BOISE, Idaho – Danny Sprinkle walked into the postgame press conference with the confidence of a burglar – or a college basketball coach who’d just punched his ticket to the Big Dance – stepping through the black curtain and apparating behind his four jubilant players like the Ghost of Christmas Past.
Only instead of clanking chains around his neck, Sprinkle had the nylon of the net he had just cut down from the basket at ICCU Arena.
When Sprinkle took over the stage from Jubrile Belo, Abdul Mohamed, Xavier Bishop and Amin Adamu, what followed was a 15-minute performance that can only be described by a phrase that didn’t describe Sprinkle at all.
It’s unlikely that the third-year Montana State head coach took a pull from a bottle of Dom Perignon in the elevator ride from court side to the press-conference enclave tucked in a corner of ICCU Arena’s suite level. But the resulting interview – and, in fact, the entire atmosphere since the Bobcats went up double digits late in the first half against Northern Colorado in the Big Sky championship game Saturday – was as champagne-soaked and celebratory as if he’d just run into Rick Ross at the club on a random Thursday night in Miami. (Symbolic because one of the most commonly played songs throughout the week in Idaho’s Capital City was Ross’s megahit “Hustlin'”. )
You got to remind these guys, can you smell the chicken wings, because everybody on Selection Sunday has chicken wings at their deal, Sprinkle said.
And, I was kind of always concerned like, man, we’re too nice. The kids, like, we got to get some edge, you know?
And, It’s probably illegal. But even if I had to pay for all their stuff out of my own pocket, those three were coming back, in reference to Mohamed, Bishop and Adamu, who all returned to Bozeman for their elective extra COVID year.
Sprinkle’s carefree mood was driven, of course, by validating the Bobcats’ regular-season Big Sky title and qualifying for the NCAA Tournament. And by doing so for the first time since 1996, when Sprinkle himself was a sweet-shooting heartthrob freshman point guard for the ‘Cats.
But it was also driven by a feeling sweeter than both of those, especially for a coach who’s been scheming and planning and stressing for six months – the feeling that his team was finally firing on all cylinders, operating at peak capacity, validating the premonitions that he had laid out in August, before they even took the court.
Since December, when the Bobcats embarked on a 11-game winning streak that vaulted them to the top of the Big Sky, Sprinkle has known – more or less – what he can expect from Belo, the British big man who was named the Big Sky’s MVP and Defensive Player of the Year earlier in the week.
He’s known what he’s going to get from Bishop, his explosive, confident and diminutive All-Big Sky super senior point, the man with the quickest first step in the conference. He has faith in athletic wings Abdul Mohamed and Amin Adamu, and backup big Great Osobor, and Big Sky Reserve of the Year RaeQuan Battle.
But Sprinkle has known, all year, that his team has potential beyond what that group can provide.
On Saturday, he saw that come to fruition. On a day that Belo was limited to just eight points and six rebounds while hobbled with an ailing knee, Mohamed had just four points, and Battle scored just two in nine minutes of action, the fewest he’s played in two months, instead Nick Gazelas came off the bench to score 15 points on just five shots, and Tyler Patterson had 14 points on six field goal attempts.
Gazelas hit two big 3-pointers in the first 10 minutes of the game, and Patterson’s two 3-pointers in the final six minutes of the first half helped stake the Bobcats to a 40-28 lead at the break.
“We made some shots early, which kind of relieved a little bit of the pressure and some of the nerves,” Sprinkle said. “It’s funny because (athletic director) Leon (Costello) came into the locker room like a half-hour before the game, like, we could get off to a fast start, you know, we don’t need to be down eight to zero. And I was like, man, I hope not. But we knocked down a couple shots. Nick and Tyler, knocking down some of those 3s, they were huge momentum plays.”
Sprinkle trusts those guys, of course. Patterson started over Battle all season. Gazelas averaged a solid 14 minutes a game. You don’t get that run on a team that’s contending for a conference championship without being able to play.
But they’ve rarely figured in MSU’s closing lineups, and they’ve rarely made a game-changing difference for the Bobcats – at least not on the level of Belo or Bishop or Mohamed or Adamu.
But when they’re hitting, they can be the difference between beating a talented team like Northern Colorado by two – as they did during the last week of the regular season – or by 21, as they did Saturday.
“We know Nick and Tyler, they’re dead-eyes,” Mohamed said. “We have the most trust in them, and every time they touch it, that’s a good look for us. That’s good offense for us. You can see the things we do. We’re so deep in numbers and we have strength in numbers.”
Aside from just pouring in the points – Gazelas’ 15 was his third-highest scoring output of the season, Patterson’s 14 was his most since November – their shooting opens lanes for Bishop, Adamu and Mohamed, and stops teams from doubling Belo and Osobor in the post.
That’s a big reason why Montana State never led by fewer than 10 points in the second half of a title game that was more a coronation than a championship.
And it’s a big reason why Sprinkle’s smile in the press conference was wider than the Cheshire cat’s.
“If we’re defending and we’re not turning the basketball over, like, we’re pretty hard to guard,” Sprinkle said. “I think we have a really good mix inside, outside. You know, anytime you have a great point guard and a great five, and you got some shooters and slashers, it’s hard (to stop).”
