The 2019-20 men and women’s basketball schedule for the Big Sky Conference (BSC) was released February of last year. It was announced as a 20-game schedule that would last 11 weeks with games on Thursday, Saturday and Monday. The Big Sky returned to this schedule for the first time in five years last year and it is being used this year again.
There will always be issues with scheduling that are addressed by coaches and players of each team. This season, both the Idaho Vandals men and women’s basketball teams were faced with a tough task.
Both teams had to play four games in eight days with just a day of rest in between each game. The men’s team has a three-game road stretch that spans six-days, requiring student-athletes to miss class. The women’s team will have a three-game home stretch but will have to go on the road immediately afterward.
“My opinion is that it’s hard on the student-athletes, hard on teams that have to travel in between matches,” women’s basketball Head Coach Jon Newlee said. “We have these three at home which is great, but it will flip at some point just like what the men are going through now. I think that the scheduling in the Big Sky needs to change, they haven’t got it right yet, and you’re putting extreme strain on student-athletes.”
Student-athletes are known to put their education first, but with how the Big Sky has scheduled competitions, it puts players in a position to perform first and put their education second.
“It’s brutal, it’s taxing, you want to do things for the betterment of the student-athletes, but this type of scheduling is certainly not the answer if that’s where our focus lies,” Newlee said.
Senior guard Lizzy Klinker and sophomore guard Gina Marxen put into perspective how the team will be affected by the schedule. Klinker said it would be less stressful since the games were at home, and they can be easier than practice at times.
“It’s nice when they are at home, if they were away it would be a lot more stressful,” Marxen said. “Since we are at home and able to be here at school, it’s not too bad. We have a good family following so our families come into town, and it’s always nice to have.”
Idaho men’s basketball faced a difficult task with a three-game road stretch that forced players to miss a week of classes. The Vandals traveled to three different states in the span of six days and returned home to play their fourth straight game in eight days.
“It’s always going to be a challenge, and there’s no perfect way to set up the schedule,” men’s basketball Interim Head Coach Zac Claus said. “We make sure that our guys get time almost every day when we’re on the road where we set aside time to make sure they’re staying on top of their schoolwork.”
The week of traveling is physically and mentally draining, according to redshirt junior guard Marquell Fraser. For Fraser, it was the first time he played four games of division one basketball in a week.
“We can’t make any excuses,” Fraser said. “We have to go out there and compete at a high level.
Both teams felt the mental and physical drain from competing in four straight games in just an eight-day period. Players and coaches from both teams had different opinions on the schedule, but in the end, they have grown accustom to it. For now, the Big Sky will continue on with the current schedule with no plans to change it in the future.
Armin Mesinovic can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @arminmesinovic