Ollie Warms Up to Chilly Bozeman

Funny the places somebody will seek out warmth. Damon Ollie found plenty in frigid Bozeman, Mont., and lately he’s really turned up the heat.

Ollie, a Montana State senior, was Big Sky Conference player of the week for the second time this season after averaging 18 points and 11 rebounds in four games, including two conference victories.

“I feel good about it,” said Ollie, who was an All-City Section for three years at North Hollywood High. “Last year I didn’t get to play that much, so I’m making up for lost time.”

Ollie rebounded from an ankle injury that spoiled his junior season to emerge as a dominant force for the Bobcats (10-3, 2-0 in conference play). But that shouldn’t surprise. Rebounding is his specialty.

Despite being undersized for a power forward, Ollie (6-foot-6, 230 pounds) leads the conference with 10.2 rebounds per game and is an ideal complement to 6-8 All-Big Sky center Nate Holmstadt.

“Damon is like a Dennis Rodman on the boards,” said Mike Badding, who backs up Ollie and Holmstadt. “He’s tenacious, he gets position and he’ll tap the ball to himself.

“He’s really a smart player. He’s deceptive with his defense. Just when you don’t think he’ll get a steal or a rebound, he does.”

In addition to his work on the boards, Ollie leads Montana State with 17 blocked shots and 23 steals. He averages 14.7 points.

Ollie displays the consistency coaches crave. He has scored in double figures in all but one game and has at least nine rebounds in all but two.

“He can be counted upon every night and he takes great pride in that,” Montana State Mick Durham said.

Extending his shooting range is a part of his game he’s worked on since high school and his two years at Santa Monica College. Ollie has made 56% of his shots and has connected on seven of 16 three-pointers.

He missed a three-point shot in the final seconds of a 60-59 loss to Wyoming on Dec. 23, but came back to sink a big three-pointer to trigger a late run in a 77-64 victory over Weber State in the Big Sky opener.

Ollie provides a lot of firepower for someone given the cold shoulder by Division I schools in Southern California despite setting scoring and rebounding records at Santa Monica.

“Boy, you would sure think the schools there would have gone after him,” Durham said. “He slipped through the cracks.”

The recruiting done by Durham was ongoing, and the idea of two years in Bozeman grew on Ollie.

“They stayed on me from the summer after my freshman year right through my sophomore season,” Ollie said. “That made a big impression on me.”

Ollie’s mother died of kidney failure during his second year at Santa Monica and his brother, Dana Jones, was off playing professionally in Japan. Any reasons he had to stay in Southern California were gone.

Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine, where Jones played, recruited him out of North Hollywood, but he didn’t score high enough on the SAT to qualify.

His game developed at Santa Monica--he helped the Corsairs to a 31-4 record as a sophomore--and he headed for Montana State with high hopes.

Then he saw snow for the first time in his life.

“I was excited about that, but it got old fast,” he said. “The weather was so much different. Everybody was nice, but I did get homesick. But once basketball started, I started to really like it.”

Durham says if the players he brings in from warm-weather states make it through the first snowfall, he knows they’ll stay for good. Ollie was plenty content, but the early-season injury kept him out nearly two months.

He returned out of shape for the conference stretch run and wasn’t up to the task, making five of 40 shots in six games. The last was a loss to Northridge in the conference tournament.

“I was so sorry when I came back,” Ollie said. “I was nowhere near where I should have been. I was missing all kinds of shots.”

He’s found the range. Ollie has made 23 of 33 shots in the last three games. He will take aim in the Matador Gym for the first time.

“I’ve looked forward to this trip, to see my grandmother and some friends,” he said.