BUTTE — Montana Tech head men's basketball coach Adam Hiatt often referred to the Frontier Conference's triple-round-robin regular season as a gauntlet.
This season saw the league double in size to 12 teams, expand the league schedule to 22 games and set conference games to be played on Fridays and Saturdays instead of Thursdays and Saturdays.
Add in much longer road trips for the Montana-based teams to places as far-flung as Madison, S.D., or Bellevue, Neb., and this new format presents its own type of gauntlet.
"It's a whole different world right now," Hiatt said during a practice on Tuesday. "And it creates a whole lot of obstacles. But at the same time our league has never been stronger. There are six teams that are legitimate national tournament teams in our league."
HEAR FROM THE OREDIGGERS:
Despite that slew of new challenges, both the Oredigger men's and women's teams are navigating them well at the midpoint of the conference slate. The No. 15 Tech men (14-3 overall, 8-3 in Frontier play) dropped three straight Frontier games between late November and early December but have since won their past eight contests, including an upset over the NCAA Division I University of Montana Grizzlies on Dec. 17.
"It just goes to show how tough the Frontier Conference is and that anybody in the NAIA can play basketball," said senior guard Camdyn LaRance. "Yeah, (the Grizzlies are) Division I, but we just came in with the mentality that we're going to come win."
"That was super fun," said junior guard Brayden Koch. "I think a lot of people underestimated us. Just having this bond of brothers, beating a D-I team it was super fun, super cool."
Meanwhile, the Tech women (14-1, 10-1) are enjoying their best start to a campaign in program history and are currently on top of the league standings. The Orediggers, riding a nine-game win streak, earned their first-ever NAIA coaches' poll ranking this season and are currently sitting at No. 12.
"It's a great group of kids, it's awesome," said head women's coach Jeff Graham. "They share the ball well, we're tough to defend, we got a lot of kids scoring eight to 12 points a game. This year we're really balanced. We feel like all 10, 11 kids we play can make a big difference and hit some shots. They kind of feed off each other."
The Orediggers won just seven overall games Graham's first season in 2022-23. Then two seasons ago they won 12. Then they went 18-12 last season, culminating in the team's first trip to the national tournament since 2011.
"So much fun," sophomore forward Halle Haber said of the milestones this team has hit the past few years and the excellent start to this season. "I think our team chemistry is great and we all love playing with each other, so that really helps."
Both Tech teams are now gearing up for a five-game road trek beginning with Dakota State on Friday and Bellevue on Saturday. The Orediggers will return home to face Dickinson State on Feb. 6.
