BOISE, Idaho — “The most difficult thing for individuals to do when they become part of a team is to sacrifice. It is much easier to be selfish.”
Pat Riley has been a part of championship basketball teams his entire life, first from his time as a player with Kentucky and the Los Angeles Lakers, then as the famed head coach of Showtime in L.A. and finally over the last quarter-century as one of the most respected executives in the NBA.
In his book “Coaching For Success,” Riley frequently talks about “the disease of me.” His thesis: the only thing harder in hoops than winning a championship is winning another championship.
Montana State’s women’s basketball team found out just how hard it is to return a core group and navigate the treacherous waters of being defending champions. To this point, Montana State’s men’s basketball team has taken the challenge of defending its first Big Sky banner in a generation head on.
“We have been ready since last year, since last year’s championship game and losing in the NCAA Tournament, we knew our plan was to get back to this tournament, get to the semis and then get to the championship,” Montana State junior guard RaeQuan Battle said after MSU’s 84-73 win over Northern Colorado to advance to tonight’s semifinals. “We’ve been prepared for this all year.”
Last season was a historic one for Montana State men’s hoops. After nearly two decades of mediocrity, the Bobcats broke through to win their first Big Sky regular-season championship since 2002. When Montana State blasted Northern Colorado in the Big Sky Tournament championship game, the Bobcats punched their first ticket to the NCAA Tournament since 1996, reaching just the third Big Dance in the program’s history.
The story line was accentuated by the fact that Montana State’s head coach is one of Montana’s favorite sons. Danny Sprinkle first came to MSU as a sweet-shooting guard from Helena and instantly affirmed himself as an unforgettable Bobcat, earning Big Sky Tournament MVP honors as a true freshman in 1996 to help boost the ‘Cats into the NCAA Tournament.
After nearly 20 years away as an assistant in Southern California, Sprinkle returned to MSU to lead his alma mater. The 46-year-old has already won 78 games (in only 120 contests) and Montana State is one win away from playing in the Big Sky title game for the third season in a row.
“I think in the last three seasons, Coach Sprinkle has started his evolution of the program,” Montana associate head coach Chris Cobb said. “Last year, they were the most passionate, competitive, and together for the front of their jersey than anyone in the league. That’s why they won it. I think they are the same this season. He gets them to play incredibly hard.”
Entering tonight’s 9:00 p.m. tournament semifinal game against third-seeded Weber State, the No. 2 seeded ‘Cats are one of the hottest teams in college basketball. Montana State has won 11 of its last 12 games and has 23 wins overall.
The consecutive 20-win seasons mark the first time in 29 years that has occurred for MSU men’s hoops.
“These guys, I know what their goals are and that’s why I don’t ask them what they want,” Sprinkle said. “I demand. This is what you told me, so now it’s my job to demand that you do this every time, every possession. We are going to continue to get better because we have to.”
Montana State entered the season with a target on their backs, and that target is as big on the formidable back of Jubrile Belo as anyone in recent memory in the Big Sky. The 6-foot-9, 250-pound Belo is bigger and stronger than pretty much every player in the league, which leads to unique treatment from officials, bespoke game plans from opposing defenses and sky-high expectations internally and externally.
After all, Shaquille O’Neal and Wilt Chamberlain always had to live up to their larger than life powerful reputations. Despite his formidable power, Belo remains about the ultimate prize, Sprinkle said.
“We could win it again and Jubrile would want to run it back. That’s just the type of kid he is,” Sprinkle said.
This season, Belo fought through double teams and plenty of physical fouls to average 13 points and 6.1 rebounds per game while also becoming MSU’s all-time leader in blocked shots.
“Belo was the MVP of the league a year ago and I think he’s capable of doing that again, regardless of what the statistics say,” Idaho State head coach Ryan Looney said earlier this season. “He impacts winning at a high level on both ends of the floor for them. You are giving him a lot of attention when you try to guard him in the post.”
To put into perspective how hard Belo gets bodied sometimes, he tore the webbing in his left hand earlier this season when a defender tried to swipe the ball from him in the post.
“Every team has come out hungry to play us,” Belo said. “We’ve also had great environments on the road. Usually, some of those schools don’t get environments like that, but everyone was more eager to play us this year. “
Last season, Xavier Bishop was a vocal inspiration and a slick southpaw point guard who guided the Bobcats organizationally, offensively and with his competitive spirit and won the Big Sky Tournament MVP. Finding a replacement for him was certainly one of the biggest question marks for Montana State.
Enter Darius Brown II. The mature, savvy floor general transferred to Montana State after an All-Big West career at Cal State-Northridge that hit a speed bump when he suffered a season-ending injury that cost him last season.
Like former UC Davis forward Caleb Fuller and former Idaho State point guard Robert Ford III, Brown wanted to come to Montana State to win. He wanted to help the Bobcats chase a league title and experience the Big Dance himself. He impacted winning as much as anybody in the league, leading the Big Sky in steals and earning league Defensive MVP honors a year after Belo captured the accolade.
Finding instant impact transfers who wanted to join MSU for team accomplishments more than individual accolades was a common theme for Sprinkle in recruiting.
“On a lot of teams in the country, once a team wins it, players get satisfied,” Sprinkle said. “Oh, I’m just going to get numbers, da da da, I already got my championship. Nah, it’s not going to work that way here.
“We haven’t had a selfishness problem, guys trying to get their own and I think it was good we have some new blood coming in like Darius, like Caleb, like Robert Ford who hadn’t won a championship. They came here because of the success we had. They haven’t won a championship and they want to feel that. We talk about that a lot too. We are playing for these guys to get a championship now and that’s their goal and that’s our goal.”
And perhaps the most important part of Montana State’s run toward a second straight Big Sky Tournament title has been the ascendance of Battle. A season ago, the former Washington transfer was the league’s top reserve. This season, he’s transformed into one of the league’s best players, a sky-walking shooting guard with a smooth jump shot and an even cooler demeanor.
“There’s a lot more of a bullseye on us and RaeQuan not only recognizes that, but he thrives off of that,” Sprinkle said. “You can kind of fly under the radar but once you win it, everybody knows. Here’s what we have to do. That’s one of the teams we have to beat.
“And Rae loves it. He plays his best when he knows other people think that about us.”
Montana State posted a 15-3 record in Big Sky games this season. The losses included a perplexing 74-70 miscue against Idaho in Moscow on the Monday before MSU was set to play rival Montana in Missoula. Their first league loss came on the first Big Sky Saturday of the conference season as Steele Venters hit a late 3-pointer to lift EWU to a 70-67 win, one of half a dozen nail-biting wins by the league champion (but since ousted) Eastern Washington Eagles.
And Montana State’s last loss? A 73-63 defeat at the hands of Weber State in Ogden, Utah. Now the Bobcats get a chance to avenge that loss.
“We were never close against Montana State,” Northern Colorado head coach Steve Smiley said after his team’s season-ending loss to MSU on Sunday. “Every other team in the league, you could be eight, one, whatever place, it doesn’t matter. I think the strength of our league all the way through, it’s the best depth our league has hade since I’ve ever seen. There are no bad teams. But there is no team as good as Montana State.
“I would not bet against them. It’s not going to be easy but with the guys they have, the experience they have, the guys they brought in, they are just so good.”
