Grizbacker1
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Column: Why us? Why not us?
By JEFF WELSCH Chronicle Sports Editor
A gifted high school basketball player from Arizona commits early to Montana State, so of course the natural reaction among too many here is ... why?
Why would a kid with overtures from Pacific-10 and Big Ten conference schools opt for the backwaters of the Big Sky? Why leave the sun and fun for unending bitter cold and such exotic winter locales as Ogden, Cheney and Pocatello? Why a so-called cow college when such cerebral bastions as Northwestern, Rice, Stanford and, er, Arizona State (or, as we humble alums prefer to call it, The Harvard of the West) are in hot pursuit?
To which I say ... why not?
I'm going to go out on a limb here and presume that Tyler Miller's decision to matriculate north was probably not influenced by promises of a brand-new rig from a Bobcat-boosting Hummer dealer, a lifetime membership to the Yellowstone Club and four years of Paris Hilton companionship.
Indeed, it's quite possible that a 6-foot-6 guard ranked among the top 200 players in the country might, just might, see Bozeman as an appealing four-year destination instead of a bleak December road trip.
Really now, isn't it time to shake the cow-town, middle-of-nowhere, Unabomber-cultivating, shipped-to-the-FBI-office-in-Butte inferiority complex that's long permeated the state's consciousness?
Hey, take a look around.
Artists, entrepreneurs, business types, writers, filmmakers, college professors and just plain ol' regular folk like your friendly neighborhood sports editor have scrutinized the fruited plain and decided, with apologies to Brigham Young, that this is the place.
It's a choice, not a sentence.
We are not Great Falls.
And MSU's athletic department needn't remain on a time-warp island in the Gallatin, isolated from the burgeoning prosperity.
What, for instance, is to keep MSU from becoming the next Gonzaga in basketball?
Yeah, the Bobcats' facilities need serious upgrading, but it wasn't so long ago that Gonzaga was invisible even in Spokane, a quaint private college with a cozy gym called "The Kennel" where mostly only students, faculty and a few diehards cared.
The Zags dared to dream, and now they're playing to sellouts in a breathtakingly beautiful on-campus arena.
Less than 50 years ago, Boise State was a junior college, and 27 years ago, it won a Division I-AA football title.
The Broncos dared to dream, and last season they won the Fiesta Bowl.
In the early '80s, Montana played in a rickety football stadium that looked more like the rodeo grounds in Malta.
The Grizzlies dared to dream, and now they're playing in the prettiest small-college stadium in American, with a realistic eye on loftier reaches.
The Bobcats have taken some baby steps in that direction.
Men's basketball coach Brad Huse not only has quickly proven he has an eye for talent and the acumen to build a winner, his history suggests he's not a vagabond always looking, Larry Brown-like, for the next best thing.
Ditto for new football coach Rob Ash, who stayed 18 years at Drake.
All it takes now, as it did for Gonzaga (Matt Santangelo), Boise State (Ryan Dinwiddie) and Montana (Dave Dickenson), is for that one or two players - say, a Tyler Miller - to eschew so-called major programs, to help push MSU through that pyschological ceiling and get this ball rolling.
Of course, Miller can't make his decision official until he signs a binding letter of intent in November 2008.
As with any teen-ager, a change of heart wouldn't stop the presses, even as he insists his love of the outdoors, desire for an engineering degree, family connections and eagerness to make a noteworthy impact on a program won't wane between now and then.
The glass-half-empty set can't imagine that he'll follow through.
Here's hoping this Great Decider really does stay the course.
Maybe then, as more of the best and the brightest decide that MSU truly is the place - no Hummers, the Yellowstone Club or Paris Hilton necessary, thank you - longtime Bobcat believers will stop asking "why us" ... and start saying "why not us?"
