Days before the early signing period opens on November 9, Montana put the finishing touches on its 2017 recruiting class and got a jumpstart on filling its 2018 crop of commits.
Kelby Kramer, a towering 6-foot-11 center committed to Montana on Halloween, and Darius Guinn called up the Grizzlies to inform him that he was ready to verbal on Saturday evening, more than a year before he can officially sign with Montana.
With three scholarships to hand out for the 2017 class, Kramer is expected to be last piece of Travis DeCuire’s third recruiting effort. Kramer, who hails from Rock Springs, Wyoming, joins California guard Timmy Falls and Houston-area forward Karl Nicholas.
All three 2017 commits are expected to sign on Wednesday, the first day of the early signing period. Falls’ dad already has a family oriented celebration planned and Nicholas’ mother said she would be out of town the weekend prior and hoped to be back in Houston for her son’s signing day event.
Kramer said he heard from Falls and Nicholas in the days after he committed.
“I’m really looking forward to spending the next four to five years with them and all the other teammates at Montana,” Kramer recently said.
Though Kramer was first to commit, Guinn took his visit to Montana a few weeks before Kramer came north with his parents. Both figure into Montana’s plans to become a more versatile and defensive-minded team. After a few years of developing his court awareness and packing some pounds onto his slender frame, Kramer is projected to team up with Nicholas to give Montana a presence at the rim on both sides of the court.
“They told me that I’m pretty much the only true center on the team,” said Kramer, who at 6-11 finished fourth at the Wyoming state tennis tournament this fall. “They have forwards and stuff, but they don’t really have a true center to block shots. That’s where they saw me fitting after a couple years of developing and improving my footwork.”
Guinn, a 6-6 native of Portland, could develop into a double-digit scorer, according to some scouting reports.
Montana’s coaches are prohibited from commenting on both players until they sign their National Letter of Intent.
Kramer, primarily recruited by first-year assistant Marlon Stewart, came to Montana to watch the Grizzlies’ maroon-silver scrimmage on October 25. He then joined the coaching staff for dinner before heading west to check out Idaho State.
“They just get along so well. We had meals together and they were kind of casually burning each other and it was fun to see,” said Kramer, who plans on majoring in computer science. “They get along well and they’re a great coaching staff. They work well together in practice and they’re able to communicate ideas well.”
Kramer said it wasn’t determined if he will redshirt during his first season in Missoula. If that is the eventual plan, Guinn and Kramer could enter the lineup at the same time. A lanky wing with room to grow, Guinn averaged 6.3 points and 3.6 rebounds in 23 games for Franklin High as a sophomore.
His production got the attention of San Francisco and Boise State and even elicited some contact from UCLA and Oregon State. But much of that interest disappeared when Guinn broke a vertebrae in his back in July when he went up for a dunk and was undercut.
“It was like crickets from everybody else, like everybody just cut me off and kind of just left me,” said Guinn, who will have surgery this month and sit out his junior season before returning to the court for the summer AAU circuit. “Montana was the only school that stuck around and kept the recruiting process going with me and continued to believe in me. With that love and the showing of love you can’t get much better than that.”
In May, shortly after he was hired as an assistant at Montana, Rachi Wortham started recruiting Guinn. Wortham previously knew of the Portland product from his days recruiting Guinn’s brother Jordan Railey while Wortham was an assistant at Eastern Washington.
DeCuire also recruited Railey while DeCuire was an assistant at Cal.
“It was really funny how everything came in a complete circle and now I’m here in this same situation,” Guinn said.
Guinn took an unofficial visit to Montana along with 2018 point guard Taurus Samuels. Guinn took in a practice and then joined the basketball team for a pregame sideline experience during the football team’s 68-7 win over Sacramento State. More than 25,000 fans showed up to Washington-Grizzly Stadium that day, making an instant impact on the basketball recruit.
“That was a big piece too,” Guinn said. “When I saw the place fill up I was like, ‘Alright, this might be the place to be.’
“As far as basketball goes, what the coaches there are doing is what I want to be a part of going forward,” Guinn added. “What they’re building is amazing and I think that going into the future I think we have an opportunity to do some really big things at Montana. It’s something I really want to be a part of.”
