the travels but was team bonding that was needed at the end of a long season. Martin still remembers the steak dinner that he had in Phoenix just a day before the conference tournament opened that would kick off one of the best months of his life.

"The NCAA Tournament time and conference tournament was just a blur," Martin said. "But it was the best month that anyone could ever ask for."

Forget winning a game at the Big Dance, just making it there was a very difficult task. The Grizzlies faced Eastern Washington in the semifinals of the conference tournament. The Eagles, led by future NBA player Rodney Stuckey and his 24.2 points per game, gave the Grizzlies all they could handle.

Eastern Washington overcame an 8-point halftime deficit and had the ball on the final possession with a chance to upset the defending champion Grizzlies. Stuckey, who finished the game with 26 points, missed at the buzzer and the Griz would go on to win in overtime.

In the championship game, Montana rolled over host Northern Arizona to punch their ticket for the second straight season. Matthews led the Grizzlies with 21 points on 7-of-8 shooting and Hasquet, who had scored 30 against NAU in the regular season finale, had a 20-point, 13-rebound double-double in the title game.

After the game, Hasquet went live on ESPN for a post-game interview that would be just the start of the national media attention that this team would draw for the next two weeks.

"I remember the next thing I know ESPN is interviewing me and they called my dad onto the floor and I'm talking to him and a couple of ESPN guys at the same time," Hasquet said. "My head was kind of blown with that."

Montana had an impressive resume at 23-6 overall with some signature non-conference wins, but in six of the last nine years the Big Sky had received a 15 or 16 seed. The Grizzlies had been in that boat just a year prior.

But when the selection show revealed the bracket and showed that Montana would be a 12-seed and playing against the WAC Champion Nevada?

"It wasn't spoken, but I think there was just a feeling of like, we got this," Strait said. "We were a 16-seed my freshman year, lost to a really good Washington team but played them tough. The 12-seed and the draw we got playing Nevada, it wasn't a lack of respect for that team and who they were, but it was more about confidence in ourselves."

Montana spent a long time waiting in the locker room before the opening tip as the game before them, featuring No. 4 Boston College and No. 13 Pacific, went to double overtime. Just another wrinkle of the NCAA Tournament format where one venue hosts multiple games in a day.

The Grizzlies had to sit with their nerves for longer, but Krystkowiak had a message for his team before they took to the floor. An intense presence on the sideline and in the locker room, he made it clear that Nevada, which had won 14 straight games and had three wins NCAA Tournament in the previous two years, were overlooking this bunch out of Missoula.

"He said, 'Guys, my wife was at the store earlier shopping for a tie for me for the game. She saw the Nevada coaches there as well and they were buying two ties, one for this game and one for the next. I told her I only need one because we are taking this game-by-game.' He had kind of a unique way of motivating a group," Martin said.

Krystkowiak led the team out in a navy suit with a diamond-patterned tie, one that would survive the game, something that didn't always happen with Krysko. "If you've ever seen a guy rip a tie, that's pretty intense," Hasquet said.

He had a plan for his team in the game, conjured up with his staff featuring future Montana and Oregon State head coach Wayne Tinkle, future Montana State head coach Brad Huse, and current Washington associate head coach Andy Hill.

Hasquet won the opening tip, and Montana went right to Strait at the low block. Montana's leading scorer delivered with a jump hook that found the bottom of the net. On the next possession, Strait faked left, ducked under the WAC Player of the Year Nick Fazekas, and dropped it in.

Montana didn't trail the rest of the way. They used a 9-0 run early in the first half to take a 17-8 lead. Chavez came off the bench and gave the Griz their first double-digit lead at 21-10.

The offense didn't slow down the entire first half as Montana made nearly 60 percent of its shots and took a 40-33 lead into the locker rooms.

"I remember being in the locker room and we all didn't say a whole lot," Martin said. "It was kind of just like, are we really playing with these guys? And then the second half happened and as Coach K would say, the pucker factor. They started to tighten up."

The crowd also started to turn on the higher seed. The arena was sold out and as the upset drew nearer and nearer, the crowd continued to pull harder for it.

The Wolf Pack went on a couple of runs in the second half, mostly behind the play of guard Marcelus Kemp and his career high 34 points. Jim Spanarkel, a former Duke All-American who called the game for CBS alongside Ian Eagle, said in the second half "if not for Kemp this afternoon this thing would have been over a while ago."

