Montana
Patience paid off as Aanen Moody leaves lasting legacy with Montana Grizzlies
MISSOULA — Few players have become the fan favorite that Aanen Moody has with the Montana Grizzlies.
Now, as the seventh-year senior gets set to wrap up his final days as a Grizzly, he’s been appreciative of the opportunity offered to him by Montana, something he’d been looking for his entire career.
“I’m kind of a showman,” Moody said. “And I like to perform a little bit. So I think that when the crowd really got into the games, I think that it just gave me an extra burst. And, you know, I think that that helped a lot.
“I think that in basketball, you know, the fans show up because they want to be entertained, and part of being entertained, is having fun. And I think that if they see somebody on the court having fun, then that energy is going to be reciprocated through the fans.”
Moody, a native of Dickinson, N.D., began his career at the University of North Dakota and then Southern Utah, where he saw positives, but often was tasked with waiting his turn.
Those stops helped him stay humble and prepared him for the explosion of success at Montana.
“I think the path that I’ve taken is obviously not the path of least resistance. I’ve played behind a lot of good players and have been able to develop my game in ways that I need to impact the game more than just by my scoring,” Moody said.
“And so I think that all of those years of sitting behind guys who I may have been better than but sitting in these positions of coming off the bench had made me the player that I am today.”
That player today is the 3-point marksman who broke out a season ago for the Griz as an all-conference talent in his first major opportunity.
In just two seasons at UM he’s scored 949 points already for the Griz — he has 1,631 for his career — as Moody, who has started in all 58 games he’s played at UM, has provided a spark with his offense and his ability to engage the crowd. But this year it’s been about expanding that impact with the rest of the team.
“If one guy’s getting hot, you know, we have this thing called consideration of the game, and people are gonna find you,” Moody said. “So I’m the type of player where, you know, I might miss a couple, but then I might make a couple. And then when that happens, you know, I need the ball.
“And so I have teammates that have really good consideration for me, and I have good consideration for them. So I think that’s why we fit along with the coaching staff and just giving me the freedom and the green light. It’s something that I never got before.
“I think that, because of my journey, I don’t have a sense of entitlement. I think I have a sense of gratefulness for being in the position that I’m at. And, you know, I think it just all aligned perfectly where, last year, I was able to break out and have a good individual season. But now in my last year, I really just want to win. And so now we have an opportunity with a great team and a great record going into Boise to finally get a championship and be a big role in that championship. I think I’m in the best position that I could be right now.”
Moody hasn’t been your average college athlete as a father of two sons and late bloomer in basketball, but his life off the court has been an inspiration to his abilities on it.
“I think it just makes me levelheaded and makes me a better leader,” Moody said. “You know, it’s a lot easier to lead a basketball team than it is to lead a family, especially when it comes to kids. So I think that has just grown my personality, and obviously given me a different perspective on life and in the game that I never had before.
“On the court, I think that I give a lot of energy. But off the court, I think my biggest component of, of an asset is just the wisdom that I have from having a family and being able to lead it.
Moody has a degree in exercise science and also an MBA. He hopes to work with people in the future, such as training or even chiropractic school among options he’s considered.
It’s been a long, winding college journey for Moody, who has been appreciative and grateful along the way as well as for those alongside him, as he hopes to cap off his career with a Big Sky tournament title and a trip to the NCAA tournament before it’s all said and done.
“It’s changed the trajectory of my life forever,” Moody said. “The people that you meet, just the connections that you make the relationships, I’m starting to realize that those are actually the most important part of my process. But it’d be nice to get a championship as well.
“Best time of my life. You know, definitely it’s my home now. It’s where my family is going to be for, you know, many years. So we don’t plan on leaving. I’m gonna be a Griz forever. So yeah, it’s home.”
Montana
Montana Lottery Mega Millions, Big Sky Bonus results for July 7, 2026
The Montana Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at July 7, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Mega Millions numbers from July 7 drawing
02-31-35-36-63, Mega Ball: 12
Check Mega Millions payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Big Sky Bonus numbers from July 7 drawing
09-21-24-29, Bonus: 15
Check Big Sky Bonus payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from July 7 drawing
27-43-48-49-50, Bonus: 02
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
When are the Montana Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 9 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky For Life: 8:38 p.m. MT daily.
- Lotto America: 9 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Big Sky Bonus: 7:30 p.m. MT daily.
- Powerball Double Play: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Montana Cash: 8 p.m. MT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 9:15 p.m. MT daily.
Missed a draw? Peek at the past week’s winning numbers.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Great Falls Tribune editor. You can send feedback using this form.
Montana
Surreal trail-cam footage shows giant, ‘big-headed’ grizzly bear
One characteristic that distinguishes male grizzly bears from female grizzly bears is a larger head.
With that in mind, check out the grizzly bear featured this week on the Mission Valley Montana Grizz Cam Facebook page. (Photo and video posted below; view Instagram version here.)
