A Quarter-Century Later, Danny Sprinkle is Again Poised to Lead Montana State into a Big Sky Championship Game
3/13/2021 4:35:00 PM | Men's Basketball
From freshman shooter to sophomore coach, Sprinkle has the Cats on the brink
BOISE, Idaho – In a lot of ways, the weekend of March 8 and 9, 1996, was pretty normal for Danny Sprinkle.
On Friday night the Montana State freshman played a basketball game, as he had so many times growing up in Helena, and his Bobcats beat Idaho in the Big Sky Conference Tournament semifinals. Then he hung out with some of his friends in his Langford Hall dorm room. Some of his buddies crashed in his room, so as he remembers it he slept on the floor.
The next day, he woke up and grabbed some breakfast. The team's game day walk-through occupied his mind in the afternoon, and then "I had lunch and went back to the Fieldhouse."
But there was nothing normal about that day a quarter-century ago, and there's nothing normal about this one – March 13, 2021 – as Sprinkle and his second team as the head coach at his alma mater prepares to make history. Or in Sprinkle's case, replay some history.
Sprinkle was the Big Sky's best freshman in 1995-96, and one of Montana State's best first-year players ever, but he was surrounded by a brilliant group of teammates. Quadre Lollis was the league MVP, Nico Harrison was an Academic All-America and by a wide, wide margin the best perimeter defending the Big Sky that year. Adam Leachman was a prototypical stretch four before there was such a thing, and the consummate tough Montanan. Mike Elliott was a mercurial, multi-talented guard who contributed in about as many ways as were possible.
And the whole enterprise was held together by point guard Scott Hatler, a Bobcat Hall of Famer who finished his career with the second-most assists in Big Sky history. The kind of alum any program boasts of, Hatler was mature beyond his years, possibly because he was the son of a coach and a teacher.
He and Sprinkle had that in common. Bill Sprinkle was a tremendous high school coach in Montana, and later moved on to the state's high school activities association as a well-respected administrator.
All those factors and more converged to propel the Bobcats to what felt like a season of destiny in 1995-96. Even for non-conference games, the Fieldhouse was alive. Students cascaded down the south bleachers, and fans drove from across the Gallatin Valley and from points far and wide in the state to watch this crew play.
And it all come together for the Big Sky Conference Tournament, which Montana State hosted for the first time in nine years. "Excitement," is how Bobcat head coach Mick Durham recalls the feeling on campus and around town that March. "You could really feel it in Bozeman, and we knew the Fieldhouse environment was going to be really crazy and that it would really help us."
The Bobcats pounded Idaho in the semifinals, 91-66, and headed straight for a championship showdown with Weber State. The nearly 7,200 people that had crammed the old place to its domed roof lived and died with every shot. And it became evident pretty early on that Sprinkle would play a huge role. And for most of the night, he traded blows with BYU transfer Ryan Cuff in a brilliant exhibition of shot-making.
The Cats led 33-32 at halftime, and when the home team was gaining traction and leveraging separation in the second half Sprinkle was in the middle of it. He hit a couple of clutch threes, Lollis managed a put-back, and by the time it was over Sprinkle's 30 points was national news.
"I just remember the energy in the Fieldhouse," he said, "it was crazy. It was impossible for us to get tired. The energy lifted us up and carried us."
The frenzied crowd carried the home team to the championship, and then literally carried several of the players off the court. Hugs were exchanged, tears flowed, and the Bobcats had their first NCAA Tournament berth in a decade.
The team, and its head coach, find itself in a different place but the same situation tonight. Montana State squares off with Eastern Washington with a trip to the NCAA Tournament on the line. An older Danny Sprinkle won't make a basket tonight, but you can bet that if MSU cuts down the nets, it will have been led by the same precocious shot-maker and now shot-caller as a quarter century ago.
It'll seem completely normal… and everything but.
#GoCatsGo
