By CHRIS WALTERSKIRCHEN
One thing that could be a major factor in this weekend’s Grizzly basketball home stands are the crowds. While Montana home games thus far this season hasve averaged attendance in the neighborhood of 3,500 that kind of a crowd could intimidate both Portland State and Sacramento State. The Vikings and Hornets average well under a 1,000 fans per ghome game. Sacramento State, who nearly hosted last spring’s Big Sky tournament, is drawing a robust 565 fans per home date. If you ask yourself why did the Big Sky go to a neutral site this is exhibit 1.
In recent years the Griz and Vikings have played more than their share of overtime games, as in 3 of their last 5 meetings.
Griz freshman Walter Wright showed off his talents in the Montana team scrimmage and then the two exhibition games. Now Wright is coming up big in games that count. Wright is ranked in the top 10 in Big Sky stats in three different categories.
Last January the Griz were in Sacramento and lost a wild game by 1 point, after a late dramatic shot by the Hornets. Sacramento’s student section stormed the court and it was literally a battle for the team to get to the safety of their locker room.
On the other hand the Lady Griz make their first vist to Sacramento in two years and their last memory of the Hornets Nest was a rout at the hands of the Hornets that ended with a margin near 20 points.
Sacramento State has three of the top 4 steals leaders in the Big Sky and are so proficient in thefts to be ranked among the national leaders.
The Lady Griz have won their last 9 games against Portland State dating back to the 2011 Big Sky Title game in Portland.
Five of the 12 teams that have qualified for the NFL play-offs are franchises that have never claimed a Super Bowl Crown, only the Houston Texans have never been to a Super Bowl.
The Kansas City Cheifs are in Houston to face the Texans. It has been 22 years since the Cheifs won a play-off game and their last post-season win came in Houston in January of 1994. The Texans have never won a play-off game and the last time a Houston team won a play-off game it was late December back in 1991.
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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.