The tone in Idaho coach Jon Newlee’s voice showed a hint of disappointment when recanting how Idaho ended its season. A historic season for Idaho women’s basketball came to an end in Iowa City on March 23 when Idaho fell to Louisville 88-42 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
File photo by Theo Lawson | Argonaut
Ali Forde, right, attempts a block against New Mexico State’s Danesia Williamson March 14 in the WAC Tournament semi finals in Las Vegas. The Vandals won the WAC Championship and finished the season in the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season.
The task Idaho was up against that afternoon was massive: to attempt to become the first No. 14 seed in the history of the tournament to knock off a No. 3 seed. To do so, Idaho needed to beat a 30-4 team and one that was ranked No. 4 in the nation in the AP Poll.
Despite fighting for much of the first half before Louisville was able to pull away and the task turned out to be too large for Idaho to handle.
For Newlee, that result doesn’t tell the story of Idaho’s season — a historic 25-win season in which Idaho clinched back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time in program history.
“We left that league (the WAC) knowing that we were the powerhouse and that was nice and satisfying and that’s what we need to take away from this year. Twenty-five wins is a lot of wins at this level and everyone should be proud of that,” Newlee said. “Everybody in the program and our fans and our alumni should take that as we accomplished some great stuff and let’s not let one loss in the NCAA Tournament detract from that.”
Powerhouse would be an appropriate term to apply to Idaho’s 2014 performance in WAC play. Newlee may have put it even better when he said his Vandals “laid waste” to their WAC opponents.
Including the conference tournament, Idaho went 18-1 in WAC play. Of those 18 wins, only six times did opponents come within 10 points of Idaho. Nine of those 18 wins came by 15 or more points.
The lone blemish on Idaho’s conference schedule came Feb. 13, when Cal State-Bakersfield came into the Cowan Spectrum and made Idaho feel what it had been doing to other teams. A 79-60 loss ended Idaho’s 10-game conference winning streak and put an end to undefeated discussions that had been stirred up by Idaho’s dominance.
It may have been the best thing that could have happened to Idaho.
Newlee pointed to a jack-in-the-box sitting on his desk, the jack already sprung out from the box. It’s the analogy he gave his team at that point, with the pressure of an undefeated team building up and popping. Idaho could go back to focusing solely on the goal it had set before the season — to win the WAC Championship.
“I said look, after we lost that game I went and got that jack-in-the-box and said, ‘See, everyone has been waiting for the jack to jump out and lose, and the balloon to break inside’ and I said, ‘The jack is out of the box, there we go,'” Newlee said. “They laughed and everybody was relaxed and off we went … As great as it would’ve been to be undefeated, but ultimately we want to win the championship, not to get to the championship game and lose. It gets you nothing.”
From that point, Idaho said farewell to the WAC by winning its eight remaining games, including the three that mattered most in the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. A ravaging of Chicago State, overcoming a halftime deficit against New Mexico State and its fourth consecutive victory over rival Seattle had Newlee hoisting the WAC trophy again.
The 2013-14 version of the Vandals became one of only three in program history to participate in the NCAA Tournament. Returning every starter from a team that participated in the year before probably helped.
That included bringing back the player who would take home the WAC Player of the Year award in 2014 — Stacey Barr. The junior averaged 18.2 points and 7.7 rebounds per game in her final season in the WAC.
The Australian guard will surely figure in to be Idaho’s senior leader next season in absence of the one Idaho is losing from this season in Alyssa Charlston. Charlston joined the Vandals four years ago when an invitation to the third-tier postseason tournament WBI was an accomplishment for the program.
She leaves the program with two first team All-WAC selections, a second team All-WAC selection, two WAC Championship rings and the distinction of being known as a key player and catalyst for the transformation of the program.
“She’s one of the best players I ever coached, the best person on and off the floor,” Newlee said. “I’m proud to say I coached her and I’m glad she decided to come to the University of Idaho, instead of some of those other offers she had, man because she was a program changer. And those don’t come along that often, but she certainly was a huge program changer in getting us to the NCAA Tournament and taking this program to the next level.”
Assisting Barr in replacing the loss of Charlston is a trio of stellar sophomores in Connie Ballestero, Ali Forde and Christina Salvatore. The trio will be juniors next season. The three were instrumental as freshmen in Idaho’s first WAC Championship run and will be counted on to take extended roles as Idaho transitions into the Big Sky next season.
“I’ve told them ‘it’s your time, it’s your time to be a leader. You’re not babies anymore, you’ve got two rings each.’ With that comes a level of expectation that to me that they need to step their games up, all of them,” Newlee said.
The transition to the Big Sky presents new challenges but does not change the level of expectation that Newlee has set for the program. Idaho will be entering a deeper and more talented conference in the Big Sky, a move Newlee doesn’t expect to keep Idaho from amassing more rings. He’ll bring it back to the Louisville game when the team meets back in the fall.
“It’s going to do what the UConn experience of just going out and playing against the best will do. We’ll reference that when we come back to the fall, of we know what we’re capable of,” Newlee said. “I want these new recruits that are coming in to understand these are the expectations of the program and it’s not just happy to be there.”
Sean Kramer can be reached at [email protected]