College basketball: UTPB has learned to do a lot with less

Money doesn’t always make a college basketball program.

Based on bank accounts alone, UTPB has no reason to win. The Lady Falcons should be languishing at the bottom of the Heartland Conference, stuck in neutral, hopelessly mired in mediocrity.

But UTPB keeps winning.

Adam Collins has taken the Lady Falcons from doormat to the NCAA Division II Tournament, and he isn’t the only head coach making more out of less at UTPB. Both the volleyball and baseball teams have already won Heartland Conference titles, and the men’s basketball team came within a whisker this season of becoming the fourth team to qualify for nationals.

And every coach is succeeding from a position of weakness.

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NCAA Division II basketball programs are allowed to issue 10 scholarships each year. With the exception of Oklahoma Panhandle State, every other women’s basketball team in the Heartland Conference can offer 10 full-ride scholarships to players every year.

Collins only has 4.2 scholarship equivalencies to offer this season. He has to spread that money around to the entire roster. When a recruit starts getting serious about UTPB, Collins has to let her know that he can only pay for a portion of her tuition, books, housing and other expenses.

Even if that player is talented enough to get a full scholarship at another school.

“It’s hurt us a couple of times, where we know a kid is an NCAA Division II full-scholarship athlete, and we know she’s going to get full-ride offers from other teams,” Collins said. “But for us, she’s not a full-scholarship player, because we don’t know, for sure, that she’s going to be an all-conference level player.”

Handing out a full scholarship immediately limits the amount of money Collins has available to fill out the rest of the roster. That Collins has been able to assemble the deepest team in the Heartland Conference is nothing short of remarkable.

“You really can’t afford to miss,” Collins said. “If you put money into somebody, the limited amount of money we have, if she doesn’t pan out, then you’re really behind the eight-ball because of depth.”

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Being a part of the University of Texas system is no help to the UTPB athletic program. By state law, it is illegal for a public institution to use state funds to support athletics.

And the Texas football team isn’t kicking any of its revenue back to support the UTPB women’s basketball team. UTPB’s limited athletic budget is supported solely by student fees, at a rate of $12 per credit hour.

Even those fees generate precious little money. In 2008-09, the last year for which data is available, UTPB’s total athletic budget was a little more than $2.1 million, a number that ranks in the 19th percentile of NCAA Division II schools without football.

Men’s basketball ranked in the 15th percentile. At only $144,909, the women’s basketball team ranked in only the 8th percentile of teams. And there’s really nothing the school can do to increase that money, although the money available to Collins has increased in his three years at the school.

“We’re allocated a specific amount of money from the university’s scholarship fund, built through designated fees,” UTPB athletic director Steve Aicinena said. “And it’s in line with the percentage of student-athletes to the general student population. It’s reasonable.”

Part of the reason UTPB lags behind other Division II schools — the Falcons’ budget is $1.1 million behind the national average — is that the school has only offered athletics since reviving the program in 1994.

UTPB also lags behind other schools in booster-donated funds. Coaches in all sports can raise money to augment their scholarship allocation. Collins, Aicinena and men’s basketball coach Dwaine Osborne have all raised money to add to their team’s scholarship funds.

But the Falcons have not reached the levels of other Division II Texas schools. Osborne keeps a picture on his phone of the back wall at Tarleton State’s basketball arena, which is covered with signs marked with local business that have donated money.

“Scholarships are vital to success,” Aicinena said. “Without them, you have to make choices.”

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Nearly every other school in the Heartland Conference has paid assistant coaches, sometimes two or three. Collins, who is the lowest-paid coach in the conference, has two assistants.

Neither are paid a full-time salary. Matt Sutherland, an Odessa High product, is a graduate assistant. Alfred Acosta, a member of the first UTPB men’s basketball team to take the floor, is a volunteer assistant who works at Bank of America and uses his vacation days to hop on the bus for road trips.

“Those two guys have as much to do with our success as I have,” Collins said. “To get two guys who work their tails off as much as they do, and have that much basketball experience and knowledge, for next to nothing, is phenomenal.”

And those coaches have precious little money to use for recruiting. According to Aicinena, each sport has a paltry recruiting budget of $1,700 for the entire year. Try scheduling out-of-state recruiting trips, or player visits, or even in-state basketball tournaments, on that budget. Money like that runs out quickly.

“We’ve tried to sign some kids without visits,” Collins said. “We’ve gotten some kids from local junior colleges, where it’s just a drive, so you can get around it, but it’s a little difficult.”

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Aicinena lays out the numbers for every coach who interviews at UTPB. When Collins, who doubles as the assistant athletic director, was hired, he knew the limitations of the Falcons’ piggy bank.

Overcoming those numbers boils down to resourcefulness.

“The number of scholarships that we have handicaps our teams significantly,” Aicinena said. “Our coaches have their hands full. I can’t say enough about the effort put forth by our coaches.”

A unique type of coach is required to be successful at UTPB.

Not only does a coach have to be good at recruiting, at player development, at Xs and Os, but a coach has to be able to make dollars stretch to their absolute limit. Led by Collins and Osborne, the basketball teams have followed that blueprint.

“Coach has been able to do a lot with a little bit of money,” Falcons men’s basketball player Jamal Holden said. “The things he could do with more money, I can’t even imagine.”

Collins has lifted a program that was winless five years ago all the way to the NCAA Tournament.

Part of that comes from his own resourcefulness. Part comes from the sacrifice of the players.

“We have players, key members of our rotation, who have given us all we could ask for and never asked for a dime,” Collins said. “You have to get a little bit lucky. And you can’t miss.”

So far, Collins’ aim has been true.