College basketball season has been over for two weeks – and longer than that for the Big Sky Conference – but hoops news around the league stubbornly refuses to vacate the stage for spring sports or premature looks at the fall football season.
In fact, the pace of basketball scoops in the Big Sky has only picked up, accelerating to overwhelming speed like a proton circling the Large Hadron Collider. In the barely 24 hours since Matt Logie was announced as the head men’s basketball coach at Montana State (which you can read about here), several other bombshells of varying size and import hit the conference.
Here’s a notebook roundup of the news from early this week, plus reaction to each item.
Darian White picks Nebraska
White, a two-time Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year, one-time Tournament MVP and Freshman of the Year and three-time first-team all-conference selection – without much argument the most important and dominant player of the last four years of Big Sky women’s basketball – officially announced her transfer to Nebraska on Tuesday. The point guard had announced on March 28 that she would be using her extra year of eligibility to enter the transfer portal and seek opportunities elsewhere.
“I actually did have some other visits scheduled, but when I was there (in Lincoln), it just felt like home,” White told Parker Cotton of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. “The girls were amazing. I can tell how close they are. They were so welcoming. They just took me around and were just like, ‘We want you here and we’re so excited for you to be here.’”
In addition to the individual accolades listed above, White played in one NCAA Tournament over four years with the Bobcats and likely would have made that two had her freshman year – when she was named honorable mention all-conference – not been cut off by the COVID-19 pandemic. She is the only player in Big Sky Conference history with more than 1,700 points, 600 rebounds, 400 assists and 200 steals in her career. A former Idaho Gatorade Player of the Year at Mountain View HS near Boise, she averaged 14.3 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.5 assists last season.
Nebraska went 18-15 in 2022-23, the Cornhuskers’ seventh under head coach Amy Williams, with an 8-10 mark in the Big 10. After losing their first game at the Big 10 tournament, they won two straight in the WNIT to make it to the round of 8, where they lost to eventual champion Kansas. On Monday, the Huskers announced that former Montana State assistant coach Julian Assibey had joined Williams’ staff. Assibey and White overlapped in Bozeman during her freshman year, 2019-20. Former Lady Griz star Jace Henderson also spent last season on Nebraska’s staff as a grad assistant, while strength coach Alex Jardine and athletic trainer Ben Huver also overlapped with White previously at Montana State.
Reaction: White’s goal has long been to play high-level professional basketball, and going to Nebraska is a gamble that offers the chance to make huge progress towards that mark. Five Big 10 teams – No. 2 Iowa, No. 3 Indiana, No. 6 Maryland, No. 12 Ohio State and No. 18 Michigan – were ranked in the top 25 of the final AP Poll.
In nine months, White could be guarding Caitlin Clark – that’s way, way into the deep end. Not to mention, Nebraska returns first-team all-Big 10 point guard Jaz Shelley, a former Oregon transfer who averaged 14.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game last year.
If White – who, don’t forget, is the winningest player in recent Big Sky history, a Skyline Sports favorite with a stellar blend of athleticism, skill, command of the game and leadership plus an infectious, cheerful demeanor – is able to carve out a role either by supplanting Shelley or showing she can produce off the ball alongside her, professional chances will open up. Regardless, watching her chase the highest level possible will be an awesome experience.
Griz men add two transfers
Te’Jon Sawyer’s commitment on Tuesday made it two incoming transfers in just over a week for Travis DeCuire’s Grizzlies after Santa Clara guard Giordan Williams committed on April 10.
Sawyer, a 6-8, 255-pound power forward from Richmond, California, in the Bay Area, comes from the City College of San Francisco, where he averaged 15.1 points and 6.9 rebounds per game in his lone year for the Rams. Prior to that, he spent two nondescript years at Cal Baptist, averaging 3.1 points over 32 total games. He’ll have two more years of eligibility.
“I was really excited,” Sawyer told ESPN Missoula/Skyline Sports. “I went with my gut and I feel like the whole city of Missoula and the whole basketball program was the right fit for me.”
Williams, a 6-4 guard from Long Beach Poly HS, played in 78 games over three seasons for Santa Clara, averaging 4.5 points per game, before missing the entire 2022-23 season with an ACL injury.
“I feel so much stronger than I did before I got hurt. My legs, my upper body strength,” Williams told Frank Gogola of the Missoulian in a great story that also includes the play-by-play of DeCuire jumping in the Clark Fork to celebrate Williams’ commitment. “My mindset has changed and I just feel so much more mature. I feel like this next chapter of my life at the University of Montana is going to be very, very, very special on and off the court.”
Reaction: With Josh Bannan’s professional departure still reverberating around Missoula, it’s nice for the Griz to get some positive news and start looking ahead to what the team will look like next season. DeCuire did a good job pulling complementary pieces out of the portal last season with Aanen Moody (who certainly became more than a complementary piece by the end of the year), Dischon Thomas and Laolu Oke each making an impact.
Williams, who shot 38.7 percent from 3, and Sawyer, who shot 42.9 percent from 3, both fit that role. Williams could slot into Lonnell Martin’s role. DeCuire liked playing Bannan and Thomas together last year as two bigs who can shoot, and if he can make the jump from JUCO back up to Division I, Sawyer could be in line for minutes in a similar lineup this year.
…And so do the Lady Griz
Sawyer’s commitment took up most of the headlines, but two transfers also announced their commitments to the Lady Griz on Tuesday as well. A third came Thursday.
Imogen Greenslade is a 6-4 center from Sydney, Australia, who spent the last three years at Arizona State, averaging 1.8 points and 2.2 rebounds over 61 games.
After playing consistently over her first two years in Tempe, Greenslade was limited to just 12 games last season because of injuries.
