• Hi Guest, want to participate in the discussions, keep track of read/unread posts and more? Create your free account and increase the benefits of your eGriz.com experience today!

Lady Griz Staff Additions

maroonandsilver

Well-known member
DONOR
Lisa O'Meara as Assistant Coach. She was an assistant at St. Maries for 9 years.

Haley Simental as Director of Basketball Operations.
 
Still no news for either of them on the GoGriz web site. It's good the hear they've got people to fill the positions.
 
I like the direction this program is heading, with one significant objection.

The Lady Griz started playing in 1974-75. We're approaching the 50th anniversary of the program.

In the entire history of the program we've had only a handful of black players--though I believe this staff is actively trying to change that.

Wouldn't it help to have a black assistant coach? Like, the first one in the nearly 50-year history of the program?

I can't imagine any team college or pro getting very far in today's game without black talent at all levels.

Here's the roster and coaching staff of last year's NCAA champions, South Carolina:

https://gamecocksonline.com/sports/wbball/roster/season/2021-22/

Just sayin'.
 
citay said:
I like the direction this program is heading, with one significant objection.

The Lady Griz started playing in 1974-75. We're approaching the 50th anniversary of the program.

In the entire history of the program we've had only a handful of black players--though I believe this staff is actively trying to change that.

Wouldn't it help to have a black assistant coach? Like, the first one in the nearly 50-year history of the program?

I can't imagine any team college or pro getting very far in today's game without black talent at all levels.

Here's the roster and coaching staff of last year's NCAA champions, South Carolina:

https://gamecocksonline.com/sports/wbball/roster/season/2021-22/

Just sayin'.

Citay-I agree with your main assessment. Yes, the Lady Griz have had a woeful percentage of African-American players historically and, as you said, no coaches apparently. However UM has probably the highest percentage of Native players of any D1 school over the last 35 years. Does that get any props?

Also, whatever South Carolina's coaching staff and roster looks like (I didn't bother to click on the link) is irrelevant, and you know it. We don't have the options in budget/travel or connections to recruits the top players in the country-whatever they look like. Again, I am hopeful to expand our recruiting base (especially internationally), but just cause South Carolina's team is what it is apples and oranges.
 
Zirg said:
citay said:
I like the direction this program is heading, with one significant objection.

The Lady Griz started playing in 1974-75. We're approaching the 50th anniversary of the program.

In the entire history of the program we've had only a handful of black players--though I believe this staff is actively trying to change that.

Wouldn't it help to have a black assistant coach? Like, the first one in the nearly 50-year history of the program?

I can't imagine any team college or pro getting very far in today's game without black talent at all levels.

Here's the roster and coaching staff of last year's NCAA champions, South Carolina:

https://gamecocksonline.com/sports/wbball/roster/season/2021-22/

Just sayin'.

Citay-I agree with your main assessment. Yes, the Lady Griz have had a woeful percentage of African-American players historically and, as you said, no coaches apparently. However UM has probably the highest percentage of Native players of any D1 school over the last 35 years. Does that get any props?

Also, whatever South Carolina's coaching staff and roster looks like (I didn't bother to click on the link) is irrelevant, and you know it. We don't have the options in budget/travel or connections to recruits the top players in the country-whatever they look like. Again, I am hopeful to expand our recruiting base (especially internationally), but just cause South Carolina's team is what it is apples and oranges.

Yo, Zirg!
We simply have different standards of success.
Under Robin Selvig the Lady Griz were a "Big Sky power" and dominated the Cats.
If you live in Montana, that's great. But nationally?
That means squat.
The Big Sky conference by almost any standard is a joke. I doubt there are many fans nationally who could name four members. You could win the conference in every major sport for ten years in a row, and it'd be like a bear shitting in the woods. Nobody outside the conference would notice--or care.
Until--you make some noise nationally.
If I want bragging rights among MY friends and family, I have to have aspire to a higher standard. I want a team that transcends the Big Sky conference and makes SOME noise at the national level.
As our football team has.
As our basketball team did in 1975 when it nearly shocked the world by beating a John Wooden-coached UCLA team.
As happened to me back around 2010 when I sat with my bud from North Carolina and watched our Griz dismantle UCLA in Pauley.
Or I sat with my nephew, an Oregon grad, and watched our Griz several years ago beat his Oregon Ducks at the old MacArthur Court.
These are the kinds of games that outside of the Shannon Cate era the Lady Griz never won.
And frankly, without black talent, were incapable of ever winning.
When Robin Selvig retired, he was the eighth winningest coach in the history of women's basketball.
He's revered as he should be among Montanans and historians and devotees of the Big Sky Conference--and, yes, especially for the Native American talent he recruited.
And yet among the nearly 200 inductees into the national Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, you will not find Robin Selvig's name.
Politics? I dunno. Maybe.
But I'd guess it's more a reflection of the fact that on the national stage of women's basketball, Selvig had no noticeable impact.
You say the difference between us and South Carolina is "apples and oranges."
I'd say it's between prime steak and chopped liver.
If we were to play a Dawn Staley team today, we'd lose by 40 points.
So: Why not aspire for the best?
 
