Analysis

Summer of change has Bobcats optimistic about Year 3 under Fish

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Brian Fish welcomes an old friend to the Treasure State for the first time this week. Montana State’s third-year head basketball coach hopes his lifelong mentor can share his vision while helping the Bobcats out as Fish continues to rebuild MSU basketball.

On Thursday at the To Do Bar in Great Falls, Dana Altman will be featured as the guest speaker for Montana State’s annual summer fundraiser. In 27 years as a Division I basketball coach — including 16 seasons with Fish as one of his top assistants — Altman has earned seven Coach of the Year awards, won nine post-season tournament titles that led to bids in the NCAA Tournament, claimed four regular-season titles and won almost 600 games. Last season, Altman led the Oregon Ducks to a 31-7 record that included a run to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.

University of Oregon head basketball coach Dana Altman/by Eric Evans Photography

University of Oregon head basketball coach Dana Altman/by Eric Evans Photography

“You been with somebody for 15, 16 years working for him and you’ve been really good friends for 25 years, you both have cards in your pocket you can always play,” Fish said. “He knows he’s got them with me and I know I have them with him. He’s more than willing to help. They’ve got a chance — I know some people have them preseason No. 1. He has a chance to come in and help us and give those in attendance some clarity of vision of what building a program is like that I think our fans will enjoy.”

Fish joined Altman’s staff at Marshal after completing his playing career in 1989. Fish moved with Altman to Kansas State a year later, then on to Creighton four seasons later. After coaching with Billy Tubbs at TCU and Brad Holland at San Diego, Fish rejoined Altman at Creighton in 2004 then followed him to Oregon in 2010. Fish took over as Montana State’s head coach before the 2013-2014 season.

“The perception of Coach Altman is a blue blazer and a red NBA tie and the reality is you’re talking about a guy who has taken multiple programs and taken them to their best runs ever,” Fish said. “You don’t just do that by coaching. You do that by energizing people. I’m probably the wrong person to ask but I think he’s one of the 10 best coaches in America right now and any university would kill to have him run their program.”

The fundraiser this week is part of a summer filled with action and growth for the Montana State program, from the new contract Fish recently signed to the addition of six new players to the roster to getting close to solidifying a schedule that features 17 home games this winter.

The last week of June, Fish sat down with Skyline Sports to discuss all the happenings within his program.

During the Montana Board of Regents meetings earlier this month, Fish’s three-year contract extension was approved, as was the three-year extension given to MSU women’s basketball coach Tricia Binford, the reigning Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year. Fish’s contract will go through June 30, 2019 and will have a base salary of $158,300.

Skyline Sports: Signing a contract extension, how does that influence your mentality as a coach? Does it give you more security to do things?

Fish: I am very thankful to President Cruzado and the university and I’m very appreciative of my staff and my players for how hard they have worked. But we have to pin our ears back and continue to grind. This job, we’ve been at it for 28 months trying to build a program here. The new contract probably relaxes the wife and kids a little more but I don’t really think about it.

“I will tell you the place where it is the most important area: recruits want to know how long you’ll be around. We may still be behind the eight-ball yet in Montana by only doing three-year contracts but at least the kids we are recruiting know we have a chance to be here and continue to build a program. It’s very important to recruiting I know that.”

During the off-season, Fish’s head assistant Kenya Crandall left the program for a job closer to home. Fish replaced Crandall with Eric Jackson, a veteran assistant who spent the last 10 seasons as an assistant at Portland. Jackson joins a staff that includes Chris Haslam and Brandon Lincoln, each who enter their third year on Fish’s staff. Luke Fennelly, the director of basketball operations, returns for his third year as well.

Skyline Sports: I know you mentioned you gave your guys raises.

Fish: “Everyone got raises. That was the first and most important thing in the negotiations. The first thing we asked for was taking a little better care of the staff. They jumped on board. President Cruzado was all in. That helps with morale, helps with grinding. The assistants work their tails off for us.”

Skyline Sports: How’s Eric Jackson fitting in?

Fish: “He’s been great. To have a chance to add a veteran who has worked for some people who I really, really respect and a guy who has connections in areas we want to exploit is huge. He grew up in Milwaukee and worked in the Pacific Northwest the last decade. I always say there are hidden things that happen in the league that don’t get a lot of publicity that end up helping out. Adding ‘EJax’ has certainly been that for us.”

In Fish’s first season, Montana State posted a 7-23 record. Last winter, behind the emergence of Big Sky Freshman of the Year Tyler Hall, the Bobcats doubled their win total.

Skyline Sports: You mention the stability a new contract provides you. Where are you guys at in your big picture plan of rebuilding this thing? Are you on track for Year 3 of where you hoped to be?

