Dan Hughes enjoys watching ex-player Tricia Binford coach Montana State Bobcats at NCAA Tournament

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Dan Hughes sat at the scorer’s table in an orange WNBA hoodie, watching his former pupil hone her craft.

Hughes was at Value City Arena on Thursday for the Montana State women’s basketball team’s practice on the eve of its NCAA Tournament game against Ohio State. Hughes coached basketball for more than 40 years, finishing a 20-plus-year WNBA career in 2021. The two-time WNBA champion and coach of the year was the head coach of the Cleveland Rockers from 2000 until 2003, when the franchise folded. MSU head coach Tricia Binford played for the Rockers from 1999-2002.

Hughes now lives in Beavercreek, Ohio, about a one-hour drive away from Columbus. When Binford saw her 13th-seeded Bobcats would be playing at fourth-seeded Ohio State, her “first reaction” was to text Hughes and see if he and his wife Mary could attend Friday’s NCAA Tournament game, Binford said.

Hughes made two trips to and from Beavercreek to see Binford and her team. The couple days in Columbus, culminating in a 71-51 MSU loss Friday, was among multiple times Binford and Hughes spent together over the past year.

“It's been really fun to kind of pick his brain as he's watched our team over the course of the season and be able to come here right in his backyard… and also my second backyard,” Binford said during her press conference Thursday. “It’s been great to be here.”

Hughes — who now works for a software company, does consulting and assists the United States women’s national team — visited Bozeman last summer to do a self scout and give other feedback to the Cats. He also traveled to Boise, Idaho, last week for MSU’s Big Sky Conference tournament championship run. He made the Boise trip because he wanted to see Binford and her team in person this season. He didn’t know she’d end up in his backyard a week later.

“I just have enjoyed watching her journey as a head coach because I was there at the very beginning,” Hughes said Thursday.

After playing for Hughes in Cleveland, Binford began her coaching career at her alma mater Boise State in 1999 and became MSU’s head coach in 2005. MSU’s athletic director at the time was Peter Fields, who was the AD at Toledo when Hughes was an assistant coach there in the 1990s.

Hughes called Binford “one of the best defensive coaches I’ve ever come across.” MSU finished the 2024-25 season leading Division I in steals per game (14.4) and set a program record for fewest points allowed per game (55.9).

“She turns them into a team through her recruiting and through her culture,” Hughes said. “They play so hard, and they tend to play for each other in ways that — I watch a tremendous amount of basketball — I don't see happen very often.”

Binford also asks some of the most thoughtful questions of anybody Hughes interacts with, he said, and he respects that she’s secure enough in her coaching ability to not take every piece of advice he gives.

During Hughes’ summer visit to Bozeman, Binford expressed her expectations about her 2024-25 roster.

“The excitement she had about this team was real,” Hughes said. “She felt like this could be a special team.”

The Cats went on to become the first Big Sky women’s team to win 30 games in a season, and Friday’s loss was their fourth all winter. Only one Big Sky team (Sacramento State) beat them.

It nearly became two last week, when rival Montana built a 15-3 lead and went up by one point with 7.9 seconds left in the Big Sky tournament title game. Marah Dykstra beat the buzzer on the next possession to send MSU to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2022.

“I was hoarse after the game,” Hughes said. “I haven't been hoarse for three or four years, since I stopped coaching.”

Hughes sent several texts to his wife during MSU’s league championship victory. One of the things he texted Mary was that MSU point guard and Big Sky MVP Esmeralda Morales needed to seek the ball more.

“‘She's got to demand the ball, Mary.’ I'm texting that to my wife,” he said with a laugh. “I was into the game.”

Hughes liked what he saw from the Cats in Friday’s March Madness game, especially in the first quarter that ended tied and when they built a four-point lead midway through the second.

“Watching the toughness and how hard they played in the face of going against a very athletic team was very impressive,” he said.

The 5-foot-5 Morales, who finished with a game-high 20 points against OSU, reminds Hughes of former WNBA all-star Becky Hammon. The 5-6 guard played for Hughes with the San Antonio Stars from 2007-14 and is currently the head coach of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces.

Morales’ game is also similar to Binford’s, although Binford was probably a little quicker, Hughes said. Binford was a great teammate and a tireless worker, he added, traits that have translated well to coaching. She won her fourth Big Sky coach of the year honor this year and made her third NCAA Tournament trip with the Cats.

“Trish is so good at what she does,” Hughes said. “It's like having a great player on your team. You make them aware you're there if needed, but the great ones just take care of business.”

As he talked to 406 MT Sports after Friday’s game, his phone rang. The call came from Binford, who wondered where he was. He told her he was nearby, hung up and provided some parting thoughts. It felt full circle to see a former player become “great at their craft,” he said, and perform on the biggest stage.

“It’s priceless,” he added.

Hughes, clad in a navy blue Cleveland Rockers jacket, then left to see Binford one more time in the state where their decades-long bond began.