The Big Sky Conference reached its midpoint of the basketball schedule for the women’s and men’s hoops leagues over the weekend.
This is the standard time for us to crank out some mid-season All-Big Sky lists and mid-season awards. But that sounds like a much better podcast.
So instead, how about the players who have given their respective teams the most juice? To say the “most impactful” would be unfair and also naïve to how many players make an impact on a given basketball game.
But which Big Sky players, women and men, have been difference makers for their teams because of the energy they bring? What players have given their club a jolt by doing the dirty work? Who has provided an intangible level of toughness that’s helped put their squads in position?
As we sit at the midpoint, Montana State’s women are out in front of everybody. The 20-2 Bobcats are 10-0 in league, but only a game ahead of Northern Arizona’s women with NAU coming to Bozeman on Thursday. Idaho has been the surprise of the league and sit at 7-3, solidly in third, entering the second half.
Here’s a look Big Sky women’s basketball players who’ve provided a spark for their respective teams.
Taylee Chirrick, Montana State
This list could start and end with Chirrick, who has enough juice to power the electrical grid across the Big Sky Conference’s entire footprint. The freshman is eighth in the entire country with 3.23 steals per game – a stat that’s even more shocking because she hasn’t started once this season and plays under 20 minutes per game, sixth on a deep Montana State team. For comparison, Megan McConnell of Duquesne, who leads the country in steals per game with 4.14, plays over 35 minutes a game.
Unsurprisingly for a player who finished her high-school career at Montana Class C Roberts, Chirrick’s offensive game is still unrefined. She’s averaging seven points per game, shooting just 37/21/61 from the field, 3-point line and free-throw line respectively and her handles are a work in progress. None of that has mattered. The Bobcats’ penchant for warping the turnover margin in their favor has been the defining narrative in this Big Sky season, and Chirrick, the relentless, arm-waving force at the top of their press, has defined that identity. That makes her one of the most impactful players in the league, regardless of experience.
(And, it should be noted, there are encouraging signs on the offensive end, where Chirrick is at least taking some 3s (over two per game, fourth on the team), getting to the free-throw line (third on the team in FT attempts) and displaying promising playmaking instincts (41 assists, third on the team, although her A/TO ratio is hovering below 1.) If those trends continue, the fully realized version of Chirrick is going to be something to behold in a few years.)
Nyah and Olivia Moran, Northern Arizona
Like MSU, the Lumberjacks have plenty of players who fit on this list, including their two MVP candidates Taylor Feldman and Sophie Glancey. But although Feldman, NAU’s go-go point guard, certainly provides as much electricity as anyone in the conference, I’ve opted to instead highlight the Moran twins.
Two years ago, in a profile about then-NAU point guard Regan Schenck, I described the lefty twins from Riverside, California, as playing with a “streetball spirit” and “always down to run.”
Now, as seniors, they’re filling the same roles alongside another star point guard in Feldman. Nyah averages 11.5 points per game, third on the team, while Olivia is fifth with 8.7. Their athleticism and speed is a perfect fit alongside Feldman. Neither is a hugely efficient scorer, but they’re not afraid to shoot, which keeps defenses honest. More importantly, they can do just about everything else on the basketball court, whether that’s handling the ball, creating a shot for themselves, grabbing a rebound or playing the passing lanes on defense to get the ‘Jacks out in transition.
That versatility helps them fill in the gaps in an NAU starting lineup whose other three players have well-defined roles (Feldman as the ball-handler, Glancey as the post scorer and Leia Beattie as the shooter). And that importance and impact is magnified on a team that plays its stars heavy minutes – unlike Tricia Binford at Montana State, Loree Payne keeps her rotations tight, with six players playing over 25 minutes a game and nobody else over 12. It’s not a coincidence that Olivia’s illness was one of the factors that swung last year’s conference title game to Eastern Washington.
