GREAT FALLS, Mont. – Frontier Conference play starts this weekend Argo basketball, and the first one won't be easy. UGF kicks off the conference regular season with a two-game road trip to (15) Lewis-Clark State College, the defending conference champs, on Dec. 1 at 8:30 p.m. MT, followed by Montana Tech on Dec. 3 at 7:30 p.m.
UGF enters the road trip with a 6-1 record but the team is relatively untested with only two of those games coming against NAIA opponents. They split those two games, losing to Jamestown (N.D.) 84-81 and defeated Dickinson State (N.D.) 86-77.
LC State has a similar resume at 8-2. While five of those opponents have been in the NAIA, all of them are Division II, and two of those were loses to (8) College of Idaho and Evergreen (Wash.). The Warriors are working to replace three of its top five scorers from the previous season, including 2015-16 Frontier Conference Player of the Year Jacob Wiley.
With Wiley in the lineup, the Warriors had the Argo's number in 2015-16, sweeping them in all three regular season games before knocking UGF out of the conference playoffs. UGF's last win over LC Sate came at home on January 9, 2015 and the program's last road win over the Warriors was during the 2013-14 season.
This year's first meeting of the two programs will pit two of the cleanest run offenses in the country, with the Warriors ranking 4th in NAIA DI in Assist/Turnover Ratio (1.587) and the Argos rank 10th (1.430). Both teams have also lived off of forcing other teams into mistakes LC and UGF are 10th and 11th respectively in steals per game (10.1 for LC State & 10.0 for UGF).
After taking on its first ranked opponent of the season in Lewis-Clark State, the Argos will travel to play Montana Tech, the only team picked to finish below UGF in the 2016-17 Frontier Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll.
The Orediggers have a new head coach in Adam Hiatt and are without 2015-16 leading scorer and All-Conference point guard Jalen Coates, but come into the weekend with a 6-3 record. This year's version of the team has been a bit more balanced and has dominated the glass to start the season, ranking 9th in NAIA DI in Total Rebound Margin (12.333).
Comparing similar opponents would suggest the Argos as the favorites heading in. Both teams started the season against Yellowstone Christian College and the Centurions took Tech into overtime, while UGF ran YCC ragged in an 84-59 home win. The Orediggers also played Dickinson State, a team UGF defeated, and lost to the Blue Hawks 75-49.
Despite those comparisons, the Argos aren't likely to take Tech lightly after the Orediggers went 2-1 against UGF in 2015-16.
