BOISE, Idaho — As Travis DeCuire walked around the Silver Legacy Casino wearing a throwback Griz practice jersey as an homage to his past as a standout Montana point guard, one couldn’t help but wonder about his future.
When DeCuire and his Griz men’s basketball team cut down the nets in the Biggest Little City in the World in the spring of 2018, it seemed like a Montana program rich with tradition would ascend to new heights. Either that, or DeCuire would be gone in the blink of an eye, the latest Griz hoops skipper to take a big-time college head coaching job.
Mike Montgomery had jumped from Montana to Stanford, where he led the Cardinal to the Final Four, then to Cal, where he hired DeCuire as an assistant, then helped DeCuire springboard to his first head coaching job back at his alma mater.
Montgomery also deserves credit for taking over for Jim Brandenburgh when Brandenburgh left Montana for the head job at Wyoming. And Montgomery, who served as the “director of basketball” at UM, gets the credit as the man who hired Robin Selvig to lead the Lady Griz. Selvig piled up 865 wins and went to 21 NCAA Tournaments during his unprecedented career.
Blaine Taylor did it, jumping from Montana to Old Dominion with a dry stay on the Farm with Montgomery in between. Taylor, who had recruited DeCuire to Montana while on Stew Morrill’s staff, was the first to give DeCuire a shot as a Division I assistant during his time at ODU.
Morrill had done it, leading the Griz to their first NCAA Tournament berth since Judd Heathcote stalked the sidelines at Dahlberg Arena before building Utah State into a perennial mid-major power and NCAA Tournament fixture. Morrill had so much success in Logan, they named the court after him.
Larry Krystkowiak had done it, leading the Griz to consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and the last win in the Big Dance by a Big Sky Conference team in 2006 when the Griz beat Nevada. Krystkowiak, who’s widely considered one of the greatest players in Big Sky Conference history and a man who played 13 seasons in the NBA, used the NCAA Tournament win to land the head coaching job at the University of Utah.
And Wayne Tinkle made the jump successfully too. He led the Griz to three NCAA Tournament appearances in four seasons, then took over at Oregon State, leaving the Montana head seat open for DeCuire to keep on cruising in the Griz hoops Cadillac.
And even with how lofty and prominent all of those resumes are, when DeCuire was celebrating in Reno seven years ago, it seemed like he might have even more upward potential. He was young. He was dripping with charisma. He had already established himself as an ace recruiter. He had pipelines to hoops hotbeds like the Bay Area and the Seattle-Tacoma area that DeCuire calls home.
And he had a vision to elevate the Griz into a real life NCAA Tournament contender on an annual basis. Phrases like “Sweet 16 potential” were muttered. The goal for the Griz would rise from getting to the NCAA Tournament to winning in the NCAA Tournament.
DeCuire had led the Griz to the conference title game three times in four seasons and once he got his roster solidified, the rest of the Big Sky Conference probably thought “how are we ever going to beat this guy?” After winning his first conference tournament in Reno in 2018, the Griz ran it back in resounding fashion.
The 2018-2019 Montana squad is at least in the conversation as one of the most talented teams in the history of the conference. The roster was so flush with talent, former Pac 12 transfers like Kendal Manuel and Donoven Dorsey came off the bench.
Ahmaad Rorie, a former 4-star recruit who transferred to the Griz from Oregon, and Michael Oguine, an otherworldly athlete who DeCuire’s staff stole out of Los Angeles, made up one of the best starting back courts in Griz and Big Sky Conference history. When healthy, Jamar Akoh was dominant enough to remind Griz fans of the legends of yesteryear like Andrew Strait, Krystkowiak and Tinkle.
Following a second consecutive Big Sky Tournament title, this one won the inaugural year of the neutral site tournament moving to Boise, Idaho, it seemed like DeCuire would be good as gone. Or that the Griz would snap the Big Sky’s streak of March Madness futility.
The Griz lost to Michigan two years in a row in the NCAA Tournament, which actually came with some grace since Montana got such a tough draw, then drew the same team again, a rarity in the NCAA Tournament selection process.
DeCuire’s name floated in seemingly every conversation when a coaching spot came open. He was on “the list” at Pac 12 and Mountain West programs. He was in serious conversations with a few. But because of circumstance, negotiation and decision, DeCuire remained at his alma mater.
