Photo by: Todd Goodrich
The Hall of Famers :: Will Cherry
9/10/2026 3:15:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Will Cherry calls from the road. He's been traveling, he explains, for a cup game with his current professional team, Dorados de Chihuahua. The man that inspired crowds of Grizzly fans from 2009-13 is still lacing up his sneakers to play the game he loves.
And he's still the same old Will, the guy that earned three First Team All-Big Sky honors and two Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year awards, the one that will enter the Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame on Friday night in Missoula.
He's still playing with the same fire, even as his professional career approaches teenage status, even after playing for nearly 20 teams across multiple continents. He's had peers retire, but for Cherry, this sport, the one that has given him so much, is his life.
"To be able to still play this game, to wake up and walk in the gym, to smell the air in the gym, to hear the fans, to touch a basketball, to be healthy," Cherry says. "I'm just blessed. I feel like I'm getting better as I'm aging. It also feels good to be able to give back to the game with the young guys."
Cherry's story starts in the 1990s in Oakland, where he grew up as a talented athlete playing multiple sports. He started playing organized basketball at seven and realized it was a "no-brainer" that this would be his passion.
His career took off at McClymonds High School, aka the Mack, in West Oakland, a school with a long history in basketball and the alma mater of NBA Hall of Famer Bill Russell. They had been missing one thing, however, which was an official state title in California.
On a team that featured several future D-I players, Cherry quickly climbed the ranks to the varsity squad. The dog of a defender that would go on to put the clamps on players like Damian Lillard while at Montana? He got his start doing the same thing in high school.
Cherry and his Mack teammates, during a perfect season in 2008, went into Oakland High and defeated Lillard and his Wildcats in double overtime, setting the stage for a rivalry that would carry into college.
Mack made history in 2008, going 32-0 and winning the California State Championship, becoming the No. 1 team in the country in the process. They were the first East Bay team to go undefeated in 38 years and brought joy to a city that had seen its share of violence, including in Cherry's own circle.
"We did amazing things for our city at the time," Cherry said. "There was a lot of crime going on in the Oakland area at the time, but when we played for just two-and-a-half hours man, the crime stopped. To this day, the things that we did not only for the state, but our city were very historical."
Naturally, the success of McClymonds brought national attention to West Oakland. College coaches were routinely spotted in the stands when Mack played, which on many occasions was at the gym at Laney Community College as Mack games got too big for their own gym on campus.
One of those coaches was Bill Evans, then an assistant for the Montana Grizzlies. Evans met Cherry's mother, Yvette Martin, at a Greyhound Bus station where she worked on a Wednesday night following one of Cherry's games. He didn't mince words.
"We want to offer your son a scholarship," Evans told Martin. "We want him on a visit this Friday."
Cherry could locate Montana on a map, but that was the extent of his knowledge on the Treasure State. Two days later, he was on a plane flying to Missoula.
He landed at the Missoula Airport and got a ride to campus. As anyone who has been to Missoula will tell you, the drive along the interstate, as the sun beats down on the M adorning Mount Sentinel and the river comes into view, can take your breath away.
For Cherry, it was the first indication that the preconceived notions he held of Montana may not be true.
"It was amazing because I thought it was a bunch of cowboys and hicks and that it was in the middle of nowhere. I was a city guy so I thought I can't be in the middle of nowhere," Cherry said. "Then as we drove in from the airport, the closer we got to (campus) you started seeing the city from the interstate. I thought, 'Wow, this is beautiful.'"
Always a competitor, Cherry had been on some visits already. He got the impression that the schools that he went to wanted to show how good the players they already had were during open gym.
At Montana, things were different.
"I came into a veteran-led team, and they made me feel so welcome in the open gym," Cherry said. "I had previous experiences on unofficial visits of guys not passing me the ball, not giving me a chance to show what I could do, but when I came to Montana, they gave me the ball and let me do my thing. They spoke life into me."
He competed with the team, toured the campus, met the coaching staff, all on a beautiful September weekend. The visit included a Grizzly football game during a season in which Montana would make a run to the FCS National Championship game.
If the visit was going well before that, seeing Washington-Grizzly Stadium packed and the support that the team received from the fanbase? "That's how they get you, they bring you up in September when it's hot. The football game was like something out of a movie," Cherry said.
He flew home on Sunday, committed on Monday.
Cherry was used to success. He lost just six games over his final three years at McClymonds under head coaches Dwight Nathaniel (Coach Moe) and Brandon Brooks (Coach Booze), two men that Cherry said were instrumental to his development.
The legacy of winning at Montana fit right in with what drove Cherry as a competitor. The Grizzlies were a veteran-heavy team his freshman year, led by an all-time great in Anthony Johnson.
For Cherry, getting to play big minutes alongside Johnson, and the rest of the veterans on that 2009-10 team, paid dividends.
