Leading candidates confirmed for Lady Griz head coaching opening

The first national search since 1978 to find a new women’s basketball coach at the University of Montana is nearing its completion. Skyline Sports confirmed that four finalists are on the UM campus this week doing in-person interviews for the opening to lead the Lady Griz.

Less than a week after one of the biggest upsets in the history of the Big Sky Conference women’s basketball tournament, Montana athletic director Kent Haslam officially opened the national search.

The last time Montana conducted a national search, former Griz men’s basketball standout Robin Selvig earned the position over Tara VanDerveer, who recently led Stanford to its third NCAA national championship in her 35^th season at the helm for the Cardinal.

During his 38 seasons guiding UM, Selvig was peerless as well, advancing to the NCAA Tournament 21 times and winning a total of 865 games.

“Our intention since last spring has been to conduct a national search for the next Lady Griz head coach when the current season concluded,” Haslam said in a UM press release.

“I appreciate the search committee helping vet candidates and find the very best leader of this storied program.”

Skyline Sports has confirmed the following four candidates as the finalists for Montana’s head coaching opening. Sources for confirmation come from sources in direct contact with the candidates.

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MARK CAMPBELL

Campbell, a native of Mount Vernon, Washington, has spent the last seven seasons as an assistant at Oregon, including the last six as the associate head coach on Kelly Graves’ staff. Multiple sources believe Campbell is the leading candidate for the Montana head coaching position.

During the six seasons, Oregon has compiled 159-46 record, including three straight 30-win seasons that also included Pac 12 championships. The Ducks advanced to the Elite Eight in 2017 and 2018 before advancing to the first Final Four in school history in 2019.

Campbell is credited with recruiting Sabrina Ionescu, one of the great players in the history of women’s college basketball. The 2019-20 unanimous national player of the year was the first women’s collegian to surpass 2,000 career points, 1,000 rebounds and 1,000 assists in her career. She finished her career as the undisputed all-time triple-double queen with 26 in her career. She was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft.

From Oregon’s athletic website:

Campbell is undeniably one of the very best recruiters in the country, bringing elite talent to Eugene each year since arriving at Oregon. Campbell was the lead recruiter in the hunt for Ionescu, who was the top-ranked guard in the country and the No. 4 overall recruit, as Oregon netted the nation’s No. 3 ranked class in 2016. Campbell was instrumental in Oregon landing its first ever No. 1 ranked recruiting class in 2020, bringing in five players all of whom were consensus top-25 recruits and McDonalds all-Americans. Campbell has also been key in signing some top international players, including Berlin, Germany, native Satou Sabally, considered the top international forward in the 2017 recruiting class, and her younger sister, star power forward Nyara Sabally, in the 2018 class. 

Before Campbell joined Graves’ staff, he spent four seasons at Oregon State. He was Rueck’s associate head coach in 2013-2014.

Campbell, who played collegiate at Cal Poly, Clackamas Community College and Hawaii, started his coaching career with the Saint Mary’s men’s team of the West Coast Conference. He served as an assistant on Randy Bennett’s staff during the 2009-2010 campaign, helping the Gaels reach the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history as well as tie a school record for wins in a season (28-6). He originally joined the Saint Mary’s staff as director of operations in 2008-09.

In the Bay Area, he mentored a number of All-American guards including Patty Mills, a 2009 NBA draft pick by the Portland Trail Blazers, Mickey McConnell, the 2011 WCC Player of the Year, and Matthew Dellavedova, the 2012 WCC Player of the Year.

Mike Petrino

Petrino, a native of Kalispell, served as Montana’s interim head coach after the dismissal of Shannon Schweyen around this time last year. He has been a leading candidate for the job since Haslam opened up the search.

Petrino joined Schweyen’s first coaching staff when she took over for Selvig in 2016. He had previous stops at Wyoming under Joe Legerski (2011-2014) and Colorado on Linda Lappe’s staff in 2015 and 2016.

After graduating from Montana State Billings in 1999, Petrino spent 10 years coaching Central Catholic High in Portland, including the final five as the boys’ head coach. The Rams went 97-37 under Petrino, winning five Mt. Hood Conference titles and twice placing third at the Oregon Class 6A state tournament. He was named the Mt. Hood Conference Coach of the Year three times in his five years as head coach.

