MISSOULA — When Rachi Wortham left Montana in 2019, the Grizzlies were coming off a 26-win season and back-to-back Big Sky Conference championships. He will make his return in 2025-26 with Montana coming of a 25-win championship season.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Wortham will rejoin head coach Travis DeCuire’s for the upcoming season after serving as the head coach at Tacoma Community College for the previous five seasons.
“I’m excited, really excited. I’m coming with some familiarity,” Wortham said. “I know the staff really well and I trust them and talk to them beyond basketball and so, people always say family, this is an opportunity to really be with family that cares about me and cares about my development.”
In his first stint in Missoula, Wortham helped guide Montana to two NCAA Tournament appearances in 2018 and 2019. The Grizzlies had 52 total wins across those two seasons, the most in a two-year span in program history.
Montana had a combined record of 58-33 (.637) with Wortham on staff. He coached the Grizzlies at a time when many of the program’s all-time best players were on the floor together for several years.
“When we had our best teams, our chemistry and cohesiveness has always been really tight,” DeCuire said. “Our teams have been tough, physical, athletic, and our coaching staff fit with those groups really well. That 2016-19 group we didn’t have a lot of turnover and we really became a close-knit family. We had a little of that last year. As assistants moved on, I wanted to get back to that and that’s where Rachi came in.”
Wortham’s basketball journey has always been intertwined with DeCuire’s. They met back in the mid-1990s with DeCuire coaching Wortham’s AAU team. They reconnected at Montana in 2016 and now get another chance to work together.
It’s a partnership that has led to a lot of success over the years.
“I’ve won a championship every time I’ve ever been involved with him,” DeCuire said. “I coached him as a 14-year-old on an AAU basketball team, we won a national tournament. I watched his high school team, a majority of which were guys from my AAU team, win a state championship in a state that Tacoma teams typically don’t win. He comes here, and we had been close up to that point, but he helped us get over the hump in a lot of ways. We’ve missed him, and I’m happy to have him back.”
Wortham returns with a lot more experience than he had back in 2019. He led Tacoma Community College for four full seasons, compiling a 68-46 (.596) record in that time.
He also has experience prior to his UM days as an assistant with Eastern Washington and the director of player personnel at Oregon State. He’s been at every level and now returns to Montana with an idea of what things are like as the head man.
“I have a different perspective now. There is so much more pressure on your shoulders when you’re the head coach,” Wortham said. “All of us assistant coaches have ideas, I’m a guy who has ideas, so being able to have a different perspective especially during practices and games will be good for me.”
Wortham said that the fans and community of Missoula are a big part of the reason that he’s excited to return. Growing up in Tacoma, players like DeCuire helped inspire Wortham as a child. He knows that Griz basketball players and staff have a chance to do the same thing with the community of Missoula, and he’s excited to do his part to give back.
“I always tell people that the fans are amazing at Montana. It’s not fake,” Wortham said. “You come to a basketball game or a football game, you see the amazing fans. The players are good people and when you bring good people around I get excited about that. When you combine good people and talent, you are going to have pretty good success.”
On the floor, Wortham’s success speaks for itself. He was an assistant during the best two-year stretch in program history and is no stranger to the Big Dance. His familiarity with DeCuire’s approach should make this a seamless fit.
“As someone who played for me and has worked for me, he understands what kind of players I’m looking for and what I mean when I say things,” DeCuire said. “He has thick skin so he can work in my madness and perform, and at the end of the day loyalty is everything, and he’s one of the most loyal people I’ve ever been around.”
The Grizzlies will return six players from last year’s championship team and made some big additions in the transfer portal to put themselves in a good position to repeat. They bring back the Big Sky’s top reserve in Money Williams, who spent the summer working out with NBA teams to gauge his draft stock.
Montana is looking to win back-to-back Big Sky titles for the fifth time in program history. Wortham knows what it takes to do that having been on staff the last time the Grizzlies accomplished it in 2018 and 2019.
“They did a great job assembling this team. There is a lot of talent on this team, but with talent, you have to have some structure,” Wortham said. “Travis is really good at putting structure together so I’m excited to play my role, whatever that piece is, to help this team win.”
Ryan Frazer joins Montana as Travis DeCuire finalizes coaching staff
Who could have guessed, sitting in a locker room in Chico, Calif., 15 years ago, that if you looked around the room at the 2010-11 Wildcat team there would be three future D-I assistant coaches?
