The Vols totaled 38 rebounds to Montana’s 17. Tennessee forward Igor Milicic Jr. led all players with 10 rebounds in the contest.
Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes met with media and discussed the Vols’ rebounding on Wednesday.
“It’s a big part of what we talk about in our program,” Barnes said. “I think, defensively, we got 45 percent of our misses, which is terrific, obviously, but it’s a major emphasis in our program, obviously, and people know that about us. It’s a compliment to the players because it’s not an easy part of the game. It’s something that takes determination to fight to do it, and knowing that the other team is trying to keep us to get to the glass. Concentration has a lot to do with it, and we believe it comes down to those one-on-one battles, but it’s important. You can’t be a great defensive team if you can’t finish it with a rebound. You don’t want to be a one-and-done offensive team if you can help.”
Golf is a game of patience and depending on what course you play on, it can require more tolerance.
Golf is a game of patience and depending on what course you play on, it can require more tolerance.
A study from the United States Golf Association on more than 14,000 golf courses across America, revealed the average difficulty of the courses in every state.
According to the association’s methodology, the average “bogey rating” was calculated for all courses in each state, with states ranked from highest to lowest difficulty based on this rating.
The bogey rating indicates the course difficulty for a player with a handicap of around 20 for men or 24 for women, making it a good measure for amateur, hobby golfers. Additionally, the average “course rating” for each state was calculated, which measures difficulty for a scratch player — an elite-level golfer with a handicap of zero, a status achieved by less than 1% of golfers.
Authorities are requesting public assistance in an attempt to identify the person who fired the arrow.
Authorities in Montana are investigating a poaching case involving a mule deer buck that’s still carrying an arrow that somebody shot into its back.
According to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, wardens responded to a call from a Billings Heights resident about the wounded deer on Nov. 2.
Wardens located the deer and decided that it had been shot the same day, within city limits where hunting is banned. (Montana’s archery deer-hunting season ended Oct. 20.)
An image released to the media shows the arrow deeply embedded into the top of the deer’s back, near its spine. But the deer apparently has full mobility, so FWP decided against a capture effort.
Injured mule deer. Photo: Montana, Fish, Wildlife & Parks
“FWP does not believe the arrow wound will be fatal for the deer and at this time are not planning to capture the deer to remove the arrow,” the agency stated Tuesday in a news release.
Anyone with potentially helpful information is asked to call the regional warden at 406-860-7805, or submit a report via tipmont.mt.gov.
The man was fishing alone on the Stillwater River when the incident occurred. The bear will not be tracked.
A Montana angler was injured Wednesday by a black bear that “swatted” his face as he fished alone on the Stillwater River near the town of Beehive.
According to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, the adult male did not seek medical attention after the incident.
The bear, which seemed to have reacted defensively after its surprise encounter, left the area immediately. The FWP stated that it does not plan to track or trap the bear.
The agency urged outdoor enthusiasts to exercise extreme caution when in bear country, and to travel in groups whenever possible.
“Recreationists, including anglers, should be aware, especially in areas with abundant natural foods such as fruit and berries and where hearing may be limited along rivers and streams,” the FWP stated in a news release.
The agency added that black bears and grizzly bears “can be especially active this time of year as they prepare for winter hibernation.”
The Stillwater River, a tributary of the Yellowstone River, is a blue-ribbon trout fishery.
The adult male grizzly bear, implicated in several home and vehicle break-ins, was shot near the Montana town of Gardiner.
Montana authorities on Thursday shot and killed an adult male grizzly bear on the Yellowstone River just outside Yellowstone National Park.
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks explained in a news release that the bear had become conditioned to unsecured food items in Gardiner and was implicated in several home and vehicle break-ins.
Repeated efforts by Fish, Wildlife & Parks and other agencies to trap and remove the bear were unsuccessful.
The bear was killed, FWP stated, because “the wide availability of unsecured attractants, combined with the bear being active almost exclusively at night, limited opportunities to remove the animal without creating additional human safety risks.”
Gardiner is just outside Yellowstone National Park’s North Entrance. The Yellowstone River runs through the park and town en route to its confluence with the Missouri River.
Early Thursday, FWP received a report of a bear that had broken into a home just north of Gardiner. The bear was located in the Yellowstone River and shot.
Tests conducted after the carcass had been recovered confirmed that it was the problem bear.
FWP urges residents and motorists to secure food items and is working with property owners to upgrade garbage storage and install electric fencing.