citay said:
Zirg said:
Citay-I agree with your main assessment. Yes, the Lady Griz have had a woeful percentage of African-American players historically and, as you said, no coaches apparently. However UM has probably the highest percentage of Native players of any D1 school over the last 35 years. Does that get any props?

Also, whatever South Carolina's coaching staff and roster looks like (I didn't bother to click on the link) is irrelevant, and you know it. We don't have the options in budget/travel or connections to recruits the top players in the country-whatever they look like. Again, I am hopeful to expand our recruiting base (especially internationally), but just cause South Carolina's team is what it is apples and oranges.

Yo, Zirg!
We simply have different standards of success.
Under Robin Selvig the Lady Griz were a "Big Sky power" and dominated the Cats.
If you live in Montana, that's great. But nationally?
That means squat.
The Big Sky conference by almost any standard is a joke. I doubt there are many fans nationally who could name four members. You could win the conference in every major sport for ten years in a row, and it'd be like a bear shitting in the woods. Nobody outside the conference would notice--or care.
Until--you make some noise nationally.
If I want bragging rights among MY friends and family, I have to have aspire to a higher standard. I want a team that transcends the Big Sky conference and makes SOME noise at the national level.
As our football team has.
As our basketball team did in 1975 when it nearly shocked the world by beating a John Wooden-coached UCLA team.
As happened to me back around 2010 when I sat with my bud from North Carolina and watched our Griz dismantle UCLA in Pauley.
Or I sat with my nephew, an Oregon grad, and watched our Griz several years ago beat his Oregon Ducks at the old MacArthur Court.
These are the kinds of games that outside of the Shannon Cate era the Lady Griz never won.
And frankly, without black talent, were incapable of ever winning.
When Robin Selvig retired, he was the eighth winningest coach in the history of women's basketball.
He's revered as he should be among Montanans and historians and devotees of the Big Sky Conference--and, yes, especially for the Native American talent he recruited.
And yet among the nearly 200 inductees into the national Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, you will not find Robin Selvig's name.
Politics? I dunno. Maybe.
But I'd guess it's more a reflection of the fact that on the national stage of women's basketball, Selvig had no noticeable impact.
You say the difference between us and South Carolina is "apples and oranges."
I'd say it's between prime steak and chopped liver.
If we were to play a Dawn Staley team today, we'd lose by 40 points.
So: Why not aspire for the best?

Any time you compare the Griz to any number 1 ranked team in the country its going to be comparing prime steak and chopped liver tho. I've wondered why we haven't been able to capture lighting in a bottle like teams from the Summit League. SDSU's men's team is always knocking on the door of NCAA upsets, and South Dakota's women's team beat Ole Miss and Baylor before losing by 3 to Michigan in the tourney. USD had zero black players.

I agree that we should recruit more black Lady Griz, but I see a big problem being no community of female black coaches, athletes, or administrators throughout the UM athletic department. 0 soccer players, 0 softball, 1 track athlete, 0 volleyball players, 1 basketball player. Zero African American female coaches.

There's a ton of female AA hoopers in the areas we recruit. Denver, Seattle, even MT.

MSU had 4 AA female hoopers on the team back in 2020. 2 from CO, 1 from ID, 1 from UT.
 
