Chris Cobb Reveals Realities of Coaching College Basketball

Meet the Griz is a series that tells the stories of Montana Grizzlies athletes, coaches, and contributors.

Meet Griz Basketball Associate Head Coach Chris Cobb

OK, we already know who Coach Chris Cobb is, right? Cobb is entering his 12th season with the Griz Men's Basketball staff. He hails from Castro Valley with coaching stops at San Francisco State and Chico State. We know that, but this piece focuses on the evolving role of assistant coaches in today's college basketball.

"I think the nonstop workload of having to reload rosters every year is a lot for anybody," began Cobb. "I know football's dealing with, I don't know, 80 to 100, 110, whatever their numbers are, where our numbers are smaller, but that can make it more impactful, right?"

Cobb referenced football because of Griz Football Head Coach Bobby Hauck saying the new era of college athletics is killing assistant coaches. There isn't an offseason.

"The offseason is, I don't know if I really call it an offseason. I don't know if it ever really gets 'off.'"

It's the constant recruiting of high school players in the AAU season, monitoring the transfer portal, or trying to retain their own players. On top of the constant recruiting, Coach Cobb spearheads the scheduling.

You can find the Grizzlies' schedule in the link above, but Montana released its non-conference slate to round out the 2025-2026 season. Standouts include Louisville, Texas A&M, and Stanford.

"I think we're always going to try a schedule that is competitive, that will prepare us for conference play, and then also prepare us for when we, hopefully, get to the NCAA Tournament," Cobb explained.

You think scheduling is easy when your team is in Missoula, Montana — a difficult and expensive place to travel to? Think again.

Credit: Ryan Brennecke/ University of Montana

"I think it's always really hard with travel here," Cobb said on scheduling teams to play in Missoula. "We work 365 days a year with the schedule, and it is as challenging as it's ever been... When I first got here, we were playing home and homes with the WCC and the Mountain West. We've lost those games. We've lost those opportunities."

That was a really interesting comment to me that the WCC and the Mountain West aren't scheduling home and homes with the likes of a Big Sky team. Cobb explained there are several factors that play into that, such as media deals, what the conferences are instituting for their members, and because teams don't want to play top Big Sky teams. They don't see a high enough reward for a potential loss and a high risk towards tournament seeding.

Listen to the full conversation with Coach Cobb on the Daily Drive with Ace Sauerwein.