"AJ was everything. Not only him, but Ryan Staudacher, Vassy Banny, Michael Taylor, Brian Qvale, Derek Selvig, those guys are everything," Cherry said. "It was a veteran led team, so it took a little while for me to get the starting job and Coach Tinkle took some flak for starting a freshman, but we saw how it turned out."
Johnson knew what type of player Cherry could be from very early on. In a season preview with the Montana Kaimin in 2009, Johnson said, "Will Cherry will be the best guard to ever come through here."
Cherry came off the bench in his first four games, but was elevated to a starting role when Montana traveled to Eugene to play Oregon. The Grizzlies upset the Pac-10 Ducks 68-55 with Cherry contributing eight points, three steals, and two assists.
He started off-and-on until February, when he took over a spot in the starting five for the rest of the season. Even at a young age, head coach Wayne Tinkle could tell that Cherry could develop into something very special at Montana.
"We gave him a lot of responsibility as a freshman knowing that those experiences would really pay off down the road. You just saw him get better every year," Tinkle said. "What we loved about Will was just the tenacity with which he played. What you saw come gametime was the same thing we saw in practice every day and that's not always the case. He was one that if you were keeping score, he wanted to win, even in something like sprints."
Montana would go 22-10 during Cherry's freshman year, which included a 10-6 mark in Big Sky play to earn the No. 4 seed at the Big Sky Tournament. They knocked off Northern Colorado in the semifinals to set up a showdown with Weber State on the Wildcats' home floor inside the Dee Events Center.
Weber State entered the title game 22-9. They had won 15 straight games at home, including a win over Utah and a 64-56 victory over Montana earlier in the season. They also had the Big Sky MVP that season, a graduate of Oakland High School named Damian Lillard.
The game will live on in Griz history. If you're reading this story, you can probably picture Anthony Johnson's second-half performance like the back of your hand. The senior guard put the team on his back, scoring 34 second-half points to lift Montana to the title.
At halftime, Cherry told Johnson he didn't need another shot the rest of the way. He would focus on distributing the ball and locking down Lillard, his old friend and high school rival.
Johnson led the charge, burying shot after shot to dig the Grizzlies out of the 40-20 halftime deficit. On the final offensive possession of the game, Johnson crossed up his defender and pulled from the right elbow, knocking down a jumper to give Montana a 66-65 lead.
It's a shot that likely sent drinks flying in every bar in downtown Missoula, but the Wildcats still had 10 seconds left and perhaps the best offensive talent that the league has ever seen on their side.
Lillard brought the ball up, crossed over onto the giant purple Wildcat at midcourt, and then fell to the ground. He had been cut off from the move, the ball stripped away by Cherry, who held on for dear life and earned a jump ball. Possession: Montana.
"I'll always remember this, when I get the tie up Ryan Staudacher was just jumping up and down because he saw the possession arrow was in our direction," Cherry said. "I've never let anybody call me Willy, but he just was shouting, 'Willy baby, I love you.'"
Cherry had checked off a lifelong goal of reaching the NCAA Tournament, but this Grizzly team wasn't done just yet. They earned a 14-seed and drew New Mexico, the No. 8 team in the country, in San Jose, Calif. in the first round.
Montana held the lead for much of the first half, but the Lobos responded in the second half to pull ahead by double digits. The gritty Griz team clawed right back, and after a missed free throw by the Lobos had the ball down three points with 22 seconds to play.
Cherry, who hauled in the rebound, soared to the other end of the floor, found an open lane, and attacked the basket. The layup went in-and-out, and the Lobos were able to close out the victory.
Following the game, some fans questioned why it was Cherry, not Johnson, who took the shot on what essentially amounted to Montana's final possession of the season.
"I know some people were critical of him taking that shot but we just said, 'No, he earned that right,'" Tinkle said. "I said after, 'That experience, giving Will the freedom to do that, is going to pay big dividends down the road.'"
Internally, Cherry and Johnson had held belief in each other throughout the year. It was Johnson who helped instill the confidence that Cherry would later become very well known for during his freshman year.
"We had a saying, 'You or me.' He used to say when we are in the clutch, I either want you with the ball because that's how much I trust you, or me," Cherry said. "We just have to make a play and go win some games."
Johnson graduated that year, along with Staudacher, Jack McGillis, and Vassy Banny. The Grizzlies had a new look in 2010-11 with Cherry and senior center Brian Qvale at the center of it.
Cherry and the Grizzlies lost the first two games of the season and started the year at 3-3 leading into a matchup with UCLA in the venerated Pauley Pavilion. The Grizzlies had the ball in the second half with Cherry bringing it up the floor.
He earned a nickname from Tinkle on that day. "I just said, 'Go ahead, baby boy,'" and Cherry took his advice, crossing up his man and connecting on a three pointer. Montana would go on to upset UCLA 66-57 with Cherry scoring 18 point, and the Baby Boy nickname would stick for the rest of his career.
The relationship between coach and player had always been strong, but Cherry said during his sophomore year, when he was trying to fill Johnson's shoes as a scoring guard, Tinkle gave him advice that changed his trajectory.
