Tricia Binford has been coaching at Montana State long enough to remember playing Big Sky Conference tournament championship games on her rival’s home floor
She did so when she led the Bobcats against Montana in Missoula in the 2008 title game.
Seton Sobolewski has been coaching at Idaho State long enough to remember punching an NCAA Tournament ticket on his home floor…and played for a bid for the Big Dance in the Biggest Little City in the World…and won the league tournament downtown in Idaho’s state capital.
And Jon Newlee has been at Idaho long enough to have played in neutral site tournaments for six years before the Big Sky followed most of the rest of Division I and relocated, including winning the Western Athletic Conference tournaments in 2013 and 2014 before the Vandals rejoined the Big Sky the following year.
Heck, Newlee has been around the Big Sky longer than anyone if you include his six seasons, 93 wins and 2006 league title and 2007 trip to the NCAA Tournament at Idaho State before taking over at Idaho in 2008.
When the Big Sky moved its tournament from the regular-season champion hosting to a neutral site for the first time in Reno in the spring of 2016, Newlee’s Vandals took down Sobolewski’s Idaho State Bengals in the championship game.
The following year, Binford’s Bobcats earned their first NCAA Tournament berth in 24 years by beating Idaho State in the championship game.
In 2018, Northern Colorado denied Newlee’s Vandals another trip to the Big Dance with a championship game win the final tournament in Reno, Nevada.
In 2019, Idaho got upset by eventual tournament champion Portland State and in 2020, the NCAA Tournament did not happen after a global pandemic hit, although the Vandals and the Bobcats had each already punched tickets to the championship game for what would’ve been a much anticipated matchup between Binford and Newlee to go dancing.
And last season, Sobolewski’s Bengals defeated Newlee’s Vandals in the Big Sky Tournament championship game to punch the second NCAA Tournament bid in Sobolewski’s 14 years at the helm at ISU. Idaho State also won the league tournament title on their home court in 2012.
Binford is the longest-tenured head coach in the Big Sky; she’s in the midst of her 17th season at Montana State and already has a school record 290 wins to her. Credit. Sobolewski has been at Idaho State for 14 seasons and has won 250 games. And Newlee has been at Idaho for 14 years, winning 213 games with the Vandals, 306 games overall and 133 wins against Big Sky competition counting his six seasons at Idaho State.
“Trish, Seton, they are great coaches, great competitors and it’s been great to battle with them and compete against them,” Newlee said. “They are tremendous people, tremendous coaches and I really enjoy playing the games we do against each other.”
Those three stalwarts are a strong dichotomy to the rest of the Big Sky. Loree Payne, in her fifth year at Northern Arizona, Tracy Sanders, in her third year at Southern Utah and Velaida Harris, in her fourth year at Weber State seem like veterans to the Big Sky Tournament compared to five new faces that will make their debuts this week in Boise.
“I love going head to head with the veteran coaches in this league,” Sobolewski said. “And all the new coaches, it’s refreshing, honestly. There’s several new great coaches who are going to build great programs in the Big Sky.”
Big Sky women’s basketball had an overhaul like never before during the most recent off-season. Montana elected to not retain interim head coach Mike Petrino, instead hiring Oregon State assistant Brian Holsinger. Mark Campbell, previously the associate head coach at Oregon, was a finalist with Holsinger at UM and ended up replacing Bunky Harkleroad at Sac State.
Following last season, Eastern Washington parted ways with Wendy Schueller after 20 years leading the Eagles, the longest tenure in league history other than Robin Selvig’s 38 seasons at the helm for the Lady Griz. EWU hired Joddie Gleason for their opening.
At Northern Colorado, Jenny Huth resigned an eventually ended up as an assistant at Oregon State, giving way to Kristen Mattio, who spent the 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 seasons as an assistant on Binford’s staff at Montana State.
And at Portland State, Lynn Kennedy left for the head coaching job at McNeese State, leaving an opening for Chelsea Gregg, a former Kennedy assistant at PSU who played in the Frontier Conference at the University of Great Falls in Montana.
