viewed one way, the history of montana athletics has been the steady dumbing down of the competition. we went from the old pacifc coast conference (where we couldn't compete) to the old skyline conference (where we still couldn't compete) to the old big sky conference (where we could compete) to the new big sky conference sans idaho, nevada and boise state (where we dominate).
in football, we compete for a "national championship" but only after we've eliminated the top 115 teams in the country, and have dumbed down the schedule to farcial proportions by pitting one of our strongest teams ever against albany state and fort looie state. sub, indeed.
in men's basketball, our conference champion comes into the tournament with a sagarin rating of 167, while a steady slide in average home attendance from over 7000 to down around 4000 still leads a league in which bandbox gyms are the norm and only one other school, weber, has a facility worthy of a major college program. howard hughes will rise from his grave and sign autographs at the bellagio before the big sky ever gets two teams into the big dance.
all of which serves as the backdrop for the phenomonan that we know as the lady griz. much as i praised selvig's willingness to go out and play anybody in the country, i was frankly skeptical of his all-time record (35 wins against pac 10 teams, three against big ten teams including one in the ncaa tournament against wisconsin on their floor, and all-time series advantages over brigham young, colorado, gonzaga, iowa state, memphis, nevada, boise state, notre dame, oklahoma, rice, st. john's, san francisco, santa clara, syracuse, utah, utah state, washington state and wyoming, not to mention every team in the current big sky conference, including a 22-0 whitewash of sac state.
no, many of these victories, i felt, had come in an earlier era, before the big schools put money and promotional effort into their women's programs. by not recruiting black players, and relying on primarily home-grown white talent, i figured time had passed robin selvig by, that while his winning record would be acknowledged by a few historians somewhere, he'd mainly be remembered as one of the early-day pioneers of women's basketball that, like wayland baptist, just wasn't able to keep up once the big schools took the sport over.
was i ever...wrong!
not only does selvig have his team flirting with a top 25 rating, he's continued to do it his way, with largely in-state talent, and he's done it with an extremely young sophomore-dominated crew that wasn't even picked to win the big sky conference. as a further plus, the pipeline of incoming talent, both certain (dvera tolbert) and potential (jocelyn tinkle, ali hurley, cindy selvig) assures that selvig is going to go out as one of the top women's coaches of all-time. and not of division 2 or naia or sub-division this or that, but against the best the country has to offer.
not bad for a kid from outlook. and not bad at a school whose attitude seems to be, the worse the competition we can play, the better the chance to win and the happier we are.
selvig has proved it can be othewise for montana athletics, and i congratulate him for it.
in football, we compete for a "national championship" but only after we've eliminated the top 115 teams in the country, and have dumbed down the schedule to farcial proportions by pitting one of our strongest teams ever against albany state and fort looie state. sub, indeed.
in men's basketball, our conference champion comes into the tournament with a sagarin rating of 167, while a steady slide in average home attendance from over 7000 to down around 4000 still leads a league in which bandbox gyms are the norm and only one other school, weber, has a facility worthy of a major college program. howard hughes will rise from his grave and sign autographs at the bellagio before the big sky ever gets two teams into the big dance.
all of which serves as the backdrop for the phenomonan that we know as the lady griz. much as i praised selvig's willingness to go out and play anybody in the country, i was frankly skeptical of his all-time record (35 wins against pac 10 teams, three against big ten teams including one in the ncaa tournament against wisconsin on their floor, and all-time series advantages over brigham young, colorado, gonzaga, iowa state, memphis, nevada, boise state, notre dame, oklahoma, rice, st. john's, san francisco, santa clara, syracuse, utah, utah state, washington state and wyoming, not to mention every team in the current big sky conference, including a 22-0 whitewash of sac state.
no, many of these victories, i felt, had come in an earlier era, before the big schools put money and promotional effort into their women's programs. by not recruiting black players, and relying on primarily home-grown white talent, i figured time had passed robin selvig by, that while his winning record would be acknowledged by a few historians somewhere, he'd mainly be remembered as one of the early-day pioneers of women's basketball that, like wayland baptist, just wasn't able to keep up once the big schools took the sport over.
was i ever...wrong!
not only does selvig have his team flirting with a top 25 rating, he's continued to do it his way, with largely in-state talent, and he's done it with an extremely young sophomore-dominated crew that wasn't even picked to win the big sky conference. as a further plus, the pipeline of incoming talent, both certain (dvera tolbert) and potential (jocelyn tinkle, ali hurley, cindy selvig) assures that selvig is going to go out as one of the top women's coaches of all-time. and not of division 2 or naia or sub-division this or that, but against the best the country has to offer.
not bad for a kid from outlook. and not bad at a school whose attitude seems to be, the worse the competition we can play, the better the chance to win and the happier we are.
selvig has proved it can be othewise for montana athletics, and i congratulate him for it.