Olivia Nelson, Idaho
In his first year as head coach at Idaho, it was quickly apparent that Arthur Moreira had assembled a solid roster almost entirely out of the transfer portal. Throughout the non-conference schedule and the early part of Big Sky play, it was obvious that Moreira had recruited competent players who should put the Vandals in the top half of the Big Sky. What was less obvious was whether he’d managed to find a true difference-maker to push the team’s ceiling higher than that.
Well, over the past few weeks Nelson has emphatically answered that question, while establishing herself as one of the most fun players to watch in the Big Sky. The point guard from Kansas City played the first four years of her career at D-II Central Missouri, showcasing admirable consistency – she went from 12 points and 3.3 assists per game as a freshman to 14.7 and 4.1 as a senior.
The jump to Division I hasn’t affected her numbers at all, as she’s leading the Vandals with 14.2 points and is second with 2.8 assists per game. Nelson isn’t particularly explosive, but she keeps the ball on a string, getting defenders off-balance with her handles to set up crafty finishes at the rim. She’s also shooting 41.8% from 3, albeit on low volume.
What’s scary for the rest of the league is that she appears to be adjusting to the new level of competition as the season goes on. Nelson has scored in double figures in Idaho’s last nine games, including dropping 27 at Northern Colorado, 29 against Eastern Washington and 30 on Weber State last weekend in Moscow.
Taylor Smith, Weber State
The Wildcats are the biggest surprise of the conference schedule so far, going 5-5 to get to the midpoint of Big Sky play at .500 after winning just four conference games all of last season. They’ve beaten everybody they’re supposed to, with those five losses coming to first-place Montana State, second-place NAU (twice), third-place Idaho and fourth-place Montana (in Missoula).
Point guard Kendra Parra and transfer post Antoniette Emma-Nnopu have been impactful for Weber, but it’s second-year forward Taylor Smith who’s truly given the Wildcats a focal point to build around. A former star basketball and volleyball player at Century High School in Pocatello, Smith’s 6-foot-2 frame and athleticism make her a tough cover. Opponents can’t foul her either, because she’s made 58 of 62 free throws this season.
That shooting stroke is yet to translate outside the arc, where Smith is shooting an even 30%, and she’s still prone to inconsistent shooting nights in general. Even so, Smith has hit double-figure scoring in all but three of Weber’s 20 games, and she’s second in the conference in blocks as well. Like the rest of Weber’s program in coach Jenteal Jackson’s second year, Smith is certainly a work in progress. What’s also certain is that, as with the rest of the team, the arrow on her development is pointing up.
Kourtney Grossman, Eastern Washington
This is a pure vibes pick for the defending conference champions, who suffered through a teardown in the offseason and are just 3-7 at the halfway point. But other than Chirrick and Feldman (who again, doesn’t make this list because she’s an actual MVP candidate), no one else in the league epitomizes bringing the JUICE more than Grossman, who’s absolutely stamped herself as an impact player in her first season.
The 6-foot freshman from Billings – she led Billings West to the Class AA state title as a junior – is listed as a wing but has discovered a niche as an absolutely terrifying rebounder, crashing into the lane with reckless abandon. She’s recorded double-digit boards in 10 of the Eagles’ last 11 games, an insane streak that’s included five games with 15 or more rebounds and a sensational 18-point, 19-rebound, 4-steal double-double as EWU pushed 20-2 Montana State to the brink in Cheney.
Grossman is now averaging 10.3 rebounds per game, first in the league. Oh yeah…she’s also shooting 35% from 3-point range and has scored in double figures in Eastern’s last nine games, pushing her up to 10.1 points per game. If those stats hold – and given the pace of her development, that looks likely – Grossman would become the first Big Sky player in three years to average a double-double. It’s somewhat mind-boggling that both the Lady Griz and the ‘Cats let her get out of the state – but then again, her and Chirrick on the court at the same time for MSU would probably cause rips in the space-time continuum.