Fish: “I think we’ve taken another step. I think our fans will walk in and immediately see more athleticism, more length, more ability to shoot the basketball. The development of the program is exciting.

“Some of the things that don’t involve the players are important for our progress too. Adding 17 home games instead of only playing 11 is a huge step in the right direction. There’s a lot of things that are coming together that maybe 28 months ago when I took the job, I didn’t know we’d be here. Are we ahead of schedule? No because we are not in the NCAA Tournament yet but we are on that slope that I’m pretty proud of.”

Skyline Sports: How close is the schedule to being finalized?

Fish: “I would say in the next week to 10 days.”

In Fish’s first season, the Bobcats endured a season-opening road trip that included stops at Kentucky and UCLA. Last season, MSU had a pair of road trips that lasted longer than a week. This winter, Montana State will play more than half its games at Brick Breeden Fieldhouse for the first time in recent memory.

Skyline Sports: Going from playing at UCLA and Kentucky to now having 17 home games, what did it take to get to that point? What sort of positive influence will that have on your team?

Fish: “Last season, we played a couple of home games early and then we went away for almost six weeks. I think our fans lost connection with our players. We had two 10, 11-day road trips and I think our players lost the importance of playing at home. To keep them in front of our fans almost once a week, it will help build crowds.

“When we took over at Creighton, we won seven, 14 and 15. In Year 4, we upped it to 17 home games and we got to 17, 18 wins and got into the NCAA Tournament. To share that vision with President Cruzado, at one time (former athletic director) Peter Fields and now with (new athletic director) Leon (Costello) has jumped on board with the same vision I have, to get those home games is what you have to do and we’ve been able to get them.”

Montana State graduates All-Big Sky point guard Marcus Colbert and power forward Danny Robison from last season’s squad. During the off-season, junior guard Stephan Holm and junior center Shy Blake left the program. Sophomore forward Quinn Price was forced to retire due to complications from multiple knee surgeries. Junior guard Nahjee Matlock transferred to Division II Alaska-Fairbanks to play for former Montana State head coach Mick Durham.

Fish added high school players point guard Harald Frey (Oslo, Norway) and forward Devin Kirby (Chandler, Arizona) during the early signing period. During the late signing period this spring, Fish added Miami Dade JC forward Joe Mvuelzo, Saddleback (California) College guard DeVonte Klines and Casper College center Benson Osayande. MSU also added Konner Frey, an early summer transfer who is awaiting an NCAA appeal to see if he can avoid sitting out a season after transferring from Utah Valley.

Hall, junior swingman Zach Green and senior guard Quinton Everett return as starters for Montana State. Sophomore forward Sam Neumann, senior forward Sarp Gobeloglu and junior center Tyson Kanseyo all contributed on last year’s squad. Mandrell Worthy was expected to play as a freshman but instead redshirted due to a knee injury. In-state walk-ons Cooper Olson (Westby) and Dallas Lussier (Livingston) are still with MSU as well.

Skyline Sports: You’ve had a few chances to see the new guys in action. What have you thought?

Fish: “The biggest step I think we have improved on is the commitment to the weight room has been off the charts compared to any year past. The eight returners now know the importance. Ricky (Ramirez), our strength coach has done a great job this summer of getting them to where we need to be.

“The other thing the fans don’t see is we play pickup games six times our first year here. We played 20, 25 times last year. They haven’t missed a day playing pick-up games this summer as a group. We’ve doubled any point how many times we play games so we are getting guys who love basketball. It’s starting to be competitive. Those are things that ultimately result in wins at some point.”

Skyline Sports: With so many new guys, do you see guys trying to prove themselves?

Fish: “You did at first. You’ve seen the new guys hiding a little bit in the weight room and trying to shoot a lot on the court. That’s the great thing about the summer. The six weeks, we are really settled in now. The guys have really settled in and they are learning. We had eight guys in the office yesterday that came by to watch game film to learn more about the offense. It’s encouraging. I have a staff that are busting their butt trying to meet with them and get them taught. I like where we are headed, I like what we are doing and a lot of that is because the players and assistants have been committed to get us there.”

Frey spent time as a walk-on at Utah State and a walk-on at Utah Valley before transferring to MSU. He has a waiver into the NCAA to forego having to sit out the upcoming season as stipulated by NCAA rules. Despite averaging more than 14 points and seven rebounds per game last season, Frey was not offered a scholarship at UVU.

Skyline Sports: What is the status of Konner’s waiver?

Fish: “We have gotten a delay on it. We have word back from the NCAA that they want more information. Normally, I’m in the grey area here because the NCAA is never consistent, but normally when you get a request for more information, what that means is put it together, this is your final try and you have to get it in. We are locating statements, talking to a lawyer or two to make sure the wording is right. (MSU Director of Compliance) Kyle Siemer has busted his tail getting that ready. I think we will probably submit the final in the next week or 10 days.

