Travis DeCuire remembers his rivalry games as a point guard for the Montana Grizzlies vividly. More than 20 years later, DeCuire is making memories on the sidelines for his alma maters as the head coach.
The ultra competitive Montana men’s basketball coach makes hardly an effort to hide the intensity playing archrival Montana State brings out in him, nor does he do a very good job of hiding his dislike of the in-state opponent to the East. But DeCuire also believes that rivalries are at their best when balanced, so he hopes to see continued improvement as the Bobcats continue to rebuild under second-year head coach Brian Fish.
UM head coach Travis DeCuire
“It helps a rivalry when both teams are playing good basketball, creates higher expectations for the game and hopefully the crowd is better,” UM’s second-year head coach said following his team’s practice on Wednesday evening. “The other piece is when you have a travel partner, you want your travel partner to be in the top half of the conference, because it’s another team that people have to prepare for. If you have a no-win team traveling with you, people spend a lot more time preparing for you and it makes it more difficult on you. The stronger they are, the stronger we will be.
“It’s always fun to have rivalries. Anything that gets more people in the gym is huge not only for our program but for our conference. To get this rivalry going and have them competing in the top half of the standings is big for everyone.”
By all accounts, Montana State is much improved in Fish’s second season at the helm. Last winter, MSU posted a 7-23 mark that included just four Big Sky Conference wins and two losses to the Griz. This season, Montana State is 4-4 in conference and could extend its two-game winning streak with a victory over Montana in Bozeman on Saturday night. UM holds a 10-game winning streak over MSU, the longest in the series since World War II.
“Rivalries are the same everywhere you go, Oregon-Oregon State, Creighton-Nebraska, Montana-Montana State,” said Montana State head coach Brian Fish, the former assistant for the Ducks and the Bluejays. “It’s just a lot of fun to be a part of. I’m not sure this rivalry doesn’t challenge any I’ve been a part of just as far as the decisiveness of who you are rooting for. It’s as big as any place I’ve ever been.”
MSU head coach Brian Fish with guard Tyler Hall
DeCuire, an All-Big Sky selection for Blaine Taylor’s Grizzlies in 1993 and 1994, returned to his alma mater last season after spending more than a decade as an assistant first for Taylor at Old Dominion and then for another former UM head coach, Mike Montgomery, at Cal. Last season, DeCuire helped the Griz to a surprise regular-season championship despite the loss of all-time great guards Will Cherry and Kareem Jamar in back-to-back seasons.
DeCuire again has the Griz playing at a high level. Montana rebounded from its first conference loss, a 63-59 misstep to Idaho at home, to post a win over defending Big Sky Tournament champion Eastern Washington last Saturday. The Griz enter the rivalry game with a 7-1 mark in Big Sky play and a place atop the standings.
“Our goal is to approach every game like a championship game,” DeCuire said. “Everyone prepares for the Griz like a championship game and we have to do the same thing. For us, it’s about coming out and playing as if we are the best team in the conference and giving our best effort. If we do that, we will be fine.”
Saturday’s showdown pits a pair of the top backcourts in the Big Sky against one another. Montana expected a big junior year from Mario Dunn, but he broke his hand before the season and is just rounding into full form. In his absence, junior Walter Wright and freshman Michael Oguine have picked up the slack.
MSU guard Marcus Colbert
Wright has emerged as a frontrunner for Newcomer of the Year in the league. The Snow (Utah) College transfer is averaging 15.4 points and 5.0 assists per game during conference play. His ability to get to the basket has resulted in 46.6 percent shooting from the floor, but his 3-point shooting has been the biggest surprise. Wright is shooting 53 percent from downtown in league competition.
Oguine has been a revelation on both ends of the floor, emerging as one of the top perimeter defenders in the Big Sky as a true freshman and chipping in 11.5 points per game on the offensive end.
For Montana State, Marcus Colbert is the catalyst and Tyler Hall the cold-blooded scorer. DeCuire calls the duo “as good a one-two punch as there is in the league.” MSU junior guard Quinton Everett said MSU will look to the star guards early and often in an effort to “spark us and get us going.”