"I had a heart-to-heart with Coach Tinkle, and he brought me in the locker room and said, 'You don't have to be AJ. Go be Will Cherry.' He knew how much I looked up to him and knew I wanted to be just as good if not better, but he just said to go be Will Cherry," he remembered. "When he told me that, the floodgates just opened for me. I knew I could leave my imprint on this team, this school, this city in my own way."
Cherry and the Grizzlies would once again reach the Big Sky title game, knocking out Weber State in the semifinal to face top-seeded Northern Colorado. Montana fell to a Bears team that would later have the win vacated for NCAA violations.
He vowed to never let that happen again. One big piece to help make that vow a reality was a young player from Westchester High School out of Venice, Calif.
Kareem Jamar would leave his own legacy at Montana as a Big Sky MVP and multiple time All-Conference selection, but his first taste of Griz Hoops was on a visit where he played in an open gym with Cherry.
"Kareem came on a visit and fit just like a puzzle," Cherry said. "They put me and him on the same team, and we were running open gym. I don't think we lost a game that weekend. I told him, 'This is what it could be like if you come here.'"
The duo would go on to lead Montana to a 25-7 record in 2011-12. The Grizzlies went 15-1 in league play. They won the final 12 games of the regular season to earn the right to host the Big Sky Tournament in Missoula.
In front of sold-out crowds at Dahlberg Arena, Cherry and the Grizzlies beat Eastern Washington in the semifinal and then once again knocked Lillard out of the Big Sky Tournament, ending the future NBA star's collegiate career with an 85-66 title game victory.
Lillard and the Wildcats didn't have a 20-point cushion like in 2010, but they did hold a five-point advantage at the break.
"Honestly, they came out hot again," Cherry said. "But I told Dame to his face, 'That's your best punch, that's all y'all got.' Going into the second half we were very confident, we knew they weren't better than us. We knew what was going to happen, and it played out exactly how we thought it would. We came out very focused and knew we weren't going to let our fans down."
Montana returned its top three scorers in Cherry, Jamar, and Mathias Ward for the 2012-13 season and were heavy favorites, now that Lillard was gone, to win the Big Sky Conference yet again.
Things had been going so smoothly for all of Cherry's career, but he hit a roadblock the fall before his senior year started. While playing in open gym that September, Cherry felt a pop in his foot when he went up for a layup. The word got around quickly that Cherry was injured, "you know how eGriz is," and that his season was in jeopardy.
"High school, I wanted to be varsity by freshman or at least sophomore. That happened," Cherry said. "I wanted to win a state championship. That happened. We didn't lose a game, number one in the country. That happened. I had a plan to start as a freshman at Montana. That happened. I wanted to get to the NCAA Tournament. That happened three times. Then my senior year, broken foot and it's like, OK now you have to figure it out, now you have to pivot."
Tinkle approached Cherry with an offer to redshirt the season and return in 2013-14. Cherry turned it down. He knew this team with Jamar and fellow senior Ward had the makings of something special.
Cherry did everything he could to get his body ready to go. As Tinkle said, "He just, through pure grit and desire, toughed through it." Cherry would only play 22 games his final season at Montana, but he left his mark on what is one of the greatest seasons and two-year stretches in program and Big Sky Conference history.
The Grizzlies won 25 straight conference games, a league record, and went a combined 34-2 in league play during Cherry's junior and senior seasons. The only two losses were both on the road against Weber State. It's the best two-year winning percentage by any team in Big Sky history.
Cherry and Jamar, who nicknamed themselves Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton, never lost a home Big Sky game together.
Once again, Montana met Weber State in the title game and came out on top, advancing to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in Cherry's career.
His resume is right there with the best of the best in Montana history. Cherry is the all-time leader in steals with 265, ranks 6th in assists with 397, and 12th in points with 1,484. He is one of just five players in program history to be named First Team All-Big Sky three times, joining Michael Ray Richardson, Larry Krystkowiak, Daren Engellant, and his teammate Jamar.
Montana went 85-31 (.733) with Cherry on the floor during his four years winning two regular season titles and three tournament titles. He was twice named the Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year.
He earned numerous Player of the Week honors, was a CollegeInsider.com Freshman All-American, and a two-time Mid-Major All-American. He earned a national player of the week honor in 2012 and was named to the Lefty Drissell Defensive All-American team.
On top of the stats and accolades, he proved himself as a leader at Montana.
"A lot of times guys would have a false bravado, but he was a guy that walked the talk," Tinkle said. "If it got sloppy in open run he would call guys out, 'Hey, this isn't how we play.' If practice was weary or dreary he'd be the first to say, 'This is the last four minutes of the game and we need to finish.' Because he played so hard and he had those intangibles, it made it natural for guys to follow his lead."
He accomplished nearly everything he could have dreamed of at the collegiate level, but Cherry had his sights set on the NBA. During his injured senior season at Montana, his old friend from Oakland earned the NBA Rookie of the Year honor with the Portland Trail Blazers.
