Dear Rob: A Lady Griz great pens letter of appreciation

Editor’s Note: Along with announcing the renaming of the court at Dahlberg Arena after Robin Selvig, the University of Montana has asked Selvig’s players to write letters about playing for the legendary coach. This letter below is from Kelly Pilcher-Beattie. What the Lady Griz teams of the 1980s laid down as the foundation, the 1990 teams built upon. The decade featured eight NCAA tournament appearances, six Big Sky Conference MVPs and a league record of 133-19. Representing the 1990s is Beattie, a two-time All-Big Sky selection who came off the bench to dish out a team-high five assists in Montana’s win at Wisconsin in the 1992 NCAA tournament and had 20 points, eight assists and five steals in Montana’s win over UNLV in the 1994 tournament. She opened her senior season in 1993-94 starting at point guard as Montana played at Tennessee. After a sleepless night, she finished with 16 points on 7-of-13 shooting and a team-high five assists against the Volunteers. Beattie, who it should be noted has a daughter playing at Montana State, penned the following:

Dear Rob,

Congratulations on this honor befitting your incredible career accomplishments and what you meant to this program.

You are an icon, although I know you don’t look at it that way.

When I think of you, the first thing that comes to mind is your humility.

You rarely ever took credit for wins or awards, and there are almost too many of those to count.

The second thing is your loyalty. From the moment we stepped on campus to wherever we are now in our lives, you are there for us. You always have our back and would do anything you can for us.

The third thing is your wisdom. Obviously you have quite a bit of basketball knowledge, but I particularly respect how you handled everything that went along with coaching so graciously.

Things like always giving respect to the opponent; it didn’t matter if we were playing a junior high team, you gave them the utmost respect.

This kept us humble, ready and focused for each game.

You also had the best words and responses in interviews. Win or lose, you handled the media with grace and humility.

Thinking of my time in your program, the stories come rushing back.

On my first-ever road trip to Chicago, the other freshmen and I were in your car. I think you intentionally did that to the freshmen so they would understand the way things work. We quickly figured out that (1) you were not the best driver, (2) you often got lost and (3) you were always in total game mode from the hotel to the game, and absolute silence was expected on the way.

We also quickly learned that you treated us like queens on these trips; we pretty much got whatever we wanted. I guess this was before hotel continental breakfast, because you went shopping every morning and brought breakfast to our rooms for us.

Although there was the time we lost to last-place Nevada. You sent us to our rooms without dinner or money. I honestly can’t blame you for that one.

Your quick wit and expressions, or “Robisms” as we like to call them, were so humorous that the targets of your ire couldn’t even get upset.

I’m sure your team spanning several eras share many of the same famous quotes.

Here are some of the top hits I can remember:

“You are the worst team in America.” “You are the worst defensive team in America.” “You are the slowest team in America!”

(I see a pattern here.)

“What are you doing? Are you on drugs?” “There is a game going on here ladies!”“A lay-up is a lay-up is a lay-up.”

“Are you playing for the other team?”

“Are you posting up or posing for the school annual?”

You also did not stand for passing the ball or catching the ball with one hand.

Kristy Langton was particularly prone to one-handed passing and Kristin Omlid liked to occasionally catch the ball with one hand. So one time Kristy threw it one-handed to Kristin who tried to catch it one-handed and the ball went out of bounds. Your response was, “We’ve got the one-handed passer throwing it to the one-handed catcher. How do you think that will end?”

I will never forget when Ann Lake was at the free throw line and you turned to the bench and yelled, “Everybody pray! Actually, never mind, not even God can help her.”

I think my favorite directed at me was when we played at BYU and I had a few turnovers in the first half from going way too fast (as happened occasionally), and you said “STOP GOING WILD AND CRAZY,” with a few extra choice words mixed in.

Kristy Langton and I were shooting partners all four of my years. Quite a few times during our freshman year we would go get Domino’s pizza after a bad practice and wonder, “Why did you recruit us? We can’t run the offense, we can’t play defense, basically we stink.”

But you never quit believing in us and kept pushing us to get better. Things improved from the Domino’s days and we started to get more comfortable and figure things out.

Eventually we played in some big games.

Some of those memorable games were the NCAA game where we beat Wisconsin in their gym and then went and battled hard at USC.

My senior year we started out by playing at Tennessee. That was the one game in my career I actually lost sleep over.

I kept thinking, “What if I don’t get the ball over half court?” But we played them tough, and then Tennessee came to Missoula the next year and you gave them a heck of a game with an unreal atmosphere.

Playing Boise State in a packed Dahlberg Arena for the conference championship with both teams ranked in the top 25 my senior year was definitely a highlight, as was hosting and beating UNLV in the first round of the NCAA tournament that same year.

We then had to go to Stanford for the next game, where we fell a few points short, and just like that my career was over. It went by so quickly.

I can honestly say that every time I stepped on the court I wanted to win so badly and I wanted to do it for myself, my team and the wonderful Lady Griz fans, but even more I wanted to win for you. I never wanted to disappoint you and it really motivated me.

I realize how special and once-in-a-lifetime those opportunities and experiences were.

As time has passed since my playing career and I have moved on to other things, I so often think back on my time with the Lady Griz. I realize how lucky I was to have been given the opportunity to play Division I basketball for Montana and to have you as my coach.

Truthfully basketball was not my number one sport, and I thought for sure I would compete in track in college. But the opportunity to play for the Lady Griz coached by Robin Selvig with several of my high school teammates in the most electric atmosphere was so intriguing to me that I could not pass up the opportunity.

I have never once questioned that choice and could not be more grateful.

Thank you Coach for the opportunity.

Thank you for believing in me and thank you for giving me a chance to be part of what you built. It has impacted me more than you will ever know.

With much love and respect,

Kelly Pilcher Beattie

1990-1994