Marko Kovacevic Ruled Ineligible

It has been a rough week for the Montana Grizzlies, and as a result, the Big Sky race appears to be even more open.

There were some rumors floating around, and Yahoo's Jeff Eisenberg has confirmed, that Montana big man Marko Kovacevic has been ruled academically ineligible.

Kovacevic, a potential replacement for graduated center Derek Selvig, has been ruled academically ineligible next season because he did not achieve a high enough grade in a math class he took at Western Nebraska Community College, a source said. Montana is appealing the ruling and hopes to receive definitive word from the NCAA sometime next month.

Assuming they do not win their appeal, tt is a big blow for Montana's frontcourt, because they do not have much depth there. It appeared that Kovacevic was going to be in line to start, and would have been the post scorer they didn't really have last year.

Mathias Ward will play the 4 or 5, but he is a jump shooter (a really good one). Eric Hutchison should get plenty of minutes, but he doesn't bring much offensively. Andy Martin was a redshirt candidate, but will probably play this year though he is raw. As Mslacat pointed out in the comments of an earlier post, this could open up playing time for Spencer Coleman (my projected starter at the three) and freshman Jake Wiley to get plenty of minutes at the four.

It looks like Montana will be extremely perimeter-oriented once again.

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