For the first time since December, someone beat the Denver Broncos.
If you’re keeping tabs at home, the scoreboard read something like this: A couple hundred to a couple dozen.
Those aren’t points; they’re people. As in, the number of people who attended two very different introductory press conferences yesterday in Denver. At 10 a.m. on the fourth level of the University of Denver’s Magness Arena, Rodney Billups was introduced as the school’s newest men’s basketball head coach. An hour later, down at Dove Valley, Mark Sanchez was introduced as the Denver Broncos’ newest quarterback.
A couple hundred offered a thunderous applause as Billups approached the podium to greet the room. When Sanchez met the press, a couple dozen fidgeted amidst the awkward silence that accompanies the short wait before someone asks the first question.
Billups was met with a joy and enthusiasm that hasn’t found its way to the DU basketball program since he left it as a player in 2005. Sanchez was, well, met.
You get the picture.
But make no mistake, this is not a suggestion that Denver Pioneers men’s basketball will somehow supplant the Denver Broncos from the headlines – or even the general conversation as it pertains to sports in Colorado. That won’t happen any time soon, if ever.
And it’s not an indictment of Sanchez, whom John Elway (via Twitter) has already dubbed “the first step in our process.” The once-ballyhooed, now-journeyman quarterback arrived in a less-than-enthusiastic place that just won a Super Bowl behind one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. It’s not really even his fault that he was “embraced” not with open arms, but with a collective yawn.
It is however a suggestion – a hint, a hope, an indicator – that Billups is unquestionably the right man for the job at DU. “Pioneer Nation” is more like a small sovereignty – it will never be Broncos Country – but for those who occupy the niche basketball community in Denver, Billups can make a difference. More accurately, he can make Denver’s basketball program relevant.
Whether it’s ever really been relevant is debatable. Sure, the Pioneers have had some decent seasons of late. To be exact, they’ve had three 20-win seasons as a Division I program; Billups was the starting point guard for the first in 2004-05, when DU went 20-11 and earned a trip to the NIT. What’s not debatable is that under Joe Scott, who preceded Billups, the program was losing relevance – quickly. In his last three seasons as head coach, Scott turned in 16, 12 and 16 wins and failed to win a conference tournament over the course of his tenure.
Those who (still) followed the program wondered how Scott still had a job. They might have even begun to wonder whether or not the school cared enough about basketball to fire him. Last week, vice chancellor for athletics, recreation and RC operations Peg Bradley-Doppes finally – and prudently – did just that. Perhaps even smarter, she hired Billups in his place.
Billups is not just any hire. He’s the right hire. He doesn’t have a proven track record as a head coach, but he does have a name and a history that will make a difference. His surname will grant him access to any living room in America. His status as a DU alum and Denver Prep League legend will allow him to convince almost any local hoopster that the University of Denver can work for them. His experience as an assistant to Tad Boyle – one of the country’s best coaches competing in one of its best conferences – will provide a blueprint as to how his new job is done and done well.
He understands, while being gracious in saying so, that Denver Pioneers basketball under Scott was boring (my words, not his), and that his style of play needs to be “faster” and “fun – fun for the fans, donors, community and players” (his words, not mine).
Billups is one of our own. As such, he’ll be able to connect with Denver’s basketball community at large. With Billups guiding the ship, Magness Arena stands a healthy chance of being relevant when hardwood covers the ice.
But above all else, Billups understands that at the end of the day, regardless of his name, his home or his past, the only thing that ultimately matters in college basketball – particularly for a program that resides in the middle of a market with plenty of distractions (including but not limited to Mark Sanchez) – is winning. Only that will put DU’s basketball program back on the grid.
As Sanchez stepped off the stage yesterday, he earned a few chuckles by telling the media: “I’m not married. I don’t have a girlfriend. I don’t have kids. I just want to play ball and I want to win. I really want to win.”
When Billups offered closing remarks, right before heading back up to Boulder to finish out his March Madness duties with the Buffs, he did so with a joke.
“I asked Peg if – a year from now – if I hadn’t won enough games, if she’d still love me… Don’t answer that,” he said, looking at Bradley-Doppes and interrupting his own punch line.
“I think she’d say, ‘Of course I’d still love you… but I’d miss you, too.’”
The room broke out in laughter. But Billups wasn’t kidding.
