Know Your Foe: Montana

Credit: CDNLogo

By Tucker Harlin

#11 Tennessee (2-0) continues its 2024-25 basketball schedule against Montana (2-1) Wednesday. The game tips off at 7 p.m. ET and airs on SEC Network Plus.

Here’s a fun fact, per UT Sports Info: Montana is Rick Barnes’ first ever game he’ll coach against a foe from the Big Sky conference. The Grizzlies reside in Missoula, MT, a city tucked into the mountains of the western part of the state.

The Grizzlies are coached by Travis DeCuire in his eleventh season on the job, guiding them to NCAA tournament berths in 2018 and 2019.

Montana hasn’t exactly played evenly-matched competition through three games. Its two wins are over Hawaii-Hilo and Northwest Indian College while the loss was a 79-48 beatdown to Oregon.

The most telling part about the loss to the Ducks for Tennessee is Montana’s abysmal shooting percentage. It shot 34% even from the floor and just under 16% from distance.

As a matter of fact, the only game in which the Grizzlies have shot the three well was in the win against Northwest Indian College.

The Grizzlies played a 10-man rotation in the first three games of the year. They start four guards and a forward, Te’Jon Sawyer. The numbers for the Grizzlies vary largely from the Oregon game and the other two