In the transfer portal era, Montana State just did the impossible: it kept everybody. The Bobcats retained 100 percent of their scholarship players from the 2025–26 season — a 18-14 team that finished second in the Big Sky at 12-6 and went 11-2 at home — and head coach Matt Logie credits the culture he’s built in Bozeman. “The guys that went through that experience all felt compelled that they had unfinished business here,” Logie said this summer. In 2026, that sentence is a recruiting pitch, a program identity and a minor miracle all at once.
Logie, now in his fourth season, has had a remarkable start to his Division I tenure. He arrived from Division II power Point Loma and immediately kept the machine humming: Montana State has been to three straight NCAA Tournaments (2022, 2023, 2024), the last two under Logie, turning the Bobcats from a feel-good story into the Big Sky’s modern dynasty. This summer the school rewarded him with a four-year contract extension — a bet on continuity in an age of chaos.
The system is the star. Montana State plays a unique, analytically-driven offense that ranked in the bottom 10 nationally in rim rate last season — and still finished top two in the Big Sky in offensive efficiency and top three in true shooting. It’s a mid-range-and-three machine, built on shot quality and spacing rather than raw athleticism, and it has been a step ahead of the national and conference average for three straight years. Logie’s career efficiency metrics rank second among Big Sky coaches. The computers love the Bobcats even when the roster doesn’t look imposing.
The roster, this year, looks imposing anyway. Ten players return, led by a core of proven Big Sky producers. Christian King, the 6-foot-7 sophomore forward from Kirkland, Washington, was 22nd in the league in scoring while shooting 36 percent from three — a modern stretch forward entering his prime. Jeremiah Davis, the junior guard from Compton, posted a 63 percent true-shooting mark with 40 percent three-point shooting and ranked third in the Big Sky in steal rate: a two-way weapon. Jaden Steppe made two-thirds of his shots inside the arc. Cavin Holden averaged 8.5 points in just eight games — high-ceiling talent if healthy. Add Bozeman’s own Seth Amunrud, seniors Davian Brown, Patrick McMahon (Palmer, Alaska), Jed Miller and Chris Hodges, plus sophomores Waka Mbatch (6-10, Serekunda, Gambia) and Calum Rutherfurd (6-11, Sebastopol, Calif.), and the rotation runs ten deep with experience.
The additions address the losses. Gone are the program’s top three scorers and two all-conference players — the price of winning in the portal era — but Logie mined the portal for fit. Darnez Slater, a 6-foot-4 guard from Colorado State, was Logie’s first guard recruit visit back in the 2023 cycle; the relationship finally closed the loop, and Slater brings NCAA Tournament experience from his redshirt year with the Rams. London Praytor, a 7-foot transfer from Toledo, gives the Bobcats something they’ve rarely had: true rim protection with a shooter’s touch — more than half his attempts were threes. Isaiah Crane dominated the Frontier Conference at Carroll College, earning conference player of the year honors; Logie praises his burst, handle and shooting. Two freshmen round out the class.
The staff is settled and upgraded: associate head coaches Zach Payne and Sam Scholl, assistants Xavier Bishop and Shamrock Campbell, and newcomer Kenny Love as the sixth full-time staffer. Stability on the bench, stability on the roster — in the Big Sky, that’s a championship formula.
The home court is a weapon. Worthington Arena inside the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse is one of the great small-college environments in the West — 7,250 seats stacked steep, the student section on top of the floor, and a team that went 11-2 there last season. When Montana visits on Jan. 23 for the Cat-Griz rivalry game, it will be the loudest night of the Big Sky season. The return trip to Missoula on Feb. 27 closes the regular season.
The history here is older and richer than most realize. Montana State claims the 1929 Helms Foundation national championship — the “Golden Bobcats” of Cat Thompson, one of the sport’s first great shooters — a banner that predates the NCAA Tournament itself. The program wandered the wilderness for decades after, but the Sprinkle era (2019–2024) changed everything: three straight NCAA trips, the 2022 Big Sky title, and a style of play that made Bozeman appointment viewing. Logie, hired from Point Loma in 2023, didn’t rebuild the machine — he tuned it, winning the Big Sky tournament in his first season and extending the dance streak to three.
The Big Sky preview consensus has Montana State in tier one — the team to beat, even after losing its top three scorers, because the system and the depth survived. That’s the Logie thesis: the program is bigger than any player, the culture retains talent that other schools lose, and the offense manufactures efficiency regardless of personnel. Three straight NCAA trips built the standard. Year four, with everybody back and a 7-footer added, is supposed to be the one where the Bobcats don’t just win the Big Sky — they make noise in March.