Wins didn’t come easy in Idaho’s first season back in Big Sky Conference
When the final buzzer sounded on Idaho’s season, Idaho coach Don Verlin said he expected to have more Ws in the win column.
“It wasn’t how we drew it up,” Verlin said. “We thought we could win a few more games.”
With the 91-83 loss to Eastern Washington in the first round of the Big Sky Tournament, Idaho finished with a 13-17 overall record and an 8-11 record in conference competition, including the tournament game.
Of the 17 losses, 13 came on the road, where the team only managed to win two games away from Moscow.
Jose Bendeck | Argonaut
Junior forward Paulin Mpawe dunks over Eastern Oregon Nov. 14 in Memorial Gym. The Vandals finished the season 13-17 overall and 8-11 in conference play during their first season back in the Big Sky.
This was the Vandals’ first season back in the Big Sky after they had spent the past nine years in the Western Athletic Conference.
Verlin said the Big Sky was a tougher conference than the WAC was last year and the team needs to make some adjustments to compete within the conference. One of the adjustments he mentioned was that the team needs to get quicker and add faster players at the guard position.
“I really like where our program is at,” Verlin said. “We got to add a couple things to it, we got to get some guys better and we got to get some guys stronger.”
To make things tougher, Verlin will need to find players to replace the production of seniors Connor Hill and Mike Scott.
Hill, a shooting guard from Post Falls, Idaho, will leave with the title of Idaho’s best 3-point shooter ever. Last season as a junior, Hill became Idaho’s all-time leader in 3-pointers made and padded his total this season with 108 made 3s. He’ll leave with a total of 340 buckets from behind the arc.
The only thing Hill’s career was missing was to go out with a win.
Overshadowed by Eastern Washington’s Tyler Harvey, who set a career-high and Big Sky Tournament record with 42 points against Idaho, Hill’s last game as a Vandal was an impressive feat in itself.
“Two great shooters going at it, but Tyler Harvey just made some unbelievable shots,” Verlin said.
Still trying to recover from the flu, Hill finished the last game of his collegiate career with 23 points and was 6-of-10 from 3-point range.
“He’s sicker than a dog, but came out here and battled like crazy,” Verlin said. “I thought Connor really showed his heart today in how hard he played.”
In just two years with Idaho, Scott, a point guard from Los Angeles, quickly proved his worth and put his name in the record book with some of the best point guards in the program’s history.
After playing sparingly his first year on campus as a junior, Scott earned the role of starter and team captain for his senior campaign. He finished the season with 160 assists and was consistently near the top in the nation in assist to turnover ratio.
With his assist total this year, Scott finished fifth for total assists in a single season and moved to 12th on Idaho’s all-time assists list.
“It never ends quite how you wanted it to, but it’s been a blessing to coach these guys,” Verlin said of his three seniors — Hill, Scott and Bira Seck. “At the end of the day, look at the body of work that these seniors have done — they’re all going to graduate, they’re all great kids, they’re all going to go on and be successful.”
Despite the departures, Verlin said he expects the program to compete in the Big Sky going forward.
“It’s always hard when it comes to an end,” Verlin said. “I think we got a little bit better feel (of the conference). We’re excited about Vandal basketball moving forward.”
Korbin McDonald can be reached at [email protected]