Photo by: Andrew Pedersen
MSU Seniors Blaire Braxton, Madeline Smith and Oliana Squires Bring Wins - and Laughs - to Bobcat Women's Basketball
3/9/2020 4:05:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Lifelong bond forms between self-described 'weirdos'
BOZEMAN, Montana – The first thing you notice is the laughter. There is always laughter.
Blaire Braxton, Madeline Smith and Oliana Squires – Bobcat women's basketball's trio of fourth-year seniors – can turn a 90 second stroll through the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse hallway into a something funnier than any comedic skit you can think of without knowing anyone is watching. The humor is always there, usually in that edgy way that only teammates, only people in on the same joke, can muster.
As freshman point guard Darian White says, "They'll be laughing at something, and when you ask what they're laughing about it's probably something from years ago."
During their four years together as Bobcats, the three have become best friends, inseparable for better and occasionally worse. They have been sounding boards and refuges for each other, and they've provided the laugh track for each other's lives. Literally. "We all laugh at anything," Squires said, "so we can say anything dumb and we all start dying laughing." And they can spread it around. "They have a knack for making people laugh," says MSU coach Tricia Binford.
The laughter and joy, the camaraderie and the goofing around, that's what everyone associated with MSU's three fourth-year seniors think of first when the topic arises. But they're leaving behind something tangible, as well. The core group of fourth-year seniors has collected 80 wins, the most by a four-year class in Bobcat history.
"It seems like forever ago, to be honest," Squires said of the beginning of the journey the three are about to complete together. That came in 2016-27, when they helped Montana State to a 25-7 record, the most wins in Bobcat history, and a 15-3 Big Sky record that culminated in the program's first NCAA Tournament berth in 24 years.
While the wins and records are memorable and the championships indelible, all three of them say that there is something much more meaningful. "More than anything these are my two best friends," Braxton said of Smith and Squires. "Everybody says, 'You meet the best people in college,' (and) actually they're pretty great and they mean the world to me. To be able to do these things together and have these experiences, it really doesn't compare to anything else."
While the finality of being guaranteed only one more game hasn't set in – "I've tried not to think about it most of the year," Braxton said of her final season with Squires and Smith and her other teammates as a Bobcat – the reality of it arrives on Tuesday. Montana State begins the 2020 Big Sky Conference Women's Basketball Tournament as the top seed, playing the winner of the Northern Colorado-Sacramento State game at 12 noon in Boise.
The most common descriptor among the three fourth-year seniors has remained the same since they joined together in the summer of 2016. It's 'weird.' "She's genuinely one of the weirdest people I know," Braxton said of her long-time roommate Squires, "and I say that in the most loving possible way. She's hilarious." Braxton is "a little more outgoing about (being weird)," Smith said, while telling Squires, "You hide it better."
Each of the three possesses behavioral traits the others find simultaneously endearing and maddening. "She palpates us," Smith laughs about Squires trying to locate structural body parts on the others when she was studying anatomy for her exercise science major. "I had a class where I had to find different bones and muscles on a person," Squires says, feigning indifference to the humor others found in the situation, "so I would practice palpating them. I guess it sounds weird. "
Smith puts her studies in mechanical engineering to practical use, Braxton said. "When we go into a building she starts looking at the structure, and we're like, 'Who are you?' She can't hear to save her life, and she's always nerding out about something." Squires adds, "Every time we do something or go somewhere she's looking at the architecture. You can always see her brain working. She's definitely a problem-solver."
Binford says each of the three bring unique qualities to the relationship. "They all have their own personalities," Binford said. "Oli plays the cool (one), Blaire plays the mother hen, Madeline is kind of in her own world, kind of the awkward 6-2 engineer who owns (her awkwardness). They all bounce off of each other all the time. What's so special about those three is that they're so different, and they love each other, and they almost love their differences as much as their similarities. I think that's the sign of a true friendship. The faults, the vulnerabilities, your good and bad and ugly, those kids have always been all in for each other."
The concept of team cohesion is often discussed, but examining it in theory is nothing like living it, Braxton says. "A lot of people talk about chemistry on their team, but people don't understand what it's like here. The away game at Weber State is an example, celebrating after it and the mood everyone was in, I remember looking around and thinking, 'These are going to be my people for life.'"
That chemistry translates to the floor, particularly for the fourth-year seniors. Montana State's high-low offensive series is as effective as it is beautiful to behold, with Smith, Braxton, Freije and freshman Kola Bad Bear all effective passers from the high post or the blocks. "It reminds me a lot of the Jasmine (Hommes)-Peyton(Ferris) years, you had Lexi Dawkins in that mix," Binford said of MSU's high post/low post offense. "But with Kola in the mix with (Freije, Braxton and Smith) it's unusual to have four (posts that pass so well)."
