Don’t talk to Joe Scott about a future in which multiple NCAA Tournament berths are assumed, or a world in which dalliances with the West Coast or Mountain West conferences someday blossom into a steady, long-term relationship.
Even one of the best weeks the University of Denver’s men’s basketball team has had in a long time may not be enough to turn the head of their coach.
“This is the hard stage when you’re building a program,” Scott said. “We’re ready to come of age, but when it’s going to happen, I don’t know. You have to keep pushing and pushing and put yourself in that situation over and over again so that you make yourself learn, and you make yourself push through.”
DU is coming off a victory over Sun Belt Conference standard-bearer Western Kentucky, 72-67, on Sunday to move to the top of the West Division. Three nights earlier, the Pioneers gutted out a 75-66 victory over New Orleans.
If the thought of being atop a division in an obscure conference draws smirks and giggles in hoops hotbeds such as Lexington, Ky., or Lawrence, Kan., that’s better than being laughed at out loud, which is where DU was not long before Scott arrived three years ago.
On Monday, the Pioneers (12-5, 5-1) had an RPI rating of 103 at CBS Sportsline. That’s up from an official NCAA mark of 224 at the end of last season, when DU went 15-16 with what Scott called the youngest team in the nation. That was four more wins than his first Pioneers team had.
While Scott certainly wants to keep piling up victories, he’s more concerned with how his team is playing.
“If we have this sort of resolve and resiliency and stick it out through January and February, we’ll be fine,” he said. “This is the time of year where if you’re not resilient and you don’t stick with it, when you don’t have leadership, that’s when separation occurs between the good teams and the not-so-good teams.
“We’re working hard to be one of those good teams. These games are important for us to say, ‘OK, this is what we did in Year 3. We did this in Year 1; we did this in Year 2. We made this improvement in Year 3,’ if you do that every year, that’s how you get to where you want to go.”
Creating a clean slate
DU basketball reached its nadir in the 2006-07 season, when the Pioneers went 4-25 and coach Terry Carroll abandoned the team before midseason, without explanation. After that debacle, DU hired Scott, who was coming off a disappointing three-year run at Princeton, his alma mater, after having built Air Force into an MWC power.
“When Coach Scott came, we were at the bottom,” said senior guard Nate Rohnert, the lone remaining player from Carroll’s tenure. “We didn’t even know what college basketball was really all about. We’d go out and maybe practice for an hour. It just didn’t seem like college basketball.
“When Coach came in, the slate was wiped clean. It was a full-tilt difference.”
Rohnert said all Scott asked of the players was to trust that what he said about building a program was true. And, of course, he had the experience to back up his words. Scott’s first head coaching job was at Air Force. When he took over at the academy in 2000, the Falcons hadn’t had a winning season in 23 years. Four years later, they were in the NCAA Tournament, having won 22 games.
While his approach at Denver has been different from an X’s and O’s standpoint than at Air Force, his philosophy is the same.
“There are these words that everybody says — accountability, holding each other responsible — well, what does that mean?” he asked. “I’ll tell you what that means. It means you have to do it every day. You have to hold your kids to that standard every day.”
His message to the Pioneers players entering this season, for example, was alarmingly simple.
“It was about getting stronger, getting tougher, having more stamina, not because I like those words, but because in basketball, that relates to taking care of the basketball,” he said. “So then our turnovers are down; if our turnovers are down, then we get more shots, better shots, and when you get good shots, you find out that you’re pretty good shooters.
“But if you’re not strong enough, tough enough to take care of the basketball, it doesn’t matter. You never find out if you’re a good shooter or not.”
While they may not always look pretty — the victory against New Orleans may have featured the most rolling hook shots by players 6-foot-5 or shorter than any game played since George Mikan played — the Pioneers rank second nationally in field-goal percentage. They’re also 30th nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio out of 334 schools.
Changing conferences?
But being all that they can be doesn’t apply only to on-court issues for the Pioneers.
It’s no secret that other conferences, such as the Mountain West or the West Coast, would be a better fit for a private, academically oriented school in the Rockies than the Sun Belt, largely made up of state schools in the South.
For Scott, it’s important for a basketball program to mesh with its school and its mission. Otherwise any type of success is likely to be short term.
“There’s no doubt that getting into another conference that makes more sense, geographically, rivalry-wise,” he said. “But in the end, it doesn’t matter what league you’re in unless you’ve gotten to the place where you’re a good team.
“We’re trying to build a program where the people are coming to watch us. It shouldn’t be a case where people are going, ‘Who are you playing?’ It should be, ‘Well, what do you mean, we’re playing.’ “
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com
A tailor-made fit?
For years, there has been talk that University of Denver basketball would be better off moving to another conference. A look at a few possibilities:
Staying in the Sun Belt
Pros: A chance to be the big fish, in terms of prestige and budget, which could translate to on-court success.
Cons: In a down economic time, the constant travel is undesirable.
Mountain West
Pros: Ideal geographically, with potential rivals such as Air Force, Colorado State and Wyoming.
Cons: Without football, there’s the potential to be looked at as a poor relative.
West Coast
Pros: Easy to recruit for, with many players in the same talent pool.
Cons: Apart from the games against Gonzaga, who cares?
Anthony Cotton, The Denver Post
