2019–20 Montana Grizzlies basketball team

The 2019–20 Montana Grizzlies basketball team represented the University of Montana during the 2019–20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Grizzlies, led by sixth-year head coach Travis DeCuire, played their home games at Dahlberg Arena in Missoula, Montana as members of the Big Sky Conference.

2019–20 Montana Grizzlies basketball
Conference	Big Sky Conference
Record	18–13 (14–6 Big Sky)
Head coach	Travis DeCuire (6th season)
Assistant coaches	Chris Cobb Jay Flores Zach Payne
Home arena	Dahlberg Arena
Seasons ← 2018–19 2020–21 →

2019–20 Big Sky men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
Eastern Washington	16	–	4		.800			23	–	8		.742
Northern Colorado	15	–	5		.750			22	–	9		.710
Montana	14	–	6		.700			18	–	13		.581
Portland State	12	–	8		.600			18	–	14		.563
Northern Arizona	10	–	10		.500			16	–	14		.533
Montana State	10	–	10		.500			16	–	15		.516
Southern Utah	9	–	11		.450			17	–	15		.531
Sacramento State	8	–	12		.400			16	–	14		.533
Weber State	8	–	12		.400			12	–	20		.375
Idaho State	4	–	16		.200			8	–	22		.267
Idaho	4	–	16		.200			8	–	24		.250
Note: The conference tournament was canceled prior to the quarterfinals due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Previous season

The Grizzlies finished the 2018–19 season 26–9 overall, 16–4 in Big Sky play, the Grizzlies won the Big Sky regular season championship. As the No. 1 seed in the Big Sky tournament, they defeated Sacramento State, Weber State, and Eastern Washington to win the tournament, and earned the Big Sky's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Given a No. 15 seed in the West Region of the NCAA Tournament, Montana was defeated by Michigan in the first round for the second consecutive year.

Offseason

Departures

Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown	Reason for departure
Donaven Dorsey	2	F	6'7"	214	RS Senior	Lacey, WA	Graduated
Ben Carter	13	F	6'10"	275	Freshman	Adelaide, Australia	Transferred to Cal State Monterey Bay
Ahmaad Rorie	14	G	6'1"	175	RS Senior	Tacoma, WA	Graduated
Jamar Akoh	15	F	6'8"	253	RS Senior	Rancho Cucamonga, CA	Graduated
Bobby Moorehead	24	G	6'7"	182	Senior	Tacoma, WA	Graduated
Kelby Kramer	33	C	6'10"	220	RS Freshman	Rock Springs, WY	Transferred to Minnesota State[1]
Tony Miller	34	F	6'6"	210	Junior	Woodinville, WA	Transferred to Washington State[2]

Incoming transfers

Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown	Previous School
Naseem Gaskin	5	G	6'3"	175	RS Freshman	Oakland, CA	Transferred from Utah. Under NCAA transfer rules, Gaskin will have to sit out for the 2019–20 season. Will have three years of remaining eligibility.
Yagizhan Selcuk	22	F	6'7"	235	Sophomore	Istanbul, Turkey	Midseason transferred from Villanova in December during the 2018–19 season. Under NCAA transfer rules, Selcuk has to sit out until December and will be eligible to start in December during the 2019–20 season. Selcuk has two and a half years of remaining eligibility.
Michael Steadman	31	F	6'10"	210	Senior	Union City, CA	Transferred from San Jose State. Under NCAA transfer rules, Steadman will have to sit out for the 2019–20 season. Will have one year of remaining eligibility.
Jared Samuelson	33	F	6'7"		RS Senior	Billings, MT	Junior college transferred from Rocky Mountain College.

2019 recruiting class

College recruiting information

Name	Hometown	School	Height	Weight	Commit date
Josh Vazquez #70 PG	Torrance, CA	Bishop Montgomery High School	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	200 lb (91 kg)	Apr 12, 2018
	Recruit ratings: Scout:    Rivals:    (59)
Derrick Carter-Hollinger, Jr. SF	El Cajon, CA	Foothills Christian High School	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)	185 lb (84 kg)	Sep 2, 2018
	Recruit ratings: Scout:    Rivals:    (NR)
Kyle Owens SF	Encino, CA	Crespi High School	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	Oct 6, 2018
	Recruit ratings: Scout:    Rivals:    (NR)
Overall recruit ranking:
Note: In many cases, Scout, Rivals, 247Sports, On3, and ESPN may conflict in their listings of height and weight. In these cases, the average was taken. ESPN grades are on a 100-point scale. Sources: "2019 Team Ranking". Rivals. Retrieved January 9, 2019.