MSU's post players are also effective working with Squires on pick-and-roll ball screen, where Squires' ability to knock down jumpers, drive, or find the screeners keeps defenses honest and vulnerable. "When Oli's in a two-man game with (Smith or Braxton), one of the unique things about Oli is that she'll find them. When she (uses a) ball screen, she'll find a way to pick you apart and feed them the ball."
That familiarity translates to the defensive end as well, Binford said, and adds up to a highly effective equation. "There's the willingness of (Braxton and Smith) to protect Oli on the defensive end (which allows Squires to play passing lanes). Then there's the synergy and chemistry in the high-low game between Blaire and Madeline. They just have a feel for what the other's doing at the right time."
The joy shared by Braxton, Smith, and Squires spreads throughout the locker room, White says. "They are so much fun, off and on the court. They're super happy all the time, very supportive. They hold me accountable and the rest of my teammates accountable, but they're so much fun. Especially Blaire and Oli, (who) have a connection that you don't really get to see often."
The inclusiveness of the three fourth-year seniors helped the collection of individuals, which includes three freshmen playing important minutes and two transfers that joined the team in the midst of the four-year run, become a team. "It was really easy," Kuderer said of joining in during the 2018-19 season after a transfer and redshirt season. "Coming in they were all really welcoming and it was easy to join that group. I feel like on the court they've always known what they were doing, they had it figured out. That's a mature group that gets it done on the court."
The energy, the joy, the passion and compassion, fused in January and February. Spurred by the five-woman senior class but with key contributions from throughout the roster, Montana State won 19 of their 20 Big Sky Conference games. The Bobcats made history by winning more conference games than any team in Big Sky history, finished with the second-highest winning percentage in league annals (.950), and clinched the regular season title in February.
The scene in Worthington Arena after this year's Cat-Griz game, with ladders at each basket and confetti falling from above after the Bobcats clinched the Big Sky regular season championship, is something everyone present will remember forever. "Really cool," Braxton said.
But to Squires, the friendship, the relationships, are even more permanently embedded. "It's the little things, growing up together these last four years, living together, getting to see everyone's full personalities," she said, adding that the three "fit together perfectly."
The 2019-20 Bobcats put that perfect fit into action by winning 23 games, currently the third-most in school history, and 19 in conference play, the most by a Big Sky team ever. Whatever comes next this week in Boise and beyond, teammates are forever.
"The last three years have gone by fast," Squires said. "But it's been great going through the ups and downs of college with those two."
Blaire Braxton, Madeline Smith and Oliana Squires – Bobcat women's basketball's trio of fourth-year seniors – can turn a 90 second stroll through the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse hallway into a something funnier than any comedic skit you can think of without knowing anyone is watching. The humor is always there, usually in that edgy way that only teammates, only people in on the same joke, can muster.
As freshman point guard Darian White says, "They'll be laughing at something, and when you ask what they're laughing about it's probably something from years ago."
During their four years together as Bobcats, the three have become best friends, inseparable for better and occasionally worse. They have been sounding boards and refuges for each other, and they've provided the laugh track for each other's lives. Literally. "We all laugh at anything," Squires said, "so we can say anything dumb and we all start dying laughing." And they can spread it around. "They have a knack for making people laugh," says MSU coach Tricia Binford.
The laughter and joy, the camaraderie and the goofing around, that's what everyone associated with MSU's three fourth-year seniors think of first when the topic arises. But they're leaving behind something tangible, as well. The core group of fourth-year seniors has collected 80 wins, the most by a four-year class in Bobcat history.
"It seems like forever ago, to be honest," Squires said of the beginning of the journey the three are about to complete together. That came in 2016-27, when they helped Montana State to a 25-7 record, the most wins in Bobcat history, and a 15-3 Big Sky record that culminated in the program's first NCAA Tournament berth in 24 years.
While the wins and records are memorable and the championships indelible, all three of them say that there is something much more meaningful. "More than anything these are my two best friends," Braxton said of Smith and Squires. "Everybody says, 'You meet the best people in college,' (and) actually they're pretty great and they mean the world to me. To be able to do these things together and have these experiences, it really doesn't compare to anything else."
While the finality of being guaranteed only one more game hasn't set in – "I've tried not to think about it most of the year," Braxton said of her final season with Squires and Smith and her other teammates as a Bobcat – the reality of it arrives on Tuesday. Montana State begins the 2020 Big Sky Conference Women's Basketball Tournament as the top seed, playing the winner of the Northern Colorado-Sacramento State game at 12 noon in Boise.