There was first-year assistant coach Chris Cobb, fresh off a season at San Francisco State that opened his coaching career. And there was a sharp-shooting guard in Jay Flores, who would later follow his former assistant from sunny California up to the unknown of Montana.
On the staff with Cobb was a fellow first-year assistant coach Ryan Frazer. Frazer has had a winding journey since then, but that Wildcat connection has led him to Montana to join head coach Travis DeCuire’s staff for the 2025-26 season.
“We’ve always tried to hire people we know. Whether it’s the guys on the staff have a relationship or I do, I think you know what you’re getting in terms of personality and authenticity,” DeCuire said. “Ryan has a very good relationship with the staff having worked with (Chris) Cobb while (Jay) Flores was playing.”
Frazer met Cobb as a fellow coach and then met Flores as a player. He was first introduced to DeCuire at Cobb’s wedding. He has known some of the staff for 15 years and has been watching from afar as the Grizzlies have racked up a program record 226 wins over the last 11 seasons.
“The familiarity of the staff was the reason I even considered it,” Frazer said of his jump to the D-I level. “There was a lot of peace about the situation, and then when I got to have some time with coach DeCuire by myself and my family met him, that really made it feel like home.”
He joins Montana after serving as head coach at Pasadena City College for the past three years. Frazer had a lot of success as the mentor of the Lancers, taking a 1-26 team the year before arrived and turning them into a 22-9 squad in his final season.
Montana is replacing three coaching positions with two people this offseason, making it important to get the right fits. Frazer and fellow incoming assistant coach Rachi Wortham both have the head coaching experience that will help DeCuire and the rest of his staff navigate the most change they’ve experienced in their 11 years together.
“As a head coach at the junior college level, he took on responsibilities that a lot of assistant coaches have never had,” DeCuire said. “It’s really powerful bringing both Rachi and him from being head coaches. The direction of college basketball and how you operate, how you recruit, the day-to-day process is very similar.”
DeCuire and Cobb will be entering their 12th season together at Montana, while Flores is entering year 10. As a staff, they have been to three NCAA Tournaments together under DeCuire’s leadership and have never had a losing season.
The consistency of success, and the consistency in the staff, attracted Frazer to the role.
“I think the one thing that’s been shown is just consistency not only with wins but also with the staff,” Frazer said. “Once I got here and learned about the department, it seems like a lot of people have been here for a long time, so I felt very comfortable in the fact that there are systems in place and a process they are doing that clearly works. I wanted to learn and grow and felt this would be a great place to do it.”
One of the strengths of the Montana program under DeCuire has been its consistency. At the same time, a fresh perspective is always a welcome thing. DeCuire’s other offseason hire, Rachi Wortham, has been with the program in a previous stint.
In Frazer, DeCuire is bringing a brand-new voice into the locker room.
“I think it’s just a fresh perspective,” DeCuire said. “He’s done his own thing, and he’s had his own experiences with other coaches, and I think sometimes fresh opinions are good and healthy in a program that has had pretty much the same three guys for so long. I think it’s healthy to have a fresh perspective.”
Frazer has served as a head coach since 2018. Prior to PCC, he was the head coach at MiraCosta College for three seasons, compiling a 44-44 record. In addition to his one season at Chico State, he also served as an assistant coach at Cal State Dominguez Hills and Antelope Valley College.
Montana has long held a connection with the state of California, and Frazer should only deepen that connection with his experience across the state.
“We’ve had a lot of success with guys that have been Division II coaches, junior college coaches here because they can multi-task and they understand the value of doing more than just X’s and O’s and player development and recruiting,” DeCuire said. “That’s very important here at the University of Montana.”
For Frazer, the biggest adjustment will be finding home in his new role, particularly as part of a staff that has spent so much time together. He said that his ability to be himself is a strength, and that it should help him get adjusted quickly.
He said that he tries to “live in the details” when it comes to preparing, whether that is for a game, a practice, or any team event.
“There is an adjustment to some things, but I think the best piece that I’ve got from my time as a head coach is when to push, when to back off, and trying to find ways to be helpful,” Frazer said. “This staff has a lot of synergy. I’m the only person who has not worked with everyone, so just kind of trying to find my voice but also no task is too big.
“When you come from that head coaching spot you are kind of delegating, now you’re being delegated to so it will just be getting used to that adjustment.”