Gardiner is no stranger to incursions by large critters. Elk commonly stroll through town and wolves have been known to hunt elk in the area.
Last spring, a wolf pack from Yellowstone National Park devoured a cow elk, leaving only partial remains, on the Gardiner School football field.
The wolves killed the elk after dark on April 11 and had vanished back into the park before dawn on April 12.
One of the West’s most prolific archeological sites is surprisingly accessible. Pictograph Cave State Park is right outside of Billings, Montana. It’s famous for pictographs inside caves and for a phenomenal dig in the 1930s that revealed more than 30,000 artifacts.
“That really put it on the map of archeology in the West,” said Richard Tooke, the park’s ranger/manager/chief cook and bottle washer.
The 23-acre park includes three caves and is located about seven miles south of Billings. At roughly 50,000 visitors per year, it’s one of the busiest parks in south-central Montana. But when I visited on a Monday morning in early June, there were only a few other folks around. Here’s what I saw there and what you can look forward to when you visit.
Photo by Teresa Bergen
Pictographs
So, what do the pictographs depict? It’s hard to say for a couple of reasons.
“At least 12 different Northern Plains Indigenous tribes were in and out of here,” said Tooke. Modern Indigenous people might not know what all the pictographs represent. And if they do, they might not want to share that intel with outsiders. Plus, the porous sandstone is not a permanent artistic medium. When people started studying the pictographs in the 1930s, artists recorded about 105 of them. Now it’s hard to see half that many, as rock layers slough off and minerals build up.
Tooke estimates that Montana has 650 to 700 known pictograph sites. Most are on private ranch lands or on remote public lands. “This is one of the few places where people can just get off the interstate and in ten minutes hike up to the cave and see rock art and kind of contemplate this history of these native people being there for thousands of years doing everything people do in life,” Tooke said. The rock art chronicles the lives of long-ago people. “Some of it’s about their spirituality, some of it is simply you know, a grocery list. A grouping of animals, perhaps. This is what you can find here when you hunt and gather.”
Photo by Teresa Bergen
In winter, warm air occasionally hits the super chilled rock just right, and additional pictographs become visible. On those days, “You can see 20 or 30 more pictographs than you can see on a drier surface,” Tooke said. The local Crow people call this place Alahpaláaxawaalaatuua, which means a place where there is spirit writing. Tooke said that many visitors still consider the park a place with “a heavy presence of spirits and energy.”
Photo by Teresa Bergen
I visited on a dry day where it was hard to identify all but the most obvious pictographs, such as a grouping of red rifles. I relied heavily on signage to help me find the pictographs on the cave wall.
Saved from confusion by the interpretive sign! / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Wildlife at Pictograph Cave State Park
Pictograph Cave State Park is also popular with migratory birds and other wildlife. The visitor center posts a list of about three dozen birds that have recently flown by, including the pinyon jay, northern flicker, Merriam turkey, and the hairy woodpecker.
Tooke told me about a mule deer who for several years running left her fawn on the floor of one of the caves while she went off to forage. “She was pretty smart about leaving her baby where the people would probably dissuade any big cat from coming through,” he said.
The park also has porcupines, coyotes, mule deer, bobcats, mountain lions, and five different types of snakes. Indeed, I was impressed by the most aggressive depiction of a rattlesnake I’ve ever seen on a park warning sign.
Photo by Teresa Bergen
Pictograph Cave State Park recreation and education
Visitors also come for recreation. Hikers enjoy a circular trail system, while cyclists like the park roads. Even bikers enjoy the region.
“There’s a lot of motorcycle rallies in the area, and those guys are always in and out,” Tooke said.
In addition to offering recreation opportunities, education is a big part of the park’s job. In the fall, many school groups visit. Montana’s Indian Education for All program requires school curricula to cover Indigenous people. A trip to see the pictographs is a fun way to learn. Astronomy clubs also like to bring their telescopes for night sky viewing events.
Photo by Teresa Bergen
Tooke is happy to lead the park’s conservation mission. He explains that he enjoys “taking care of these kind of roadside attractions that have historic cultural meaning and are part of our heritage as Montanans.” Tooke adds that Montanans “take pride in our state park systems and the place we live in.”
Pictograph Cave State Park is open year-round: seven days a week in summer, and five days a week the rest of the year.
There has been progress in the talks between the Wetzel family and the Commanders.
Earlier this year, there was excitement about the Washington Commanders and a potential return to the nation’s capital. The House of Representatives passed a bill granting the District a 99-year lease for the land where RFK Stadium sits.