LittleBear said:
citay said:
Yo, Zirg!
We simply have different standards of success.
Under Robin Selvig the Lady Griz were a "Big Sky power" and dominated the Cats.
If you live in Montana, that's great. But nationally?
That means squat.
The Big Sky conference by almost any standard is a joke. I doubt there are many fans nationally who could name four members. You could win the conference in every major sport for ten years in a row, and it'd be like a bear shitting in the woods. Nobody outside the conference would notice--or care.
Until--you make some noise nationally.
If I want bragging rights among MY friends and family, I have to have aspire to a higher standard. I want a team that transcends the Big Sky conference and makes SOME noise at the national level.
As our football team has.
As our basketball team did in 1975 when it nearly shocked the world by beating a John Wooden-coached UCLA team.
As happened to me back around 2010 when I sat with my bud from North Carolina and watched our Griz dismantle UCLA in Pauley.
Or I sat with my nephew, an Oregon grad, and watched our Griz several years ago beat his Oregon Ducks at the old MacArthur Court.
These are the kinds of games that outside of the Shannon Cate era the Lady Griz never won.
And frankly, without black talent, were incapable of ever winning.
When Robin Selvig retired, he was the eighth winningest coach in the history of women's basketball.
He's revered as he should be among Montanans and historians and devotees of the Big Sky Conference--and, yes, especially for the Native American talent he recruited.
And yet among the nearly 200 inductees into the national Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, you will not find Robin Selvig's name.
Politics? I dunno. Maybe.
But I'd guess it's more a reflection of the fact that on the national stage of women's basketball, Selvig had no noticeable impact.
You say the difference between us and South Carolina is "apples and oranges."
I'd say it's between prime steak and chopped liver.
If we were to play a Dawn Staley team today, we'd lose by 40 points.
So: Why not aspire for the best?

Any time you compare the Griz to any number 1 ranked team in the country its going to be comparing prime steak and chopped liver tho. I've wondered why we haven't been able to capture lighting in a bottle like teams from the Summit League. SDSU's men's team is always knocking on the door of NCAA upsets, and South Dakota's women's team beat Ole Miss and Baylor before losing by 3 to Michigan in the tourney. USD had zero black players.

I agree that we should recruit more black Lady Griz, but I see a big problem being no community of female black coaches, athletes, or administrators throughout the UM athletic department. 0 soccer players, 0 softball, 1 track athlete, 0 volleyball players, 1 basketball player. Zero African American female coaches.

There's a ton of female AA hoopers in the areas we recruit. Denver, Seattle, even MT.

MSU had 4 AA female hoopers on the team back in 2020. 2 from CO, 1 from ID, 1 from UT.

It's chapter and verse of black athletes in Montana's football and basketball programs, going back to Naesby Rhinehart, John Lands, Willie Jones, Ray Lucien, Marv Suttles, Wade Hughes, Ed Samelton, Micheal Ray Richardson--we're talking 50 years ago and more--and more that I have forgotten.
But none with the Lady Griz. Robin Selvig chose not to put it there.
Will this new coaching staff?
I have high hopes for them.
But it would start with a black assistant coach, which is what brought this issue up again.
 
citay said:
LittleBear said:
Any time you compare the Griz to any number 1 ranked team in the country its going to be comparing prime steak and chopped liver tho. I've wondered why we haven't been able to capture lighting in a bottle like teams from the Summit League. SDSU's men's team is always knocking on the door of NCAA upsets, and South Dakota's women's team beat Ole Miss and Baylor before losing by 3 to Michigan in the tourney. USD had zero black players.

I agree that we should recruit more black Lady Griz, but I see a big problem being no community of female black coaches, athletes, or administrators throughout the UM athletic department. 0 soccer players, 0 softball, 1 track athlete, 0 volleyball players, 1 basketball player. Zero African American female coaches.

There's a ton of female AA hoopers in the areas we recruit. Denver, Seattle, even MT.

MSU had 4 AA female hoopers on the team back in 2020. 2 from CO, 1 from ID, 1 from UT.

It's chapter and verse of black athletes in Montana's football and basketball programs, going back to Naesby Rhinehart, John Lands, Willie Jones, Ray Lucien, Marv Suttles, Wade Hughes, Ed Samelton, Micheal Ray Richardson--we're talking 50 years ago and more--and more that I have forgotten.
But none with the Lady Griz. Robin Selvig chose not to put it there.
Will this new coaching staff?
I have high hopes for them.
But it would start with a black assistant coach, which is what brought this issue up again.

Agreed, a female black assistant would be a great start.
 
I could be way off here, but it seems like there is an assumption that that there is an absence of effort to recruit leaders and players of color to the Lady Griz program. I think one only need ask themselves,, "If you were a young female from a minority community of color, would you want to come to Missoula, Mt?" Its a tough sell.
I will, perhaps foolishly, choose to believe that the Lady Griz program puts 100% effort in to finding and recruiting the best talent to come to Missoula regardless of what their ethnicity is. I think narrowing that lense to only the best talent in the community of color makes that a challenging task, which up until this point, has prooved to be elusive.
 
Citay-There was more there than I wanna take on right now. I appreciate your passion, and I don't want to get into a battle with you. I do know that Robin Selvig DID try to recruit at least one top-notch African-American (that you would know of) and he got no response. He WAS a small-town Montana hick, but he wasn't racist. And I just want that to be said.
 
Back
Top