We can’t dance. When it comes to basketball, we are the state that wears two left sneakers.
At a time when the rest of America is going as stark-raving bonkers as Dick Vitale about college basketball, residents of Colorado are handed a crying towel, shown the last lonely seat on the bench and told to shut the heck up.
With the dismissal of Dale Layer by Colorado State, we were reminded Monday what the sorry excuses for college basketball programs around here do best.
Bounce the coach.
Not a single Division I team in Colorado received an invitation to the Big Dance.
But there are coaching vacancies at Colorado, CSU and the University of Denver, all posting desperate help-wanted ads.
“How can you win a championship when you don’t even know what a championship looks like?” said Rudy Carey, who has been the real Mr. Basketball in Colorado for three decades.
When his East High School Angels defeated Aurora Central for the Class 5A prep title over the weekend, Carey earned the seventh state championship of an illustrious coaching career.
With a heart that pumps high-octane passion and not an ounce of nonsense in his bones, Carey delivers a message of tough love and unrelenting hope that could save local hoops from the evils of the 58 combined losses endured by the Buffaloes, Rams and Pioneers this season.
“We don’t have a respectable product, because often it doesn’t even look like college basketball when you see what’s put on the floor at our state’s universities. But you can’t tell me it’s impossible to have college basketball teams that win in Colorado. You have to put your egos aside, roll up your sleeves and get to work,” Carey said.
“You can’t build a successful college program with only Colorado kids. But to win, you must establish the fact that the best two or three high-school players from this state get locked in here every year, whether it’s by CU, CSU or DU.”
So pardon me for ignoring the defeatists who moan Colorado is condemned to a state of crummy basketball for all eternity.
It seems we scan the same sad list from the NCAA Tournament every year. Nevada somehow won 28 of 32 games and landed a postseason bid with Nick Fazekas of Arvada as its leading scorer. Freshman Matt Bouldin of Highlands Ranch helped Gonzaga rebound from a stormy regular season to seize an invitation.
During the past 30 years, Carey has sent young athletes to St. John’s, Oregon State, Minnesota, Texas Tech and Massachusetts. But not once has Colorado State or Colorado landed a player tutored by him.
“You tell me why Ricardo Patton (recently let go as coach of CU) would go sign eight freshmen from out of state to finish last in the Big 12. You could get eight guys from the local YMCA and do that,” Carey said.
“The word is Colorado kids aren’t going to stay in the state to play college basketball. That’s not a reputation. It’s a fact. It’s known throughout the country that if you want a basketball player from Colorado, go get him, because the state schools will do very little to keep him at home.”
I can’t speak for you, but March Madness makes me angry, in a mixture of wrath and envy that allows this ink-stained wretch to shoot 28.6 percent from behind the stripe of the seven deadly sins. It’s a pretty lousy percentage, but better than the Buffaloes, Rams and Pioneers do when aiming for basketball success.
If Winthrop, a school of 6,500 students in Rock Hill, S.C., can jump in the NCAA tourney pool with both feet, there’s no reason for CSU, DU and CU to act like wallflowers.
How positive is Carey that he could teach a state with two left sneakers to dance?
“I would take the CU job for nothing,” he said, voice booming with enthusiasm over the telephone.
We both laugh, realizing no local athletic director would be so loco as to hire a Colorado prep legend to fill the head coaching vacancy of a major university.
“I’m not looking for a job,” Carey said.
If the Rams, Buffs or Pioneers want to get serious about winning, however, they will add a man of Carey’s obvious talent to the staff as lead assistant and chief liaison to a state in need of tender loving care.
There are hidden basketball gems in this part of the Rocky Mountains. You need somebody who loves the state, loves the sport and knows what rocks to turn over to find reason for hope.
And that’s no joke.
Staff writer Mark Kiszla can be reached at 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
