BUTTE — Montana Tech men's basketball coach Adam Hiatt frequently referred to the Frontier Conference triple round-robin format — where each of the league's six teams would play the other five opponents three times during the course of conference play — as a "gauntlet"'
With the Frontier now doubled in size to 12 teams, each program will now play the other 11 opponents twice this upcoming season for a total of 22 conference games. And teams will play back-to-back league games on Fridays and Saturdays.
In other words, this new format in the expanded Frontier will be a gauntlet of its own.
HEAR FROM THE OREDIGGERS:
"This is going to be the long marathon year," said Hiatt. "Our season has grown, we have 12 teams now in our league. There's a lot of travel, we play back-to-back games for the first time in a long time. I don't remember the last time we played back-to-back games outside of a conference tournament.
"Depth is going to be critical. But we can still maintain pace and defensive intensity with that depth."
Tech, which will be chasing Frontier Conference regular season and tournament five-peats this season, graduated some key starters in forwards Michael Ure and Ifeanyi Okeke and 3-point sharpshooter Keeley Bake.
But the Orediggers return plenty of key pieces including junior Brayden Koch — who was Tech's fifth-leading scorer last season — and senior Hayden Diekhans, who was tabbed as the Frontier Conference player of the year and an All-American last season. He led the Orediggers with 409 points and was also named the league's defensive player of the year.
Tech's four-peat last season was bookended by disappointment in the national tournament as the Orediggers fell in the second-round to Lewis-Clark State to close out their 2023-24 season and were eliminated in the first round by Southern Oregon last March.
For Diekhans, there's definitely a sense of not being content with just hanging conference banners.
"I would definitely say unfinished business," said Diekhans. "I know that's the whole plan is go win another conference championship but also see if we can make a run in the postseason."
A Frontier five-peat will be the driving force for the Orediggers as they gear up for this season in the newly expanded conference and, by this point, they've gotten used to the idea of opponents wanting to knock them from the summit.
"It's a big goal of ours, it's our goal every year to get that regular-season title," said Koch. "But we're going to have a huge target on our back just like last year."
The Orediggers will open their season at home against Eastern Oregon on Oct. 24 and will tip off conference play at Mayville State on Nov. 21.
