The Tale of Two Different Basketball Teams at Montana (Part One) (Written December 13, 2010)
For the past six seasons now, I have been an ardent follower of men's and women's basketball at Montana. I've seen great players come and go, but both teams have very different philosophies.
Let's start with the men's team first. One of the factors that had me hooked was the fact that Larry Krystkowiak was the head coach when I first started following the team. First game I attended was a home game against Pac-10 power Stanford during the 2005-06 season and the Grizzlies beat them soundly. That win over the Cardinal was one of the factors that helped the team get selected into the NCAA Tournament as a 12-seed against Nevada, who was a 5-seed that year. The 12 vs. 5 matchup in the NCAA Tournament has historically been an upset matchup, and the Grizzlies upset the Wolf Pack in Salt Lake City before falling to Boston College two days later. Three months afterward, Krystkowiak left the program as head coach to accept an assistant coaching position with the Milwaukee Bucks (the team Krysko spent the majority of his NBA playing career with), which was a move I never saw coming.
Assistant Wayne Tinkle was promoted to the head job. Krysko and Tinks had two totally different personalities. Krysko was blunt, brash, and fiery, but he knew what he was doing and wasn't afraid to light a fire under his players. Tinkle on the other hand is calm, reserved, and one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. The first two years of the Tinkle era were relatively mediocre, but the team finally started getting its legs back during the 2008-09 season, largely because of the team signing junior college transfer Anthony Johnson, who would make an almost immediate impact on the team.

Even though Grizzly fans miss A.J. (who is now playing professionally in Greece), the team has plugged along nicely and has performed well all season to this point. That includes a huge win over national power UCLA at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles in a game the Grizzlies dominated throughout, just days after UCLA lost a heartbreaker at nationally-ranked Kansas. The team also has an impressive win over Cal State Fullerton and a blowout win against Idaho, but the Grizzlies will have road rematches against those respective teams and soon, so it will be interesting to see how they'll do in the rematches.
I'll weigh in on my thoughts about the women's basketball team at some point later this week. (Post was written on December 28)
My Favorite Feel-Good Sports Moment, In Time for Christmas (written December 24, 2010)
You always look at the positive things in life when Christmas comes around the corner. Just like at Thanksgiving, you're surrounded by family and friends. On Christmas Day, there's more to it. You have a tree decorated with ornaments and lights with neatly-wrapped gifts under the tree. And others go out of their way to offer up a Christmas for those that wouldn't otherwise have the luxury of experiencing the joy that is of Christmas Day.
It's not very often that I'll talk about auto racing here, but I have to make an exception in this case. Back in 2001, the CART racing series was racing in Germany on the weekend after the United States was attacked by terrorists on September 11th. While all major sports leagues decided to postpone their events out of respect of the victims who lost their lives on that fateful day, CART made the difficult decision to continue on with their activities at the Lausitzring, because all U.S. airspace was restricted as a result of the terrorist attacks on New York City and The Pentagon in Washington, DC.

Turn the clock ahead to Mother's Day weekend in 2003. It had been over 18 months since Zanardi's life almost came to a tragic end, and in turn ended his open-wheel racing career. CART was making its second trip to the Lausitzring, but there was one thing Zanardi wanted to do before the race was to begin. Just watch the first ten minutes the following clip and you'll be amazed at what he was able to do with his two prosthetic legs.
What Zanardi accomplished that day to fulfill that promise instantly made him a hero to everyone that watches racing, myself included. I enjoyed watching him in CART from 1996 to 1998, and while he won everything left and right, he did it in a way that would have you on the edge of your seat most of the time. He was one of the most exciting drivers I had ever seen drive a race car, and if the CART/IRL split never happened in 1996 (Zanardi's rookie year in CART), I believe he would enjoyed having that symbolic swig of icy cold milk at least once, as a champion of the Indianapolis 500.
The Tale of Two Different Montana Basketball Teams (Part Two) (Written December 28, 2010)
A couple of weeks back I weighed in on my thoughts about the men's basketball team at Montana--a team that is now ranked 18th in the latest Mid-Major Top 25 poll. Now, I'm going to weigh in on my thoughts about the women's basketball team.
Just like with the Grizzlies, I have followed the Lady Griz since the 2005-06 season. Their team that year was young much like the teams they've had the last two years--young, talented, expected to make mistakes and learn from them. But one of those young guns was Mandy Morales, who led the team in scoring four straight seasons after she redshirted the 2004-05 season (as a result of her transfer from Arizona State after initially enrolling in Tempe and signing a letter of intent to play for the Sun Devils), and was the Big Sky's MVP in her sophomore and senior seasons. She was also honorable mention for All-American four straight years.


This year's team was voted by both the coaches and the media to win the conference title in 2010-11, but this year's team was swamped with a brutal non-conference schedule. They lost six games in a seven-game stretch heading into their Holiday Classic, in which they face two teams that have a combined two wins between them. Many of those non-conference losses can be attributed to abysmal shooting from the field despite having one of the stingiest defenses in the Big Sky Conference. With Baker back along with senior starters Sarah Ena and Stephanie Stender, the team should play well in conference play. The defense is there, but if they can put they can forget about their shooting woes, then they'll be one dangerous unit when league play gets underway next week.
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