SAN JOSE — Will Cherry has two rubber bracelets that he wears everywhere he goes.
One is orange with black lettering that says “Mack Family.” The other is black and says “Mack Alumni” in orange.
The Oakland native and senior point guard for Montana, which plays Syracuse on Thursday in the NCAA tournament at HP Pavilion, never forgets his McClymonds High roots.
“I always got these on me and I look down just to remind me where I came from,” said Cherry, who only takes off the bracelets about 10 minutes before each game.
Cherry is partly in a reflective mode this week. He’s close to his hometown for what will likely be the end of his collegiate career. The No. 13 seed Grizzlies are a heavy underdog against No. 4 Syracuse.
“It’s probably a million to one,” Cherry said of the odds outsiders are giving the Grizzlies to upset the Orange.
Part of him wishes his team was playing closer to Missoula, Mont., so more students and fans could watch them play. But he’s also thrilled to cap his career in front of family and friends.
“All my family and friends and people from high school are coming out,” Cherry said. “Everybody’s been sending me texts and showing their support and calling me and making sure I’ve got my head on straight.”
Cherry’s decision to come to Montana was at one time a point of contention between he and high school coach Dwight Nathaniel. Nathaniel, better known as “Coach Moe,” thought Cherry should wait for a better offer to come along when Cherry committed to the Grizzlies before his senior season at McClymonds.
“I told him, ‘If I was you, the type of year your going to have, I’d wait and commit in February’,” Nathaniel said.
For Cherry, the Montana offer was on the table and he didn’t want to have it pass him by. Three trips to the NCAA tournament in four years later, Cherry can certainly feel good about his choice.
“Coach Moe said, ‘You can tell me to shut up now because it worked out in the end’,” Cherry said. “Obviously Coach Moe had such high expectations for me and thought I could’ve went much higher, but Coach Moe was there every step of the way to make sure I was making the right decisions for me.”
Success has always seemed to follow Cherry. Montana’s reached the Big Sky Conference title game each of his four years — winning three times — and his high school teams went to three straight state title games. That includes the 32-0 season in 2008 in which McClymonds won the Division I state title.
“That damn Will Cherry don’t do nothing but win championships,” Nathaniel said.
There’s a closeness associated with people at McClymonds, hence the Mack Family bracelet. But there’s also a competitiveness.
Last summer before they returned to their respective schools, Nathaniel had dinner with Cherry and other McClymonds alumni, including Weber State’s Frank Otis.
Montana and Weber State figured to be the top two teams in the Big Sky (they had met in last season’s conference finals and ended up meeting again this season). Cherry and Otis starting talking a little trash.
“It started as a playful argument, but then it got serious about who was going to win,” Nathaniel said.
“From my end, this year wasn’t going to be no different than last year,” Cherry said, referencing his team’s 2012 championship.
“(Otis) was saying ‘Nah, I’m healthy now and some things are going to change.’ We were just critiquing each other’s teams and talking trash and making sure we keep it competitive. … After that dinner, it got a little heated but we still kept eating and talking and going about our business. But I got the bragging rights forever now and that’s something I can hold over his head all the time.”
Follow Jimmy Durkin at Twitter.com/Jimmy_Durkin.
