Despite Struggles, UI Women Feel Good

Her team has a .500 record after a crushing home loss to rival Boise State on Saturday ended an adversity-clogged regular season.

So what is Idaho women’s basketball coach Julie Holt’s mood entering the Big West Tournament?

“Quite honestly, we’re right where we need to be,” said Holt, whose Vandals (14-14 overall, 9-5 Big West) face UC Irvine (16-10, 11-4) Wednesday at the Lawlor Events Center in Reno, Nev.

Holt and optimism go together like peanut butter and jelly, but there’s basis for her sunny outlook.

“We played the toughest preseason schedule in the history of our school,” she said. “We got an education early, but it helped us when we got into conference play.”

What hasn’t helped are the unending questions Holt endures about her coaching status. Her husband, Nick, accepted an assistant football coaching job at Louisville in December. It’s expected Julie will join Nick in Kentucky.

“It’s very difficult when people come up 2 or 3 minutes before the game talking about that,” she said.

Beyond that, UI’s season was unusually bumpy. Through it all, though, Holt kept the team on task and the Vandals nearly won the Eastern Division of the Big West.

“There have been a lot of things that have happened, and 90 percent of it will never be public,” she said. “Our team has been through devastating adversity and I’m so proud of what they’ve accomplished and their ability to come together.”

Big West MVP debate

There are three legitimate candidates for player of the year: Idaho’s Alli Nieman, UC Santa Barbara freshman Erin Buescher and UC Irvine’s Leticia Oseguera.

Holt studied the statistics Monday for 2-1/2 hours and was still trying to decide between Nieman and Buescher, a 6-foot-3 point guard.

Nieman, a sophomore from Sandpoint, had impressive numbers, despite only averaging 27 minutes per game: 16.5 points, second in the conference, and 7.2 rebounds, ninth.

“I don’t think we’ve played a team that hasn’t double- or triple-teamed her,” Holt said.

Nieman’s minutes were down for several reasons. She got a late start after volleyball, and she’s been in foul trouble in conference games.

Nieman and Oseguera probably will defend each other Wednesday.

On guard

Idaho’s men face Pacific in its tournament opener Friday night. Tigers center Michael Olowokandi, the probable Big West MVP, can expect more company after burning UI’s man-to-man defense for 31 points in a 76-63 win in the Kibbie Dome a month ago.

“We made a very questionable decision to guard the 3-point line because they’d hit something like 14 of 17 (3s) the game before,” UI coach Dave Farrar said. “We didn’t do as good a job on Olowokandi. So somewhere in between that we’ve got to find a little balance.”

Pacific has won 14 straight games.

Welcome, now quit whining

Nearly every coach took time during a conference call Monday to question the format of the men’s tourney (top four from the Eastern and Western divisions).

Some want every school to participate. Others prefer the top eight by conference record. Some don’t like having to play in Reno, the site the last three years.

“I’m playing the fifth seed (Idaho) in the tourney, really,” said Bob Thomason, coach of Western champ Pacific. “Every Eastern team is playing an easier game than us and I’ve got the best record.”

But Thomason stopped shy of advocating major changes. He suggested that New Mexico State, a talented team that failed to qualify, maybe wasn’t “good enough” to make the tourney.

That brought a pointed rebuttal from Nevada coach Pat Foster.

“Ask him if he wants to play them and I think his answer would be, ‘No,”’ Foster said.

Foster also defended Reno’s hosting rights.

“They (other coaches) ought to be thanking Reno for the financial package they put together for this conference,” he said.

, DataTimes