Time for madness to tip
No. 1 seed UW vows not to look past Montana
BOISE ? The bus carrying the Montana basketball team was headed home to Missoula, but the Grizzlies themselves were headed nowhere.
It was mid-February, and they were driving home with a 13-10 record after a 72-62 loss to rival Montana State.
?We basically laid an egg in that ballgame,? Montana coach Larry Krystkowiak said. ?We played selfishly. We didn?t play very hard. We came back a wounded group of guys. We had a three-hour bus ride coming back, and a lot of negative stuff around the state was being said about our team and kind of went at the character of our squad.?
The Grizzlies set about troubleshooting immediately.
?We just had a little heart-to-heart the next day,? Krystkowiak said. ?We talked about guys moving themselves from the top of the pyramid scheme where you think you?re running the show and what you do is the most important thing, and just asked everybody to jump into a more circular idea where they were part of what was going on. It was time for us to give in to something bigger than ourselves.?
The Grizzlies agreed.
After one more loss, they put together a six-game win streak, which they will take into Taco Bell Arena today when they meet Washington in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
?They play a deliberate style, they play a lot of players, and they?ve got a stud in (senior forward) Kamarr Davis, who is a wide body that is strong,? UW coach Lorenzo Romar said. ?They?re a pretty disciplined team, and anytime you play a team like that, you?re going to have to do everything right to come out on top.?
Their discipline came the hard way, after that loss at Montana State.
?The next day we came to practice, and everybody just connected,? Davis said. ?From then on, we just made it an emphasis to play hard for each other and just give it all we?ve got for each other.?
They understand that might not be enough today.
Washington is the No. 1 seed in the region, and no top seed has lost to a No. 16.
If the Grizzlies weren?t aware of that before, they were made aware of it repeatedly Wednesday, when they faced media questions that ? whether framed in terms of Cinderella, ?Hoosiers? or David-and-Goliath ? came down to the same uncertainty: How can you succeed where 80 previous No. 16 seeds have failed?
?We?ll probably have to play our perfect game to get a win,? junior guard Kevin Criswell said.
?We?re just hoping to go out there and play hard and do something that?s never been done before,? said Virgil Matthews, a junior guard from Pierce County. ?But we don?t really think of it like that. We just look at it like it?s a regular game. We take it as an even matchup, like we take everyone else.?
Washington hasn?t found the No. 1-vs.-No. 16 angle any more comfortable than Montana.
?I wish they could just throw the numbers away,? UW guard Will Conroy said Sunday when the Huskies? top seed was announced. ?Just put ?Washington vs. Montana.? (Seeding) doesn?t mean nothing once the ball gets thrown in the air.?
By Wednesday, the Huskies did their best to cast themselves as underdogs, pointing out that the national media don?t believe they deserve their seeding and that Boise fans are likely to adopt the Grizzlies.
?We?ve been dealing with criticism our whole career, and it will probably continue to be like that as long as we live,? junior Nate Robinson said. ?All the (media) saying that Washington is a dangerous team but they see us losing this game or that game. We got to go out there and show them we?re not that type of team that could get a No. 1 seed and not be ready to handle what we worked for this whole year.?
HUSKIES MEN GAMEDAY
16 Montana (18-12) vs. 1 Washington (27-5)
When: 12:10 p.m., Taco Bell Arena, Boise.
TV: Ch. 7.
Radio: 950-AM.
Series: Washington leads, 39-9. However, Montana has won three in a row and five of the past six meetings. The most recent was a 67-56 Grizzlies win in Seattle on Nov. 28, 1994.
Scouting report: No top seed in the NCAA tournament has lost to a No. 16. ... Montana center John Seyfert twisted his ankle in the Grizzlies? workout Wednesday. The injury is not expected to keep him out of today?s game. If it does, freshman Andrew Strait of Yakima will start in his place. ... The teams have played three common opponents this season. Both lost to Gonzaga, both beat Eastern Washington, and Montana lost to Stanford, 84-66, while the Huskies won two of three meetings with the Cardinal. ... The Grizzlies want to slow the pace today and will shift between man and zone defenses. ... Montana?s statistical leaders are forward Kamarr Davis (14.8 points per game, 5.9 rebounds), guard Matt Martin (101 assists), Seyfert (27 blocks) and forward Matt Dlouhy (35 steals).