MJ Bruno, originally from Spokane, is a 6-foot guard who averaged 2.7 points in 43 games over two years at Portland. Like Greenslade, she’s been limited by injuries. She made half of her 24 3-point attempts a year ago, and has also averaged nearly a steal per game in her career despite playing under 14 minutes a game.
Thursday, Montana got a commitment from Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw, a 5-10 senior from Iowa State who averaged 8.6 points per game as a freshman in 2020. The following season, she suffered a season-ending injury and had a hard time making her way back into the starting lineup. She finished her ISU career with 483 career points, 162 rebounds and 142 assists, while making 95 3-pointers at a 36.5 percent clip in her career.
Reaction: With White out at Montana State, Beyonce Bea out at Idaho and Isnelle Natabou out at Sacramento State, the Lady Griz currently have what’s pretty clearly the most talented returning roster in the conference (Northern Arizona might be in the discussion with the Moran twins, Sophie Glancey and Fatoumata Jaiteh plus the addition of former MSU point guard Grace Beasley).
These are the moves of a program (and a coach) that knows that, and is preparing for a big run. With what they have coming back – Carmen Gfeller, Gina Marxen, Mack Konig, Libby Stump, Dani Bartsch, Keeli Burton-Oliver – the Lady Griz don’t need transfers to be centerpieces. But they should be good complements around the edges of the rotation.
Sac State announces Campbell’s replacement
Aaron Kallhoff was named Sac State’s next women’s basketball coach on Monday, replacing Mark Campbell, who left after two seasons – and the first conference title in school history – to take the head job at TCU.
Kallhoff has nearly a decade of experience as a power-conference assistant, with three years at TCU, three more at LSU, and then one each at Penn State and most recently BYU.
Kallhoff takes over a team that won the conference tournament, but Big Sky MVP Kahlaijah Dean and starter Kaylin Randhawa exhausted their eligibility, and dominant big Isnelle Natabou and sharpshooter Katie Peneueta entered the transfer portal, meaning the Hornets’ top four scorers from last year are all gone.
Reaction: The bullet points under the “Recruiting” section of Kallhoff’s intro make it clear what Sac State is going for: “Signed the No. 22 recruiting class in the nation at BYU”; “Recruited the No. 1 ranked junior college player in the nation to LSU in 2019-20”; “Recruited and signed TCU’s first-ever McDonald’s All-American in 2016-17.” After Campbell’s recruiting prowess took the Hornets on a meteoric two-year rise, Sac State is hoping for a repeat with a coach who has plenty of connections and can reload through the transfer portal every year.
Conference announces Summit League partnership
The Big Sky dropped a press release on Tuesday announcing what’s officially dubbed the Big Sky-Summit Challenge, a scheduling initiative between the two conferences. For the next three years, Big Sky teams will play one home and one road game each season against Summit League teams as part of their non-conference schedules.
Big Sky and Summit teams already frequently play each other. For example, last season the Montana men played St. Thomas, South Dakota State and North Dakota State in their non-conference schedule, going 3-0 in those games. This new partnership formalizes those matchups across the two leagues, and sets aside one weekend for those games.
“This incoming campaign, the challenge will take place on January 3 and 6, 2024,” the press release said. “For the Big Sky, this means there will be one weekend of in-conference competition on December 28 and 30, 2023, leading into the challenge the following week.”
Also according to the press release, “The matchups will be determined annually using data from past seasons NET rankings and regular-season conference finishes, along with consideration for the prior season matchups.”
Like the Big Sky, the Summit League has 10 members for basketball: the University of Denver, University of Missouri-Kansas City, University of North Dakota, North Dakota State University, University of Nebraska Omaha, Oral Roberts University, University of St. Thomas, University of South Dakota, South Dakota State University and Western Illinois University.
Reaction: Because of the geographical location of the league, it’s consistently been difficult for Big Sky teams to schedule quality non-conference games, which hurts the league when it comes to seeding for the NCAA Tournament. Too often, they’re either playing bad teams that won’t help their resume, or games against Power 5 teams that they don’t have much chance to win.
This new agreement locks in two quality non-conference games, with one at home, every year. The Summit is a decent mid-major – certainly comparable to the Big Sky and maybe a little better at the top with the recent success of Oral Roberts in the men’s league and South Dakota State in the women’s. Getting those games locked in is a win for the league.
Around the women’s league this week:
Former Idaho point guard Sydney Gandy announced her commitment to Loyola Marymount on Tuesday…Montana State announced their first commit in the Class of 2023, a Treasure State product in Colstrip point guard Malea Egan…The Idaho State women continue to build internationally, announcing a commitment Tuesday from Greek guard Ioanna Stefanaki…Northern Colorado also announced one signing in Colorado Springs guard Seneca Hackley
Around the men’s league this week
New Idaho coach Alex Pribble has been busy in the last week with commitments from JUCO guard EJ Neal (who played with Te’Jon Sawyer for the City College of San Francisco), Alaska-Fairbanks guard Tyler Mrus and a big prize made official on Wednesday night in former Washington forward Tyler Linhardt. Linhardt, from Seattle, was the No. 1 recruit in the state of Washington in the Class of 2022…Former Montana State guard Nick Gazelas announced his commitment to Prairie View A&M, in his native state of Texas, on Tuesday…Utah State officially confirmed the hiring of former Montana State assistant coach Chris Haslam on Tuesday, a few days after Andy Hill also officially left Bozeman to join Danny Sprinkle with the Aggies. It was reported Monday that former Idaho forward Nigel Burris, the Big Sky’s defending Freshman of the Year after averaging 8.8 points and 5 rebounds, had committed to Utah State…Sacramento State added height with 6-9 Santa Clara transfer Jacob Holt and 6-10 incoming freshman Chudi Dioramma, both announced earlier this week. Dioramma is from London…