The bill followed the recent goodwill between the organization and the city, which began when new owner Josh Harris purchased the team from Daniel Snyder last summer. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser went on record multiple times stating that the Commanders’ next stadium should be in D.C.
Harris and the team have options. Maryland — where the team currently plays its home games — wants to keep the team. In Virginia, where the team’s headquarters is located, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said the state is a “great place” for a new Commanders stadium.
While the Commanders haven’t tipped their hand on where they want to build a new stadium, the District would appear to be the preferred choice. Harris and minority owners Mitch Rales and Mark Ein all grew up in the Washington area, going to games at RFK Stadium as kids.
So, if the House approved this with rare bipartisan support, why isn’t this moving along?
As of now, it remains stuck in the Senate. Montana Sen. Steve Daines, the ranking member of the National Parks Subcommittee, has said he will continue to hold up the bill unless the Commanders find a way to honor the legacy of Walter “Blackie” Wetzel, who created the logo for the team’s former name that was retired in 2020.
According to A.J. Perez of Front Office Sports, Daines, the Commanders and the Wetzel family are continuing to work out a deal. Daines represents Montana, where the Wetzel family is from, and the Blackfeet tribe he was a member of is also based in Montana.
“We have been very pleased with the conversations we’ve had with the Commanders,” Ryan Wetzel, grandson of the late Wetzel, told Perez and Front Office Sports. “The three of us — meaning the Commanders, Daines’s office, and the Wetzel family — have made headway, and some steps being made that will please the D.C. community and the fan base.”
In his latest report on the story, Perez noted that one Senate aide said the bill is “unlikely to see any more action until after Thanksgiving.”
That’s good and bad. The Commanders have no known timeframe to make a deal, though the lease at Commanders Field is set to expire in 2027. The quicker this is resolved, the sooner Harris and his group can begin making plans for the team’s new home. The extra time also gives all three sides more chances to strike a deal in which everyone feels like they win.
That’s rare — almost as rare as any bill finding bipartisan support at all levels of the government.
Wetzel’s grandson made it clear that it’s not about the name; it’s about the logo his grandfather created, which was a “profile of pride for Native American communities.”
The man, who was not carrying bear spray, drew a handgun and fired five shots at the charging bear.
A Montana shed-antler hunter shot and killed an aggressive grizzly bear last week shortly after spotting the animal’s tracks.
According to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the incident occurred April 25 on private land near Wolf Creek, as the man searched for shed antlers with two dogs.
“After seeing a fresh grizzly bear track in a snow patch, he continued along his path and a few minutes later he first saw the bear standing near the top of the ridge about 20 yards away,” FPW explained in a news release.
“The bear dropped to all four legs and charged the man, who drew his handgun and fired five shots from distances about 30 feet to 10 feet, grazing the bear with a one shot and hitting and killing it with another shot.”
The man was not carrying bear spray.
The 12-year-old, 300-pound bear was a momma with a new cub. The cub was captured and will likely spend its life in a zoo.
Imagine sitting in traffic on your way to or back from work. Sure, being stuck behind a million cars is boring, but at least you know it’ll clear up soon, and you’ll be on your way. Unfortunately for a road full of commuters in Butte, Montana, that reassurance was lost when a runaway elephant escaped from a nearby traveling circus and ran wild in the street.
This cartoonish incident occurred on Tuesday, April 16. According to the BBC and local news reports, Butte Civic Center manager Bill Melvin claimed the elephant was loose for roughly 10 minutes before returning to its trailer.
Watch one witness’s amused account of the fiasco in the wild video below.
Note: The featured image is a stock photo used to illustrate the story.
Glacier National Park’s Avalanche Lake Trail is one of the best hikes in Montana. Some hikers may even consider it the best hike in America. Join us on a trek through the woods to see what makes Avalanche Lake so special.
Two key factors help determine a trail’s popularity: accessibility and scenery. Spectacular views draw people to a trail, and accessibility ensures that those visitors can actually enjoy exploring the trail. While few trails are accessible to all people, the Avalanche Lake hike’s moderate difficulty makes it manageable for a wide audience of hikers. Plus, the Trail of the Cedars section of the hike is accessible using off-road wheelchairs.
Now, let’s dive into the scenery you can look forward to during your Avalanche Lake hike. If you’re looking for crystal clear waters and breathtaking natural landscapes, you’re in luck. Here are seven photos showing off the best of Glacier National Park’s Avalanche Lake hike.
