The next pioneers of Seattle basketball

SEATTLE — There’s not much glamorous about Seattle University basketball this season.

Seattle University is starting the transition to Division I athletics this year, but very little about this season screams big-time athletics. Seattle U will host all of one game this year against a Division I opponent, and when the Redhawks travel, they do so without managers or a sports information director.

Seattle U’s non D-I home games are played in the on-campus Connolly Center, which feels more like a large high school gym than the home of a program dreaming of future trips to the NCAA tournament.

Because the Redhawks are in the first year of a four-year transition, they are not eligible for NCAA tournament play until the 2012-2013 school year, though they can play in other postseason tournament such as the NIT.

But there’s still plenty of excitement at Seattle U these days. A new era is underway, and men’s basketball coach Joe Callero and his team are thrilled to be a part of it.

Even if this year’s team can’t win a conference title — they’re not in a conference — and can’t dream of being a March Madness Cinderella, they know they can still be a part of something important.

“We talked to every one of these guys as we made the transition and told them, ‘You’re the great pioneers. You’re the first ones. You’re creating legacies that will last for another decade or another 50 years,’” Callero said from his modest Connolly Center office.

Many of Seattle U’s current players showed up on campus with only a basic understanding of what Seattle U basketball used to be. The Chieftains, as they were known until a recent name change, were once a college basketball power before the school decided to leave Division I athletics in 1980. Elgin Baylor was a dominant force who led Seattle U to an NCAA championship game against Kentucky in 1958 before going on to a hall-of-fame career in the NBA. Many other players like Clint Richardson, Eddie Miles, Frank Oleynick, John Tresvant and Tom Workman went from SU to the NBA.

And while this year’s team can’t go to the NCAA tournament, can’t dream of winning a conference title, and isn’t likely to produce NBA ready players, they know there is plenty at stake. They can be, as their coach puts it, the pioneers. Their dream is to be remembered as the guys who got the ball rolling. They hope to someday be the footnote of another chapter of Seattle University basketball success.

“It would definitely be great to look back and say you were a part of the history of moving Seattle U basketball back to Division I,” said junior forward Mike Boxley, a Mountlake Terrace High School graduate. “It would something you could talk about with you kids. That’s one of the positives of being a part of this.”

Boxley and Leigh Swanson graduated from Mountlake Terrace in 2005 and both made the short trip south to Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.

Neither received much recruiting interest from Division I basketball programs, and both like the academic opportunities available at Seattle U, so they jumped at the opportunity to play basketball for the Division II Jesuit college.

Yet because of this move, Boxley, Swanson and the rest of their Seattle U teammates will now be able to look back on their college careers and say they were Division I athletes.

Last season, the team went to Lexington, Ky., for a game against Kentucky that commemorated the 50th anniversary of the teams’ national championship game. This season, they will face a number of Division I teams, and host a Jan. 1 home game against Loyola Marymount at KeyArena, which will serve as the team’s regular home facility starting next season.

Those moments help the current team look past the negatives of the transition period.

“I’ve always wanted to be able to play Division I,” said Swanson, a senior forward who along with Boxley helped Mountlake Terrace to a third-place finish at state in 2005. “You want to play the best talent possible, so it’s just a good experience for me to test myself against some of the best talent around.”

And maybe the payoff will be huge. Small Jesuit colleges have had plenty of success in college basketball. School’s like Gonzaga, Xavier, Georgetown, Marquette, Loyola Marymount, Saint Josephs, Creighton, Santa Clara, and the University of San Francisco have all had success in Division I basketball. Why not Seattle U too?

“Definitely we want to bring that recognition here,” said Boxley. “We have the potential to get to the point where Gonzaga is someday.”

Swanson and Boxley both say they’re noticing the difference in moving to Division I both on and off the court. The team is improving rapidly — Callero said this team has show more growth than any he’s coached in 22 years — because the increased level of competition forces players to adapt quickly. On campus, around the city and on the road, players say people are paying more attention, asking about the team, and showing more excitement than in previous years.

While no one expects the transition to be easy, the level of optimism is high.

“This is high risk, high reward,” said Callero, who is in his eighth year at Seattle U. “This is no ceiling. We could average 14,000 fans at the KeyArena, captivate the entire city’s interest and have a great rivalry with the UW. Nothing tells us we can’t do it. Somebody did it at Creighton, somebody did it at Xavier, somebody did it at Gonzaga, somebody did it with USF back in the day, and Georgetown. You go around the country and there are Jesuit schools that have had miraculous success, and there’s no ceiling on Seattle U’s opportunity to do that.”

Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com.