The imagery, captured after dusk on July 3, shows a large grizzly bear pausing and sniffing in front of the camera before exiting the frame. Several followers commented on the beauty of the the striking bruin.
“Absolutely MAGNIFICENT!” one person exclaimed.
ALSO: Bison fight on Yellowstone road reveals raw power of iconic beasts
But others remarked about the size and shape of the grizzly bear’s head, and the appearance of thicker fur on its shoulders.
This, along with the gray lighting, lends a surreal quality to the footage. (Click here if video player doesn’t appear below.)
“No doubt that’s a big-headed male griz,” one follower remarked. “It looks like he picked up some scent left at the camera site and moved off!”
“Look at that head! YEOW!” another follower exclaimed. “What an amazing critter.”
The folks behind Mission Valley Montana Grizz Cam use motion-sensor cameras in different locations to capture footage of grizzly bears in Mission Valley, in northwestern Montana.
The Grizz Cam website states: “In 2015 we started seeing a lot of Grizzly Bears on our property so we decided that setting up some trail cameras might lead to some interesting footage and give us insight.
“Several cameras were put in various locations, and we came to realize there were more bears than any of us had anticipated.”
While many Grizz Cam clips look similar, and some feature brilliant daytime colors and audio, this post stands out because of the unique appearance of the bear.
As one follower stated, “That’s a bad boy there.”
Montana
The Record is Clear: The Wilderness Society, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, and Montana Wilderness Association have Consistently Undermined the Roadless Rule
Beartooth Range, Montana. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.
The Wilderness Society, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, and the Montana Wilderness Association, now rebranded “Wild Montana,” all claim they support the Roadless Rule and have been asking people for donations to oppose efforts to repeal it. But a review of the record shows that these “conservation” groups have supported opening 1,585,000 acres or Roadless and Wilderness Study Areas to logging and road building since the roadless rule went into effect in 2001.
Tracy Stone-Manning, now the President of The Wilderness Society, has been widely quoted as supporting the Roadless Rule. But while working as a top environmental advisor for former Montana Senator Jon Tester, she strongly supported his 2009 Forest Jobs and Recreation Act. The Montana Wilderness Association, now doing business as Wild Montana, was also one of the main cheerleaders for Tester’s bill
Although the bill never passed, it would have opened one million acres of roadless lands in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest in southwest Montana and mandated logging 10,000 acres per year for 10 years in the Beaverhead and Kootenai National Forests. The Kootenai contains the smallest, most threatened grizzly population in the world in the Cabinet-Yaak. Since most grizzly bears are killed within 1/3 of a mile of a road, more logging means more logging roads would be bulldozed into grizzly habitat, resulting in more dead grizzly bears. The measure was so extreme even the Forest Service opposed it.
The groups also strongly supported former Montana Senator Max Baucus’ Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act, passed as a rider on the 2014 defense spending bill. The measure opened 208,000 acres of roadless lands to logging and road-building and guaranteed grazing in perpetuity with no environmental analysis or public review. The pitiful 67,000 acres of wilderness tack-ons also required the sacrifice of four Wilderness Study Areas in Eastern Montana, opening 29,000 acres to oil and gas exploration and development.
Then came Tester’s 2017 Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act that carved up 50,000 acres of an Inventoried Roadless Areas contiguous to the Scapegoat and Bob Marshall Wilderness Areas. The measure also allowed loggers to decide where to build roads and designated 5,000 acres as a play area for snowmobiles and mountain bikes.
The bill didn’t even make it out of committee, but now these same groups have renamed it “A River Runs Through It Act” — although there is no sponsor and no “act.” In addition to the roadless lands Tester’s bill would have destroyed, it turns over management of 70,000 acres in grizzly, lynx and wolverine habitat in the Ogden Mountain Roadless Area northwest of Lincoln Montana to the timber industry. It also converts 130,000 acres of Inventoried Roadless Areas into play areas for motorized recreation and mountain bikers.
The clearcutting, bulldozing new logging roads, and motorized recreation in roadless areas will send tons of sediment into the Blackfoot River which has been designated critical habitat for bull trout, a threatened species. It should be called “A Clearcut Runs Through It Act.”
Finally, all three groups support the Greater Yellowstone Conservation And Recreation proposal. There is no sponsor and no bill, but the proposal opens much of the Lee Metcalf Wilderness Study Area and other Inventoried Roadless Areas to motorized recreation, logging and road building. While adding only 102,000 acres as wilderness — less than half of the 250,000 acres that qualify for wilderness designation — it also significantly reduces the 155,000 acre Hyalite-Porcupine-Buffalo Horn Wilderness Study Area by 53,000 acres.
Don’t fall for the con. The record is clear: these groups have supported reducing, not protecting Inventoried Roadless Areas in the past and are doing so now.
Please consider helping us get the only bill before Congress that would designate all 23 million acres of roadless in the Northern Rockies designated as wilderness, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act. Please also consider donating to Counterpunch to help them continue exposing hypocrites.
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