Life as a college basketball player can have its glamorous
moments. Travelling throughout the country, playing under the
bright lights and on television, facing season-making games.
But wipe the glitter away, and you see a different picture.
"Airports, airports, airports," is what comes to junior guard
Justin Brown's mind. The road conjures up visions of "bad food
and bad hours" for long-time play-by-play man Dean Alexander,
"and number one on the hit parade is mall-walking."
The collage formed by the 10 games this year's team has played
away from Bozeman so far includes a procession of rental cars and
team pranks and endless hours of staying on top of schoolwork.
Montana State faces perhaps its most important stretch of road
games this weekend and next, a four-game stretch that could
define the team's season. The 'Cats begin that stretch with a
game at Eastern Washington on Thursday at 7 pm.
But, the team really began that stretch with a 5:30 am van ride
from Brick Breeden Fieldhouse to the Gallatin Valley Airport on
Wednesday. "Yeah, there's nothing like being here at 5 o'clock in
the morning so we can get to the airport and get out on the early
flight," laughs junior guard Justin Brown, who in his third
season has already logged over 50,000 miles of bus and air
travel. He has played games in 16 different states, and has
travelled through an additional dozen or so.
Still, tourism is not high on the agenda of a Division I
basketball team making its way through a season. "It's very
boring," Brown says of life on the road. "Your first couple of
trips as a freshman you think, 'This is going to be great.' Then,
you realize you spend all your time in airports or in a hotel
room, and that you don't actually get to go anywhere. There are
some road trips that we do some stuff, like Portland when we
might get to a Blazers game, but other than that there's not a
whole lot to do."
For Jason Erickson, a true freshman from near Anchorage, Ak., the
monotony of life on the road has not yet settled in. "Even though
you don't get to do a lot of sightseeing, sometimes it's fun to
go out and just get a bite to eat in a different place and sit in
the pool. You don't get to sit in the pool much up here (in
Montana). And, it's fun just to hang out with the guys."
Erickson says that the sheer diversity of MSU's road schedule has
been enjoyable. "I was talking to Justin Brown on one of the road
trips, and we'd been in 10 states in 20 days. That's a record for
me. I'd never seen the south before this. It was fun to drive
down through there and meet different people. They do talk
different and everything like that, so to get that kind of
exposure to different cultures in all parts of the U.S. has been
fun."
Junior center Kenny Plummer concurs with Erickson. "The fans
really support their team in this league. Anyone can win it, so
it's a big game every night. Three years ago, when I was in high
school, I never thought I'd get to see the country like this.
It's been a great experience for me and I wouldn't trade it for
the world. I'm so glad I made the decision to come to Montana
State."
Montana State coach Mick Durham travelled with the Bobcats as a
player for four seasons, as an assistant for eight years, and now
as the school's head basketball coach for 11 seasons. According
to Durham, exposing his players to different parts of the country
is a benefit of playing Division I basketball, but is not the top
priority. "A lot of these kids have never seen this part of the
country, and a lot of our Montana kids haven't been to some of
the places we go in the non-conference," Durham said. "But the
primary thing is to focus on the games, to be ready to play."
Erickson said that the games have been fun, but preparation is
something ingrained in Durham's system. "It has been an
eye-opener, especially at Weber State and Mississippi State, they
had an awesome crowd," Erickson said. "Nevada did, too. It's a
lot different playing in front of 10,000 people that hate you
than all the people that like you. But the preparation thing is
pretty much the same. We get prepared pretty well on the road.
There aren't too many distractions, we try to keep those away."
One of the most impressive statistics of all those currently
being compiled in the program is by Alexander. He has called 668
basketball games over the past quarter century, and has logged
900,000 miles on the road with the school's teams. "It's amazing
what's expected of the players, and what the average fan's
perception is of what happens. I'd say the average player who
stays in the program for four seasons travels nearly 100,000
miles. On the road you get up, have breakfast at a certain time,
head to practice, head back to the hotel, eat, watch some film,
tape and get ready for the game, head to the gym, play the game,
get in the cars and go back to the hotel, have something to eat,
pack and get ready to leave early the next morning."
Durham said there's no formula to winning on the road, but his
successful teams have had some similarities. "I think if you have
warriors and you have a good team you can go win anywhere," he
said. "I think sometimes young teams struggle. You have to be
mentally ready to handle the opponent, and that means you can't
give them a lot of chances. You can't turn the ball over, you
have to rebound the ball and give them one shot. It's still basic
basketball, but you have to be on top of your game on the road."
One built-in way to while away the hours is by staying on top of
academic responsibilities. "The hardest thing about travelling is
keeping up with everything back home," says Erickson, one of the
program's top students as a true freshman. "We miss three days
this week, three days the next week, two weeks after that we miss
another three days, so we miss 11 this semester. That's the worst
part. It's great hanging out with the guys on the road, but you
have to get schoolwork done, too."
One Bobcat that has taken to life on the road is Plummer. "I like
playing on the road," Plummer says with a smile. "I like being
the villain on the road. We have to come in with the attitude of
taking over the other team's home floor, we have to win. We have
some tough games ahead of us, but if we want to get where we want
to be, which is winning the championship, we have to win on the
road."
Still, there is plenty of time left over to kill. Enter Brown,
one of the team's pranksters. "Our best trick is that we have the
waitress offer (5-10 guard) James Clark a high chair, and we have
the waitress offer E.J. (Little) a breath mint. Those are our two
best ones so far this year."
Brown said most of what the team does to amuse itself on the road
is directed within. "We just make fun of people on our team," he
said. "It's a big rip session. But it's fun. This is the best
bunch (to travel with) so far (of the three teams he's been on)."
This year's Bobcat team has played well on the road. The team is
4-6 away from Bozeman, which is a win shy of matching the total
of the last two seasons combined, and MSU is shooting 50.5% away
from Bozeman, compared to 48.8% in Worthington Arena. That trend
holds for three-point shooting (46.8% away from home, 44.8% at
home) and free-throw shooting (72.2% away from home, 63.5% in
Bozeman).
Durham said he strives to make the players as comfortable in
their routine away from home as when they're in Bozeman, but that
nothing can replace experience. "You want to make it as close to
a home situation as you can," he said. "You don't want to put
pressure on your guys or your team, but those new players need
the experience of the road. There's nothing that beats the
experience of playing away from home. Your good players, your
mentally tough players, they play well anywhere."
Alexander said one of the big differences he's noticed from the
early days of his career in the '70s until now is how the focus
of coaches have changed. "It has evolved from a lot of time spent
enjoying the night life to most of the spare time spent in the
exercise room or walking and jogging. These days, coaches don't
have any time away from the game. They're either breaking down
and watching the film, or getting to and from the practices and
games."
The Big Sky Conference certainly provides its share of road woes,
both in terms of wins and losses and in the effort expended
getting from one spot to the next. Conference commissioner Doug
Fullerton, a former assistant basketball coach and Athletic
Director at MSU, said the Big Sky is unique. "In most leagues you
hop on the bus and get to the next spot. In ours you hop on the
bus then hop on an airplane."
The disparity of climates and locales in the league also provides
a challenge, he said. "I think there are times when you don't
ever get comfrotable on the road in this league. When you're a
kid coming out of southern California to Bozeman or Missoula and
the temperature never gets above five, that's something to deal
with. But as a coach you can't make an issue out of things like
that with the kids." Or, as Alexander says, "These kids travel
more in their four years of college than the average family will
in a lifetime. They know what's going on."
Still, Durham says, when the team flight pierces the Gallatin
Valley dawn on its way to the far reaches of the Big Sky
Conference, there remains one goal. "The bottom line is to win."
