Unless we create a legacy coach like Bobby Hauck, Robin Selvig or Shannon Schweyen, the great Montana coaching tree will continue to sprout branch after branch. Simply: Any coach as ambitious as a DeCuire cannot achieve his ambitions given the albatross of the Big Sky Conference.
Sure, this conference is great for football--a "major" conference among smaller schools vying fora a lower-division national championship. But in basketball, you're not competing against lower division schools; you're up against the best of the best. And for that, the Big Sky conference is atrocious. Small markets. No TV. Brutal travel. Facilities that except for Weber State (thank you, Weber State!) are atrocious, barely up to high school standards. An inability to schedule home games against major competition. And, finally...
...one team only to the Big Dance. Just remember, as proud of we are of our Griz this season--undefeated, three games ahead in the conference race--it really means n-o-t-h-i-n-g. We are playing only for a high seed in the conference tournament, and one loss there, one off night (especially against a team we've already defeated twice, which often happens), and the season is a bust. Just ask the Warriors, who set the regular season record for wins, only to lose to the Cavs in the finals. The 73 wins meant NOTHING.
If we were in the Mountain West, these are the teams that would come calling every year: UNLV, New Mexico, San Diego State, Colorado State, Wyoming, Utah State, Boise State. How much fun would that be for our fan base? How challenging would that be for a coach of DeCuire's ambitions?
But years ago, when we might have jumped to the WAC (which would have led to the Mountain West), we made our bed instead with the Big Sky conference. We decided to sleep with football rather than basketball.
So be it.