Lillard garnered national attention at Weber State, which only helped a player like Cherry.
"When a person like Dame does what he does, it puts eyes on the league," Cherry said. "Then a person like me, I was on NBA Draft boards for my own merit, but I got on those boards because scouts, GMs, and coaches were coming to see Damian Lillard and then you see a person like Will Cherry popping off the screen."
Cherry remembers Lillard texting him while walking to a class his senior year with a screenshot of Cherry's name on an NBA Mock Draft going No. 53 to the Miami Heat, who at that time had LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh on the roster. He couldn't believe it.
Then came the injury and everything that followed. Cherry went to Summer League hoping to get put on a roster so that the team would help cover the surgery that was required on his foot, but he didn't make it.
He returned home to get the surgery and rehab on his own, working with his trainer Anthony Eggelton. He drove a 2008 Infiniti that his agent gave him and worked out on the beach getting back to full strength. Back healthy, he traveled across the country for workouts and got a spot with the Cleveland Cavaliers at NBA Summer League.
"I lived on a plane that summer. I went to so many training camps and I was killing it," Cherry said. "I end up getting to Summer League with the Cavs, and the rest is history. I played alongside Andrew Wiggins who was the No. 1 pick at the time and that's how my NBA career started."
He would make the opening day roster for the Toronto Raptors, who signed Cherry after his excellent summer. When the Raptors decided they needed another big man, they waived Cherry. On his flight home from Toronto, his agent told him that the Cavs were interested.
The Cavaliers signed Cherry in November 2014, the same season that LeBron James made his return to Cleveland.
"As a rookie, I'm in there lifting weights and LeBron sees me and says, 'Will m-----f---ing Cherry, what's up bro?' I had no idea that he knew who the hell I was, but when he said that and shook my hand, I was elated."
He would score his first NBA points against the New Orleans Pelicans on Nov. 10, subbing in for starting point guard Kyrie Irving and catching a fast break pass from LeBron for a layup. The player that Cherry listed as his "favorite sports figure" in the 2012 Montana media guide provided the assist on Cherry's first NBA basket.
Cherry played eight games with the Cavs, scoring 15 points and swiping six steals. After he was waived by the Cavaliers, he went to Lithuania to play for Žalgiris Kaunas. It was the start of a long, successful career overseas that saw Cherry win titles in Lithuania, Croatia, and Germany while earning MVP honors and playing at a high level for over a decade.
His career continues in Mexico in 2026 where he is averaging nearly 13 points, five assists, and three rebounds per game for Dorados. He has two children, Logan (7) and Dylan (6), that make playing more difficult, but he's been able to work his professional schedule to spend more-and-more time at home with them.
"Time is coming. We all have Father Time creep up on us at one time or another, but seeing guys retire I'm like, damn, I know he has a lot left in the tank," Cherry said. "But maybe to him he doesn't? For me to still be going is a blessing."
Basketball has given Will Cherry a lot. But Will Cherry has sure given it just as much. He is part of a large legacy of Grizzlies from Oakland and the Bay Area, including Big Sky MVP Delvon Anderson (San Francisco) and sharpshooter David Bell (Oakland).
The legacy carried on after Cherry with players like Mario Dunn, Sayeed Pridgett, and Money Williams. He's followed the Grizzlies during his professional career, carrying a lesson from Tinkle with him wherever he goes.
"Coach Tinkle always, in his speeches, made sure that we paid it forward to the Grizzlies that came before us," Cherry said. "He had a lot of sayings, some we can't put on the record, but one thing he always said was, 'You have a duty to pay it forward for the guys that came before you.'"
Cherry enters the Hall of Fame this weekend based on what he did on the floor. But off the court, he was also a Hall of Famer in every sense of the word to a Montana fanbase that loved to watch No. 5 play.
In 2025, Griz Basketball put out a poll on social media, asking fans to name their favorite player of the last 25 years. Not necessarily the best, not necessarily the most talented, just your favorite. Cherry won in a landslide.
Tinkle also played at Montana before spending eight years as a coach. His wife, Lisa (McLeod) Tinkle, played for the Lady Griz and the two met at Montana. They are both in the Hall of Fame that Cherry will join on Friday. Their daughter, Joslyn, also got her coaching start with the Lady Griz.
The Tinkle family is well versed in Montana history. Tinkle said he has a good idea what Griz fans are looking for in a student-athlete.
"What they love to see, win or lose, is guys and gals out there giving it their all and playing the right way. Will was that to a T. He really epitomizes that," Tinkle said. "He gave everything he had, even playing at about 50 percent with a partial fracture in his foot, he gave it everything. He didn't cheat the game, and he was a very inspiring and unselfish player.
"It wasn't just about Will. He gave to his teammates on both ends of the court and it's rare that you find players that play so hard on both ends. It's why, clearly, he is still held in such high regards at Montana."
