Milt Palacio has enjoyed a long and successful basketball career, playing in the NBA for seven seasons, in Europe for another six seasons and he also played for his national team, Belize. Palacio has faced some of the best players in the NBA, including Gary Payton and Jason Kidd, but it’s at Idaho, where he might have finally met his match.
Philip Vukelich | Argonaut
Milt Palacio, the new director of player development for the men’s basketball team, returns a ball to a player practicing free throws Wednesday. Palacio played basketball professionally for 14 years, which included eight seasons in the NBA.
“I am busting his butt in one-on-one right now,” said Vandal point guard Glen Dean, who has an ongoing one-on-one game with Palacio, and currently holds the lead. “He keeps saying how no coach should be beating a college player, but we’re talking about a former NBA player, a former MVP over seas, numerous championship’s under his belt — that’s not a normal coach right there. So I don’t care what he says. Every win I can get against him, I’m going to take.”
Palacio, who recently joined the Idaho men’s basketball team as the director of player development, admits Dean is a very good player, but says that he still owns Dean on the left side.
“I have got nothing but praise for this man. He’s came in and worked hard from the beginning,” Dean said. “I am very thankful that coach (Don) Verlin brought him onto the staff, because I feel like he has helped us get better individually, and as a team.”
Before getting the job at Idaho, Palacio was trying to decide if he wanted to play one more year of basketball, or go into coaching. It was a phone call with his former college coach at Colorado State, and the current Idaho head coach, Don Verlin, which got the process going.
“What’s funny is that I just called him to talk to him about making the transition from player to coach. It wasn’t even about coaching here,” Palacio said.
After the initial phone call, a couple weeks went by and Palacio had been talking to a few different schools about coaching opportunities, and then coach Verlin found himself with an open spot on the staff. It was destiny.
“Milt has come aboard to help me, but also mentor our players, and help in the overall aspect of them being student athletes,” Verlin said. “Milt is a guy who worked hard for everything he’s ever got. He worked his tail off every single day, he’s a self-made guy, and that is something I admire.”
Palacio’s has seemed to make a flawless transition from player to coach. This may be due to the fact that he did just end his playing career and can relate with the players on a different level than most coaches can. Some of Palacio’s duties as director of player development include helping with academics, mentoring Idaho’s players off the court and helping Verlin with breaking down film and game preparation.
Dean came to Idaho from Utah, a Pac-12 program with top-flight coaches, and he hasn’t noticed any drop off in Palacio coaching at his new home.
“He’s taking more of a player’s side to his coaching style,” Dean said. “He’s a player’s coach, but at the same time, he’s been through the whole process, so he knows how hard you have to work to get better every single day.”
Korbin McDonald can be reached at [email protected]