The future is now for the Sacramento State men’s basketball team.

With SLAM magazine’s No. 33 dunker Jameel Pugh and the Pac-10’s E.J. Harris suiting up next season alongside former all-Big Sky player Joel Jones, the future is now.

The 2003-04 rendition of the men’s basketball team just may be the most potent and able bunch of them all. Seriously. Next year’s team could very well be the most dynamic team in the Big Sky next season.

“Knowing that we have a couple of student-athletes that are sitting out this season that will greatly contribute to the team next year,” Hornet Athletic Director Terry Wanless said. “I think that’s a real positive sign for them.”

But is the future ready for us?

With a quick glance at our current gymnasium, Hornet Gym, the answer is a quick and resounding “No.” Hornet Gym isn’t ready for the kind of success next season’s team can generate. Heck, Hornet Gym isn’t even ready for the kind of success this year’s team is generating.

As it stands, the facility doesn’t even have the capabilities to televise home games.

Sounds petty doesn’t it?

But think about it. Televising every success and stride of the basketball program and beaming it into the homes of Sacramento’s finest prep players could be the difference when it comes time for them to ink their national letters of intent.

If local recruits like Pugh, a former standout at Grant Union High School, had watched Sac State’s program blossom with promise and hope from his living room four years ago, he might have stayed in Sacramento. Instead, the highly touted guard spent two seasons on the bench with the University of Massachusetts.

“I’m a huge believer that television is an asset to collegiate athletics,” Wanless said. “Not only from the potential revenues that it might generate, but from exposure. And this is a program that needs exposure as much as anything.

“I think it makes it more difficult for our coaches to recruit the student-athletes that we need to compete successfully,” Wanless said.

But Hornet Gym can’t and won’t do that for us — not in its present state.

“(Televising games) would be extremely difficult,” Hornet Sports Information Director Brian Berger said. “If we needed to then we’d have to do something.”

Televising home games should have been in the master plan from the get go.

Deals with local television stations should have been formed. Space during the recent renovation should have been allotted for campus and public television equipment.

However, the problem still remains: What if Sac State, with all the talent its nursing for next season, should do the unthinkable and win the Big Sky? Will Hornet Gym and the campus be ready for that kind of success?

Winning the Big Sky regular season means Sac State would get to host the Big Sky Championship. In simpler terms, that means Sac State would essentially become a weekend vacation stop for four lucky schools, all of who would be vying for the conference’s only NCAA Tournament bid.

Herein lies the problem for Sac State. Hornet Gym has a seating capacity for only 1,500 people (tied for last in the Big Sky), only two locker rooms and a puny selection of restrooms and concessions; all of which greatly hinders our chances of ever hosting the conference championship.

“Obviously the seating capacity of the arena is insufficient to truly represent a Div. I athletic program,” Wanless said. “We need to be in that 5-to-6,000 seat range, which would be comparable to most schools in the league.”

Even if we played like champions, we couldn’t play like champions.

Instead, a number of other things would probably transpire in this instance.

We could concede the honor to the regular season runner-up. If this were the case, along with passing on the honors of being tournament host, we’d also pass on all the revenue opportunities hosting the tournament would generate.

Wanless would rather not.

In all likelihood, we could rent another facility in the Sacramento-area, taking stabs at either the Kings’ Arco Arena or Memorial Auditorium.

Either way, it is apparent Hornet Gym isn’t the solution, for the present or the future.

It would be for a program content on losing, but given the work put into recruiting and attracting talent over the last few seasons, it is clear Wanless, men’s head basketball coach Jerome Jenkins and women’s head basketball coach Carolyn Jenkins, aren’t here to lose.

They are here to win, or die trying. Let’s just hope our future can come to terms with that.

To respond to James Burns’ column, please send e-mail to [email protected].