The Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival is in town and not a soul is happier for the occasion than Idaho men’s basketball coach Don Verlin.
Theo Lawson | Argonaut
It’s not that Verlin necessarily has a taste for the soothing sounds of Benny Golson’s tenor saxophone, but more that his Vandals get another opportunity to play basketball in their favorite venue.
Due to the plethora of concerts taking place on the Cowan Spectrum floor Idaho is accustomed to playing its Western Athletic Conference contests on, the Vandals will take their 2-4 conference home record to the confines of quaint Memorial Gym.
Idaho is 3-0 there, all nonconference games, following Tuesday’s victory over Cal State-Northridge.
The Vandals opened their season in Mem Gym, notching victories over Western Illinois and Northwest Nazarene.
While neither the men’s nor women’s team have quite learned how to maximize the home-court advantage that the Cowan Spectrum provides — if any at all — both have thrived inside Memorial Gym, where the Idaho women are also 3-0.
Granted, two of those wins came against non-Division I opposition.
Mem Gym has its charm and is often equated to the court from “Hoosiers,” an old-fashioned structure that brings its fans feet away from the hardwood.
The Cowan Spectrum doesn’t possess the same features. The football stadium-converted-basketball arena has its moments and with a good crowd, is surely one of the most memorable atmospheres in college basketball.
Unfortunately, those moments are currently few and far between. In a new-look WAC that has yet to create the rivalries that Utah State, Boise State and Nevada provided, the Spectrum hasn’t attracted a capacity crowd in conference play yet.
Meanwhile, Memorial Gym has a capacity of 2,500 and looks like a packed house when more than 1,500 show up.
And based on Tuesday’s result, the Vandals don’t mind the change of venue.
“It is nice being back at home in Mem,” Hill said. “It’s home for everyone and there’s a comfort zone here.”
The Vandals were comfortable indeed as Idaho scored a season-high 96 points, better than their previous season high of 89 points during a loss to Boise State on the road.
Hill was a major contributor to Idaho’s offensive production Tuesday evening, shooting 8-of-11 from 3-point range and finishing with a team-high 28 points.
According to the junior guard, the Mem Gym rims had a bit to do with that, as well.
“These new rims up here are not bad,” Hill joked after the win. “They’re not bad at all. I like them.”
Hill, who is likely to break every Idaho 3-point shooting record by the end of his senior year, was a combined 6-for-21 from beyond the arc in Idaho’s last three games in the Spectrum.
While Mem Gym isn’t capable of acting as a full-time Division I facility, it has a certain allure to it that the full-time facility doesn’t quiet possess.
And the Vandal men and women, who have both had their struggles playing in the Spectrum this season, will host one more game apiece at the 86-year-old gymnasium — where a true home-court advantage is unveiled only a few times every year.
Theo Lawson can be reached at [email protected]