Last season, Montana State beat Montana in the Big Sky title game, sending the Bobcats to the NCAA Tournament for a record third season in a row. That was the first time a team in the league had ever 3-peated. But if the global pandemic didn’t call off the 2020 Big Sky tournament before the quarterfinals were played, it might’ve been the Griz, led by ferocious swing man Sayeed Pridgett, who would’ve been the first to win three in a row.
That all leads us to Wednesday night at Idaho Central Arena. Back in 2019 or even in 2020, it seemed impossible DeCuire would still be the head coach at Montana in 2025. And if he was, the Griz were a perennial power, working on their version of Gonzaga-like domination of the Big Sky, right?
The pandemic negatively impacted basically every corner of college basketball and college athletics. But it impacted the Griz men’s basketball program more harshly. After Pridgett did not get a chance to make one last run, Montana fell into the doldrums of the average.
Sure, the Griz had a winning record in 2021, 2022 and 2023. But the sudden rise of Montana State under a flashy, charismatic head coach who seemed destined for the big time (sound familiar?) combined with the sudden dormancy of the Griz altered the trajectory of the UM program and, quite frankly, kept DeCuire in Missoula.
Who could’ve imagined that the Griz would slip from the Big Sky mountaintop and that the team that would replace them would be the rival Bobcats? Who would’ve thought that Danny Sprinkle would be the man who used back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances at Montana State to jump to Utah State? And then a year later, become the year at the head coach at the Univesity of Washington?
Before the pandemic, that seemed like a predictable precise trajectory for DeCuire.
In the current landscape of college basketball, building a perennial NCAA Tournament contender is difficult enough. Having a program with that reputation, then having that program slip can be catastrophic. With the pandemic several years in the rear view mirror and Montana’s recruiting back on track, UM began the path back to a championship.
Last season, Montana turned a corner. UM won 24 games and played for the Big Sky title. But this season, a Griz team with a personality perfectly fit for DeCuire’s edgy, demanding coaching style reascended to the mountain top.
Montana’s 91-83 win over Northern Colorado here on Wednesday night didn’t come to full culmination until after midnight on Thursday morning. But it came to fruition thanks to a tough-minded, mature and unselfish group that battled every brand of adversity, from injury to personal tragedy to a few things DeCuire chose not to disclose to the public.
The return to the NCAA Tournament certainly reignites DeCuire’s name in college coaching circles. In fact, guiding a program through a rise, a stumble and a re-ascent might actually make DeCuire’s resume stronger.
DeCuire’s name is certainly back in conversations about potential upcoming openings. When he was hired at Montana, he was a 43-year-old up and comer. Now he’s a 54-year-old veteran who became UM’s all-time leader in career wins earlier this season.
But nothing about the future mattered on Wednesday night. DeCuire celebrated like the proudest of Grizzlies following his team’s impressive victory. The re-ascension was complete. The Griz were headed back to the Big Dance.
And when DeCuire sat down at the post-game press conference, he began with an eloquent, detailed opening statement that lasted more than three and a half minutes.
After answering questions about the ins and outs of the matchup — like the Griz shooting 65 percent or Northern Colorado not double-teaming power forward Joe Pridgen or talking about senior Brandon Whitney’s tournament MVP honor — DeCuire was asked about the Grizzlies’ climb back to the top of the Big Sky. And he gave one of the his most impassioned answers of his 11-year career at UM, affirming the pride he continues to have in leading his alma mater.
“I try to avoid comparing teams and players because I want to be completely respectful to the ones I’ve coached in the past but I am going to say this is my proudest moment as a head coach because of what this team has been through,” DeCuire said. “I can’t speak to everything this team has been through but the team knows. I’ve never been around a basketball team that has had as much adversity as we have had.
“To see these guys come together and support one another through it has been huge. And it wasn’t until the second half of conference that we even knew who we were as a basketball team. We came together at the right time. We weren’t playing great basketball but we were winning because we were tough and we wanted to win, we were trying to win but we didn’t know how. We had to learn.
“Usually, you need some luck to win championships. This has been a very unlucky team. Usually, you don’t win. You don’t even have winning seasons going through the things we’ve gone through. There’s three or four guys in our program that easily could have sat this year out and didn’t. So this is easily my proudest moment as a coach.
“Our staff worked completely hard to pull this thing together. I’m not going to say hold this together because these guys wanted to be together, but we had to pull it together. With all my years, championships and experience, I’m going to enjoy this trip to the tournament with these guys as much as any I have ever had.”
It’s impossible to know what the future holds for DeCuire. But it’s certain after Wednesday night that Montana is fortunate to have one of the most accomplished coaches in the history of the Big Sky continuing to lead the way.