But every time that Kemp and Nevada started to pull close, the Grizzlies would hit a big shot.

A steal-and-slam by Nevada cut the Grizzly lead to 49-46 and forced a timeout from Krystkowiak. The Grizzlies came out of the break and drew up a play for a Hasquet three, which the freshman calmly buried. He did it again later in the half, stopping an 8-0 Nevada run with his fourth made three of the game.

Nevada climbed back again and cut the Grizzly lead to 63-60, but once again Montana rose to the occasion and hit a big triple. This time it was Matthews who ended the Wolf Pack run with his second made three. Matthews and Hasquet combined to go 6-of-7 from the arc with all 18 of those points massive in the flow of the game.

The triples were timely, but Strait was the MVP of the game with a team-high 22 points. He also recorded a career high with 7 assists and added 5 rebounds. Against a Nevada frontcourt that featured 7'1" David Ellis, 7'0" Chad Bell, and 6'11" Nick Fazekas, it was the Grizzly forward that dominated the day.

"I think a lot of times when you have that much size underneath, you compromise on some of the strategy defensively," Strait said. "I was able to use some head fakes, find some angles, and take what the defense gave me. They were playing straight up, 1-on-1, so just some experimentation on working to get open."

The Grizzlies started to pull away late and everyone in the building could sense that the upset was coming to fruition when the Grizzlies connected on a football pass over the top to break the Nevada press, get a Matthews slam on the break, and take a 76-65 lead in the final minutes.

"You had that momentum and when things just kept going our way, I think once we got up 8 or 10 or something, you felt like this was going to happen," Martin said.

For Hasquet, it wasn't a moment in the game that led him to believe that his team was going to win. He knew from Selection Sunday when the game was announced.

"I remember sitting there as a group and the second that we got picked and it came out as a 12-5 against Nevada, we were looking at each other like, 'We're going to the second round.' We knew they were good, but we just had a feeling and there wasn't really any doubt," Hasquet said. "We led the entire game so there wasn't really a doubt during the game either."

The Grizzlies had one of their best days at the free throw line all season, going 23-of-27 (.852) from the stripe to help maintain the lead to the final buzzer. The Grizzlies would score 47 points in the second half to beat Nevada 87-79 and advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

There would be chaos in the hours and days to follow as the Grizzlies captured the attention of the nation, as all Cinderella stories tend to do in those months where the snow starts to melt and all eyes turn their attention on 64 lines on a bracket.

In the middle of that chaos, Krystkowiak found a moment of peace. He returned to the team hotel, went to his room, and poured himself a hot bath. This legend of the program, who watched on TV as an 11-year in 1975 and cried as the Grizzlies fell 67-64 in the Sweet 16 to John Wooden and eventual NCAA Champion UCLA, thought on what team had just done.

"I get goosebumps still just thinking about it," Krystkowiak said. "I had a lot of thoughts kind of flash back that we had just accomplished something that I knew could make every Montanan proud and the Big Sky Conference proud. We even made a bit of noise on the national level, so it's probably as rewarding of an individual game that I can remember being a part of."

The players were thrust into a whirlwind of national attention. "The next day we wake up and it is on the cover of USA Today," Martin remembers. The team had to attend press conferences and field phone calls from national media. And all the while prepare for #7 Boston College and its three future NBA players.

"It all happened so fast," Strait said. "You want to celebrate the moment, but the pace at which things were moving it was hard to step back and take inventory of where you are and what was happening. We very quickly were thrust into this place of higher visibility."

For the University of Montana, the game capped off a decade of great athletic success. The Grizzlies had won Division I-AA National Championships in football in 1995 and 2001 and appeared in the title game again in 2004.

Despite football taking over as the biggest sport on campus, and the level of national success that the program enjoyed, nothing compared to the buzz around this win in March.

"I remember (former Montana SID) Dave Guffey telling me that in all his years covering football, this one game has received more media attention for the school than a national championship in football," Martin said. "We couldn't believe it; it was just crazy."

The make-up of Montana's team played a large part in the attention that they received. Chavez was the only Native player in the tournament that season. Ellis came to Montana from Detroit by way of Salt Lake Community College. They had Stuart Mayes from Elkhart, Ind., three Californians on the roster, and a hometown kid who was a third-generation Grizzly hooper.

