Marvin Menzies was in the midst of the madness of celebration when he looked over and saw a disappointed Stephen Madison walking off the court. The New Mexico State coach couldn’t let Madison walk off without knowing how much he admired him.
“I gave him a hug and had a little conversation with him at the end because he deserved it,” Menzies said of the Idaho senior. “I wanted to go give my wife a kiss first, but there’s certain kids that make you stop and think about him, and he’s one of those guys.”
The Vandals had just fell to New Mexico State 77-55 in the WAC Championship game Saturday evening at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.
Madison checked out of the game with 1:38 remaining when Idaho trailed 73-53. It was Stephen Madison’s final moment on the court as a Vandal.
“It’s always tough to end your career, end your season like that with a loss,” Madison said. “Couldn’t be prouder of these guys of what we’ve done. It’s tough to leave the court.”
What Idaho had accomplished was two more games for Madison to play. For the first, and only, time since joining the WAC Idaho had advanced to the WAC Championship game. For Don Verlin’s tenure as the coach of Idaho, it was the first time to even advance out of the quarterfinal.
That barrier was finally overcome on Thursday night when Idaho beat Missouri-Kansas City 73-70 to reach the semi-final.
Verlin continued to put to rest talk of his WAC Tournament shortcomings on Friday night when Idaho upset No. 1 seeded Utah Valley 74-69.
Madison was a big reason why. The first team All-WAC performer combined for 51 points and 22 rebounds in Idaho’s two conference tournament wins.
Then Idaho ran into New Mexico State, and its 7-foot-5 basket-defending tower Sim Bhullar. Madison only made three shots from the field and was held to 17 points, modest for Madison standards. Bhullar continually turned Madison away from the paint on his dribble-drive attempts, making him and the rest of the Idaho offense work from the perimeter.
That didn’t work very well either. Idaho only shot 38-percent on the day, and made only two 3-pointers all game.
Idaho had planned on running in transition to combat that, but its inability to consistently get stops made that strategy ineffective. New Mexico State was 29-52 from the field.
“He’s really difficult. Difficult to prepare against. You have to put so much attention on him,” Verlin said. “We thought if we could get a few more stops and get more a running game that would benefit us, we weren’t able to get the stops and run to take him out of the game like we were able to do in Moscow.”
The loss puts an end to the best stretch of basketball Idaho has played in the last two seasons. Idaho had won six of its last seven and seven of its last 10 coming into the WAC Championship game. The run started when Idaho was a dismal 2-6 in conference play.
“Just falling back on what coach said, there’s a point in the season where we could have given up. We lost a lost a lot of close ones but we kept pushing and I’m proud,” point guard Mike Scott said.
Notes and quotes
– Marvin Menzies thinks Don Verlin is doing a good job building a program in Moscow. He called Idaho a difficult job and thinks Verlin should be judged on some things other than wins and losses.
“It’s a tough job. Jobs shouldn’t be weighted on wins and losses, there’s a larger picture involved when you look at top to bottom and developing young men,” Menzies said. “If they can get more talented players within that system. It’s tough to recruit to Moscow, the challenge is what it is, if they can get that, in that system they can win on any level.”
– Verlin spoke to Idaho having played its final game in the WAC. When asked if moving to the Big Sky will be good for the program he said: “We really like where we’re going, basketball we’re very excited to be in the Sky. I think it really helps our program in terms of regional rivalry, a lot of schools that are close to us, Big Sky is a good conference and we’re looking forward to the Big Sky.”
– Verlin came into this conference tournament 0-5 in his career in WAC Tournament games, He left with two wins under his belt. Going into his seventh year, he believes having won 6 of its last 8 games that Idaho will have momentum heading into next season.
Verlin said: “Hopefully it gives us some momentum. We’re going into the Big Sky next year and who knows how that conference tournament is going to work. I thought conference tournament games we’ve played pretty hard, just haven’t come out with wins. Pretty happy we were able to grind out two wins, would have been good to get a third, this group deserves that but we didn’t get it done tonight.”
More Marvin Menzies raving on Stephen Madison: “His growth is indicative of the coaching he received and his work ethic. He was a freshman who came in and looked at and said he was going to be a good player. We had to design what we did defensively around him.”
– Stephen Madison was named to the first team All-Tournament team. He averaged 22 points per game in Idaho’s three games.