The most common descriptor among the three fourth-year seniors has remained the same since they joined together in the summer of 2016. It's 'weird.' "She's genuinely one of the weirdest people I know," Braxton said of her long-time roommate Squires, "and I say that in the most loving possible way. She's hilarious." Braxton is "a little more outgoing about (being weird)," Smith said, while telling Squires, "You hide it better."
Each of the three possesses behavioral traits the others find simultaneously endearing and maddening. "She palpates us," Smith laughs about Squires trying to locate structural body parts on the others when she was studying anatomy for her exercise science major. "I had a class where I had to find different bones and muscles on a person," Squires says, feigning indifference to the humor others found in the situation, "so I would practice palpating them. I guess it sounds weird. "
Smith puts her studies in mechanical engineering to practical use, Braxton said. "When we go into a building she starts looking at the structure, and we're like, 'Who are you?' She can't hear to save her life, and she's always nerding out about something." Squires adds, "Every time we do something or go somewhere she's looking at the architecture. You can always see her brain working. She's definitely a problem-solver."
Binford says each of the three bring unique qualities to the relationship. "They all have their own personalities," Binford said. "Oli plays the cool (one), Blaire plays the mother hen, Madeline is kind of in her own world, kind of the awkward 6-2 engineer who owns (her awkwardness). They all bounce off of each other all the time. What's so special about those three is that they're so different, and they love each other, and they almost love their differences as much as their similarities. I think that's the sign of a true friendship. The faults, the vulnerabilities, your good and bad and ugly, those kids have always been all in for each other."
The concept of team cohesion is often discussed, but examining it in theory is nothing like living it, Braxton says. "A lot of people talk about chemistry on their team, but people don't understand what it's like here. The away game at Weber State is an example, celebrating after it and the mood everyone was in, I remember looking around and thinking, 'These are going to be my people for life.'"
That chemistry translates to the floor, particularly for the fourth-year seniors. Montana State's high-low offensive series is as effective as it is beautiful to behold, with Smith, Braxton, Freije and freshman Kola Bad Bear all effective passers from the high post or the blocks. "It reminds me a lot of the Jasmine (Hommes)-Peyton(Ferris) years, you had Lexi Dawkins in that mix," Binford said of MSU's high post/low post offense. "But with Kola in the mix with (Freije, Braxton and Smith) it's unusual to have four (posts that pass so well)."
MSU's post players are also effective working with Squires on pick-and-roll ball screen, where Squires' ability to knock down jumpers, drive, or find the screeners keeps defenses honest and vulnerable. "When Oli's in a two-man game with (Smith or Braxton), one of the unique things about Oli is that she'll find them. When she (uses a) ball screen, she'll find a way to pick you apart and feed them the ball."
That familiarity translates to the defensive end as well, Binford said, and adds up to a highly effective equation. "There's the willingness of (Braxton and Smith) to protect Oli on the defensive end (which allows Squires to play passing lanes). Then there's the synergy and chemistry in the high-low game between Blaire and Madeline. They just have a feel for what the other's doing at the right time."
The joy shared by Braxton, Smith, and Squires spreads throughout the locker room, White says. "They are so much fun, off and on the court. They're super happy all the time, very supportive. They hold me accountable and the rest of my teammates accountable, but they're so much fun. Especially Blaire and Oli, (who) have a connection that you don't really get to see often."
The inclusiveness of the three fourth-year seniors helped the collection of individuals, which includes three freshmen playing important minutes and two transfers that joined the team in the midst of the four-year run, become a team. "It was really easy," Kuderer said of joining in during the 2018-19 season after a transfer and redshirt season. "Coming in they were all really welcoming and it was easy to join that group. I feel like on the court they've always known what they were doing, they had it figured out. That's a mature group that gets it done on the court."
The energy, the joy, the passion and compassion, fused in January and February. Spurred by the five-woman senior class but with key contributions from throughout the roster, Montana State won 19 of their 20 Big Sky Conference games. The Bobcats made history by winning more conference games than any team in Big Sky history, finished with the second-highest winning percentage in league annals (.950), and clinched the regular season title in February.
The scene in Worthington Arena after this year's Cat-Griz game, with ladders at each basket and confetti falling from above after the Bobcats clinched the Big Sky regular season championship, is something everyone present will remember forever. "Really cool," Braxton said.
But to Squires, the friendship, the relationships, are even more permanently embedded. "It's the little things, growing up together these last four years, living together, getting to see everyone's full personalities," she said, adding that the three "fit together perfectly."
The 2019-20 Bobcats put that perfect fit into action by winning 23 games, currently the third-most in school history, and 19 in conference play, the most by a Big Sky team ever. Whatever comes next this week in Boise and beyond, teammates are forever.
"The last three years have gone by fast," Squires said. "But it's been great going through the ups and downs of college with those two."
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