With their returning players taking part in offseason workouts and their already signed incoming freshmen racking up postseason accolades, the Montana Grizzlies find themselves in a precarious situation as the spring signing period opened Wednesday.
Montana could hand out two more scholarships, bolstering a roster certain to have the Grizzlies among the Big Sky Conference favorites next spring. Or UM can keep the scholarships in its back pocket and bestow them upon two players to add cushion to a 2018 class that is currently devoid of commits.
What exactly Travis DeCuire and his staff will decide to do is yet to be determined.
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“I think at this point it is all depth. Our nucleus that is returning is really good and there is a lot of potential for it,” said DeCuire.
As Montana considers its options, one addition to the roster is certain to happen: the Grizzlies will add Niko Bevens, a 6-foot-6 sharpshooter from North Idaho College who committed to Montana in late February. As a freshman at the Coeur d’Alene junior college, Bevens hit 50 percent of the 224 threes he attempted and averaged 14 points per game for the Cardinals.
Bevens fits a role vacated by the graduation of Jack Lopez and Brandon Gfeller, two seniors Montana asked to stretch the defense and open penetration lanes for its multi-guard attack. If Montana is to increase the size of its 2017 class, DeCuire said he’ll be looking for players willing to fit other roles he sees as areas of improvement if the Griz are to reach their potential.
“We’re looking to plug some holes,” DeCuire said Tuesday afternoon. “Maybe another guy who can handle the ball and play some minutes at the point would be healthy for us. It would probably be in a limited role so they would need to be someone who understands who they are, where they’re at, but also good enough to come compete.
“The other piece would probably be in the middle. … If we come across a true center with size and length and the ability to carry weight it would be a plus to have on our roster. Those are two things we’re looking at right now.”
Montana has signed three incoming freshmen in guard Timmy Falls, and posts Karl Nicholas and Kelby Kramer during the early signing period in the fall. The Grizzlies then used their final scholarship on Bevens before two more opened up when freshmen forwards Alphonso Anderson and Jared Samuelson left the team to pursue other opportunities.
In the weeks since the departure of Anderson, who redshirted last season, and Samuelson, who played in 32 games and averaged 5.1 points, Montana has zeroed in on a couple prospects, targeting a pair of international point guards and a skilled 19-year-old 7-footer named Admir Besovic, who played last season at the Virginia Episcopal School after coming stateside from Sarajevo.
All three players have or will take visits before the calendar flips to May.
Following a 16-16 season that ended in the Big Sky quarterfinals, Montana graduated four seniors, including guard Walter Wright, who teamed with returning junior-to-be Ahmaad Rorie to handle the Grizzlies’ point guard responsibilities. Despite the return of junior-to-be Michael Oguine and sophomore-to-be Sayeed Pridgett, Rorie is the only true point on the roster and DeCuire, a former point who owns the school’s career assists record, would prefer to add another guard with a pass-first mentality.
However, Montana’s path forward is complicated by a small senior class and a large junior class that presents a very imbalanced scholarship allocation. The Grizzlies will graduate only Fabijan Krslovic following the 2017-18 season, but face an exodus of five players the year after.
“You don’t want to get to a situation where you’ve got six freshmen trying to play a ton of minutes and trying to win games at a high level,” DeCuire said. “Any opportunity to balance this thing out would be huge for us.”
Montana has made inroads with a pair of guards eligible to sign National Letters of Intent in November. The Griz have hosted Jamal Hartwell and Taurus Samuels on unofficial visits and have made numerous trips to Southern California to watch them play.
“In a perfect world we sign one point and one big to go along with a shooter. Then you fill three voids,” DeCuire said. “You add a 50-percent 3-point shooter to the package that is an assassin, you add a handler that understands how important it is to make others better and then you go get that guy that can plug the hole like everybody else is doing and go stand in front of the rim and not guard anyone and jump up in the air. Then you probably have a pretty good team.”
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Photos by Brooks Nuanez and attributed. All Rights Reserved.
