Cravens Has UI Working On Traveling
Nothing unusual about this road trip, other than the flight to Vienna, Austria, and the bus ride to Budapest, Hungary.
Idaho basketball coach Joe Cravens, seeking muchneeded seasoning for his young team, has lined up a trip overseas roughly two months after the 1994-95 season.
The Vandals will leave May 22 and eventually play six games, three against a Hungarian junior team (22-yearolds and younger) and three against a senior team (23 and older). Cravens wasn’t sure if the opponents will be national teams or select clubs, but said, “I’m sure we’ll run into some big, strong players.
“This kind of fits in with our building process over a four- or five-year period,” Cravens said. “We return the core of this team and there should be a lot of time to develop kids.”
Off-season trips are becoming more fashionable these days. Montana State ventured overseas last year and coach Mick Durham believes it helped the Bobcats mature. MSU, which visits Eastern Washington tonight and Idaho on Saturday, has the Big Sky’s best overall record at 14-4.
NCAA rules permit UI to have 10 practice days before leaving and 10 more in Hungary.
“That’s crucial, as much as the games themselves,” Cravens said, adding that two-a-days are allowed. “You’re talking 25-30 practices where we can spend a lot of time working individually with our players.”
Cravens said the trek is expensive, but part of the funding was generated by UI’s road games this season. Considerable bucks were raised by playing at Oregon and New Mexico, both of whom draw large crowds.
When Cravens was an assistant at Utah, the Utes went on a similar trip in late summer. The team returned for a short break before opening official practices. “That made for a long season,” Cravens said. “I think this is a better way to go.”
Uh, you know, whatever you say, sir
Remember the Northern Arizona press release accusing Big Sky Conference men’s basketball officials of stealing a victory from the Lumberjacks “for the umpteenth time?”
The conference didn’t see it quite that way and reprimanded the release’s author, NAU sports information director Chris Burkhalter.
“It will be brought to the violations committee at our spring meeting in May,” Big Sky assistant commissioner Arnie Sgalio said Wednesday.
The NAU release was critical of a blown call that sent the wrong Boise State player to the foul line late in the Broncos’ 84-80 home victory last week. BSU guard Darnell Woods, an 82-percent shooter at the time, went to the line instead of Bernard Walker (41 percent). Woods made both shots to tie the game with 52 seconds left in regulation.
“For the umpteenth time since joining the Big Sky during the 1970-71 season, the officials took a game from the Jacks,” Burkhalter’s release whined.
Sgalio, who was providing color commentary for the Prime Sports broadcast of the Jan. 20 game, said the conference has clear provisions against such statements.
“It says, `Sports information directors shall make no references whatsoever in institutional press releases as to the quality of officiating,”’ Sgalio said. “I mean, it doesn’t get much clearer than that, does it?”
Sky lines
EWU’s Kevin Groves will break the team’s singleseason record for free throws made if he continues at his current rate. Groves is 90 of 105 (85.7 percent), averaging 5.6 made free throws per game. He’s on pace to make 146 this season - one more than Matt Piper in 1983. … Montana’s Jeremy Lake has 165 3-pointers, three behind ex-Vandal Orlando Lightfoot’s Big Sky-record 168. It should be noted Lightfoot’s record came in three years; Lake is in his fourth. “I might reach out and poke him in the eye if he gets too close,” joked UI’s Cravens.