2020 recruiting class

College recruiting information (2020)
Name	Hometown	School	Height	Weight	Commit date
Brandon Whitney PG	Mission Hills, CA	Bishop Alemany High School	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	165 lb (75 kg)
	Recruit ratings: Scout:    Rivals:    (NR)
Overall recruit ranking:
Note: In many cases, Scout, Rivals, 247Sports, On3, and ESPN may conflict in their listings of height and weight. In these cases, the average was taken. ESPN grades are on a 100-point scale. Sources: "2020 Team Ranking". Rivals. Retrieved January 9, 2019.

Roster

2019–20 Montana Grizzlies men's basketball team
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Name Height Weight Year Previous school Hometown F 0 Kyle Owens 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 210 lb (95 kg) Fr Crespi Carmelite Calabasas, CA G 1 Timmy Falls 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 170 lb (77 kg) Jr Dublin Dublin, CA G 2 Kendal Manuel 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 190 lb (86 kg) RS Sr Skyview Oregon State Billings, MT G 3 Josh Vaszquez 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 170 lb (77 kg) Fr Bishop Montgomery Torrance, CA G 4 Sayeed Pridgett 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 201 lb (91 kg) Sr El Cerrito Oakland, CA G 5 Naseem Gaskin 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 185 lb (84 kg) RS Fr Bishop O'Dowd Utah Oakland, CA G 10 Eddy Egun (W) 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 198 lb (90 kg) RS Fr El Camino Real Woodland Hills, CA G 13 Jett Briceno (W) 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 180 lb (82 kg) Fr Kentridge Kent, WA F 22 Yagizhan Selcuk 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 233 lb (106 kg) RS So The Phelps School Towson Istanbul, Turkey F 23 Mack Anderson 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 207 lb (94 kg) So Bozeman Bozeman, MT G 24 Freddy Brown III (W)  6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 172 lb (78 kg) So Nathan Hale Seattle, WA F 31 Michael Steadman  6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 231 lb (105 kg) Sr James Logan High School San Jose State Union City, CA F 32 Peter Jones (W) 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 210 lb (95 kg) RS So O'Dea Seattle, WA F 33 Jared Samuelson 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 215 lb (98 kg) RS Sr Billings West Rocky Mountain Billings, MT F 34 Derrick Carter-Hollinger 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 207 lb (94 kg) Fr Foothills Christian El Cajon, CA	Head coach Travis DeCuire (Montana) Assistant coach(es) Chris Cobb (Menlo) Jay Flores (Chico State) Zach Payne (Whitworth) Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible (W) Walk-on Injured Current redshirt Roster Last update: January 8, 2020

