For all of those attached to Portland State basketball, the last six weeks have been quite a whirlwind.
On Feb. 21, the Vikings—who were coming off a string of four consecutive road losses—took on Boise State in a nationally televised game at the Stott Center.
The contest was high emotion and high energy as the Ken Bone-led squad sought to right their season with a convincing win.
Three weeks later, the Vikings caught a gigantic break at the Big Sky Tournament when favorite and No. 1 seeded Weber State was upset by Montana State.
Portland State was able to slip past the Bobcats and rode a wave of momentum heading into Selection Sunday, where they learned their NCAA Tournament foe. The city was alive with talk of how the once-belittled program could make some noise.
Time continued to zoom by after the Vikings were sent spiraling back to earth by Xavier.
Washington State athletic director Jim Sterk contacted Bone just one week ago about the coaching vacancy in Pullman.
Sterk—a man with ample ties to Bone and Portland State—interviewed numerous candidates that would have been a good fit in Pullman. But he settled on Bone, and oddly enough, phoned him late Sunday night (or early Monday morning) to offer the job.
But before Bone accepted the job and headed to Pullman, Vikings fans, and the city of Portland, should know that he stopped and thought and explained.
Faced with the possible career and life-altering decision in front of him—uprooting his wife and three young daughters to distant Pullman—the Bone family took a trip.
Taking advantage of the Washington spring break, Mr. and Mrs. Bone took the kids to Cannon Beach for a night away from the pressure of being the head coach of the state’s best college basketball team.
While there, tucked away in the misty weather and ocean melodies, Bone explained to his family the possibility of a move from the Portland area to the eastern Washington college town.
“I think Pullman will be a great family town,” Bone said, echoing the words he might have told his family several days earlier as he optimistically awaited an offer from the Palouse.
Most will remember Bone for his joyful elation following his squad’s Big Sky Championship victory at the Rose Garden in 2008, and his prints are all over the program and will be for several years to come.
While many only saw the jubilation on the court that night, insight into Bone’s character can best be gleamed by his emotional reaction to a question asked during the postgame press conference.
Bone took care of business on the court and off it as well. He not only produced solid basketball teams but developed character in his players, and his work in establishing a winning tradition will not surely be forgotten, nor easily replaced.
His character was highlighted in that press conference and demonstrated further by the final act of his coaching tenure at Portland State as he walked to his car hurriedly but patiently answered reporters’ questions.
Prior to his departure from the Stott Center, Bone shared a moment with one Viking fan who faithfully attends just about every practice and game despite being wheelchair-bound.
“He told me, ‘Thanks for the support. We couldn’t have done it without you.'”
No coach, we couldn’t have done it without you.