Five months later, Jon Newlee’s team may finally be getting the full and undivided attention it deserves.
The Idaho women’s basketball team released its 2013-14 schedule Friday and the Vandals will try their luck against a rigorous non-conference slate before attempting to defend their Western Athletic Conference championship.
Taking notice of Idaho’s conference crown and NCAA Tournament berth — in addition to a young roster that returns all five starters — were organizers of the Women’s NIT Preseason Tournament, who dished out a rare invite to Newlee’s squad.
“What the director told me is they were looking for up and coming teams, younger teams with a lot of people back,” Newlee said, who will be representing the WAC and the Big Sky at the tournament. “They base it off of what you do the previous year but also if you’re going to have those people back. They were even looking at the recruits that we signed early.”
Idaho will face a familiar foe in the first round of the tournament when it visits Gonzaga. Though the Vandals hold a 19-14 series lead against the Bulldogs, Gonzaga has walloped Idaho in the teams’ recent meetings, including the most recent, a 97-62 Vandal loss last season.
The season-opener is scheduled to tipoff at 6 p.m. in Spokane.
Idaho returns home for the tail end of a home-and-home series against UC Irvine before a trip to Newlee’s old stomping grounds and a game with the University of San Diego.
The non-conference test will then make its way to Reno, where Idaho will compete in John Ascuaga’s Nugget Classic November 29-30. The Vandals will meet Nevada on the 29th and California or Wake Forest on the 30th. The Golden Bears fell in last year’s Final Four, losing to Louisville, another team Idaho could face this season, should the Vandals advance in the Preseason WNIT.
Idaho wraps up the non-conference schedule on December 28, when it travels to Austin, Texas, for a match-up with the Big-12 Texas Longhorns.
The Vandals’ recent success has provided a roadblock in non-conference home scheduling, with teams being reluctant to visit the Cowan Spectrum. Just four of Idaho’s 12 non-conference games are in Moscow. Yet that notion also signals the increased respect that Newlee’s program has gained.
“The problem is, when you get better, then teams don’t want to come play you at home. That’s what happens and I found that out at Idaho State,” Newlee said.
The Vandals open up their WAC schedule in the Midwest, when they visit the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Idaho then goes to Chicago State before returning to Moscow for the conference home opener against Texas-Pan American.
The WAC schedule may not pan out to be as challenging as it’s been in past years without the likes of Utah State and Louisiana Tech, two teams that have traditionally proved themselves as the conference’s heavyweight contenders.
While a good portion of the new-look WAC is unknown to Newlee, the regular season conference schedule is essential not only for momentum heading into the conference tournament, but also for seeding purposes, should Idaho find itself in the NCAA Tournament again.
“I’ve always hated that system of seeing a sixth-place team, seventh-place team from whatever league they are, playing in the NCAA Tournament,” Newlee said. “When second-place teams are deserving to go. I think the system’s unfair, I think it’s heavily weighted to those BCS teams … we know what we have to do and that’s what we have to focus on.”
Idaho will renew its mini rivalry with Pacific Northwest challenger Seattle U., who topped the Vandals twice during the WAC regular season en route to the season title. The Redhawks couldn’t overcome the Vandals in the WAC Tournament championship game, losing 67-64.
“Certainly our goal is to be the regular season champ…,” Newlee said. “We had close games with Seattle U., they beat us at the buzzer at their place, they beat us at the buzzer at our place. We need to be able to turn tight games and I think with more experience… it should make us execute better down the stretch.”
The Redhawks return 6-foot-2 forward Kacie Sowell, the returning conference player of the year.
The young Vandal squad will return to Las Vegas on March 12 for the WAC Tournament.
Theo Lawson can be reached at [email protected]