“Historically this time of year, the basketball players waivers are slow because they are trying to get all the football players cleared and into practice. This may take an extra week because they are clearing football players off the skids.”

Skyline Sports: What’s your gut feeling on it? Do you have one?

Fish: “I don’t. I know he makes us better. I know what happens if he is out there. Anytime you can add a kid who’s team first who works his tail off as hard as he does, there’s a lot of positives. He is going to help us.”

Skyline Sports: I know he was disenchanted with how it all went down at Utah Valley. Does he seem to be embracing this new opportunity?

Fish: “I know he talks to a lot of guys there. I know he talks to Coach Pope back there. Here, he’s come in and repeatedly told me how much he enjoys it. He’s just been great to be around. He’s got next-level work ethic and that will always be a positive. He’s just pounding it away and he’s been a great addition. If he doesn’t play this year, I don’t see any negatives in that either because he’s got such a great work ethic. But selfishly as a coach, you want to put your best players out there and certainly he would be out there.”

Skyline Sports: I know you have talked about playing Tyler at point guard depending on how much Harald comes along. What have you thought of Harald so far?

Fish: “Harald has been awesome. He’s asked some questions in practice that quite frankly a lot of freshmen don’t ask. But he is an older freshman who has played against older guys overseas. He’s been really, really good and the guys see it. I was worried about adapting from Norway to here but he’s been great.

“I like what I’ve seen from Tyler at the point guard. Hopefully, we can get a third guy to step up and be a third point guard. I am worried about our ball handling. That concern has kept me up at night. But I’ve liked what I’ve seen out of those two at the 1 so far.

Skyline Sports: I know you’ve liked DeVonte Klines’ athleticism and defense. Can he help you at the point?

Fish: “Historically, having run this offense for 20 years, it’s a lot better to keep a guy at one position until maybe Christmas break to limit the amount of things they have to think about. DeVonte is someone who I think will move there, especially since he has three years of eligibility. But I’ll put the breaks on that a little bit until Christmas time to not throw so much at him. The mentality on the wing, the mentality of a point guard, even though they are only 15 feet apart is substantially different.”

Skyline Sports: How do you think he can help you with what you’ve seen out of him so far?

Fish: “He can go and lock a guy up. We have not had that here in our program. I think if you look back at some games, you look at the Omaha game, the Portland State game, the Montana game at home, we did not have the ability to take a guy and say, ‘Don’t let this guy score.’ I think he prides himself in that. He comes from a winning program. He’s strong, he’s quick, he’s competitive and he enjoys getting after it. I’ve really enjoyed watching that.”

Skyline Sports: Does that ease Tyler’s load at all?

Fish: “No. I think Tyler, I thought I threw too much at him last year as a freshman and I’m throwing a hell of a lot more at him this year, I’ll tell you that.”

Skyline Sports: Is there a third guy you are looking to rise up and be that third point guard?

Fish: “Not a particular guy. We are watching guys. Mandrell is a guy who is a candidate. Probably guys who aren’t candidates of that are Zach and Q (Everett), guys I’m more comfortable with. We’ve had Dallas (Lussier), our walk-on and he’s certainly helped in practice and given me some encouragement there. Mandrell, DeVonte are guys I’ve thought. Mandrell is a guy we are trying to ease in as a third point guard if he can pick it up.”

Skyline Sports: Having Mandrell back in the fold, is that like having another recruit?

Fish: “No question it is. It’s been frustrating for him and I because he had such a devastating injury (bone chip in his knee) and it’s not ‘I’m back at 100 percent.’ It’s ‘Oh, I can do this.’ Weekly, we check off a box of what he can do. Knowing back in November when we did this surgery that we would be able to take June and July as a confidence building period but when you are going through it, it’s sometimes hard to see the improvements because it’s day to day. But when you look at last week or the week before, you realize he’s doing it better.

“I think by September, he will have all his confidence back.”

Skyline Sports: What kind of player is he?

Fish: “We are still figuring that out. He’s kind of a do a little bit of everything. Right now, you can certainly see he has not played for a year. He’s got some athleticism. He’s got long arms. But until we see him 100 percent confident, that’s still up in the air.”

Skyline Sports: I know you like Joe’s (Mvuelzo) athleticism too. Has he been able to acclimate well?

Fish: “There’s a couple of things about Joe because of the things he can do. With Joe, I’ve really seen a light come on in the last 10 days. He’s learning that he can’t do it alone. He’s learning that he has to V-cut to get open, he has to wipe through on a drive, he has to jump stop two-foot because if he misses the shot, he has the athleticism to go get it again. I’m not saying he doesn’t have it at this level to do it but you can’t count on that play after play. You have to use that sneaky and at times but you can’t just live on pure athleticism. Maybe it’s a tough phrase but we have worked on tearing him down and restructuring his fundamentals, being more consistent, being more fundamentally sound. He started to adapt to that the last week or 10 days.”