“I knew it was going to be a different type of year when all those openings came in the spring,’ Newlee said. “Five new coaches joining the league, I’ve never been in a league and I’ve been doing this a long time where you had five new head coaches. It’s definitely a different dynamic.
“You get used to competing against the same programs with the same head coaches. It’s been much different preparing for the teams and their styles, different styles than we are used to.”
Monday’s tournament gets kicked off at 2:30 p.m. as Mattio’s Bears try to stay hot against Gleason’s similarly surging Eagles.
Northern Colorado earned the No. 8 seed by posting consecutive wins over No. 5 Montana and No. 2 Montana State during the final two weeks of the regular-season, denying MSU a share of its fourth league title six years in the process.
Eastern Washington went 5-5 the second half of league play to earn the No. 9 seed, a spurt that included beating Montana 63-57 in Cheney, Washington during a Monday makeup game on February 14 and winning 76-69 in Bozeman over Montana State three days days later.
“I am extremely proud of this team and the way they have grown this season,” Gleason said last week. “We’ve gone 5-5 in the second half of conference while playing on the road three out of four weekends.
“We are playing with confidence and executing the game plan that the coaching staff puts forth for each game. We are staying together when there is adversity within the game and making those adjustments necessary to win games.”
Sacramento State won nine out of 10 games during one stretch this season to vault into contention for a first-round bye. The Hornets lost to the Montana schools at home to end the regular season but come into the tournament as the No. 7 seed and a reputation as one of the scariest teams because Campbell assembled one of the league’s most potent duos.
Lianna Tillman led the league in scoring at 20.4 points per game and assists at 6.1 dimes per game after transferring to Sac from Pacific. Izzy Natabou, a 6-foot-5 bruiser and native of the Czech Republic, averaged 16.5 points and 11.9 rebounds while shooting 67 percent in league play.
“The level of commitment, honesty, and character that Coach Campbell shows in his recruiting and his coaching is truly unique. By giving him the reins, Sacramento State is making the right move. I’ve been a fan of Mark’s and am now a fan of Sacramento State,” said Sabrina Ionescu, a former All-American at Oregon before becoming the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft by the New York Liberty.
Gregg will make her Big Sky Tournament debut at 8 p.m. Sunday against Newlee’s Vandals. The Vikings went 0-20 in league play this season.
And Holsinger will coach in his first Big Sky Tournament game at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday against Payne’s NAU Lumberjacks in the No. 4-No. 5 quarterfinal. The Lady Griz are in search of their second conference tournament victory since Robin Selvig retired following the 2016 season.
“The most familiar person to me is Mark Campbell at Sacramento State because we battled each other in the Pac 12,” Holsinger said with a chuckle. “That was the most familiar coach to me because we didn’t play the other ones much. The rest of it is a fully learning opportunity. And this tournament will be, too.”
On one hand, once could argue Holsinger inherited the program in the most disarray. But most of that evaluation stems from what the Lady Griz once were: the peerless, untouchable queens of the Big Sky.
The Lady Griz have won exactly one postseason game since the tournament moved to a neutral site. UM has not won 20 games in a season since 2016.
To put it in perspective, Eastern Washington won 20 games twice in 20 seasons under Schuller. Sac State is trying to finish above .500 for the third time in its Division I history. The NCAA Tournament bid under Kennedy was the only trip in Portland State history. Despite some competitive teams, Northern Colorado has been to the Big Dance once.
Under Selvig, the Lady Griz won 865 games and 24 conference titles, advancing to the Big Dance 21 times. UM won 20 games or more an astounding 31 times in 38 seasons.
Now Holsinger will try to help the Lady Griz on its first post-season run since Selvig retired.
“When I took this job, this was one of the reasons that I wanted to be here,” Holsinger said. “And this is unique. This is not everywhere. This environment is special. … This program is special. We want to get this thing back to what it once was when Robin Selvig was at the helm.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
