George Ferguson Column: Skylights are a true NAIA power

The Montana State University-Northern Skylights didn’t win the NAIA women’s national championship this season. In fact the 2017 national tournament won’t be decided until tonight. And make no mistake, that was indeed the Skylights’ goal.

No matter the seed, no matter the finish in Frontier Conference play, for the last several years now, the Skylights have gone to the national tournament with the goal of hoisting a banner inside the Armory Gymnasium.

And that goal is, and has been, a realistic one because the last four years head coach Chris Mouat has set the bar that high. Under Mouat’s tutelage the Skylights have indeed become a national power.

Now, I’m biased. I cover the Skylights every day. But just because someone who is biased is saying the Skylights are a national power doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

No, the results back up that claim.

Four national tournaments in four years is a good place to start to back up that claim. But it runs even deeper than that. The Skylights have also won a first-round game at the big dance in three of the last four and went to the Elite 8 once during that stretch, as well. Even their national tournament losses, they’ve all been nail biters. From 2014-2017, the Skylights have lost national tournament games by a mere average of just six points. That means, they were just as close to going even further as they were to bowing out, including last Friday night’s heartbreaker to Vanguard.

Consistency, both on the national level and in the Frontier Conference also proves just what a juggernaut the Skylights have been. Just look at the last three years.

In Northern’s incredible 2014-15 campaign, in which the Skylights reached the NAIA Elite 8, they beat 10 Top 25 teams, went 29-6 and played for the Frontier championship. The next year, they went 23-9, again finished in the top four of the Frontier and beat six Top 25 teams. This season, 24-9, played for the Frontier title for the second time in three years, and they knocked off nine Top 25 teams. Consistency against their biggest rivals has been something that has vaulted Northern up the ladder, too. In those same three seasons, MSU-N is 7-2 against a UGF squad that has went to NAIA Elite 8’s, and the Skylights are 6-2 against Carroll College during that same stretch.

Yes, those kinds of numbers prove just how powerful the Skylights have been during the last four years, and for much of Mouat’s tenure in Havre.

But there’s more. Northern doesn’t just win randomly. First, there’s a system in place, and it centers around defensive prowess. For much of Mouat’s career, the Skylights have been one of the top defensive teams in the NAIA, regardless of their win-loss record. And over the incredible run the last four seasons, MSU-N has never fallen out of the Top 5 in scoring defense in the NAIA. Northern has also been a team built around rebounding. Again, it doesn’t matter what the personnel is, the Skylights hit the boards. Of course, they were a great rebounding team the two years that A’Jha Edwards was patrolling the paint, but even without Edwards, Northern continued to dominate inside, as the Skylights were fourth in the nation this season in defensive rebounding.

Individual accolades certainly help make a program the power that it is, and the Skylights have had those, too.

Natalee Faupel is now leaving behind one of the greatest four-year careers in MSU-N history, but she isn’t alone. In the last four years, Faupel was joined by Edwards and Jacy Thompson as NAIA All-Americans, while Thompson has also won a Defensive Player of the Year Award. During this incredible run, the Skylights have also had 13 Frontier All-Conference selections, and countless Frontier Academic and NAIA Academic All-Americans.

There are numbers and the records and all the great achievements I could keep listing, but I think you get the idea. And that idea is, that Northern is a women’s basketball program that has risen to incredible heights. Not just once or twice, but consistently.

Of course, they want to keep it that way, and Mouat admits, that with the graduation of four great seniors, that won’t be easy.

“We have proven we can compete with anyone these last four years,” Mouat said. “This group has accomplished a lot. We have to say goodbye to some great players and we will have a lot of work to do, but it has been a great experience with this team.”

Work to do indeed. The cupboard won’t be bare next season, with the return of Thompson, and the group that includes Katie Fertterer, Peyton Filius, Brandy Lambourne and Makhayla Farmer, who were all recruited together. Northern has an exciting up-and-comer as well in Shiloh McCormick, too, and Kaelani Sagapolu will come back from a season-ending injury. Of course, there will be new faces, too. So there’s no reason to think the Skylights won’t be right back in the mix, even with the departing group that has done so much for the program over the last four years.

But for now, next year is a long way off. For now, even after a heartbreaking defeat in the Sweet 16, it’s time for us all to take a breath and just look at the incredible run the Skylights have accomplished. It’s time to step back and look at the incredible program Mouat has assembled.

Because it’s true, and it doesn’t matter if I’m biased or not, the Northern women’s basketball program, right now, today, is one of the elite programs in all of the NAIA. That is a fact, and it’s one everyone associated with the Skylights program should be very proud of.

“I am really proud of where our program is at,” Mouat said. “But it’s where it is because of these players. They are what it’s all about and it’s gotten to this point because all of the work that they have put into it. So I am very proud of that and very proud of them.”

It is because of the great players. But it’s also because of a great coach who had, and has, a plan, and he executes that plan, year after year, after year. Yes, Chris, your program is also where it is because of your hard work, your knowledge and your dedication.

As fans of the Skylights, all we can say to that is, thank you, because we have one of the elite programs in the country right now.