Men's Basketball
Steve Keller begins his first year as head men's basketball coach. Keller is a 1974 graduate of Custer High School of Custer, MT and a 1978 graduate of Rocky Mountain College. He received his Masters from Northern Montana College in 1993.
His coaching career began in Opheim, MT where coached for seven years before beginning a 19 year career at Helena High School where he coached both the boys and girls programs. Keller coached teams competed in 12 state championship games, winning six titles. His overall varsity coaching record was 610-180, He was inducted into the Montana Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2005. Keller has spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach at Carroll College. Two of those seasons they qualified for the National Tournament and made the Fab Four and Elite Eight.
Steve is the father of two sons Wes and Josh and one daughter Shandi. Both Wes and Josh played basketball at Montana Western. Wes is currently an assistant basketball coach at Rocky Mountain College and Josh is in private business and resides in Dillon. Shandi is in the Army and is a Black Hawk helicopter pilot stationed in Korea.
Assistant Coach Craig Finberg
683-7300 or cfinberg@bchsmt.com
Craig Finberg begins his second year as an assistant in the men’s program. Finberg is no stranger to Bulldog basketball. After a very successful playing career at Montana State University, he worked as an assistant to the legendary Bulldog coach Casey Keltz while completing his education degree at Western Montana College (now University of Montana Western).
After his retirement from coaching at Dillon's Beaverhead County High School, he returned to the Bulldog bench to assist Mark Durham for one season. Finberg left the coaching world to pursue his Master’s Degree. With his Master’s program nearly complete, Finberg returns to coaching as an assistant on Keller’s staff.
A native of Columbia Falls, Montana, Finberg earned All-Conference and All-State honors as a Wildcat. He played at Montana State University. Finberg's entire career was something of a running highlight reel. He scored 1,473 points in his Bobcat career, seventh-most in school history, but is also among the school's all-time leaders in field goals, shots, free throws, free throw attempts, and free throw percentage. Most Impressively, Finberg is second in school history in assists.
Finberg began his head-coaching career at Dillon's Beaverhead County High School. In his 18-year career at BCHS, Finberg became the most successful coach in school history. He posted a 281-160 overall record including state championships in 1990 and 1999. The 1990 title was the first state title of any kind for the school since 1946.
Finberg continues to teach at Beaverhead County High School. His wife Tammy is a cosmetologist in Dillon.
Assistant Coach Chase Tait
683-7300 or c_tait@umwestern.edu
Chase Tait begins his first year on the Bulldog staff. He is a 1988 graduate of Polson High School and a 1992 graduate of Montana State-Bozeman. While still in college, Tait was an assistant girls basketball coach at Bozeman Senior High School.
He was the assistant boys coach at Fairfield High School at Fairfield, Mont. from 1993-1997 and the head coach from 1997-2002. Tait served as the head girls coach at Fairfield from 1994-2002.Tait's Fairfield girls team was the State 'B' runner-up in 1994-1995. He was nominated for MCA Coach of the Year.
Tait coached collegiately at Montana Tech from 2002-2006 where he was the assistant varsity coach and head j.v. coach. He was the head girl's coach at Huntley Project High School from 2006-2007.
Assistant Coach Matt Luedtke
683-7300 or m_luedtke@umwestern.edu
Matt Luedtke begins his first year as an assistant on the Bulldog staff. He will also serve as head jv coach. Luedtke is a 2000 graduate of Ronan High School of Ronan, Mont. Luedtke was Montana's Gatorade Player of the Year, the Associated Press Player of the Year and was selected to play in the Montana-Wyoming All-Star game. He transferred to Montana Western from Colorado School of Mines. As a Bulldog, he earned first team All-Conference honors and was the league's scoring champion. He played professionally for the Jacksonville Jam, the San Jose Skyrockets and for the Butte Daredevils. He was the first player signed by the Daredevils. He and his wife Kristen are the parents of Maddy and Hudson.
Colby Blaine is in his first season as a Student Assistant. He is 2005 graduate of Boise High School of Boise Idaho. Blaine transferred to Montana Western from Blue Mountain Community College. He is a junior, social science major. Blaine is the son of Rob Blaine.
