The Big Sky Conference is for true believers. A person - fan or player - has to love college basketball to drive nearly 300 miles in the snow (uphill! both ways!) for a rivalry game. A quick look through the Big Sky HQ staff listings shows a group of dedicated professionals born and raised on this kind of rough-and-tough sporting atmosphere. Jon Kasper is a former Missoula, MT newspaperman turned Big Sky Assistant Commissioner, and he agreed to talk to us about the challenges and joys of basketball in the wild west.
STF: The Big Sky has been around since the early 60's, but most of America knows little about it. Care to state the case in favor of the conference for our readers?
JK: Well, the Big Sky has a long history of success. We’ve been one of the top football conferences in the Football Championship Subdivision, winning five national championships. We are also very strong in cross country – Northern Arizona’s men’s team finished fourth in the nation.
Basketball wise, we also have a strong history. Weber State was named the 51st in Street & Smith’s list of top 100 men’s basketball programs. Idaho State was also ranked in the top 100. Many great coaches started in the Big Sky, such men as UCLA’s Ben Howland, Utah State’s Stew Morrill, Old Dominion’s Blaine Taylor, USC’s Tim Floyd, current Milwaukee Bucks coach Larry Krystkowiak, not to mention Jud Heathcote, Dick Motta, Don Monson and Mike Montgomery.
We’ve pulled off our share of upsets in the NCAA tournament, most notably Weber State’s upsets of Michigan State in 1995 and North Carolina in 1999. In 1977, Idaho State stunned UCLA 76-75. Rodney Stuckey, who was taken in the first round by the Detroit Pistons in this year’s draft, played the previous two seasons at Eastern Washington. He is our most prominent former player in the NBA.
STF: Does the league staff look at growing the conference, or primarily maintaining the quality you already have?
Right now we’re focusing on improving our men’s basketball profile. Northern Colorado joined the conference in 2006-07, and is a much-improved team. As a conference, we are working to improve our non-conference strength of schedule in hopes of improving our overall RPI.
STF: What are some of the best rivalries in the Big Sky?
JK: Montana and Montana State remain our biggest rivals in all sports. The two teams have played more than 275 times in men’s basketball. Idaho State and Weber State is also a fierce rivalry, as the schools are located just 140 miles from each other.
We have a group of long-time league members like Montana, Montana State, Weber State, Northern Arizona, Eastern Washington and Idaho State. Those schools are starting to develop rivalries with Portland State and Sacramento State, who joined the league in 1996.
STF: With a wide geographic base and little in the way of television markets, how does the commissioner hope to extend the reach of the Big Sky?
All games held in Big Sky arenas are video streamed at http://www.bigskytv.org/. This is a great way for fans, parents and alumni around the world to follow Big Sky Conference teams.
We offer men’s and women’s basketball, as well as volleyball and football. We started this video streaming site in 2006 with hopes of expanding our audience. It’s hard for a conference our size to land national games on CBS, ABC or even ESPN. Fans can enjoy games either live or on-demand.
This season, we are also launching a conference Sunday game of the Week on Altitude Sports & Entertainment. Altitude, based out of Denver, has become a strong television partner. Altitude is available on many cable outlets in Utah, Montana and Colorado, and hopefully soon Idaho. Altitude is also available on Dish Network and DirecTV. This year, Northern Arizona secured a television deal to show 13 of its home games live on either Fox Sports Arizona or Fox College Sports Pacific. More than 45 games featuring Big Sky teams will be televised this season.
STF: The conference currently has nine members. Utah Valley State had a 22-win season last year as an independent. Is that a match made in heaven?
Everyone in the Big Sky Conference has a great deal of respect for the job Coach Dick Hunsaker has done at Utah Valley. Our conference, however, has a strong commitment to core sports. One of those core sports is football. At this time the Presidents of our schools are not interested in adding an institution that does not sponsor football.
STF: Your member schools are in some of the snowiest states in the union. How does that affect travel?
It can be a little tricky at times, especially traveling to places like Missoula, Mont., and Bozeman, Mont. Also the major airport hub that our teams use is in Salt Lake City.
It actually doesn’t create as much problem as some might think. Sometimes flights are delayed or canceled and bus rides can be a little bit hairy, but we rarely have to reschedule events because of weather.
Travel is extremely difficult in our league. We have very few bus trips. Getting from Flagstaff, Ariz., to Missoula, Mont., or from Sacramento to Bozeman, Mont., can be difficult, and expensive.
STF: Big Sky representatives have won a handful of NCAA tournament games over the years - who is poised to pull off an upset this year?
We feel we’ve got three or four pretty solid teams in our league right now – Weber State, Montana, Portland State and Northern Arizona.
Teams like Montana State, Northern Colorado and Idaho State should improve as the season goes along. It’s hard to pick one or two teams right now, but I’d say Montana and Weber State are the two teams most capable of pulling off upsets. Montana upset Nevada two years ago, and the Grizzlies return senior forward Andrew Strait, and junior forward Jordan Hasquet. Weber State surprised the league last season by winning the conference championship in Randy Rahe’s first season at the helm. If the Wildcats get back to the NCAA Tournament again, they would be a scary first-round opponent.
Thanks, Jon! We'll keep an eye on the Big Sky.
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