That’s because a season ago Wayne Tinkle of Montana and Brad Huse of Montana State were fellow assistant coaches at the University of Montana, working under head coach Larry Krystkowiak.
Before Krystko left the den to become an assistant coach for the Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA Huse already had bolted to take the head coaching job at Montana State, replacing longtime Bobcat mentor Mick Durham, who retired following the 2005-06 season.
Both Tinkle and Huse probably will be somewhat uncomfortable coaching their first game against each other, but once the game starts both will need to forget friendships and old alliances.
“The big thing is we need to make sure that we come out and play Grizzly basketball,” Tinkle said. “We’ve worked hard this week at getting ourselves better.
“It’s gonna be interesting a lot more for the fans and the families maybe than the two coaches,” the former Grizzly player added, “but it certainly does add a little spice.”
Montana’s junior post Andrew Strait, who leads the team in both scoring and rebounding and has been the most consistent player on the team this season, also thinks going against Huse will provide a little added flavor to Saturday night’s game.
“It’ll be really interesting to see what he brings to the table,” Strait said. “He gets the most out of his guys and he’s a great coach. It was great getting to know him here.
“It’ll be kind of different seeing him in the arena and not be on our bench,” Strait added, “but I’m excited to see how he approaches the game.”
Tinkle said his team will face a wide-open team that has great shooters from long range and at times features a smaller lineup that will make for difficult matchups. The UM coach said his team must establish its style of play and perhaps use its depth as an advantage over MSU.
“We want to play our tempo here at home,” Tinkle said. “That’s digging it in defensively, trying to get out in transition, score some points, and if we have to make it a knock-down, drag-out half-court battle we’ll adjust and do that as well.”
For Tinkle, whose first UM team has struggled at times through a 7-9 season to date, progress has come more slowly than he and his assistants might have liked, but the pace of that progress may not have been totally unexpected.
That’s in part because the team is relatively young and playing without departed senior guards Kevin Criswell and Virgil Mathews.
“We’ve tried not to - as a staff - focus on last year and on Kevin and Virgil,” Tinkle noted, “but it’s very evident. Their experience, their leadership, their toughness are all tough things to replace.
“We can replace their stats kind of by committee, but … we had seven new guys (this season), five of whom were playing minutes,” he added. “The guys that came back from last year are really in different roles.”
So it’s been one of those two steps forward, one step back cycles so far for the Grizzlies.
“It’s hard because we thought we were making strides after we had that home stand,” Tinkle recalled, “and then we go on the road for five (straight games), three of which are league games.
“It’s tough to develop confidence when we have great spurts on the road playing well,” he went on, “but just couldn’t finish games. Trying to get better and get your confidence going while you’re losing and on the road is tough.”
Tinkle called the 7-9 record deceiving. Case in point, he thought the team had hit rock bottom losing at Portland University which was 2-9 at the time. Then he read that the Pilots had dumped both Pepperdine and Loyola-Marymount on the opening weekend of their conference play.
“We played a tough (preconference) schedule, and I’m glad we did,” Tinkle said. “I’m not disappointed where our record’s at because hopefully if we continue to improve, when it counts most in March all the lessons … are behind us and hopefully we’ll accomplish what we need to.”
Tinkle also thinks the coaches are closer to settling on a solid rotation of players, another process that has taken longer than he had hoped. The starting lineup has been the same for awhile, but the coaches are continuing their search for a couple more players who can help consistently off the bench.
Click here to hear Bill Schwanke's interview with coach Wayne Tinkle.
Click here to hear Bill Schwanke's interview with sophomore forward Jordan Hasquet.
Click here to hear Bill Schwanke's interview with junior center Andrew Strait.
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