Schedule and results

Date time, TV	Rank#	Opponent#	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
Non-conference regular season
Nov 6, 2019* 8:00 pm, P12N		at Stanford	L 62–73	0–1	Maples Pavilion (2,930) Stanford, CA
Nov 10, 2019* 2:00 pm		Montana State–Northern	W 64–50	1–1	Dahlberg Arena (2,927) Missoula, MT
Nov 16, 2019* 3:00 pm, SECN+		at Arkansas Collegiate Hoops Roadshow	L 46–64	1–2	Bud Walton Arena (13,058) Fayetteville, AR
Nov 18, 2019* 7:00 pm, SWX MT		Montana Tech Collegiate Hoops Roadshow	L 72–74	1–3	Dahlberg Arena (2,857) Missoula, MT
Nov 22, 2019* 9:00 pm, P12N		at No. 25 Washington	L 56–73	1–4	Alaska Airlines Arena (8,370) Seattle, WA
Nov 25, 2019* 7:00 pm, SWX MT		Texas Southern Collegiate Hoops Roadshow	W 74–62	2–4	Dahlberg Arena (2,981) Missoula, MT
Nov 29, 2019* 7:00 pm		Coppin State Collegiate Hoops Roadshow	W 69–62	3–4	Dahlberg Arena (3,335) Missoula, MT
Dec 1, 2019* 1:00 pm, ATTSNRM		at New Mexico	L 63–72	3–5	Dreamstyle Arena (10,503) Albuquerque, NM
Dec 6, 2019* 7:00 pm		North Dakota Big Sky/Summit Challenge	W 77–70	4–5	Dahlberg Arena (3,698) Missoula, MT
Dec 18, 2019* 9:00 pm, P12N		at No. 8 Oregon	L 48–81	4–6	Matthew Knight Arena (5,803) Eugene, OR
Dec 21, 2019* 11:00 am		at Omaha Big Sky/Summit Challenge	L 82–87 OT	4–7	Baxter Arena (2,278) Omaha, NE
Big Sky regular season
Dec 28, 2019 7:00 pm		Northern Arizona	W 79–72	5–7 (1–0)	Dahlberg Arena (4,017) Missoula, MT
Dec 30, 2019 7:00 pm		Sacramento State	W 52–50	6–7 (2–0)	Dahlberg Arena (1,451) Missoula, MT
Jan 2, 2020 7:00 pm		at Southern Utah	W 60–58	7–7 (3–0)	America First Event Center (2,059) Cedar City, UT
Jan 4, 2020 7:00 pm, Eleven		at Northern Colorado	L 66–74	7–8 (3–1)	Bank of Colorado Arena (1,431) Greeley, CO
Jan 9, 2020 7:00 pm		at Eastern Washington	W 90–63	8–8 (4–1)	Reese Court (1,837) Cheney, WA
Jan 13, 2020 7:00 pm, SWX MT		Portland State	W 85–70	9–8 (5–1)	Dahlberg Arena (3,252) Missoula, MT
Jan 18, 2020 7:00 pm, SWX MT		Idaho	W 67–63	10–8 (6–1)	Dahlberg Arena (4,279) Missoula, MT
Jan 23, 2020 7:00 pm, Eleven		at Idaho State	W 77–74	11–8 (7–1)	Reed Gym (1,461) Pocatello, ID
Jan 25, 2020 7:00 pm		at Weber State	L 85–87 OT	11–9 (7–2)	Dee Events Center (6,034) Ogden, UT
Jan 30, 2020 8:00 pm, Eleven		at Portland State	L 81–88	11–10 (7–3)	Viking Pavilion (1,704) Portland, OR
Feb 1, 2020 7:00 pm, SWX MT		Montana State	W 78–64	12–10 (8–3)	Dahlberg Arena (7,040) Missoula, MT
Feb 6, 2020 7:00 pm, SWX MT		Eastern Washington	W 92–82	13–10 (9–3)	Dahlberg Arena (3,879) Missoula, MT
Feb 8, 2020 6:30 pm		at Idaho	W 82–71	14–10 (10–3)	Cowan Spectrum (1,804) Moscow, ID
Feb 13, 2020 7:00 pm, SWX MT		Weber State	W 72–37	15–10 (11–3)	Dahlberg Arena (3,730) Missoula, MT
Feb 15, 2020 7:00 pm		Idaho State	W 78–63	16–10 (12–3)	Dahlberg Arena (4,657) Missoula, MT
Feb 22, 2020 7:00 pm, SWX MT		at Montana State	W 59–54	17–10 (13–3)	Brick Breeden Fieldhouse (6,570) Bozeman, MT
Feb 27, 2020 7:00 pm		at Northern Arizona	L 56–57	17–11 (13–4)	Walkup Skydome (918) Flagstaff, AZ
Feb 29, 2020 8:00 pm		at Sacramento State	W 79–71	18–11 (14–4)	Hornets Nest (1,172) Sacramento, CA
Mar 5, 2020 7:00 pm, SWX MT		Northern Colorado	W 71–64	18–12 (14–5)	Dahlberg Arena (4,822) Missoula, MT
Mar 7, 2020 7:00 pm		Southern Utah	L 80–85 OT	18–13 (14–6)	Dahlberg Arena  Missoula, MT
Big Sky tournament
Mar 12, 2020 8:00 pm, Pluto TV/Eleven Sports	(3)	vs. (11) Idaho State Quarterfinals	Canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic		CenturyLink Arena  Boise, ID
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Mountain Time.