Colbert, MSU’s unflappable senior point guard, is ninth in the league in scoring at 17 points per game and his 5.4 assists are the second-best mark in the Big Sky. He has shown a flair for the dramatic this season, carrying the MSU offense for long stretches. In MSU’s surprise sweep over Idaho and EWU last weekend, Colbert scored 17 straight points in the first half against the Eagles and 16 straight points in the second half to bury the Vandals.
MSU guard Tyler Hall
Hall, a 6-foot-4 combo guard from Rock Island, Illinois, has already carved out a reputation as one of the best jump shooting scorers in the conference. The deceptively athletic Hall is averaging 20.5 points per game during conference play. He has scored at least 24 points in eight of MSU’s 19 games, including 36 points against Southern Utah, the highest mark in the league until Cameron Forte scored 37 points for Portland State in a loss at Eastern Washington on Thursday night.
“Good length, shoots the ball, plays with a lot of confidence,” DeCuire said of Hall. “He can shoot off the dribble and shoot off the catch. Any time you have a guy who is shooting over 40 percent from three and can create his own shot, he is very difficult to guard. They put you in close out situations with Colbert’s penetration so Hall catches and shoots a lot. When you close hard on him, he can put it on the floor and get by you. He’s a very difficult cover.”
The battle of the backcourts could be a stalemate, making Martin Breunig’s presence in the paint all the more important for Montana. The 6-foot-9 senior power forward is the best decision maker of any post player in the league and perhaps the Big Sky’s most efficient scorer.
“All their offense is going through him,” said MSU senior power forward Danny Robison, a Billings native sure to draw Breunig early and often defensively. “He’s a special player, really good. I’ve watched a lot of film on him and hopefully we can slow him down a little bit, do a few different things defensively. That’s the ultimate goal at the end of the day to stop him.”
UM forward Martin Breunig/by UM Athletics
No one in the league has been able to stop the former Washington transfer thus far. Breunig enters the rivalry game shooting 63.6 percent from the floor and 74 percent from the free throw line. Those percentages jump to 68.5 percent from the field and 77.6 percent from the line during conference play. Breunig is averaging 20.3 points and 10.2 rebounds against BSC competition.
“We aren’t sure how they will defend Martin but we will be ready for anything,” DeCuire said. “Most teams don’t have Martin on the floor so that makes us hard to prepare for,” DeCuire said. “(EWU power forward) Venky (Jois) is similar but they don’t throw the ball to him over and over and over like we do. We will see how Montana State will guard him.”
Following last week’s home sweep, the first of the Fish era, MSU’s head coach said he hoped the reward of two victories following a vigorous week of practice would resonate with his team. Fish said he still believes MSU has not played its best basketball. Following the victory over Idaho, several Bobcats retook the court at the Brick to get in some extra shooting. Fish seemed pleased with the progress of his program.
“That’s what I look for as a coach as you build a program,” Fish said following the Idaho win. “You have to have special guys. Those guys have to get in the gym and do the extra. If you are here for room, board and tuition, that’s not enough. You have to put in extra time in the gym.
UM guard Michael Oguine/by UM Athletics
“We have hit the point in the season where we have to play defense,” Fish continued on Tuesday. “I think the guys are pleased with how we played this weekend so they know that we have to keep getting better. That’s the type of society we live in. The quicker you see results, the more they want to do it.”
While Fish’s team fights to prove it belongs among the upper echelon of the Big Sky, DeCuire’s squad is searching for its 11th regular-season Big Sky title and its 10th trip to the NCAA Tournament overall. Nine titles have come since DeCuire first arrived at Montana in 1991. The Grizzlies have qualified for the Big Dance six times since 2002, twice as many times as any other Big Sky team.
As the conference season approaches its midpoint, DeCuire hopes his team embraces the challenges it will face in Bozeman on Saturday.
“Tough crowd, guaranteed and things will be said you don’t want to hear,” DeCuire said. “It’s almost always a sellout crowd. There is a lot of build up for these games, a lot of emotion. You have to handle your emotion but you also have to look forward to an emotional ride. It will be like a roller coaster. We had a lot of close games with Montana State when I played and I look forward to this weekend because I know they will bring their best game.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez or noted. All Rights Reserved.
