KittieKop wrote:I just find it interesting to sit here and imagine seeing any of these justifications for mediocrity being written in the football forum.
Some people were yelling for Ash's head at the end of last year. With all the talent he had. Somehow, it was the football coaches' fault for not coaching players up and players failing to execute, but with our basketball team "shots just won't drop" and Huse deserves another year to prove himself. What's the indication things are pointed in the right direction? I think most people see and understand the long term plan with the football team, but who can really define the direction the basketball team is headed in? Nothing seems to be changing. Start out strong, have the bottom drop out in February, finish 4th-6th place in conference, have a tournament game, lose the conference, repeat next year.
The football team's gone three years without a playoff game and some fans were screaming for the coach's head. Why the difference with the basketball team and coach?
well, here's my thoughts on this, and my thoughts only. first, it has to do with the support both teams get. msu is a football school whether i like it or not. my passion is college hoops, so for me personally, i am way more interested and involved in everything basketball. but it is clear i am part of a very small minority. you only have to look as far as this board to see that. we are smack dab in the middle of hoops season, and still 95% of peoples attention is on football. and that's fine. please don't think i'm calling people out. it's just how it is. countless threads about recruits, coaches, schedules, etc., yet the basketball forum is dead. so while i don't agree with calling out coaches, especially only after a year or two, it makes perfect sense to me why there is so much criticism of the football program compared to the basketball program. when you have way more people who care, you're also going to have way more people who are going to complain.
next, and probabaly the biggest reason that hoops seems to get a "pass" is because it's far more difficult to have success in D1 basketball in montana than it is to have success in 1-AA football in montana. and it's mainly do to a numbers game. you got about 12 guys on a basketball team, and what, 60 or so on a football team? you can get absolute studs to come play football in the state from places like anaconda, drummond, baker, and other tiny areas. finding guys close to home good enough to play division 1 hoops is another story. it's practically impossible, and most of the time even when we do get the best highschool kids in the state to come play ball, they end up as role players at best. look at guys like pete conway and danny faaborg. they were some of the best players to ever play highschool hoops in the state. but when they played for the cats they were simply role players. can you imagine having a football player in the state having as much success as as conway did in highschool, only to come play football for the cats and never see the field? it happens very rarely. look at how many guys the cats have recruited for football and they didn't work out. you don't have that luxory in basketball. you're only signing 3 or 4 kids, and if they don't work out you're screwed. so now, you have to travel outside of the state where you are already at a disadvantage, and try to convince a kid to move to bozeman to play for a program that gets very little support. it's not easy at all, and it should never be compared to football. for every kid out there reaching his dream of playing basketball at the division one level, i can find you 20 plus kids reaching their dream of playing 1-AA football. (and yes i know the name has changed!

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listen, i don't think huse and his staff should get a "free pass". coaching doesn't work that way. but there are certainly reasons for schools like montana state and um having less success at basketball than football. i mean look at the griz as a perfect example. they have an amazing football program, and an average basketball program. not bad by any stretch, but certainly not anything special. and that's because you can find a ton of guys that are capable of helping their football program, and far less that will be able to turn around their hoops program. but for what it's worth, i think tinkle is recruiting great and doing a very good job. but i think one thing is clear. no one is happy with the hoops team not having success. but to expect the same success or support as our football team is not realistic.