"We were a really diverse group of people," Martin, from Spearfish, S.D. said. "It was a cool story that I think a lot of people really gravitated towards."

In the Second Round against Boston College, Montana jumped out to an impressive start yet again. They pulled ahead 9-7 early and were up for much of the first half before falling behind 32-30 at the halftime break.

The bigger and more athletic Eagles were able to soar away in the second half, winning by an eventual score of 69-56 to end Montana's March run.

The Grizzlies already had a place in history, one that grows increasingly fabled with each passing year as no Big Sky team has won at the Big Dance since that 2006 squad. The longer that drought extends, the more special what that team was able to accomplish becomes.

"We haven't seen anybody else do that in the 20 years since which I think is pretty surprising but also a testament to how special that team was."

The 2026 version of the NCAA Tournament will officially tip off this Thursday with First Four games being played Tuesday and Wednesday. As the calendar turns to March, the former Grizzlies start to think back on that special day 20 years ago.

"It was a once in a lifetime type deal for a mid-major school to do something like that. It's funny, this time of the year always brings back so many memories from being involved with that," Martin said. "It's just kind of the cliché that you don't realize in the moment what you are doing and how it is going to impact so many people for so long."

The team was able to reunite this fall for the Hall of Fame ceremony, getting the entire roster back together for the first time since that season. The team was honored at halftime of a football game and took part in the Hall of Fame ceremony the night before with Krystkowiak speaking on behalf of the team.

He said that he always stressed to the team that true enjoyment of basketball is the locker room and the relationships. Most years you won't remember the wins or the losses, but you will remember the people you spent all the hours with in the gym, the weightroom, a bus, or wherever else you find yourself.

"Then it becomes somewhat magical when you have the same memories and relationships, but you're also able to have success," Krystkowiak said. "Then it's kind of off the charts and you really reach the promised land, and you can't imagine it being a whole lot better."

The team gathered at Red's Bar when they were back in town, reminiscing on the memories from that season. Hasquet had DVD copies of the game, and the bar played several games from that season back, including the full broadcast of the Nevada game.

That game sticks with the players, even to this day. Strait said that he recently chatted with a woman wearing a Nevada sweatshirt on a vacation in Sun River, Ore. that remembered him from the game. The same goes for Martin.

"Obviously life goes on, but even still to this day I run into people that talk about that game," Martin said. "I was glad that we got inducted into the Hall of Fame this year."

It's those types of memories that make what the team did so special, not just to the coaches and players that were in the locker room in Salt Lake in 2006, but to everyone associated with Grizzly basketball over the program's long, rich history.

Krystkowiak set records that will likely never be touched in program history, but he never had the chance to play in the NCAA Tournament. The win was for his previous teammates. It was for the state of Montana. It was for the 11-year-old kid watching at home, dreaming that someday he might get his chance to lead the Grizzlies to March glory.

"Our game wasn't just about our team, but also about the coaches that I played for and the teammates that I had," Krystkowiak said. "We never had the chance to go to an NCAA Tournament, but I just felt a really strong connection. Honestly, that was something that drove me as a coach was just knowing that you're playing and coaching for something far bigger than you are."

2005-06 MONTANA MEN'S BASKETBALL ROSTER
#2 Jordan Hasquet (Missoula, Mont.)
#3 Austin Swift (Santa Cruz, Calif.)
#5 Eric Van Vliet (Santa Cruz, Calif.)
#10 Bryan Ellis (Detroit, Mich.)
#11 Matt Dlouhy (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho)
#12 Kevin Criswell (Colstrip, Mont.)
#20 Greg Spurgetis (Spokane, Wash.)
#22 Matt Martin (Spearfish, S.D.)
#23 Stuart Mayes (Elkhart, Ind.)
#30 Mike Chavez (Heart Butte, Mont.)
#33 John Seyfert (Stevensville, Mont.)
#34 Andrew Strait (Yakima, Wash.)
#40 Kyle Sharp (Hollister, Calif.)
#44 Virgil Matthews (Spanaway, Wash.)

Head Coach: Larry Krystkowiak
Assistant Coaches: Andy Hill, Brad Huse, Wayne Tinkle

University of Montana Athletics

20 Years Later: A Look Back on Montana's Magic March Moment

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