Tim Miles, San Jose State stun Colorado State in former coach’s return to Moby Arena

There’s a blue and yellow “Believe” poster hanging in the San Jose State locker room, Ted Lasso style.

The players on the men’s basketball team point to it as motivation and a constant reminder.

A historically bad program where success often feels more fantasy than possibility needed a reason to believe.

Enter Tim Miles.

He’s the builder.

The builder of hope and belief for programs down in the dumps. A builder of basketball programs.

A builder of winning.

He rebuilt at Moby Arena once. When Tim Miles and assistant Niko Medved took over at Colorado State in 2007, they called it the Moby Morgue because of how silent it was.

CSU wasn’t “worth watching” those first couple years, Miles said.

But by the end, the Rams were an NCAA Tournament team in 2012 and Miles was off to the Big Ten and Nebraska.

He had success there, too, before being fired.

That led him to San Jose State. A program that does not win. Miles inherited a team that had only one season with double-digit wins in a decade. San Jose State hasn’t hit the 20-win total since 1981.

So Miles went about what he does. Building.

Much to CSU’s chagrin in this case, the project is succeeding. San Jose State is now 11-4 overall and 2-0 in the Mountain West after stunning the Rams 78-70 Saturday in Miles’ first game coaching at Moby since he left.

“A big night for our program,” Miles said after the game.  “When you’ve been losing, how you go out there and just be confident? You have to earn that. It takes a lot of mental wherewithal from these young guys. They just kept making tough plays and tough plays.”

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Miles led CSU from 2007 to 2012, going 71-88 and taking CSU from awful to the NCAA Tournament. He was in Moby once in 2021 to broadcast a game as part of the Fox Sports crew (the game was called off due to COVID issues), but he hadn’t coached in Moby since he left.

He spent a few minutes on the court pregame talking to CSU staffers and fans he knew from his time as a Ram. Before and after the game, he took pictures with fans.

And make no mistake, this was sweet for him. CSU (8-7, 0-2 MW) led by 14 points in the first half before San Jose State surged to cut it within three at halftime.

That’s where the belief came in. The same Spartans who lost by 36 to CSU in the lone meeting last year came out in the second half believing they could win.

That they did. San Jose State hit 13 3-pointers, and star Omari Moore had 29 points, six rebounds and five assists as the Spartans took down a reeling CSU.

This San Jose State team is believing. San Jose State had never started Mountain West play 1-0, much less 2-0. The Spartans had never beat CSU in 23 previous tries.

The win allowed Miles to relish the return even more. He loves winning at Moby Arena.

His last CSU team went 14-1 at home in 2011-12, winning the final 13 games. Miles now has a personal 14-game Moby winning streak.

“This is a great place to coach,” Miles said. “This place means a lot to me, personally. Five years, a lot of special friends for all of us here. We love coming back.”

Follow sports reporter Kevin Lytle on Twitter and Instagram @Kevin_Lytle.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Tim Miles, San Jose State take down Colorado State men's basketball team