And he's still the same old Will, the guy that earned three First Team All-Big Sky honors and two Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year awards, the one that will enter the Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame on Friday night in Missoula.
He's still playing with the same fire, even as his professional career approaches teenage status, even after playing for nearly 20 teams across multiple continents. He's had peers retire, but for Cherry, this sport, the one that has given him so much, is his life.
"To be able to still play this game, to wake up and walk in the gym, to smell the air in the gym, to hear the fans, to touch a basketball, to be healthy," Cherry says. "I'm just blessed. I feel like I'm getting better as I'm aging. It also feels good to be able to give back to the game with the young guys."
One week until @willcherry5 enters the Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame 🌟
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) September 4, 2026
Too many headlines to count for this Griz legend 📰
🎟️ https://t.co/vPmCxIRFbf#GrizHoops | #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/fl92uW3152
Cherry's story starts in the 1990s in Oakland, where he grew up as a talented athlete playing multiple sports. He started playing organized basketball at seven and realized it was a "no-brainer" that this would be his passion.
His career took off at McClymonds High School, aka the Mack, in West Oakland, a school with a long history in basketball and the alma mater of NBA Hall of Famer Bill Russell. They had been missing one thing, however, which was an official state title in California.
On a team that featured several future D-I players, Cherry quickly climbed the ranks to the varsity squad. The dog of a defender that would go on to put the clamps on players like Damian Lillard while at Montana? He got his start doing the same thing in high school.
Cherry and his Mack teammates, during a perfect season in 2008, went into Oakland High and defeated Lillard and his Wildcats in double overtime, setting the stage for a rivalry that would carry into college.
Mack made history in 2008, going 32-0 and winning the California State Championship, becoming the No. 1 team in the country in the process. They were the first East Bay team to go undefeated in 38 years and brought joy to a city that had seen its share of violence, including in Cherry's own circle.
"We did amazing things for our city at the time," Cherry said. "There was a lot of crime going on in the Oakland area at the time, but when we played for just two-and-a-half hours man, the crime stopped. To this day, the things that we did not only for the state, but our city were very historical."
Naturally, the success of McClymonds brought national attention to West Oakland. College coaches were routinely spotted in the stands when Mack played, which on many occasions was at the gym at Laney Community College as Mack games got too big for their own gym on campus.
One of those coaches was Bill Evans, then an assistant for the Montana Grizzlies. Evans met Cherry's mother, Yvette Martin, at a Greyhound Bus station where she worked on a Wednesday night following one of Cherry's games. He didn't mince words.
"We want to offer your son a scholarship," Evans told Martin. "We want him on a visit this Friday."
Cherry could locate Montana on a map, but that was the extent of his knowledge on the Treasure State. Two days later, he was on a plane flying to Missoula.
He landed at the Missoula Airport and got a ride to campus. As anyone who has been to Missoula will tell you, the drive along the interstate, as the sun beats down on the M adorning Mount Sentinel and the river comes into view, can take your breath away.
For Cherry, it was the first indication that the preconceived notions he held of Montana may not be true.
"It was amazing because I thought it was a bunch of cowboys and hicks and that it was in the middle of nowhere. I was a city guy so I thought I can't be in the middle of nowhere," Cherry said. "Then as we drove in from the airport, the closer we got to (campus) you started seeing the city from the interstate. I thought, 'Wow, this is beautiful.'"
Always a competitor, Cherry had been on some visits already. He got the impression that the schools that he went to wanted to show how good the players they already had were during open gym.
At Montana, things were different.
"I came into a veteran-led team, and they made me feel so welcome in the open gym," Cherry said. "I had previous experiences on unofficial visits of guys not passing me the ball, not giving me a chance to show what I could do, but when I came to Montana, they gave me the ball and let me do my thing. They spoke life into me."
He competed with the team, toured the campus, met the coaching staff, all on a beautiful September weekend. The visit included a Grizzly football game during a season in which Montana would make a run to the FCS National Championship game.
If the visit was going well before that, seeing Washington-Grizzly Stadium packed and the support that the team received from the fanbase? "That's how they get you, they bring you up in September when it's hot. The football game was like something out of a movie," Cherry said.
He flew home on Sunday, committed on Monday.
Cherry was used to success. He lost just six games over his final three years at McClymonds under head coaches Dwight Nathaniel (Coach Moe) and Brandon Brooks (Coach Booze), two men that Cherry said were instrumental to his development.
The legacy of winning at Montana fit right in with what drove Cherry as a competitor. The Grizzlies were a veteran-heavy team his freshman year, led by an all-time great in Anthony Johnson.
For Cherry, getting to play big minutes alongside Johnson, and the rest of the veterans on that 2009-10 team, paid dividends.
"AJ was everything. Not only him, but Ryan Staudacher, Vassy Banny, Michael Taylor, Brian Qvale, Derek Selvig, those guys are everything," Cherry said. "It was a veteran led team, so it took a little while for me to get the starting job and Coach Tinkle took some flak for starting a freshman, but we saw how it turned out."
