By CHRIS WALTERSKIRCHEN
North Dakota State is the 13th reigning FCS champ to return to the title game. The defending champions are 8-4 in their return to the title game. The last team denied a repeat in the title game was the Montana Grizzlies; the best excuse the Griz could come up with for the loss was that Marshall had a future NFL Hall of Famer in Randy Moss.
The last time the Montana Grizzlies Basketball team lost a home game to another Big Sky School none of the current Grizzly players were on the roster. On February 27, 2010 the Montana Bobcats recorded a resounding win over Montana to give MSU the No. 3 seed in the Big Sky tournament.
Between 1997 and 2008 the Lumberjacks of Northern Arizona won 9 out of 12 against the Grizzlies on Montana’s home court. In 2000 NAU won a Big Sky tournament title at Dahlberg Arena.
Saturday night the Griz host Sacramento State a program that hasn’t been to the Big Sky tournament in 8 years. Since the Hornets beat the Griz in the opening Round of the 2003 Big Sky Tournament Montana has won 198 games and Sac State has won 97 games.
Sac State’s Mika McKenney is ninth in the nation in free throw percentage the sixth different Big Sky Conference player to be ranked in the top ten from the line this season.
Who was the last Big Sky team other than Weber State to beat the Grizzlies? In the 2011 Big Sky tournament title game Northern Colorado pulled off a narrow win over the Griz in Greeley.
The Lady Griz opens the defense of their conference championship with what may be the toughest road in the league this season at Northern Arizona. Both the Lumberjacks and Hornets are getting big help from their 2013 recruiting class.
Sacramento State has already won 8 games noteworthy with a program that has won more than 10 games 5 times in the last 144 seasons. The Hornets lead the league in scoring assists, steals and assists/turnover margin. The Lady Griz lead the Big Sky in scoring defense field goal defense and 3- point defense.
With a Bobcat sweep this weekend former Big Sky Eagles and UM assistant Brad Huse will pick his 100th win as Bobcat head coach.
Clemson and Ohio State will meet in the Orange Bowl Friday renewing a Bowl rivalry that was last contested 35 years ago. In the December 1978 Gator Bowl the Tigers and Buckeyes were both young and talented teams. With less than a moment left in the game Clemson’s win was sealed when linebacker Charlie Bauman intercepted a Buckeye pass and soon after Bauman was punched several times by Buckeye head coach Woody Hayes bringing an immediate end to Hayes coaching career.
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Chris Walterskirchen has been an observer of Montana sports for nearly half a century. A Kalispell native, Chris has worked in various capacities for professional and college sports organization of at various times: ranging from announcing and statistical work to the concessions and even a stint as a costumed mascot.
Chris has academic degrees in communications and elementary education. His style of sports trivia involves more than just who won and who lost, but also focuses on the obscure or human side of sports. In this blog you will learn things like the Grizzly football team has won 210 games over the 19 seasons since they have had Monte as their mascot or that UNLV is the only school that both the Griz and Lady Griz have both faced in the NCAA basketball tournament
When not following sports Chris enjoys taking care of animals of all kinds (a peacock rescue?) and reading to pre-schoolers.