They were just over halfway to WAC perfection, but the pressure finally caught up to them. That was the gist of Jon Newlee’s post-game press conference following Idaho’s 79-60 loss Thursday night at the Cowan Spectrum, finally stumbling after a 10-0 start to conference play.
“Without a doubt, we’ve been feeling that, the team’s been feeling that, we’re a much looser group on the road for whatever reason,” Newlee said. “I didn’t like the look on some of their faces in the locker room before the game. That’s something we’re going to address tomorrow. Now we have to go out and play. Disappointed we played the way tonight with the crowd we had.”
He said he sensed it pre-game by the demeanor of his team in the locker room.
“Just blank, the thousand yard stare, I call it. Nothing, hello, anybody there. There was too many of them that had that stare, and they don’t play well with that stare. They’re better off laughing and joking in the locker room,” he said.
Past the pressure of an undefeated conference record, it was athleticism and physicality from Bakersfield that presented problems for Idaho. The Vandals couldn’t get clean looks in the paint, had to battle for every rebound and had extensive problems stopping Bakersfield from running Idaho’s misses. It was a perfect storm for Idaho to not only lose, but lose decisively. The Vandals couldn’t even make open looks from 3 (they went 4-of-30), a strength Idaho prides itself on.
Newlee said it best though: It’s not the end of the world.
Idaho still leads the conference at 10-1 with four of its last five games at home. Bakersfield trails at 9-2 having split the season series with Idaho.
Now some comments from the post-game:
Senior post Alyssa Charlston on the pressure of the undefeated record:
“I think it may have been last week, but … we kind of had that struggle and then got over it. It’s not a position we’ve been in before, that’s the truth, we should be able to handle the pressure with how many experienced players we have on this team. For any team that’s kind of going to get into your head a little bit. The pressure of not only the community but the media and everybody hyping it up. We have to do our best to stay centered — you’re only as good as your weakest link and know that no matter what happens you just have to stay strong and that’s what we’re trying to focus on here.”
Junior guard Stacey Barr on moving forward:
“We’ll definitely use this loss as motivation and go into that game with the same mentality we go into every game with.”
Sophomore guard Christina Salvatore on if there is a Seattle-type rivalry feel after this kind of loss/season-split with Bakersfield:
“Yeah, definitely. Everyone wants to win every WAC game, everyone’s goal is to win every game, there is always high intensity when it gets down to WAC. Now that we split, if we see them in WAC there will be sure a lot of getting back at it, wanting to get them against. I guess, yeah, like a Seattle you could say.”
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Here is the story printed in Friday’s edition of the Argonaut
Sean Kramer
Argonaut
He called it the thousand-yard stare — The tenseness, the back-of-the-mind thinking about a 10 game winning streak that had replaced the loose demeanor the conference-leading Vandals usually come into a game with.
Now, undefeated in conference play no more, Idaho coach Jon Newlee saw his pre-game fears came to fruition Thursday night in the Cowan Spectrum, his Idaho women falling to 10-1 in Western Athletic Conference play after falling to Bakersfield 79-60.
“Just blank, the thousand yard stare, I call it. Nothing, ‘hello, anybody there,'” Newlee said. “There was too many of them that had that stare, and they don’t play well with that stare. They’re better off laughing and joking in the locker room.”
Idaho saw a familiar scene play out on the court, except that it was flipped on them instead. Bakersfield had a double-digit lead less than eight minutes into the game and Idaho never really got close, trailing 15 at halftime and eventually falling by 19.
The players were less certain than their coach that the pressure of an undefeated season got to them, although the situation was still unprecedented for them.
“It’s not a position we’ve been in before, that’s the truth, we should be able to handle the pressure with how many experienced players we have on this team,” Charlston said. “For any team that’s kind of going to get into your head a little bit. The pressure of not only the community but the media and everybody hyping it up.”
Prior to Thursday night the wins were piling up for Idaho — most with ease. In fact, a trip to Bakersfield which yielded a 27-point was one of many easy wins for this Vandal team that cruised to 10-0 with only one game within single-digits.
The historic run caught up to them.
“Without a doubt, we’ve been feeling that, the team’s been feeling that, we’re a much looser group on the road for whatever reason,” Newlee said.
“Better now than Las Vegas (in the conference tournament), I do know that,” Newlee said. “I do know if we would have continued to keep winning we might not have been able to get out of the locker room in Las Vegas. The world didn’t end because we lost, we’re still a game up.”
What arose on Thursday night instead of more history were questions that will surely have to be answered if Idaho runs into Bakersfield. The Roadrunners dominated Idaho on the inside, blocking four shots, deflecting many more, holding
Idaho to 18 points in the paint and holding the superb post-duo of Alyssa Charlston and Ali Forde to only 17 combined
points on 28-percent shooting.
As a team Idaho only shot 26-percent, barely better if the statistics were modified for the shots Idaho took in the last two minutes down 18 points.
It was athleticism and a defense that lulled Idaho into bad decisions in one-on-one match-ups that did the Vandals in.
“Defensively, we can’t let them get that deep because that’s when they can really use it to their advantage,” Charlston said. “We are a better shooting team, but they are very good at getting you into the lane, getting you off-balance and making those dumb passes down low.”
History is still available for Idaho, even it won’t be an undefeated history. Still a game up on Bakersfield in the loss column, a No. 1 seed in the conference tournament provides Idaho with the best opportunity to make it to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments.
Bakersfield, a likely No. 2 seed in next month’s conference tournament, might stand in the way of that.
“Now that we split, if we see them in WAC there will be sure a lot of getting back at it, wanting to get back against them,” sophomore guard Christina Salvatore said. “I guess, yeah, like a Seattle (type rivalry) you could say.”
Sean Kramer can be reached at [email protected]