GREELEY — The NCAA Tournament’s cute little story in Greeley is bigger than TV’s talking heads can imagine. During Northern Colorado’s game Thursday in Tucson against San Diego State, they will talk about the 4-24 record four years ago. They will talk about shooting star Devon Beitzel getting no other Division I scholarship offers.
But unless the 15th-seeded Bears (21-10) take the No. 2 seed Aztecs (32-2) into overtime or — gasp! — win and advance, the world may not see a similar sadness to madness story.
Beneath UNC’s scrappy roster, tiny gym and 5-year-old Division I program, first-year coach B.J. Hill’s story is as compelling as his team’s. Yes, four years ago UNC had the lowest RPI in the country. But five years ago, Hill spent his eighth year as a junior college assistant coach.
That’s not JC head coach. That’s assistant coach. You recruit by car. You recruit kids with troubled pasts and SAT scores that look like area codes.
“It’s a lot of hours behind the wheel,” Hill said. “Low budget and you’re constantly recruiting. You’re turning over half your team every year.”
Hill is sitting at his desk. A flat-screen TV is the only luxury item in an office modest by Division I standards. Coming from Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, Iowa, however, it’s more like a suite in the Bellagio.
A touch of gray makes him seem older than 37, but so does his story. His wife, Eliza, gets on him for not smiling enough, not even after the Bears beat Montana last week to clinch their first NCAA berth.
Hill is a serious coach. You don’t take life lightly when your countless interviews for JC jobs always end with a pat on a tiring back.
“To sum me up in one word is ‘persistence,’ ” said Hill, sitting straight up in his chair. “A lot of days when I wasn’t getting head coaching jobs in JCs, I asked, ‘Is it worth it?’ “
The son of a former high school assistant, he knew how to grit his teeth as he roamed the lonely back roads in the Midwest and Great Plains looking for players D-I schools didn’t want.
“One time I totaled two cows on a Kansas highway,” Hill said. “It was 10:30 at night. I look down to hit the seek button on the radio. I look up and see two black cows. I split them like goalposts.”
However, he learned a lot on those roads besides how annoying airbags can be. The JC recruiting pool is filled with sharks, barracudas and moray eels. The players usually carry baggage that prevented them from getting a Division I look.
Hill became good at finding the angelfish. That’s why Coffeyville (Kan.) won five straight conference titles under his recruiting watch.
He also caught the attention of one Tad Boyle, then an assistant at Wichita State, who brought in Hill to help UNC make the transition to Division I.
“B.J. was a much better basketball coach than I expected him to be,” Boyle said. “He knows the game, has a feel for the game and can relate to the kids, obviously. In this business, you’ve got some guys that are great recruiters and you’ve got some that are great coaches. You have very few that are good at both. B.J. is good at both.”
While the state’s bigger programs ignored most of the questionable in-state high school talent, the talent was good enough for UNC. And Boyle just happened to have the uber-recruiter.
“Tad loves guys who can shoot, who can make baskets,” Hill said. “He wanted great character, first and foremost. But he wanted kids whom basketball is important to, not guys whom basketball comes easy to.”
That first recruiting class Hill helped attract included the three seniors who make up the core of this team: Beitzel, from Lafayette, and forwards Neal Kingman from Greeley and Chris Kaba from Gary, Ind. They all redshirted.
By the time the Bears went 25-8 last year, earning Boyle the Colorado job, the players might have torched the gym if Hill didn’t get the nod to replace him. Athletic director Jay Hinrichs agreed. Moments after Boyle announced his departure, Hinrichs greeted Hill with a handshake and a contract.
“We were 100 percent behind it,” Kingman said. “Boyle laid down a system, which we had to have in the situation we were in, but now that we know the system so well, Coach Hill has given us more freedom.”
Hill says he doesn’t coach with a chip on his shoulder. He’s too busy trying to figure out how to stop San Diego State’s future NBA players. But he did take a step back to think about how far he’s come.
He received an e-mail from a member on the search committee at West Plains (Mo.) JC, one of the numerous JCs that turned him down for a head coaching position.
“They e-mailed me to tell me they knew I was going to be successful from the interview process,” Hill said, “and they’re happy to see I finally got a head (coaching) job.”
This time B.J. Hill leaned back in his chair and chuckled.
Staff writer Tom Kensler contributed to this report.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
B.J. Hill bio
Age: 37.
Birthplace: Charles City, Iowa
Hometown: Cedar Falls, Iowa
College: Grand View, 1996
Resume: Northern Colorado head coach, 2010-present
• Northern Colorado associate head coach, 2008-10
• Northern Colorado assistant coach, 2006-08
• Indian Hills CC assistant coach, 2005-06
• Coffeyville CC assistant coach, 2000-05
• South Dakota State assistant coach, 1999-2000
• Independence CC assistant coach, 1998-99
• North Iowa Area CC assistant coach, 1997-98