Skyline Sports: I saw Devin Kirby in the hall the other day. He has freakish length.

Fish: “Freakish. I couldn’t say enough about our two freshmen. First, they are way more mature than most freshmen coming in. DK and Harald are upper level Big Sky players, maybe even above Big Sky players. Two different tracks. Harald has been a point guard his whole life so it’s easier. DK is 6-11, 205 pounds and he’s getting popped for the first time. He doesn’t run away from anything. We are going to have a little procedure on his knee on Friday. They are going to take the screw out of his knee from his previous injury. It’s 100 percent healed and it’s rubbing him so we are going to take it out. It’s an 18-24 day deal so if we do it now, he’s cleared 100 percent by school.

Skyline Sports: What have you thought of Benson (Osayande) ?

Fish: “He’s been the biggest improvement in the 35, 40 days since they’ve been here. We are asking him to do stuff just not athletically but to be a basketball player and he just keeps making strides. I think fans will like him and Joe and DK, the length they bring to the team. I don’t know if we will play like it but we look like a long team when they take the floor.”

Skyline Sports: The guys that are coming back, how have they reacted to the new guys?

Fish: “That’s been a fun thing for us and our staff. Really, this is the first time we’ve had a returning corps coming back. Last year, Danny was out all summer after elbow surgery. We had eight new guys.

“I think Tyler has taken a step the fans will enjoy. He’s bigger, stronger, more athletic. We are trying to get Tyler — he averaged 19 points per game but only shot 90 free throws last year — so he has to learn to play through contact and not love the jumper so much. If I was scouting us, I would try to lock him up so he’s going to have to play through some contact. He’s put in a ton of work individually with our coaches.

“Q is night and day where he was a year ago in conditioning and overall understanding of the offense. Work ethic has been really impressive.

“Zach had a hip surgery (labrum) done as soon as the season ended. He has bounced back and had been phenomenal. His work ethic has been incredible. I think fans will just be amazed when they see his body. He’s yoked and he’s ready to compete. I’m fired up about him.

“Tyson has made a stride. We are talking about another young man, one of the reasons we took him was because he had three years. Now instead of being a junior college transfer heading into his senior year, now he’s got minutes under his belt and he has two years left. He’s got to be the physical player for us. He has to be able to guard a guy one on one in there. We had to double too much. He’s got to accept that role. I’ve been excited about him.

“If we buy in and we work — and we’ve put a lot of work in — this team has a chance to grow.”

Skyline Sports: Do you think Dallas can get to a point where he can help you?

Fish: “Cooper and Dallas have been great in practice. Dallas, I don’t think we have had anybody put more effort and time in the gym than him. I certainly want to see it as we progress out there but there’s a lot of confidence I have in him if given an open jump shot, he can knock it down. On the other end, he has to become more confident and guard somebody. But if you are talking about a guy coming in and the ball swings around to him, he can knock that 3-pointer down as well as anyone on our team.”

Skyline Sports: Is Sarp more comfortable too?

Fish: “Sarp (a native of Turkey) has been dealing with things I’m not sure I’m qualified to deal with. His mom was in the airport during the terrorist attack when the bomb went off. She had just left. Then you have the attempted overthrow of the Turkish government. These are real life things. We are dealing with them day to day. It certainly has affected him. I’m not sure where we are at. I’m just trying to be supportive. We’ve kind of taken basketball to the back seat right now. Things are happening that don’t happen here. We’ve had the university involved. The professors in his classes have been great. He had a paper due and all of a sudden, a bomb goes off in his home country. The paper isn’t as important. The professor worked with us, allowed us to get it in a little later. We are dealing with some things and I’m not sure where we are with that.”

“You (Colter) have a mom up in Missoula. Think if you couldn’t get ahold of her, couldn’t track her down. You could at least jump in a car and drive there. The airport was shut down. We couldn’t even send him home. It’s sketchy when we could get ahold of him. I don’t know where they lie compared to where the coup happened. I just know everyone is worried, including Sarp.”

Skyline Sports: Timeline wise, when can you start full practice?

Fish: “Day after Labor Day, we will get at it. Officially, all the limits come off September 30. That’s one of the things I’ve been trying to stress to the guys. We aren’t that far away from locking it up. Our guys will finish up summer workouts on Friday and they will all go home for the first three weeks of August. They will report back the 27 of August. This three weeks, they will have to maintain some strength and conditioning stuff because we have to hit it and go because once they return, we are 30 days from practice.”

 

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

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