Johnson knew what type of player Cherry could be from very early on. In a season preview with the Montana Kaimin in 2009, Johnson said, "Will Cherry will be the best guard to ever come through here."
Cherry came off the bench in his first four games, but was elevated to a starting role when Montana traveled to Eugene to play Oregon. The Grizzlies upset the Pac-10 Ducks 68-55 with Cherry contributing eight points, three steals, and two assists.
He started off-and-on until February, when he took over a spot in the starting five for the rest of the season. Even at a young age, head coach Wayne Tinkle could tell that Cherry could develop into something very special at Montana.
"We gave him a lot of responsibility as a freshman knowing that those experiences would really pay off down the road. You just saw him get better every year," Tinkle said. "What we loved about Will was just the tenacity with which he played. What you saw come gametime was the same thing we saw in practice every day and that's not always the case. He was one that if you were keeping score, he wanted to win, even in something like sprints."
Montana would go 22-10 during Cherry's freshman year, which included a 10-6 mark in Big Sky play to earn the No. 4 seed at the Big Sky Tournament. They knocked off Northern Colorado in the semifinals to set up a showdown with Weber State on the Wildcats' home floor inside the Dee Events Center.
Weber State entered the title game 22-9. They had won 15 straight games at home, including a win over Utah and a 64-56 victory over Montana earlier in the season. They also had the Big Sky MVP that season, a graduate of Oakland High School named Damian Lillard.
The game will live on in Griz history. If you're reading this story, you can probably picture Anthony Johnson's second-half performance like the back of your hand. The senior guard put the team on his back, scoring 34 second-half points to lift Montana to the title.
At halftime, Cherry told Johnson he didn't need another shot the rest of the way. He would focus on distributing the ball and locking down Lillard, his old friend and high school rival.
Johnson led the charge, burying shot after shot to dig the Grizzlies out of the 40-20 halftime deficit. On the final offensive possession of the game, Johnson crossed up his defender and pulled from the right elbow, knocking down a jumper to give Montana a 66-65 lead.
It's a shot that likely sent drinks flying in every bar in downtown Missoula, but the Wildcats still had 10 seconds left and perhaps the best offensive talent that the league has ever seen on their side.
Lillard brought the ball up, crossed over onto the giant purple Wildcat at midcourt, and then fell to the ground. He had been cut off from the move, the ball stripped away by Cherry, who held on for dear life and earned a jump ball. Possession: Montana.
"I'll always remember this, when I get the tie up Ryan Staudacher was just jumping up and down because he saw the possession arrow was in our direction," Cherry said. "I've never let anybody call me Willy, but he just was shouting, 'Willy baby, I love you.'"
Cherry had checked off a lifelong goal of reaching the NCAA Tournament, but this Grizzly team wasn't done just yet. They earned a 14-seed and drew New Mexico, the No. 8 team in the country, in San Jose, Calif. in the first round.
Montana held the lead for much of the first half, but the Lobos responded in the second half to pull ahead by double digits. The gritty Griz team clawed right back, and after a missed free throw by the Lobos had the ball down three points with 22 seconds to play.
Cherry, who hauled in the rebound, soared to the other end of the floor, found an open lane, and attacked the basket. The layup went in-and-out, and the Lobos were able to close out the victory.
Following the game, some fans questioned why it was Cherry, not Johnson, who took the shot on what essentially amounted to Montana's final possession of the season.
"I know some people were critical of him taking that shot but we just said, 'No, he earned that right,'" Tinkle said. "I said after, 'That experience, giving Will the freedom to do that, is going to pay big dividends down the road.'"
Internally, Cherry and Johnson had held belief in each other throughout the year. It was Johnson who helped instill the confidence that Cherry would later become very well known for during his freshman year.
"We had a saying, 'You or me.' He used to say when we are in the clutch, I either want you with the ball because that's how much I trust you, or me," Cherry said. "We just have to make a play and go win some games."
Johnson graduated that year, along with Staudacher, Jack McGillis, and Vassy Banny. The Grizzlies had a new look in 2010-11 with Cherry and senior center Brian Qvale at the center of it.
Cherry and the Grizzlies lost the first two games of the season and started the year at 3-3 leading into a matchup with UCLA in the venerated Pauley Pavilion. The Grizzlies had the ball in the second half with Cherry bringing it up the floor.
He earned a nickname from Tinkle on that day. "I just said, 'Go ahead, baby boy,'" and Cherry took his advice, crossing up his man and connecting on a three pointer. Montana would go on to upset UCLA 66-57 with Cherry scoring 18 point, and the Baby Boy nickname would stick for the rest of his career.
The relationship between coach and player had always been strong, but Cherry said during his sophomore year, when he was trying to fill Johnson's shoes as a scoring guard, Tinkle gave him advice that changed his trajectory.
