These Bobcats were before their time.
The 1985-86 Montana State men’s basketball team was too young. Under Stu Starner, they played a run-and-gun, carefree style that had yet to take over college basketball.
They entered the 1986 Big Sky Men’s Basketball Championship as the seventh seed in a seven-team tournament with an 11-16 overall record.
“It was a maturity year for us,” said Tom Domako, who was a 6-foot-8 sophomore sweet-shooting guard/forward that magical season. “We were really young that year. We had a love for the game. We didn’t have a good record, but we put it together at the end and went on a huge run.”
That they did.
Montana State rose from the seventh seed all the way to Big Sky champions, beating three good teams in three nights. The Bobcats’ Cinderella team ranks 47
th on the list of the Big Sky’s “50 Greatest Moments.”
The Bobcats opened the tournament with an 81-80 win over host Nevada, silencing the mostly partisan crowd. Athletic junior guard Kral Ferch, from Livingston, Mont., scored 18 points. Senior center Greg Walters also had 18 points and 13 rebounds. Domako, who scored 15 points, remembers senior point guard Tony Hampton taking over down the stretch.
“He willed us to a victory,” said Domako, who came to MSU via Livonia, Mich. “He wasn’t even really a scorer, but he was our senior point guard. I don’t think he wanted to be done playing. I remember him going off the last four or five minutes and hitting a last-second shot.”
In the tournament semifinals, the Bobcats took down No. 1 seed Northern Arizona, which tied Montana for the regular-season title. Ferch scored 26 points and Hampton netted 19 as the Bobcats beat Northern Arizona 80-74 to set up a showdown with Montana.
That season was supposed to be the year for the Montana Grizzlies. Led by senior forward Larry Kryskowiak, arguably the best player in Big Sky history, coach Mike Montgomery was set on leading the Grizzlies to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1975.
“When I got to Montana State we had to try to recruit a different type of player,” said Starner. “I had inherited a large team. We were big and not very mobile. I ended up recruiting shooters and perimeter players. We had to figure out a way to beat Montana. At that time they were very powerful, and had great post players. I realized we could neutralize that with superior perimeter players.”
The young, athletic Bobcats also embraced the 3-point shot. The Big Sky Conference implemented the 3-point shot for league games during the 1982-83, although it would not officially become part of the NCAA rules until 1986-87.
Montana State led the Big Sky in 3-point field-goal percentage in 1985-86, shooting .471 percent. Domako made 40 percent of his 3-point shots.
“I think we had a 45 second shot clock, but our team had a 10 second shot clock,” Domako said. “I credit Coach Starner because when he came out here, his offensive philosophy centered on the big guy. We didn’t have a powerful inside game. He adapted to what we had and played a totally different style than he would have, had he coached another team. We were up-tempo, we pressed and we tried not to get into a half-court game. We had 6-9 guys playing on the perimeter and shooting threes.’’
The style and the growing maturity of the Bobcats led to some late-season success and confidence heading into the Big Sky Championship. MSU closed the regular season by winning three of four, including an 88-76 win over the Grizzlies in Bozeman.
“We continued to improve,” Starner said. “We were very youthful, but coming into the tournament no one wanted to play us. We were very dangerous because we could score points.”
“We knew we could beat the Grizzlies,” Domako said. “We beat the crap out of them right before the tournament. They were big and strong and liked to pound it. We were run-and-gun and shoot. They couldn’t guard us and we had a hard time guarding them.”
In front of 4,309 fans at Reno’s Lawlor Events Center, Montana State stunned the Grizzlies for the second time in 10 days. This time, the Bobcats prevailed 82-77 to clinch the program’s first Division I NCAA Tournament appearance since 1951.
Ferch scored 28 points, while Hampton added 27. The Bobcats made 9-of-15 from 3-point range. Krystkowiak had 30 in the loss. Hampton was named the tournament MVP. Ferch was also named to the All-Tournament Team.
“It’s always a special memory when you respect a team and a program and you are able to beat them on the court,” Starner said. “Coaching and teaching is about maximizing potential. We certainly did that. It was a very rewarding time to see us improve during the course of the season.
The Bobcats entered the NCAA Tournament as just the seventh team in history with a losing record to make the field. As expected, Montana State earned a No. 16 seed and was matched up with St. Johns out of the powerful Big East Conference and its two future first-round NBA Draft picks Walter Berry and Mark Jackson.
“We weren’t scared,” said Domako, who now lives in Missoula. “We went there and everyone thought we could win. We ended up losing by nine. I’ve watched the game plenty of times. It was a three, four, five-point game the entire way. Back then, No. 16 seeds didn’t stay with No. 1 seeds. We were hot. We were playing good.”
St. Johns beat the underdog Bobcats 83-74 in Long Beach, Calif. The Bobcats could not rely on the 3-point shot in that game, as it was not used in the NCAA Tournament until the following season.
“I know someone went back and watched it, and we make somewhere between seven and nine shots that would have been 3-pointers,” Domako said. “In a nine-point game, that makes a world of a difference. I’m sure it would have made a difference for us.’’
Montana State won the regular-season title with a 12-2 record in 1986-87, but fell to Weber State 106-101 in the first round of the Big Sky Championship.
Starner left Montana State after the 1989-90 season for Texas-San Antonio. He recently retired after a long and successful tenure as the Senior Vice President for Major Gifts of Texas A&M’s 12
th Man Foundation.
Domako, Ferch and Ray Willis Jr. have all been inducted into the Montana State Hall of Fame.
In 1996, Montana State won the Big Sky Championship. The Bobcats haven’t won it again since.