During his one season as the interim head coach at Montana, the Lady Griz went 12-11 overall, including 9-8 in league play. UM finished sixth in the regular-season standings but fell 65-58 to bottom-seeded Sacramento State in the first round of the Big Sky Tournament, marking the first time that a last-place team won a first-round game in the women’s tournament.

Since Selvig’s retirement, the Lady Griz have won one Big Sky Tournament game.

When Haslam appointed Petrino as the interim head coach, he indicated a national search would take place regardless of the finish of the Lady Griz during the truncated most recent season. And Haslam indicated Petrino would be a candidate for the open position.

BRIAN HOLSINGER

Holsinger, a native of Federal Way, Washington, is an alum of Western Washington who’s college basketball career started at Pacific. His head coaching career began at The Master’s College in Santa Clarita, California after he earned his degree from Western in 1999.

Holsinger, who is currently the associate head coach at Oregon State, spent two seasons as the head women’s basketball coach at Montana Tech in 2005 and 2006. Holsinger guided the Orediggers to the program’s first Top-25 ranking. Holsinger also engineered the biggest turnaround in Montana Tech history, taking the team from thee wins in 2005-06 to 16 wins in 2006-07.

Holsinger spent eight seasons at Washington State on June Daugherty’s staff, helping the Cougars go from a five-win team in the first season to consecutive WNIT appearances his last two seasons on the staff.

Daugherty coached at Boise State in the mid-1990s when the Broncos were in the Big Sky. Montana State 16th-year head coach Tricia Binford played for Daugherty at BSU. Daugherty also comes from VanDerveer’s coaching tree; she served as an assistant for Vanderveer at Stanford from 1985-1989.

Holsinger is in his fifth season on Scott Rueck’s staff at Oregon State. Under Rueck’s guidance, OSU has qualified for eight consecutive NCAA Tournaments. The year before Holsinger joined the staff, Oregon State advanced to the first and only Final Four in program history.

During his time in Corvallis, Holsinger has been a part of a program that won a Pac 12 title and advanced to the Sweet 16 three times, including a run to the Elite Eight three seasons ago.

Jamie Carey

Carey, who just finished her first season as the associate head coach at North Texas, had a prestigious playing career before diving into the coaching ranks.

The 1999 Ms. Colorado Basketball was the 2000 Pac-10 Conference Freshman of the Year at Stanford before concussions sidelined her for the next two seasons.

After a year free of post-concussion symptoms, Carey transferred to the University of Texas, where she was maintained her elite play and became a two-time All-Big 12 selection. At UT, Carey finished as the school’s all-time leader in 3-point field goal percentage (.418) and ranks second all-time in minutes per game (31.4). Carey’s 193 made three-pointers ranks fifth all-time, while her free-throw percentage of .801 is eighth all-time.

Those accolades helped Carey become the 31^st pick in the 2005 WNBA Draft by the Phoenix Mercury. She later signed with the Connecticut Sun. She played four years for the Sun, which advanced to the postseason each of those seasons, including an appearance in the 2005 WNBA Finals.

She first got into coaching at Legacy High in Broomfield, Colorado in 2008. She served as the head coach there for five seasons, compiling a record of 106-25. From 2011 until 2014, Carey was the head coach at Sand Creek High in Colorado Springs, compiling a 62-16 record in the process. During that time, she also served the USA Basketball as the assistant women’s national team director.

Following her successful prep coaching stint, Carey spent two seasons as an assistant at Colorado before returning to Texas in 2016. While serving on Karen Aston’s staff — who was briefly in the mix as Montana’s next head coach — Carey helped develop two of the top point guards in UT history.

Brooke McCarty was the 2017 Big 12 Conference Player of the Year and played for the WNBA’s Dallas Wings during the 2019 season. Sug Sutton was a two-time All-Big 12 Conference selection who was selected by the Washington Mystics with the 36th pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft.

Aston helped lead UT to four consecutive Sweet 16 appearances in the NCCA Tournament, including the Elite Eight in the 2015-16 season. But a first-round loss in 2018-19 and a non-tournament berth the next season resulted in Aston’s dismissal.

Carey joined Jalie Mitchell’s staff the following year leading up to the most recent season. Last season, UNT went 13-7, including 10-4 in Conference USA.

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