"I had a heart-to-heart with Coach Tinkle, and he brought me in the locker room and said, 'You don't have to be AJ. Go be Will Cherry.' He knew how much I looked up to him and knew I wanted to be just as good if not better, but he just said to go be Will Cherry," he remembered. "When he told me that, the floodgates just opened for me. I knew I could leave my imprint on this team, this school, this city in my own way."
Cherry and the Grizzlies would once again reach the Big Sky title game, knocking out Weber State in the semifinal to face top-seeded Northern Colorado. Montana fell to a Bears team that would later have the win vacated for NCAA violations.
He vowed to never let that happen again. One big piece to help make that vow a reality was a young player from Westchester High School out of Venice, Calif.
Kareem Jamar would leave his own legacy at Montana as a Big Sky MVP and multiple time All-Conference selection, but his first taste of Griz Hoops was on a visit where he played in an open gym with Cherry.
"Kareem came on a visit and fit just like a puzzle," Cherry said. "They put me and him on the same team, and we were running open gym. I don't think we lost a game that weekend. I told him, 'This is what it could be like if you come here.'"
The duo would go on to lead Montana to a 25-7 record in 2011-12. The Grizzlies went 15-1 in league play. They won the final 12 games of the regular season to earn the right to host the Big Sky Tournament in Missoula.
In front of sold-out crowds at Dahlberg Arena, Cherry and the Grizzlies beat Eastern Washington in the semifinal and then once again knocked Lillard out of the Big Sky Tournament, ending the future NBA star's collegiate career with an 85-66 title game victory.
Lillard and the Wildcats didn't have a 20-point cushion like in 2010, but they did hold a five-point advantage at the break.
"Honestly, they came out hot again," Cherry said. "But I told Dame to his face, 'That's your best punch, that's all y'all got.' Going into the second half we were very confident, we knew they weren't better than us. We knew what was going to happen, and it played out exactly how we thought it would. We came out very focused and knew we weren't going to let our fans down."
Montana returned its top three scorers in Cherry, Jamar, and Mathias Ward for the 2012-13 season and were heavy favorites, now that Lillard was gone, to win the Big Sky Conference yet again.
Things had been going so smoothly for all of Cherry's career, but he hit a roadblock the fall before his senior year started. While playing in open gym that September, Cherry felt a pop in his foot when he went up for a layup. The word got around quickly that Cherry was injured, "you know how eGriz is," and that his season was in jeopardy.
"High school, I wanted to be varsity by freshman or at least sophomore. That happened," Cherry said. "I wanted to win a state championship. That happened. We didn't lose a game, number one in the country. That happened. I had a plan to start as a freshman at Montana. That happened. I wanted to get to the NCAA Tournament. That happened three times. Then my senior year, broken foot and it's like, OK now you have to figure it out, now you have to pivot."
Tinkle approached Cherry with an offer to redshirt the season and return in 2013-14. Cherry turned it down. He knew this team with Jamar and fellow senior Ward had the makings of something special.
Cherry did everything he could to get his body ready to go. As Tinkle said, "He just, through pure grit and desire, toughed through it." Cherry would only play 22 games his final season at Montana, but he left his mark on what is one of the greatest seasons and two-year stretches in program and Big Sky Conference history.
The Grizzlies won 25 straight conference games, a league record, and went a combined 34-2 in league play during Cherry's junior and senior seasons. The only two losses were both on the road against Weber State. It's the best two-year winning percentage by any team in Big Sky history.
Cherry and Jamar, who nicknamed themselves Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton, never lost a home Big Sky game together.
Once again, Montana met Weber State in the title game and came out on top, advancing to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in Cherry's career.
His resume is right there with the best of the best in Montana history. Cherry is the all-time leader in steals with 265, ranks 6th in assists with 397, and 12th in points with 1,484. He is one of just five players in program history to be named First Team All-Big Sky three times, joining Michael Ray Richardson, Larry Krystkowiak, Daren Engellant, and his teammate Jamar.
Montana went 85-31 (.733) with Cherry on the floor during his four years winning two regular season titles and three tournament titles. He was twice named the Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year.
He earned numerous Player of the Week honors, was a CollegeInsider.com Freshman All-American, and a two-time Mid-Major All-American. He earned a national player of the week honor in 2012 and was named to the Lefty Drissell Defensive All-American team.
On top of the stats and accolades, he proved himself as a leader at Montana.
"A lot of times guys would have a false bravado, but he was a guy that walked the talk," Tinkle said. "If it got sloppy in open run he would call guys out, 'Hey, this isn't how we play.' If practice was weary or dreary he'd be the first to say, 'This is the last four minutes of the game and we need to finish.' Because he played so hard and he had those intangibles, it made it natural for guys to follow his lead."
He accomplished nearly everything he could have dreamed of at the collegiate level, but Cherry had his sights set on the NBA. During his injured senior season at Montana, his old friend from Oakland earned the NBA Rookie of the Year honor with the Portland Trail Blazers.
