By Reggie Gatlin-Holt
Montana State men’s basketball looking for first NCAA Tournament win program history
3 202 2024
MONTANA STATE NCAA TOURNAMENT GAME NOTES
DAYTON, Ohio – Making their third straight appearance and sixth overall at the NCAA Tournament, the Montana State men’s basketball team will take the court under the lights on Wednesday night at the First Four inside UD Arena in Dayton, Ohio.
The Bobcats (17-17, 9-9 Big Sky) will square off with fellow 16-seed Grambling State (20-14, 14-4 SWAC) for the right to advance to the Round of 64 and play 1-seed Purdue on Friday night in Indianapolis at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
“It’s obviously a joy to be here,” head coach Matt Logie said during a press conference on Tuesday. “This is a group that has had a special, special journey to get here. We took over last spring around the end of April and had a ton of work to do. Building a staff, completing a roster—this team has made me so proud in the way that they’ve stuck to the process and continued to keep their eyes focused on March as the goal for playing our best basketball. The way that’s all come together in the last few weeks has just been a joy and a testament to the character of our players and staff.”
Tip on Wednesday is set for 4:40 p.m. MT/6:40 p.m. ET. The game will be nationally televised on TruTV, with Spero Dedes, Jim Spanarkel, and Jon Rothstein on the call.
Nate Gatter and Jim Boeheim will call the action nationally for Westwood One, and Voice of the Bobcats Keaton Gillogly’s call of Wednesday night’s game will air on the Bobcat Sports Network.
Montana State is looking for their first NCAA Tournament win in program history, and will be doing so in their first-ever appearance at the First Four.
“It’s an exciting opportunity,” Logie said of the dynamic of playing in the First Four. “Obviously comes with a lot of exposure for our basketball family and for our young men, which is well-deserved. It’s also an opportunity to keep the momentum going that we’ve built here in the last couple of weeks.”
Montana State punched their ticket to the Big Dance in spectacular fashion, making a run through the Big Sky Tournament in Boise last past week as the No. 5 seed, the lowest seed to win the Big Sky Tournament since 1994.
The Cats defeated No. 4-seed Weber State in the quarterfinals and No. 10-seed Sacramento State in the semifinals before taking down archrival and No. 3-seed Montana in the championship game, 85-70, in one of the most memorable Brawl of the Wild games in the series’ history.
“The whole season, you’re building towards the end of the year,” junior guard Brian Goracke said Tuesday at a press conference. “We just want to make sure we’re at our best when it counts. And especially in a conference that has a single bid like the Big Sky, we just want to give ourselves the best chance to make this run at the end and win those three games in March and make it here.”
Robert Ford III was named Big Sky Tournament MVP after averaging 22.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 3.3 steals during the tournament, shooting 59.0% from the field and 47.1% from beyond the arc. Ford also became the third straight Bobcat to earn Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year honors, and was selected First Team All-Big Sky as well as to the All-Defensive Team. Ford is currently second in the country in steals (100) and owns the Montana State single-season record for steals. Among players listed at 6-foot-3 or shorter, Ford is second in NCAA Division I in rebounding (7.6).
Ford is one of five players since 1979 in NCAA Division I with 250+ rebounds and 100+ steals in a season, joining Clyde Drexler (1982-83), Ron Harper (1985-86), James Posey (1998-1999), and Eric Coley (1999-2000). Ford is the only member of that list under 6-foot-5.
Goracke was named to the Big Sky All-Tournament Team., averaging 12.3 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks during the tournament while shooting 50% from the floor and 46.7% from deep.
Brandon Walker was named Honorable Mention All-Big Sky by the conference. The sophomore big man ranks tenth in the Big Sky in scoring (13.7 ppg) and third in field goal percentage (55.6%). Walker scored a career-high 26 points in a Power Five win over California in Berkeley on November 16, 2023, and has had 22 games in double-figure scoring this season.
John Olmsted has been one of the best stories of the season. A four-year walk-on at Arizona State that transferred to Montana State to use his last year of eligibility this season, Olmsted played just 27 minutes the entire month of February and was averaging less than two points per game before exploding for a career-high 15 points against first-place Eastern Washington on March 1. The 6-foot-11 center has now scored at least 15 points in three of the last five games, including a career-high 16 points and 5 rebounds against Montana in the Big Sky Championship game. The Bobcats are 4-1 in those five games.
In his first year at the helm of the Bobcats, Matt Logie is leading a Montana State that was picked seventh in the preseason Big Sky Coaches’ Poll to their third straight NCAA Tournament. In 13 years as a head coach, Logie has advanced to the NCAA Tournament 12 times, and is believed to be just the second-ever coach to lead a team to the NCAA Tournament at the Division III, Division II, and Division I levels.
The other coach to do so was Tobin Anderson, who led Fairleigh Dickinson to a win at the First Four last year in Dayton before becoming the second-ever No. 16 seed to knock off a No. 1 seed, defeating Purdue, 63-58.
Grambling State, the Bobcats’ opponent on Wednesday, comes into the NCAA Tournament as the champions of the SWAC making their first-ever Big Dance appearance.
“They’re a team that is also playing really, really good basketball,” Logie said. “Won nine of their last ten games. They have a veteran backcourt that is very dynamic in [Kintavious] Dozier and [Tra’Michael] Moton. So they know who they are, and they’re a team that’s been executing their system all the way back to November and December at a very high level. They’re well-tested, and played a lot of high-major opponents in the non-conference and you learn a lot about those scenarios. A very impressive team. A group that plays extremely hard and knows who they are.”
The game on Wednesday from UD Arena can be heard SiriusXM Satellite Radio on Sirius ch. 211 and XM ch. 204. A free online stream of all individual Westwood One game broadcasts, as well as the “March Madness Mix”, is available at WestwoodOneSports.com/madness. A direct link to all games from Dayton is WestwoodOneSports.com/Dayton. Fans can also listen via the free NCAA March Madness Live app (locate audio by individual game), via the free Varsity Network app (locate audio by following Westwood One), or via TuneIn Premium (Westwood One Sports Channel C).
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