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05-20-2014, 12:28 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-20-2014, 12:48 PM by
CTcard.)
Montana is an interesting incubator of basketball coaches.
A few notables:
Jud Heathcote went 80-53 in 5 seasons in the 70s. That included one NCAA tournament appearance with a Sweet 16.
He went on to much more fame and success in 16 seasons as Michigan State coach.
After Heathcote, Jim Brandenburg went 26-29 in two years, but turned a good second year (20-9, regular season Big Sky champs) into a gig with San Diego State where he had much less fame and success.
Then Mike Montgomery. He went 155-79 in 8 seasons, but no NCAA appearances. Some here know what he did next.
Then came Stew Morrill who went 97-59 in five seasons - using a final year NCAA appearance to trade up to Colorado State then Utah State (where he's had an impressive 8 NCAA tournament appearances).
Blaine Taylor followed Morrill, who in 7 seasons at Montana went 140-67 and traded up to Old Dominion.
Taylor was followed by Don Holst and Pat Kennedy, neither of whom were particularly distinguished.
But, they were followed by Larry Kryskowiak, who used two successful seasons (42-20, two NCAA appearances) to get the job at now conference-rival Utah.
And that takes us to Wayne Tinkle, who spent 8 seasons at Montana going 158-90 with two NCAA appearances (2012,2013). The latter included a first round (NCAA now calls it second round) loss to Syracuse by 81-34: which I believe is the largest ever loss by a 13 seed (though I cannot find confirmation right now).
That's seven of nine* basketball coaches being successful enough to leave for a better gig (in their eyes, presumably). Both a compliment and an indictment of Montana basketball.
*not the origin of the star trek character's name as far as I know.
