Brent Yarina, BTN.com Senior Editor, March 12, 2012
Wisconsin, playing in its 14th straight NCAA tournament, earned the No. 4 seed in the East Region. The Badgers will play Big Sky champ Montana at 2:10 p.m. ET Thursday afternoon. Before the game tips off in Albuquerque, N.M., BTN.com web editor Brent Yarina introduces you to the Grizzlies. A little sampling: Did you know a former Wisconsin guard who won two Big Ten titles is a Montana assistant? Meet Montana in this post.
Montana
Conference: Big Sky Conference
Record: 25-6
RPI: 74
Best win: vs. Long Beach State, 73-71 (box)
Coach: Wayne Tinkle
Best player: Will Cherry, Jr., G – 16 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 3.4 apg, 2.6 spg
Last NCAA tourney: 2010
Deepest tourney run: Round of 32 – 2006
Track the tourney: NCAA Bracket
5 THINGS ABOUT MONTANA
- Assistant Freddie Owens won a pair of Big Ten titles (2002, 2003) and a Big Ten tourney crown (2004) as a guard for Bo Ryan at Wisconsin. He scored 796 points in his career, including three on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to beat Tulsa and advance to the 2003 Sweet Sixteen.
- Montana won 20 of its final 21 games, including the last 14, with the lone loss coming Jan. 14 at Weber State.
- Five Grizzlies average at least 9.2 points per game, led by Will Cherry's 16 ppg, and account for 83 percent of the team's scoring.
- Senior Derek Selving's family is all about Montana basketball. Both parents played for the Grizzlies and are among their respective program's top players, his uncle has been the women's coach for 32 years, and his sister is a redshirt freshman on the women's team.
- The second-round game against Wisconsin marks Montana's first neutral court game of the season. It was 9-4 on the road, for what it's worth.
Brent Yarina is a web editor and blogger for BTN.com. Find all of his work here and follow him on twitter at @BTNBrentYarina.