Pack basketball: Bobcats coach travels off the beaten path
STEVE SNEDDON
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Posted: 12/6/2007
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PROVIDED TO THE RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Montana State coach Brad Huse brings his team to Lawlor Events Center to face Nevada at 7:35 p.m. Saturday.
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Wolf pack Basketball
WHO: Montana State (4-3) vs. Nevada (2-4).
WHEN: Saturday at 7:35 p.m.
WHERE: Lawlor Events Center (11,536)
TV/RADIO: None/ 630 AM (7 p.m.)
TICKETS: Advance purchase adult $21, $19 and $15 with youth and senior discounts. Game day prices, $24, $22 and $18 with no discounts.
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He took the less traveled road to being a Division I head coach.
Along the way, Brad Huse beat cancer.
He's in his second season at Montana State, which faces Nevada at Lawlor Events Center on Saturday night. When Montana State tapped him as its 21st basketball coach, the Bobcats found him in a place they wouldn't normally look for a coach.
He was an assistant coach for the rival Montana Grizzlies. Huse, a native of Missoula, where Montana is located, played basketball at Montana Tech in Butte, but both his father and brother had played football at Montana.
Perhaps the only saving grace for Huse was that he also had been an assistant coach at Montana State from 1994-96.
"For me being a native of Montana, it was a goal to coach at one of these state schools," Huse said. "I was fortunate enough to be an assistant at both. Now, to be the head coach here is really a great opportunity for a guy like me. We're really trying to make the most out of the opportunity we have here. I don't know if it's the normal career path to take to find yourself in this chair by any means.
"Nonetheless, our administration made it a point from the beginning of that search that they just wanted to get the right person for that position and it didn't matter where he came from. I felt very fortunate to get this based on the background. At the same time, I knew my background fit. I knew a lot of the people around the (Bozeman) area, but at the same time it was a new administration here and I think they needed to feel my heart is in the right place and there is no question it is."
Huse, 41, has made early strides with the Bobcats this season. They're 4-3 with home wins over Long Beach State, Boise State, Alcorn State and Pepperdine with losses at UNLV, Fresno State and UC Santa Barbara.
In his first season, Montana State took its lumps early, but finished strongly to go 8-8 in the Big Sky Conference (11-19 overall) to tie for fifth place after being picked eighth in the coaches' preseason poll.
Huse is a guy who gives the feeling he knows where's heading. But when he was the head coach at Jamestown (N.D.) College, there was initial uncertainty when he was diagnosed with lymphoma and underwent chemotherapy treatments.
"The kind of cancer I had, the three-year mark was really the critical year," Huse said. "Fortunately, I passed that with flying colors and I've been informed that things look real positive. I had a lymphoma. From what the doctors have told me, and I've had a couple of different doctors tell me, that type I had almost never comes back at this point. It still keeps things in perspective for me.
"It changed some things in my life and priorities. Certainly, I'm career driven and still am. At the same time I'm not taking anything for granted, my kids, my family by any stretch, and they come first, more so than ever. In a lot of ways I feel fortunate that I had a chance to experience it. It certainly didn't feel like it at the time, but looking back and saying what did I gain by having gone through that is a perspective a lot of people never have an opportunity to experience."
Huse continued to coach through his treatments and didn't miss a game at Jamestown, where he had an eight-year record of 184-60.
He left Jamestown to join Larry Krystkowiak's staff at Montana as an assistant before the 2004-05 season. When Huse was on the staff, the Grizzlies stunned Nevada, 87-79, in an NCAA Tournament first round game at Salt Lake City in the 2005-06 season. Krystkowiak coaches the Milwaukee Bucks now.
Huse has carved out his own coaching style.
"Coach Huse is a great coach," Bobcat senior guard Carlos Taylor said. "He's a coach who's going to push you and he's going to demand a lot.
"But he's pushing you for the right reason. He's not pushing you for any personal benefit. He pushes you in a way that you always believe that you can get better. I think that keeps players hungry."
Right now, the Bobcats' emphasis as a team is on getting their first road win this season.
"We fell behind early in all of our road games, but we were able to find a way to get in position to make a run," Huse said. "We weren't able to get over the hump in any of them, but at the same time we were able to be competitive.
"I like the direction we're heading. You still don't know that end point and what's going to happen when get there. But I like the direction we're going and guys playing the right way. They believe in each other."
