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A tradition like no other: Lady Griz to the big dance
Girls who want to play basketball for the Montana Lady Griz should learn how to dance.
Every UM player who has stayed in the program for four years has played at the NCAA Tournament, familiarly called the Big Dance among hoop insiders.
Since 1983, when the NCAA began sponsoring a women's tournament, hundreds of Lady Griz have visited the biggest dance floor in college sports. The Lady Griz have never gone four straight seasons without qualifying for the NCAAs, and the streak will continue next weekend when coach Robin Selvig's program will play at one of eight first-round sites.
Selvig said he wasn't aware of the full impact of the NCAA connection until a few years ago when star point guard Brooklynn Lorenzen brought it up.
"She told me she didn't want to be first player who didn't make it," Selvig said. "Then we went her last year (2004) and played Louisiana Tech, and darn near beat them."
Since Lorenzen is the all-time assist leader in the Big Sky Conference (701), it would have been a shame if she hadn't gotten the chance to play at the NCAAs.
Of course, it would have been no less a shame if a standout like current junior guard Mandy Morales of Billings hadn't made the Big Dance. But Morales pretty much paid her own way last weekend as she scored 55 points in two victories, including 24 Saturday night as UM won the Big Sky title and an automatic NCAA berth with a 101-65 romp over Montana State.
"It would have put a lot of pressure on Mandy and the other juniors next year if we hadn't made it (this year)," said Selvig. "The girls don't need that kind of pressure. It's supposed to be fun to play basketball in college, but unfortunately, people think they're never going to lose. I can deal with that stuff, but they should be able to enjoy the victories rather than just feel relief."
Selvig admits he tries to sell potential Lady Griz athletes on their chances of making it to an NCAA Tournament.
"Everybody tells their kids they'll have a chance to play in the NCAAs," Selvig said. "We always tell them there are no guarantees, but not that many schools have played in any more than we have ... we've got a pretty good track record."
This will be Montana's 17th trip to the NCAA tournament, 13 of them as Big Sky champions following four appearances as the Mountain West winner. The Lady Griz have a 6-16 record at the Big Dance; no other current Big Sky team has ever won an NCAA game.
The Lady Griz competed at the very first NCAA Tournament in 1983, losing at Louisiana-Monroe. Their next two NCAA trips were losses to Southern California, back when Cheryl Miller was the best female player in the nation.
The first NCAA victory came in 1989, and the program made the field eight of the next nine years.
Selvig and his team will learn tonight where they will play this weekend. The competition sequences are Saturday-Monday and Sunday-Tuesday at these possible locations: Albuquerque, N.M., Baton Rouge, La., Des Moines, Iowa, Stanford, Calif., Bridgeport, Conn., College Park, Md., Norfolk, Va., and West Lafayette, Ind.
This season's 25-6 squad has an RPI in the 70s (out of about 320 NCAA programs), which is about 30 spots higher than last year's 27-4 squad, which didn't make the NCAA field.
"I think we'll get at least a 13 seed," said Selvig. "I don't think we'll be lower than that. But last year some guy had us as a 10 seed, and we didn't even get picked, so you never know."
ALL-TOURNEY NOTE: How would you like to be the leading scorer in the Big Sky Conference tournament, keep your team in the game against a much better squad, and then not be voted to the all-tournament team?
That's the situation Northern Colorado center Danielle Hagen found herself in Saturday night when the Big Sky all-tourney team was announced.
The six players selected all were deserving — MVP Mandy Morales and Laura Cote of champion Montana, forward Krislyn Wallace and guard Erica Perry of runner-up Montana State, Portland State guard Claire Faucher, and Idaho State center Natalie Doma.
Hagen, a native of Sidney who was recruited to the Greeley, Colo., school when UNC was an NCAA Division II program, scored 37 points Thursday night in a loss to Portland State, and she also was the Bears' top rebounder with seven. But the media members covering the tournament apparently have short memories, since they left her off the six-player honor squad.
Hagen passed the 1,000-point barrier for her career, where she started all four seasons but missed the 2006-07 season with an injury.
Geise is Tribune Sports Editor and has covered the state scene for more than 30 years. He can be reached by e-mail at ggeise@greatfallstribune.com, or by phone at (406) 791-1470
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Age. Fac ut gaudeam |
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