when it comes to recruiting, i am not a "montana first" guy. every single school in the country depends on out of state recruits to be competitive, and montana with its low population base is probably more dependent on out of state kids that most programs. i'm thrilled to have a kareem jamar, brian qvale, will cherry and mario dunn in the program.
at the same time, i've often felt that both in football and basketball there is an inherent bias against montana kids, born of a montana inferiority complex that is roughly the size of flathead lake. this first came up back in the "move up" debate on the football board a dedcade or so ago, when the common attitude was, "we're jes lil ole montana. our kids jes can't compete with them big old wac schools." of course, this was before we sent seven montana kids off one roster to the n.f.l., with two more to follow this year, and not to mention the montana kids that starred at bigger programs.
now comes what seems like a bad recruiting year for us. only one early signee, an under-recruited kid deemed a project by everybody. and now, in the late period, we're going after a kid from new mexico rated the 30th best in his state. so at this point i'm thinking, "hey, maybe it's time to look again at some of these montana kids."
okay, carson dummer has signed with carroll, but do we want a 6'1" kid out of new mexico when we've got a 6'8" homegrown kid who just led his team to a state championship, avering 18 points and seven rebounds a game? ah, isn't it widely accepted on this board that we desperately need post help? don't we already have four young backcourt players on scholarship?
so if you want to stay small, why not look at this kid randall gardipee from box elder? kid is 6'2", shot 60% from the field, and made the super-state team, leading his undefeated team to a state title.
i gotta say, i am mysitified by what's going on with our recruiting this year--in a year that i hope our built-in bias against montana kids isn't working against us.