Miles’ Rams turnaround something to tweet about

There was a Twitter challenge recently between Tim Miles and Dane Fife, two young college basketball coaches who wagered on which could get 2,500 followers first.

Fife, a former Indiana star who runs the program at Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne, won.

The race even included a concession tweet from Miles: Well this is a bitter defeat! Congrats to @CoachDaneFife -- he wins quest to 2500 followers. Well done Fife, make your lay-ups

What isn't as evident: Miles, who in a short time has turned Colorado State from Mountain West Conference minion into potential NCAA Tournament team, also won.

In a way that has allowed the Rams' program to become relevant.

Miles might trail Fife when it comes to how many follow their daily tweets, but the contest defined an approach that Miles has used in rebuilding Colorado State. He has embraced the world of social networks to deliver his message and engage recruits.

Miles is genuinely funny. Clever. He is 44 and gets what makes the generation of recruits he is chasing tick. He tweets. He is on Facebook. He and his players are the subject of "Reaching the Peak," a reality show on The Mtn. sports network that has received Emmy nominations its first two seasons.

He is a whiz on the iPad.

All that, and the guy buys pizza for students.

"Recruiting is about telling a story, and (Miles) has done a phenomenal job doing it his way," Texas Christian coach Jim Christian said. "But at the end of the day, the best thing you can do to sell a program is win. That's what matters most to kids -- do you win, will they have a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament, will they grow as players?

"How you tell the story differs with the personality of each coach. But whether it gets out by plane, train or tweeting, the story needs to get out. Once you win enough, it becomes a lot easier to sell."

It's a reality that has landed in Fort Collins, Colo., this season. Colorado State sits alone in third place behind two top-10 programs in San Diego State and Brigham Young and can further strengthen its placement by beating UNLV today at Moby Arena.

The Rams have found themselves included among some bracketology forecasts the past few weeks, a notable occurrence when you consider they went 0-16 in league play four seasons ago, Miles' first as their coach.

Colorado State was 7-25 overall that year and has since improved to 9-22, 16-16 and now 18-7. The roster was so thin in 2007, Miles had open tryouts to fill all his uniforms.

I'm not surprised he has used social networks so extensively. This is a guy who made his way up the coaching ranks at places such as Mayville State and Southwest Minnesota State and North Dakota State.

He has earned every promotion and undoubtedly needed creative recruiting practices to do so. Such imagination hasn't stopped since he arrived in the Mountain West.

"We had to market and promote our program, and I'm the only schmo in this whole (coaching) group," Miles said. "Look at Steve Fisher and what he has done, and look at Lon Kruger and what he has done, and Dave Rose. Just go on down the line.

"Honestly, what tradition do we have? You have to go back to Boyd Grant (in the late 1980s and early 1990s) to find any consistency with postseason play. So, when you're trying to build it, all those social media things are different mediums we have used. But winning is the most important part.

"We knew this would take time. We still have a long ways to go. Our guys aren't perfect, but they're good guys and play hard."

Miles likes to say that had he not won the locker room first, the winning Colorado State now enjoys would never have followed. Once it did, a student body not usually enamored with much at all in terms of men's basketball showed interest.

The coach took his appreciation a step further last week, when he purchased pizza for the first 500 students at a home game against New Mexico. The gesture was tweeted about and re-tweeted, and on and on the message was spread.

This was a tweet from Miles on Friday: Yes!!!!!!!!!!!! Like SMartin excited abt the new phone books in "The Jerk" ...... I'm stoked!!!Yes

The tweet then included a link ... straight to the cover of this year's Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition and a bikini-clad Irina Shayk kneeling on a beach.

Hmm. I wonder if Miles would play her at point guard. Irina looks to have all the leadership qualities a coach desires.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday and Thursday on "Monsters of the Midday," Fox Sports Radio 920 AM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.