“We don’t want to be a team that just showed up…. We want to make sure we’re prepared to give our best against Michigan,” Montana’s Michael Oguine.
The University of Montana dominated the Big Sky Conference (16-2) and won the conference tournament last Saturday with an 82-65 win over Eastern Washington.
Montana’s Travis DeCuire (photo, Missoulian)
“You saw a group slow down a very explosive offensive team,” Montana coach Travis DeCuire said in their win over EWU. “For us to hold them to 36 percent and outscore them by 28 points in the second half, that’s defense.”
The Griz stand 26-7. On Thursday, UM will meet UM (the University of Michigan, that is) in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.
“It’s huge because I wanted to do it my way,” DeCuire said about Montana getting back to the tournament (first appearance since 2013). “I wanted to build the type of culture that I was comfortable with on and off the court. Sometimes when you fight for culture and how you want young men to be or become, sometimes you might end up with less talent down the road. We never gave in.”
An impressive two guard-combo–Ahmaad Rorie and Michael Oguine–lead the Griz. They’ve combined for 33 points per game this season. On defense, UM is led by Oguine, who was the Big Sky MVP.
“I feel great, man,” Oguine said. “It’s really hard to explain the feeling. It’s unbelievable. Everyone dreams of doing this ever since they’ve been doing basketball. So to be here, it’s a great feeling, but we still know we have work to be done. We don’t want to be a team that just showed up and wasn’t ready to play. We want to make sure we’re prepared to give our best against Michigan.”
The Game: Thursday, 9:50 p.m., Eastern time, TBS, Michigan -12
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Data as of March 13. Sources: ESPN, Washington Times, The Missoulian
