The Big Sky has reaped plenty instant impact rewards in this new era of college basketball recruiting. In recent years they’ve reeled in some of the most game ready non-D1 transfers. Just a few that come to mind are Quinn Denker (Cal State San Marcos), Kai Johnson (Western Washington) and Cedric Coward (Williamette Univ.).
These guys and others are transferring up from Division II or even Division III and are giving their new teams instant production in the Big Sky. It’s a new part of the recruiting game. Recruits not only come from the high school or junior college ranks. They also come from professional teams overseas and the lower tiers of the NCAA and even the NAIA, all at a higher rate than we’ve seen before.
Weber State has also jumped on this trend. Bringing in 2024-2025 First Team All-Big Sky selection Blaise Threatt from nearby Colorado Mesa in the RMAC just a few seasons ago. Threatt ran out of eligibility and, in doing so, left a gaping hole in the Wildcats’ roster that needed to be addressed immediately once the offseason began.
It didn’t take long for head coach Eric Duft and company to find their guy, but there was plenty of competition from coaching staffs who also thought they hit a similar jackpot in the portal.
The latest and greatest of those elevated stars this is season is Weber State’s Tijan Saine Jr., who made the jump to Division I after two seasons at Western Washington in the GNAC. Now, as a junior, he’s leading the Wildcats to a potential top-five finish in the Big Sky. But this success hasn’t come overnight, the former Division-II walk-on continues to put his trust in himself and the right people.
In a world where we hear about players reduced to statistics of guys who hit the portal & were never picked up, effectively ending their college careers, Saine was expecting a slow start. That wasn’t the case for the then-sophomore guard, who told the Cascadia Daily last March, “I’m getting a lot more attention than I thought I would. I’ve had 40 (NCAA Division I) schools reach out. My first four days I was in the portal, I probably had 75 calls.”
It was a big relief, as the Everett, Washington, native was unsure if he was ready to make the jump, even after a stellar freshman year. His sophomore campaign was even more impressive, where Saine averaged 17.3 PPG, 4.0 APG, 2.8 RPG, and 1.3 SPG while shooting 46.5% from the floor overall, 39.6% from deep, and 89.8% from the free throw line.
Saine considers two key moments from his last season at Western Washington that helped convince him he was ready to take his game to D-I. The first was a clutch buzzer-beater against a top-25-ranked Saint Martin’s University, where he sliced through the defense and let the ball go for a beautiful last-second floater.
Second was an away game at Western Oregon, where Saine dropped a career high 37 points.
“The winner against Saint Martin’s for sure,” Saine told Chayton Engelson of the Front. “When I had 37 against West Oregon, probably [put me] over the edge.”
Ultimately, with a supportive coaching staff led by Tony Dominguez, the confidence was being built.
“If it were my own son, and he had an opportunity to go somewhere and get $100,000 playing in that environment, and go to the NCAA Tournament, all that stuff, why would I not want that for him? So, I tell him the truth,” Dominguez told the Standard-Examiner in Ogden.
Saine chose Weber State over other finalists Chattanooga, Northern Kentucky, Texas State, UTRGV and Missouri State. With a special connection with Duft, repeatedly credited as to why he chose Ogden as his next home.
“No head coach ever sent me that much love in the recruiting process, so I knew this was serious,” Saine said to Brett Hein of the Standard-Examiner.
His impact at Weber State wasn’t immediate. Through Saine’s first 10 games, he struggled a tad, averaging 10.8 PPG, 4.2 APG, 2.6 RPG, and 2.1 turnovers a game. Those were solid numbers for a guy making the jump to a more physical and cerebral level of the sport. But maybe the easiest area of his game to critique at the time was his 3-point shooting, which stood at just 20.6% from deep.
“We’ve had a conversation with him that Kellen McCoy was Big Sky MVP, and he was really bad his first semester here. And part of it, to be quite honest with you, Tijan, he’s got to buy into how we’re going to do it,” Duft told the Standard-Examiner. “He’s a great kid, but we’re going to demand of him — he’s going to have to buy into those things that impact winning. And it’s not just scoring and assists. It’s how he defends, how he gets back in transition, how he leads, his body language. And him and I are having some confrontations with that, and he’s got to buy into it. And we’re not changing.”
The former GNAC Freshman of the Year doesn’t shy away from a challenge, especially when he has the right people standing in his corner.
“I shifted my mindset … I was a little timid in the beginning, but I’m here for a reason, right?” he said. “All of them, telling me ‘Do my thing.’ Especially coach (Jorge) Ruiz is telling me, ‘Do my thing.’ Because they believe in me, so why not believe in myself? I was just finding my stride, and I feel like I’m getting it together.”
The Wildcats’ backcourt was also one of the strengths of the roster coming into the season. With a combination of youthful potential, coupled with journeyman experience. Enter the injury bug, which essentially took a crowded backcourt and sidelined sophomore guard and fellow Washingtonian Trevor Hennig and graduate transfer Jace Whiting.
Both players would miss significant time in the coming weeks, with Hennig making his first appearance back just last week against Idaho on Feb. 12, only to miss Saturday again against Eastern Washington.
While others may have become content with the situation, down a pair of starters at a key point of the season, they’d fold. Not Saine, he’s stepped up. Averaging an increased 37.4 MPG, increasing his field goal attempts a game to 15.4, and scoring in bunches. As he’s scored at least 20 points in seven consecutive games while leading his team in scoring for the last 10 — a feat that hasn’t been duplicated since Jerrick Harding in the 2017-2018 season.
Saine is third in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio and fifth in assists. He is also second in the conference and 27th in the nation in free-throw percentage at 89.4 percent, which is currently the third best in WSU single-season history. He also leads the Big Sky in scoring in conference games at 21.8 PPG. To sum up the numbers, Coach Duft’s early involvement in Saine’s recruitment is providing a great return on investment.
As Weber State continues to battle for quality positioning in the final Big Sky standings in a few weeks. Saine appears to be developing his clutch genes at just the right time.
In a one bid league like the Big Sky, it’s not over until the rotund lady sings. Any seed can walk into Idaho Central Arena next month and punch their ticket to the Big Dance. I mean Montana State did it just a few years ago, during the 2023-2024 season. During Matt Logie’s first season in Bozeman, the Bobcats entered the tourney as the No. 5 seed and marched straight into the title game. Topping No. 3 Seed and in-state rivals Montana 85-70.
Coincidentally, Montana State are the Wildcats’ next test. Another chance to take a stab at the top-half of the conference standings and another chance for Saine to prove he’s right where he needs to be.
Larry Muniz is a Mountain West Basketball beat writer for Couch Potato Sports along with West Coast mid-major coverage at Mid-Major Madness.
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