With the unexpected end in the Big Sky tournament now a thing of the past for Idaho men’s basketball, the young 2018-2019 season is off.
After losing the core of six seniors from last season’s team with the likes of Victor Sanders, Idaho now enters a year that could be seen as a rebuild for the future.
The Vandals came out of the Vandal Holiday Hoops Showcase with their first two wins of the season against Bethesda College and West Coast Baptist College. The team also dropped two matches and now sit at 2-4 in their non-conference schedule.
It has been a bit of a rough start to the year as Idaho dropped close matches to Nicholls State and Northwest Nazarene University, losing by double digits to UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara.
But with a new, young team still getting their feet wet, growing pains are to be expected.
This season will rely on the veterans.
Junior guard Trevon Allen is seen as the leader for a team that has no seniors on the roster and will be looking to continue to improve his game and become the face of the program.
Allen is still trying to find his footing for this season, shooting 43 percent from the field and averaging just over 13 points over five games, there is still plenty of time for him to improve and continue to grow his numbers.
But Allen won’t be looked at to carry the entire load this season. Freshman guard Cameron Tyson is off to a great start for his first season as a Vandals, currently leading the team in scoring, averaging just over 17 points per game. He is also making over half of his three-point attempts. The freshman is the second-quickest player to reach 100 career points, doing so in six games.
“We identified Cameron more than two years ago as a guy that we thought would be a great fit for the Vandals, and we are extremely excited that he has chosen to join us,” Idaho Head Coach Don Verlin said in a news release earlier this year. “What immediately jumps out about Cameron is that he can really, really shoot the ball and that his range extends beyond the NBA 3-point line.”
Head Coach Don Verlin talks to Idaho during a timeout Tuesday in Memorial Gym.
The Big Sky has a group of five solid teams who are potential contenders for the Big Sky Title, including reigning champs Montana and Portland State who are fresh off a historic turnaround season. Weber State is also potentially in contention, a team picked to finish second in the coach’s pre-season poll and also received a first-place vote. Northern Colorado and Eastern Washington are also eyeing big seasons. With Idaho picked to finish ninth in the same pre-season poll, this season could be a great opportunity for this young team with 10 underclassmen on the roster to get comfortable playing with the some of the best.
Idaho still has a month left to play on its non-conference schedule and will play five games, including matches against Palouse rival Washington State and a solid west coast team in Santa Clara — both of which will be on the road.
“We know there are no more of these types of games on the schedule. The next five games are all tough games against good Division I basketball programs. But these games are beneficial to us,” Verlin said.
Idaho plays North Dakota at 1 p.m. Saturday in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
Zack Kellogg can be reached at [email protected].