Montana High School Basketball Talent

gtapp · Post by **gtapp** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 5:55 pm

For the most part the best basketball player(s) to come out of Montana High Schools each year end up at MSU or the U. Have many (if any) of these players become great players (BSC MVP or top five type player)? My memory is not great (Half-timers kicking in) but you might have to go back to the Craig Finberg days for MSU and at the U their coach might be the last really good player. Who am I missing? What does that say about Montana talent?

gfallscat · Post by **gfallscat** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 11:26 am

scott hatler was big sky freshman of the year...
then all big sky when he finished.

he is the schools all-time assist leader i think and 2 or 3 all time in the conference in assists...

chris spoja was not bad either...did i hear he was trying out with the kc chiefs as a tight end?

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 11:44 am

I guess I go back a few more years; Mike Lewis from Missoula Sentinel led Duke almost singlehandedly to their first ever final four appearance; Wayne Estes was an All-American for Utah State the same year before getting killed; the 66 Bozo Hawks were upset in the divisional tournament by one of the Butte schools and they had the two Smiley kids (Glenn played for Duke and Jim for Wazzu) Rob Stiff played I believe in the PAC, Rick Ogle had his choice between football and basketball and chose to play football for Colorado before a pretty good NFL career, Ron Aasheim played in Bozo (I believe football instead of BB), Larry Winchester (I think that's the correct name) played for Dartmouth and a couple of other kids also played elsewhere...and there's another kid from northeastern Montana that went to high school in South Dakota for economic opportunities that played for Florida before leaving early for the NBA by the name of Mike Miller...But no, I'm not old enough to remember watching the team that invented the fast break, the Golden Bobcats. Somebody else can do a quick search and find out the name of the Wyoming kid that invented the jump shot and his Montana ties (Ward?). I guess what has happened over the years is we've lost some real talent to out of state schools (just like what is happening now with the women).

mslacat · Post by **mslacat** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 1:29 pm

I used to say that you recruit the Montana players to recruit your all conference players. I don't think any other State except possibly California put more high school players on the Big Sky all conference teams than Montana Highschool players. I did a little digging on the Big Sky Conference web Page and the following Montana Players have made the Big Sky Confernce team, since 1990:

John Lazosky 01-02
(2)J.R. Camel 97-98; 96-97
Danny Sprinkle 96-97
Kirk Walker 96-97
Scott Hatler 95-96
(2)Shawn Samuelson 95-96; 94-95
Matt Kempfert 94-95
Jeremy Lake 94-95
Rodger Fastings 91-92
(2)Darren Engellant 91-92; 90-91

Notice a trend? The montana kids are not pulling their weight like they used to! I also do not think that the conference is nearly as good as it was in the early 90's

AZCAT21 · Post by **AZCAT21** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 3:25 pm

Cat Grad I don't know where you are getting your info but Mike Miller is not from Montana, born and raised in Mitchell, South Dakota....

AZCAT21 · Post by **AZCAT21** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 3:27 pm

Wasn't Pete Conway all conference his senior year? Should have been if not

mslacat · Post by **mslacat** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 3:35 pm

AZCAT21 wrote:Wasn't Pete Conway all conference his senior year? Should have been if not

My list is directly from the Conference media guide posted on the web and is for first team only.

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 3:56 pm

I don't think Kral or Shann were too bad; would have been nice to have kept Shann in Bozo, but I'm sure he's happy Pepperdine made it to the Sweet 16

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 4:35 pm

And one more pretty good kid that slipped through our radar is Adam Morrison for Gonzaga. His Mother is Wanda Hames. How many Scobey-Peerless kids would have been recruited in state?

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 4:42 pm

...and the two best shooters I've seen (besides Tom Storm) would be Willie Weeks for the Cats and Donnie Wetzel (both Native kids). Have to include Wetzel, along with the Selvigs even though they made poor decisions as to where to go to school. Heathcote did a pretty good job recruiting the small school kids and then continuing to teach...just like Selvig still does.

Helcat72 · Post by **Helcat72** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 5:00 pm

If you are talking shooters...Craig Finberg had to be the best. If they would have had the three then, he would have had a few 50 point games! I remember him scoring in the high 30's a couple of times.

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 5:40 pm

Yeah, Finberg was a good shot. I still marvel at the Cat team that went to Oklahoma City and had the audacity to win it! Storm, the kid from Fairfield, Gillispie and I can't remember who else was on the team. But I guess I'm biased; I still would take Storm, Willie or Wetzel as far as shooters, if I couldn't get Estes or Lewis. What did Estes average in college?

seacat · Post by **seacat** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 7:28 pm

Cat Grad wrote:And one more pretty good kid that slipped through our radar is Adam Morrison for Gonzaga. His Mother is Wanda Hames. How many Scobey-Peerless kids would have been recruited in state?

I'm pretty sure Adam played at least his senior season in Washington state. Remember watching him in the state tourney and the broadcasters commenting on his diabetes (sp?). If I remember correct Gonzaga was selected because Mark Few assured Mom that the diabetes would be monitored.

LaCat · Post by **LaCat** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 9:17 am

In the late 40's and early 50's Ray Kuka from Havre played for Notre Dame and went on to play pro with the NY Knicks.

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 10:34 am

I'm really glad I'm not old enough to remember Kalafat (?) from Anaconda; he played for Minnesota and I think the Lakers. Can't believe how hard Butte/Anaconda fell

profisme · Post by **profisme** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 4:17 pm

My dad graduated with Adam Morrison's dad from Scobey and he still gets a kick out of watching Adam play for the Zags. I don't know if Adam was ever recruited by us though, he is a pretty bigtime player. Most Scobey-Peerless guys don't get a look by MSU or any other Big Sky teams. The last was Spencer Frederick, but that was just for football. Joel Nieskins did play for MSU Billings, but I don't think he was recruited by the Cats.

mslacat · Post by **mslacat** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 4:23 pm

Wasn't there a player from the Montana highline named Felix McGowan or something like that about 10 or so years back who went on to play for Gonzaga!

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 4:48 pm

I remember the name, but I can't say for sure it was Gonzaga. For whatever reason, our small school kids don't get a chance anymore unless the coach is from parts other than here, like the Fizzlie coach last year gave Chavez a chance. Remember the success Heathcote had over the hill with all of the Class C kids? We see more kids heading out of state than accepting a walk-on offer. The ESPN special on Chavez and Red was kind of hard to take, knowing Jenna Skunk Cap in Browning is probably going to go to a major school; her Mother is a Cross Guns and her Father is the Blackfeet Fish and Game Director, is invited to the NFR every year, so genetically, she has all the tools. How many Montana Native girls have gone on to play in the PAC-10 the last 5-6 years?

mslacat · Post by **mslacat** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 4:51 pm

Cat Grad wrote:......... How many Montana Native girls have gone on to play in the PAC-10 the last 5-6 years?

As far as I know the only Montana Native american girls in the last 10 years have only gone to the instate D-1 schools.

mslacat · Post by **mslacat** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 4:55 pm

mslacat wrote:Wasn't there a player from the Montana highline named Felix McGowan or something like that about 10 or so years back who went on to play for Gonzaga!

Felix was from Poplar Montana, and started for Gonzaga his senior year.