Lillard garnered national attention at Weber State, which only helped a player like Cherry.
"When a person like Dame does what he does, it puts eyes on the league," Cherry said. "Then a person like me, I was on NBA Draft boards for my own merit, but I got on those boards because scouts, GMs, and coaches were coming to see Damian Lillard and then you see a person like Will Cherry popping off the screen."
Cherry remembers Lillard texting him while walking to a class his senior year with a screenshot of Cherry's name on an NBA Mock Draft going No. 53 to the Miami Heat, who at that time had LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh on the roster. He couldn't believe it.
Then came the injury and everything that followed. Cherry went to Summer League hoping to get put on a roster so that the team would help cover the surgery that was required on his foot, but he didn't make it.
He returned home to get the surgery and rehab on his own, working with his trainer Anthony Eggelton. He drove a 2008 Infiniti that his agent gave him and worked out on the beach getting back to full strength. Back healthy, he traveled across the country for workouts and got a spot with the Cleveland Cavaliers at NBA Summer League.
"I lived on a plane that summer. I went to so many training camps and I was killing it," Cherry said. "I end up getting to Summer League with the Cavs, and the rest is history. I played alongside Andrew Wiggins who was the No. 1 pick at the time and that's how my NBA career started."
He would make the opening day roster for the Toronto Raptors, who signed Cherry after his excellent summer. When the Raptors decided they needed another big man, they waived Cherry. On his flight home from Toronto, his agent told him that the Cavs were interested.
The Cavaliers signed Cherry in November 2014, the same season that LeBron James made his return to Cleveland.
"As a rookie, I'm in there lifting weights and LeBron sees me and says, 'Will m-----f---ing Cherry, what's up bro?' I had no idea that he knew who the hell I was, but when he said that and shook my hand, I was elated."
He would score his first NBA points against the New Orleans Pelicans on Nov. 10, subbing in for starting point guard Kyrie Irving and catching a fast break pass from LeBron for a layup. The player that Cherry listed as his "favorite sports figure" in the 2012 Montana media guide provided the assist on Cherry's first NBA basket.
Cherry played eight games with the Cavs, scoring 15 points and swiping six steals. After he was waived by the Cavaliers, he went to Lithuania to play for Žalgiris Kaunas. It was the start of a long, successful career overseas that saw Cherry win titles in Lithuania, Croatia, and Germany while earning MVP honors and playing at a high level for over a decade.
His career continues in Mexico in 2026 where he is averaging nearly 13 points, five assists, and three rebounds per game for Dorados. He has two children, Logan (7) and Dylan (6), that make playing more difficult, but he's been able to work his professional schedule to spend more-and-more time at home with them.
"Time is coming. We all have Father Time creep up on us at one time or another, but seeing guys retire I'm like, damn, I know he has a lot left in the tank," Cherry said. "But maybe to him he doesn't? For me to still be going is a blessing."
Basketball has given Will Cherry a lot. But Will Cherry has sure given it just as much. He is part of a large legacy of Grizzlies from Oakland and the Bay Area, including Big Sky MVP Delvon Anderson (San Francisco) and sharpshooter David Bell (Oakland).
The legacy carried on after Cherry with players like Mario Dunn, Sayeed Pridgett, and Money Williams. He's followed the Grizzlies during his professional career, carrying a lesson from Tinkle with him wherever he goes.
"Coach Tinkle always, in his speeches, made sure that we paid it forward to the Grizzlies that came before us," Cherry said. "He had a lot of sayings, some we can't put on the record, but one thing he always said was, 'You have a duty to pay it forward for the guys that came before you.'"
Cherry enters the Hall of Fame this weekend based on what he did on the floor. But off the court, he was also a Hall of Famer in every sense of the word to a Montana fanbase that loved to watch No. 5 play.
In 2025, Griz Basketball put out a poll on social media, asking fans to name their favorite player of the last 25 years. Not necessarily the best, not necessarily the most talented, just your favorite. Cherry won in a landslide.
Tinkle also played at Montana before spending eight years as a coach. His wife, Lisa (McLeod) Tinkle, played for the Lady Griz and the two met at Montana. They are both in the Hall of Fame that Cherry will join on Friday. Their daughter, Joslyn, also got her coaching start with the Lady Griz.
The Tinkle family is well versed in Montana history. Tinkle said he has a good idea what Griz fans are looking for in a student-athlete.
"What they love to see, win or lose, is guys and gals out there giving it their all and playing the right way. Will was that to a T. He really epitomizes that," Tinkle said. "He gave everything he had, even playing at about 50 percent with a partial fracture in his foot, he gave it everything. He didn't cheat the game, and he was a very inspiring and unselfish player.
"It wasn't just about Will. He gave to his teammates on both ends of the court and it's rare that you find players that play so hard on both ends. It's why, clearly, he is still held in such high regards at Montana."
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's BasketballThursday, September 10
Monday, March 30
Monday, March 30
Monday, March 30
