Six Quick Thoughts & The Southern Utah Thunderbirds

[hhcdave]

Saturday will be a special game for me, and let me explain why.

 

But before I do that, six quick thoughts on tonight.

 

1. Tonight will absolutely be rock bottom. Losing by double figures to a sub .500 Big West team without their best player at home was miserable. Cal Riverside will be lucky to hit 13 wins this year. We had no energy, couldn't hit the broad side of a barn and didn't look anything like a team on offense. It was individual play. We are young and don't have defined roles or defined leaders/letter winners yet. This will come with time.

 

2. We will get a LOT better as the season goes on. Because:

 

3. We have the right guy at the helm with a terrific coaching staff.

 

4. There are 4 guys on this roster who will be a big part of our NCAA Tournamen team in year #3. That's good news for the future but not good news for this year. Because:

 

5. The rest are mostly place holders and guys who wouldn't see the floor by then.

 

6. I love this team and program, and I hope negative energy Husker fans from football will stay the hell away. I heard a few boo's after a possession where we missed a few layups late in the second half. I heard mock Bronx cheers on made free throws. I get it, I get it. It's frustrating. It was brutal. But come the hell on. It's season one, game one and this has nothing to do with football.

 

Next, let's talk about Southern Utah.

 

I'm sure I made this same post a decade ago when we last played them, but here's the info.

 

From 1988-1990, I was 8-10 years old. My Dad was the Music Department Chair at Southern Utah University (SUU) in Cedar City, Utah. He directed the pep band and we went to ALL the football and basketball games.

This is where I fell in love with basketball as a kid. I became a ball boy for SUU.

 

1988-1989 was their first Division I season (as an Independent) and they struggled. Our second year there, 1989-1990, they won AT Xavier, who was in the Top 25. I'll never forget being 9 years old and listening on the radio. They also played Stacy King and OU and KSU and lost those by about 45 points each. Even lost to a D2 team at home that year. Go figure. 

 

They had pretty good basketball teams for several years after that. Their coach at the time (Neil Roberts) got arrested for stealing a $15 tie during a road game at Idaho State and was fired. He was the coach when I was there. Bill Evans took over (now at Idaho State) for many years and took SUU to the NCAA Tournament in 2000-2001 where they almost beat Boston College as a 14 seed in their one and only NCAA Tourney.

 

Football wise, they've been REAL good in FCS. Several guys have gone into the NFL. Basketball, they've never had an NBA player. They're a Big Sky team. The Thunderbirds. This is a legendary Native American bird that didn't exist but in their tales, were "canyon birds." Pretty sweet mascot and the only Thunderbirds (or T-Birds) in existence. 

 

Southern Utah University is in Cedar City and is 45 minutes from Zion National Park, 2.5 hours from Las Vegas. It's BEAUTIFUL and they play in a small arena that the Utah Jazz used for training camp a few times.

 

I have quite the cool connection to this small D1 school. I've always followed them from afar. From their times in the Mid Continent Conference to Summit League, to nowadays, the Big Sky.

 

They are much better than Cal Riverside and are expected to compete in the Big Sky this year. 3rd or 4th pre-season. I believe they'd beat Riverside by 10-12 points head to head.Their head coach is a very nice guy named Todd Simon who for a brief time was interim coach at UNLV. He's a great recruiter with a Big 10 background (he grew up in Michigan as a Big 10 fan). 

 

That's way more info than you ever wanted to know about the Thunderbirds of Southern Utah. I'll be driving from KC for this game. Definitely going for the Huskers, but if one school has to beat us and have it help them (which their program could really use a shot in the arm), I'd much rather it be them than Cal Riverside. 

 

Go Big Red but if not, let this be our last loss of the season.

Hoping the Hoiberg era sees its first win against Southern Utah. 38 year old me, 30 years after my first year of ball boy in Cedar City, thinks it would be quite ironic and quite the small world if that happened.

 

 

[hhcdave]

PS Danny Nee took Eric Piatkowski, Bruce Chubick, Derrick Chandler and others into Cedar City to take on SUU in the early 90's. The T-Birds kept it within 10 points. That was HUGE for them at the time.

 

I miss the days of Home and Homes with SUU, Appalachian State, Wisconsin-Green Bay, etc, etc. Loved how Danny would do that. Nowadays, a Power 5 team would NEVER go to Cedar City for a game.

[hskr4life]

This is a cool story Dave!  Always love to hear how others fell in love with the game and the sport.

 

I too was a Thunderbird (T-Bird) at one point in time.  However mine was at Cloud County CC in Concordia!

[jimmykc]

Thanks for posting Dave. Helped me shake the terrible buzzkill hangover I woke up with this morning. 

[hhcdave]

Good to hear from you both!

[hskr4life]

SUU put up 110 in a 40+ point win last night.  They played Bethesda FWIW.

[AuroranHusker]

We all enjoy a good story. That's a good story. Should be a fun ballgame on Sat., hopefully the Big Red figures some things out in the meantime.

 

 

[hhcmatt]

2 hours ago, hskr4life said:

SUU put up 110 in a 40+ point win last night.  They played Bethesda FWIW.

 

They play fast. It's possible that one or both of us could put up 100 when we play

[hhcmatt]

As always @hhcdave post more!

[Handy Johnson]

10 hours ago, hskr4life said:

This is a cool story Dave!  Always love to hear how others fell in love with the game and the sport.

 

I too was a Thunderbird (T-Bird) at one point in time.  However mine was at Cloud County CC in Concordia!

Were you there when Denny Erkenbreck (sp?) was the Coach...?

[hskr4life]

15 minutes ago, Handy Johnson said:

Were you there when Denny Erkenbreck (sp?) was the Coach...?

 

I was not, but the name sounds really familiar.  Chad Eshbaugh was actually the coach of the men when I was there.  I believe he is now an assistant at Jacksonville U.